I work in a high school. So I must agree that ICP occupies a place of honor above all others in this category.
The ICP kids are the ones that are desperate for attention and resort to “Hey look at me” tricks to get it. Black eyeliner, funny hair tricks, baggy black clothes…the works. And the bastards in ICP are exploiting their emotional vulnerability for their money.
One of the ICP t-shirts the kids wear says “The most hated band in the world!” on the back like it’s a badge of honor. And that is a perfect illustration of the mindset that will keep those kids in a prison of their own making long after they leave high school…many of them out the back door.
Yes, we know you like to say that. I could bring up the fact that a very small proportion of the 300 million of us listen to these guys, but I guess there’s no point…
I do think the big thing stopping us is the lack of public squares. And actually, there are other bands like this - check out a group called Slipknot! for another example. But I look at it this way: we’ve got bands like this, you’ve got Charles and Camilla.
My mum knows about slipknot (she’s 70 and very much your “little old lady type”) because “slipknot” is the name of one of the websites she looks at - it’s about knitting. One day she got one of the other “Slipknot” sites.
Believe me - we don’t have slipknot in rural England! It took some explaining, especially the dead crow in a jar!
Really? I haven’t met many Smiths fans, but none of them were like that. Except me, I was 16 when I got into them and a very confused adolescent.
But people actually take The Smiths that seriously? I think the lyrics are very funny, and don’t try to identify with them too much.
I agree about The Cure. I guess it’s the whole goth band thing.
That is annoying. I haven’t really met many Wilco fans, but it looks like there’s some great stuff at Coachella.
As a Beatles fan, I agree with the people who said that we’re annoying. It seems like whenever somebody doesn’t like the Beatles, some of their fans will go on the attack and not let up until the person admits that they were influential and innovative.
And, upon reading more of the thread, it seems that Marley23 did what I just described.
Anyone who says that may be wrong, but please just back off. If people start saying they weren’t influential, then you can argue, but you don’t have to shove it down everyone’s throat who expresses dislike for the band.
I actually like Pitchforkmedia. Their attitude is annoying, but it’s still fun to read. It’s at least useful to compare their reviews to the reviews on AMG.
My own contribution is Bauhaus. I can’t stand today’s goth fans. Bauhaus didn’t even take themselves very seriously. The goth kids hear lyrics like “the pangs of dark delight” and don’t get how it’s a joke.
I’m already really fucking tired of explaining why I wrote what I wrote, because I explained in full that that’s not why I replied to Case Sensitive’s post. Read what I wrote or drop it .
And how many bands out there do that, exactly? They both go for the same shocking, horror-type image despite playing different sorts of music, which is what I was talking about.
I was actually going to start a thread on obnoxious Skynyrd fans. (I dug up some archived threads on the origin of “Play Free Bird!”)
I’ve been an singer/guitarist for over twenty years, and I seriously doubt a month goes by that I don’t encounter an absolute moron who insists I “play some Skynyrd!”
Disclaimer: I like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s music. Their well-known stuff is great, but suffers from overexposure. Some of their lesser-known stuff is also very good.
But there is something about a large number of their fans…
I get a lot of requests for Beatles songs. I get a lot of requests for Nirvana songs. I get a lot of requests for Elvis Presley songs. Since my main style is blues, I get a lot of requests for Stevie Ray Vaughn songs. When I comply with these requests, the people invariably applaud, or at the very least, they *listen to the effing music. *
Not the Skynyrd fans. It’s as if they don’t really want to hear the music, they just want to steal some attention and give orders to the performer. I’ve had instances where I played the song, only to have the guy request it again twenty minutes later.
Last month, some guy wouldn’t shut up. I finally gave in and broke into “Sweet Home Alabama”. He let out a huge rebel yell of approval. And then, he casually put on his coat… and left the bar. I hadn’t even started singing yet. But his work was done – he’d made his mark on the world.
(I was going to detail some other experiences, but realized I’ve already rambled too long).
What is with these people? I assume some of it is the southern rebel image that the band pushed. But that can’t be all of it – people requesting the Allman Brothers or Hank Jr. don’t act that way.
I sometimes wonder if a race of aliens happened to randomly observe some obnoxious Skynrd fan, and modeled a line of cyborgs.
I’m debating countermeasures:
A sign onstage with “Skynyrd” with a slash through it;
A sign onstage reading "Skynyrd Requests: $10;
Politely claiming never to have heard of the band;
Totally understandable. One of the many remarkable things about “Freebird!” guys is that they will do it at any show, by any band. Doesn’t matter how dissimilar the group is to Skynryd. And it’s more a demand than a request anyway.
At Allman Brothers shows (where Freebird is also sometimes requested), the same phenomenon happens with Whipping Post. Once, a few years ago, the band decided to surprise everybody by opening a show with the song. Half an hour after they played it, I heard someone shout a request for the song. :smack: I don’t know if this was a jerk who got there later or what…
Hm, I am a Rush fan, but I don’t think they are god’s gift to humanity. They have music I like and stuff I don’t like, though I do like that they were not afraid to change styles of rock depending on the influences of their daily life. I think if I had to pick an album I would take Farewell to Kings…but then again I like Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, RAmmstein, Devo, Ramones, the D’oyly Carte Light Opera Company [circa the 50s] and Cab Calloway. [I can’t seem to like bubblegum pop, country-western or elevator muzak.]
I still think everything by Grateful Dead sounds like one of 3 songs…
Well, only in the sense that they inspired lots of kids to go plug an amplifier into the garage wall socket. Stylistically, they’re kind of a dead end. For bands that left visible fingerprints on successive bands’ styles, the Beatles were real pikers compared to Hendrix, the Stones, the Dead, the Who, the Kinks or even Kiss or the Ramones. You make a family tree of all the rock bands, there are more roots going into the Beatles than there are branches coming out of them (Blur, Oasis, Badfinger, Klaatuu… That’s about it! And nothing branches out of any of them!).
People don’t remember this, but prior to Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles were of very limited interest to males or adults. Comparisons to Justin Timberlake are more than fair. He actually has a better live show than they did, by all accounts. And name one Beatles single that you can actually dance to.
and others, all owe a huge debt to the Beatles. Not to mention jangle-pop such as R.E.M., XTC, Housemartins, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Beatles are vastly overrated stylisticly and influentially, but they were a large influence (but not the biggest by far.)
I’m also a fan. Just don’t play “Hey Jude” around me unless you want to hear me make remarks about the second most overly long hit song ever (hint: the MOST overly long hit song ever is by another band mentioned in this thread and is frequently requested by drunken bargoers.)
If you substitute Rubber Soul in that statement, I sort of agree with you. It and especially Revolver were innovative, exploratory albums that, based on what I have read, captured the interest of the hip crowd well before Sgt Pepper. Said hip crowd were already eagerly anticipating the release of Pepper; it wasn’t that album that brought them on the Beatles bandwagon.
I don’t know how old you are, but people actually did use to dance to rock music. Many of their tunes are danceable, especially the early stuff.
