Inspired by this post from Tess, I decided to take on a similar idea with a different topic. To put it as basic as possible, are people being honest with what they want and feel, or are they just jumping on the bandwagon? By this time, most of you know that I am a huge Weezer fan. I mention them or Rivers at least a few times a month, and I have gotten some interesting feedback on them, which in turn sparked this blog post.
In both real-life, and in the blogosphere, I hear a lot of "I like Weezer, but only the Blue album and Pinkerton", which would be the first two albums by this band, and also before they became really mainstream. It makes me ponder why the first two albums are always singled out. Being a Weezer fan, I can honestly say that Pinkerton is my favorite album, but I don't see what exactly is wrong with the rest of the music they put out since then. In my honest opinion, there is nothing wrong. They simply became popular. It is true that their music gradually changed from Pinkerton to the recently released Raditude, but hardly enough that you can mistake it for another band. If in fact this gradual change in music is what causes this reaction, then why are they so popular? Also, how many bands really put out album after album and not change anything? Well, a lot do in fact, and it gets dull fast.
In my own personal opinion, (and I like both of the examples that I am about to use) Norah Jones first two albums "Come away with me" and "Home" both contain lovely songs, but when played back-to-back, sounds exactly the same. There is nothing wrong with the songs, it's just that none really stick out to me. Her third album "Not too late", however, when I think of it "Sinking soon" comes to mind right away because it is different than her usual music, but there is no mistaking Norah for someone else. Another example is Tori Amos. I love this woman to death but I still see no difference in her two albums "Scarlet's walk" and "The beekeeper". I was worried that she would continue this way, but when she released "American doll posse" I was relieved. I can pick seven songs right off the bat from that album that I love, because they stand out.
There are bands that have taken a huge jump from their basic sound, for instance No Doubt. Did anyone see "Hella Good" coming when "Don't Speak" came out? I think not. Again, my own personal opinion, but there was a significant jump from pop-rock to a more dance influenced rock, and it wasn't just that song, Gwen Stefani on her own proved that she was leaving behind rock and pursuing a more dance genre.
But when Weezer put out Maladroit, it stood out because of all of the guitar riffs, when they put out the Red album, several songs stood out, mainly a few that were queen-esque in the fact that the songs sped up and slowed down creating a variation like "Dreamin'" and "The greatest man that ever lived", other songs were sung by other band members like "I thought I knew", to change it up. In Raditude, the most notable song to stand out is "Can't stop partyin'" which was a collaboration with Lil Wayne. Which yes, this one would be a notable pull away from "Pink Triangle" but the sarcasm in the lyrics remains. Weezer is not the only band with this gradual change, the heavy metal band Metallica has taken flack ever since the Black album..or have they? "Enter Sandman" is played more often than "For Whom the bell tolls" (at least in MI) and yet they continue to sell music. Are songs like "King nothing" too far from "Ride the lightening"? There is no mistaking Metallica's sound for another band, even if there is the gradual change. Metallica made the mistake of making a song too well-liked.
So my point? If these bands can continue to sell music that is interesting to it's fans, is it suddenly bad that there are simply more fans? I for one do love indie music, I also define indie-music as "Independent label" not a style of music (meaning it can vary from rap to jazz, just as long as it is not major label). I also have told people "hey listen to this, it doesn't sound like anything being played on the radio right now", well when you do that, people tend to listen to it, and bands get popular. To this day, the best form of advertisement is still word-of-mouth. So when we told our little brothers and sisters to stop listening to Avril Lavinge for a minute and try Flyleaf, they liked it, told their friends, requested DJ's to play it, went to their concerts and voila! Okay maybe not to THAT extent but c'mon! I mean it happened to Rilo Kiley, I heard "silver lining" when I was in the changing room at Kohls. But, most importantly, are people honestly not liking the change, or are they pulling this "I liked them before they were cool" crap because their peers say it? I mean, by saying that, isn't that "following the crowd" too? I use Weezer, and all of the other bands as examples, because this is my personal experience with them and I still like all of them. I am not trying to force my opinion down anyone's throat and I don't expect everyone to agree with me. I just want to know if anyone else has experienced this, and what their take is on it, because I could just be going crazy over here :)
~Sara
=W=
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