The word histrionic comes to mind.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of them, but I already hate them, because “Creed” sounds like it should be short for “Creedence”, which made me first think y’all were talking about CCR, but fortunately it turns out you’re not. But still.
And don’t even get me going on “The Cult” …
Can I just agree with everybody all at once? They would suck if nobody had heard them - Creed was almost remarkable in its derivativeness. (Derivativity?) But in point of fact, a lot of people bought their shit, and that made them even more annoying, and Stapp in particular seems remarkably self-obsessed for a guy who claims to be all about Jesus. There are plenty of other bands I don’t like, but only when Creed broke up did I feel like screaming and weeping with joy. Normally I’d enjoy the chance to rag on them, but unfortunately it’s been so long that I’m just thinking of their music. I think I’ll go slam my head into my desk.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Besides, I liked them better when they were PearlGarden
That’s what Jesus would do, baby. Like He said, “Suffer me to cum unto the little children.”
Yeah, but would He do it with Kid Rock?
I think the underlying theme here is a oollective distaste for Scott Stapp. The hypocrisy, the ego, the Jesus poses, the amateurish, “spiritual” lyrics delivered as histrionically and as self-importantly as possible – all combined with an inexplicible period of huge commercial success – was a perfect recipe for the schadenfreude so many people now feel about Stapp’s popular and commercial descent.
I actually never thought the band itself (that is, the musicians besides Stapp) were all that bad. They were at least capable of writing some solid rock riffs with a modicum of distinct creativity. They weren’t great, don’t get me wrong, but they were no worse than OK and sometimes fairly decent. There are certainly a lot worse and less creative backing bands out there.
Stapp just sucked so loud that he drowned out the band.
Yeah but you can’t blame them. There is an entire Post-Grunge genre of music that is basically a commercially friendlier version of Pearl Jam/Nirvana/Soundgarden/Alice in Chains:
Nickleback
Staind
3 Doors Down
Third Eye Blind
Seven Mary Three
Foo Fighters
Lifehouse
Tantric
etc
etc
I’d go with 3, plus they have an incredibly arrogant lead singer who doesn’t have the goods to back up the ego.
Like that infamous Nickleback link, you can overlay almost any Creed song with any other, and they all sound almost exactly the same.
I liked what I heard of Creed the first time. By the third song that sounded exactly the same as the two before it, I was about ready to punch Scott Stapp in the trachea.
What link?
A while ago there was a page being linked around, it may have even been linked through the dope at some stage. It had two Nickelback songs playing, one through your right speaker and one through the left. The two sounded almost identical, even though they were different songs.
Unfortunately the page seems to have been linked out of existence, most of the google results I’m getting are coming back with 404 errors.
I found this one which is a flash site, but for me it’s not loading the sound. You might have some better luck…
The joke/combo song was called “How You Remind Me of Someday,” and played their songs “How You Remind Me” and “Someday” at the same time. I think the songs were in the same key, and they followed identical, already cliche patterns - verse chorus verse soft acoustic chorus blah blah blah. Funny shit, especially if you loathe Nickelback.
I have to say, that NPR article made me laugh, especially when the guy was reading out the “internet debates”
“This guy’s a genius, Nickelback sucks”
“Nickelback rules, you suck!”
Read out in the slightly dispassionate voice of the presenter, that just is full of lols.
I like Creed and Nickelback. Yeah, I think Scott Stapp and Chad Kroeger are wankers, but hell. I don’t have to like them to like their music. I like lots of bands where I don’t have an idea in hell who the members are or what language they’re singing it or other things. I like the way the music sounds. I like the cheesy emotional rock. Plus the two aforementioned singers actually sound like men, and not the prepubescent boys of so many bands right now.
I got into music after Pearl Jam’s 15 minutes of fame. I grew up with Creed and Nickelback. The only bands I listen to that I can’t hear on the radio are symphonic metal bands.
I can tolerate Creed and Nickleback. As for Stapp, I think it’s more a matter of him being a sort of anti-Dave Matthews.
Take the poseur-self-importance of Stapp’s Jesus trip, substitute it with Matthew’s poseur-self-important environmentalism (or whatever the hell he’s grasping to this week) and you get a pretty fair comparison of why they’re some of the most polarizing singers we have. The level of pure hatred from their opponents is far more intense than anything their fans can offer up.
I’ll see your blowjob and raise you a rainy surprise touring a river system. (OK, so Dave didn’t actually pull the evacuation lever, but Stapp was partying with Kid Rock.) I still say it’s a fair analogy. 
How is it a fair analogy if Matthews had nothing to do with it?
Seriously, you think these people sing emotionally? Like I said before, my opinion differs. I certainly think they try to sound emotional but fail.
Don’t get me wrong, I like cheesy emotional rock too, such as Dashboard. But Creed and their ilk doesn’t even fake it well.* And the music also lacks testicles. Some music oddly enough manages to be more sensitive and harder at the same time than Creed and their modern “wimp rock wannabe” counterparts. It’s sort of sad when you or your producers feel you’re too cool to actually be sensitive in your singing and music, so you make a muddle**of everything and don’t succeed in doing anything really well.
*(enough to please anyone, etc. etc…, for those at home playing the obscure reference game.)
** of Pudd?
Creed’s early stuff was okay, but they began to suck with “Arms Wide Open” and the sucking just kept on coming. I like some Nickelback too, but after I listened to their second cd (I own the first and borrowed the second from the library) for the first time, I realized I’d already heard it. Kind of like Cake’s music…