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Old 08-20-2007, 08:37 PM   #1
Scorpion King
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My opinion on why Creed was so hated

I posted this on another forum as to why I think Creed got alot of crap, and I'll copy it here. Tell me what you think:

Quote: Creed gets alot of hate, and I think that it is mostly not because of the music itself, but other factors. These are what I think that they are:

1. Creed's last two albums were insanely popular, some of the best selling albums ever in American history. Their first album was indeed multi-platinum, but it did not garner nearly as much attention as did Human Clay and Weathered. This popularity led them to being more in the public spotlight, and people like to tear down those at the top. This popularity due to album sales was increased further by them having several huge hits that took over not only the rock charts, but the pop chart. Hence, if you turned on the radio, it was almost impossible to escape them. Unless you were a hardcore fan, or at least liked really liked the music to a certain extent, you were bound to get really tired of their music. This would increase dislike of the band among people who otherwise may have been neutral towards its music, and maybe even liked it a little, if Creed's songs hadn't been played so much. Thus, Creed's over-exposure created alot of resentment among many people, amongst the all of popularity and praise that the band was getting.

2. Scott Stapp himself probably also helped to fuel dislike of Creed. Lots of rock stars are drunken wildmen, nothing new there. But Stapp's behavior directly clashed with the messages in his music and his outspoken Christianity. It doesn't look good when on one hand, your music is full of positive and uplifting messages and your music videos portray you in an almost messianic fashion, and on the other hand, you are getting drunk on stage and not remembering the words to your own songs, getting into hissy fits with Fred Durst and Pearl Jam, and videotaping yourself giving blowjobs to fans alongside Kid Rock. Stapp came across as a very hyprocritical, bellicose individual, and this probably hurt Creed's image even more.

3. I mentioned the Christianity before. The whole controversy over whether or not Creed was a Christian band probably damaged things even more. On one hand, some Christians might have been pissed that Stapp, a devout Christian, was openly denying that his band was Christian in any sense. On the other hand, this emphasis on the possible Christian nature probably made some non-Christian rock fans listen to the music differently, and possibly turned them off from the band. In the world of secular rock, there are often strong anti-Christian sentiments, or at least suspicion towards the religion, since Christianity is often associated with authoritrianism, something that rock is supposedly all about tearing down. Portraying Creed as a Christian band probably gave some people a bad taste in their mouth, people who might otherwise have liked the band.

4. Creed is a post-grunge band, and post-grunge is despised by many rock fans as a bastardized, watered-down version of the revolutionary rock movement of the early to mid-nineties. Someone on this board referred to post-grunge as "the biggest piece of faggotry to ever happen to alternative music." To a certain extent, I share that feeling. It gets tiring to have to put up with countless Chad Kroeger clones, who continuously parrot the sound of a band who already was mimicking older styled. I rented a copy of of Theory Of A Deadman's Gasoline from a local library the other day, and I honestly couldn't finish listening to it since it was such a blatant Nickelback rip-off. Same goes with bands like Default. It just gets so tiring. I understand this, and I can see how a post-grunge band like Creed could suffer from being in the same genre as bands like Theory and Default.
But I don't put Creed into this category. Yes, it's post-grunge. But it's not a Nickelback clone. It has it's own sound. Some people say that it rips off of Pearl Jam. Well, I'm not hearing the connection between the two. While the style of post-grunge definitely takes off from grunge (hence, the name post-grunge), I don't think that Creed is some pathetic spawn of Nirvana. It has a different sound, different messages in its songs, and does not seem to directly take it's syle from another band. I don't think that it's fair to lump it in with the Chad Kroeger clones.

If people don't like Creed's music, then fine, I can respect that decision. But for God's sakes, judge the band's music on it's own merits. Don't hate on it just because you heard it too much a few years ago. Like someone said earlier, it's stupid not to like a band just because it is overplayed. Also, don't hate the music simply because of Stapp's behavior, or any perceived Christian messages in the music, or because of any general dislike of post-grunge. Creed has some very beautiful songs like With Arms Wide Open, Faceless Man, One Last Breath, Don't Stop Dancing, Weathered, To Whom It May Concern, Wash Away Those Years, and quite a few others. Maybe the band didn't deserve such insane popularity, but it did make some damn good music, and it's a shame that it gets so much unneccessary hate.
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