So I'm going to be another one of the few Mayer defenders. Everyone hates on him, and really I think his pop thing is genius. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you: It's been a fantastic marketing tool for him. Teen girls ate his first album up, and it put him on the map. However, I was listening back then, and the thing that caught me, is his live albums. JM live is absolutely fantastic, because he was taking that pop song, and adding another 5 minutes of absolutely fantastic guitar solo in the middle, showing the side of his music that he REALLY wanted to play, which is the bluesy folky whatever-you-want-to-call-it, guitar player's dream type music. So even before his long hair and oriental rugs, I thought JM was fantastic, and now that he's had success with a number of albums, he is starting to do more of the sound he wants to play as an artist.
On the issue of Clapton and Hendrix comparisons, these guys were JM's idols really, so of course he modeled himself playing things and learning from the ways that guys like that used to play. Clapton loves the kid, and has played with him on many an occasion, invited him to play at his own Crossroads festival, and has done a lot to promote him.
Though he may have two popped collars and a ridiculous face, you can't deny his ability. And this is from 2004 Crossroads.
He's played with a lot of the greats, Clapton already mentioned, BB King, John Scofield, Herbie Hancock, Buddy Guy, and so on.
And he may not seem to be a very humble guy now in many aspects, but in his guitar playing he's pretty respectful to those guys, always learning, and trying to be an embodiment of the best. Checkout this article in
Rolling Stone.
Playing a little devil's advocate... what is POP? Is it a musical genre? Or is it a reflection of whatever is 'popular' at the time, hence 'POP'. So when someone makes the argument that his POP stuff isn't as good as his later - age blues stuff, yet his blues stuff is more popular than his earlier stuff, which becomes the POP? There was certainly no POP genre when I worked at the record store, there was Rock, R&B, Jazz, Country... you get the idea. So think about your disgust of POP music, and maybe redefine yourselves.