Though music message boards aren’t the sanest place to gather any kind of logical perspective on any form of music, a board I frequent recently broached the subject of Thrice’s controversial last album / upcoming new album and sparked a fierce argument.
Though the main conclusion drawn from reading through obsessive music fans’ drivel was that I really ought to get a goddamn life, the question buried beneath this mess was ‘How the hell can a band win?’
Thrice were being pummelled with criticism for previous album, Vheissu (NorCalPunk says: “Vheissu, more like Gayssu”), a carefully constructed, wildly innovative album with slow approaching climaxes and drawn out atmospherics (El Hefe says: “pretentious bullshit wannabe doors rip-off metal crap”).
Sounds awesome until you remember that their prior works were mind-blowing hardcore punk, littered with earth shattering choruses that sidestepped the clichéd screamo genre and sat in a class of its own.
Now people who worshipped Thrice were farting in their general direction, disgusted in their willingness to abandon their loyal fans and experiment with their musical talents to create a completely different sound (RhombFan81 says: “Fuck Thrice and their pretentious bullshit, they’re dead to me. I will personally track every band member down and piss in their eye”).
Thrice copped such a beating for their hard work that I can’t possibly conceive how a band can win. Looks like these are your options, kids:
A) Create more accessible music for a broader audience, become commercially successful and deemed a ‘sell out’ (see Green Day, The Offspring, AFI).
B) Don’t change your sound, stick with a winning formula, thus drawing criticism for becoming ‘stale’ (see Pennywise, Guttermouth, Bouncing Souls).
C) Ignore expectations, create something completely new, lose money/fans and be sentenced to death by the musical equivalent of a public stoning… or eye-pissing. Both bad, really.
Though the main conclusion drawn from reading through obsessive music fans’ drivel was that I really ought to get a goddamn life, the question buried beneath this mess was ‘How the hell can a band win?’
Thrice were being pummelled with criticism for previous album, Vheissu (NorCalPunk says: “Vheissu, more like Gayssu”), a carefully constructed, wildly innovative album with slow approaching climaxes and drawn out atmospherics (El Hefe says: “pretentious bullshit wannabe doors rip-off metal crap”).
Sounds awesome until you remember that their prior works were mind-blowing hardcore punk, littered with earth shattering choruses that sidestepped the clichéd screamo genre and sat in a class of its own.
Now people who worshipped Thrice were farting in their general direction, disgusted in their willingness to abandon their loyal fans and experiment with their musical talents to create a completely different sound (RhombFan81 says: “Fuck Thrice and their pretentious bullshit, they’re dead to me. I will personally track every band member down and piss in their eye”).
Thrice copped such a beating for their hard work that I can’t possibly conceive how a band can win. Looks like these are your options, kids:
A) Create more accessible music for a broader audience, become commercially successful and deemed a ‘sell out’ (see Green Day, The Offspring, AFI).
B) Don’t change your sound, stick with a winning formula, thus drawing criticism for becoming ‘stale’ (see Pennywise, Guttermouth, Bouncing Souls).
C) Ignore expectations, create something completely new, lose money/fans and be sentenced to death by the musical equivalent of a public stoning… or eye-pissing. Both bad, really.
1 comment:
Option C : Also see Face to Face's Ignorance is Bliss album (100% underrated masterpiece!)
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