What do YOU think?

Is Ed Sheeran a great musician for being able to fill a stadium single handed or a greedy money grabber for not bothering with a band? (and if 1% of the responders here know of him I'll be suprised, but my kids keep going to his concerts)
A few years back YouTube kept filling my screen with his videos. I believe that buying a CD by Passenger and another by Ben Howard on Amazon and ripping them to my hard drive on a Microsoft powered PC and playing some of the music on an old Android phone probably informed Google of my musical interests. They seem to associate the artists I mentioned with Sheeran. I am not a fan of any of today's pop music, but Sheeran's music was better than most as were some of his videos.
 
Thank you for the comments. I view him as an honest musician who just happens to be very popular. His music is not my cup of tea but that’s fine. I have seen negative comments about it not being a show as no pyros dancing girls snakes and blood but i personally don’t see the problem.
 
I've been to many Yes gigs -- a great live band, across the years. Steve Howe is a great guitarist!
Ed Sheeran - music seems pleasant enough (not my cuppa though) but SHMBO and daughter find it somewhat derivative and very like lots of other artists. Hard to understand the scale of his popularity.
 
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The secret is to take joy in introducing a youngling to some new music. My spawn have certainly introduced me to some. My older brood have considered me a dinosaur for nearly a decade now 😀 Example:

#3 daughter 'look that's Nicki Minaj'
Me: 'what is Nicki Minaj?'

And quick embedded quiz: Is Ed Sheeran a great musician for being able to fill a stadium single handed or a greedy money grabber for not bothering with a band? (and if 1% of the responders here know of him I'll be suprised, but my kids keep going to his concerts)
Sheeran has been difficult to avoid. What I've heard isn't bad, but nothing I'd put into my set of keep at any costs music. But YMMV and I think it's as much to do with the urge to listen to new music as anything else.

Many years ago I was visiting a friend of a friends house and she had some rather good blues playing. I asked. She said Fleetwood Mac. I'd heard Fleetwood Mac, but not them. It was Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. Sublime.

It's got to the point now where I look up music I've heard on film and TV programmes. For instance I'd never heard of Billy Squier, until I heard Lonely Is The Night on The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then Bigfoot. Or Bear McCreary who writes soundtracks and wrote Black Sails and a ton of other stuff.

I also find the customers who purchased ??? also purchased/looked at lists are helpful
 
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I asked. She said Fleetwood Mac. I'd heard Fleetwood Mac, but not them. It was Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. Sublime.
Fleetwood Mac has gone through several iterations with Mick Fleetwood being the only constant. I prefer the Danny Kirwan era, but he passed away a few years back.

Who remembers this wordless song that was all over the radio in 1970:


This has to be my favorite Fleetwood Mac song:

 
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Saw this years ago:

What did people listen to before the Beatles invented music?

😎
Easy!!!!:

Stand back and wear your darkest RayBans not to be blinded by the NASA level (literally) technical advancements.

Including (gasp!!!), an electronic keyboard!!! 😱

For the uninformed: before disliking it, remember it was Margaret Thatcher´s favourite song (her own words), so that treacherous action carries capital punishment in the UK.
 
Easy!!!!:

Stand back and wear your darkest RayBans not to be blinded by the NASA level (literally) technical advancements.

Including (gasp!!!), an electronic keyboard!!! 😱

For the uninformed: before disliking it, remember it was Margaret Thatcher´s favourite song (her own words), so that treacherous action carries capital punishment in the UK.
I believed it was The Shadows people were crazy about before The Beatles era...
 
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Of course. And many others.
https://www.old-record-shop.co.uk/NumberOnes/1962.aspx
Telstar is there, also 2 by The Shadows and 4 by Elvis .... why am I not surprised? 😉

When I was a kid my young nannies subjected me to an endless stream of Elvis songs and movies.
To be fair, also a ton of San Remo festival songs, Domenico Modugno and all that stuff, quite normal in heavily Italian influenced Argentina.
Oh well, Beatles and Stones were welcome after that.
 
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My mom watched every Elvis movie that ever was, every time they were re-run on TV. Worse than that, she liked the Monkees! She even offered to pay for me and my friends who played together in a third rate garage band to go to a Monkees concert. I refused of course, but one of my friends convinced me to take her up on the offer. The opening act was an upstart guitar player who was "awesome." We went, and that "experience" convinced the three of us that we would never be rock stars. The guitar player was Jimi Hendrix. I was amazed at the showmanship, but really intrigued by the grey boxes on the floor near him. I just had to have one. It took several years, but I found a broken Echoplex cheap and fixed it up. The Echoplex was the 1960's version of a looper pedal that worked with analog tape instead of digital chips.