Music Trends I Can Do Without

This was a good idea at first: artists of all types (and sometimes from different genres) pay tribute to a famous artist by recording a CD of cover versions of his or her songs. But the trend has been done to death. Some musicians now have two or more tribute albums dedicated to their music. Some of these are good, but many are awful.

Yeah, we've all chuckled at some of these: a bluegrass tribute to AC/DC, a reggae version of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," a smooth-jazz tribute to Bob Marley. Great for giving as gag gifts at the Secret Santa party.

But there are way too many of these, each sounding more preposterous than the ones before. Some actual CDs: Lounge Tribute to Eminem ... a Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan ... a Hillbilly Tribute to Kiss ... and String Quartet Tributes to Slayer, Nine Inch Nails, and Nirvana

Yeah, mixing The Voice with Bono's must have seen a marketer's dream back in the '80s when Sinatra's "Duets" album came out: both older and younger listeners will buy it! But the duets trend was never one that seemed like a good idea to me; mixing old-style crooners with rock belters just doesn't work: the crooners aren't good at rocking out; the rockers sound awful tackling standards from earlier eras.

I cringed when Rod the Mod recorded a CD tackling American popular standards. But it sold like crazy, so now there are FOUR CD of Stewart doing the "American Songbook." His raspy voice is great for belting out rock tunes, but not for classic songs of the '40s and '50s, etc. (see number 3 above).