Flavorwire

Hype is the most polarizing force in today’s music world. The internet has made it incredibly easy for listeners to streamline their new music exposure and stay on top of emerging acts, but hype encourages erratic attention at best from consumers. These days, the ears of the masses are always hungry for the next big thing, an honor often bestowed on the strength of a single song, by blogs, aggregators, viral videos, and sometimes even commercials, rather than real criticism.

Over the years, hype has encouraged the bandwagon to move in many positive directions, but what about when hype fails? After the jump, we unearth some of the bigger misses of the last ten years. Sorry, guys — we haven’t forgotten.

The Vines

After their first album in 2001, The Vines were hailed as the second coming of grunge. Placed in the same league as The Strokes and The White Stripes and lavished with critical attention by both NME and Rolling Stone, The Vines even got a Rolling Stone that read “MEET THE VINES: ROCK IS BACK!” After an appearance on The O.C. soundtrack, it was settled — that would be The Vines’s greatest legacy, because their music was thoroughly meh.