Why are people so obssessed...

[Kane Knight]

By the religion of a band?

Seriously. I know people who are willing to make every tune you listen to into a political statement. For example, a friend who won't listen to Slipknot, but enjoyed them up until he saw their live show and the whole 555/666 thing. He likes any band that's preachy, regardless of quality. similarly, I get a ton of people who complain about my music, either for Christian connotations (I like a couple of so-called "crhistian bands," though I hate the preaching and shit msot do), or the exact opposite (For listening to that evil devil worship music....). I've known people who refuse to buy a gay artist's music, or who bought it, then hated it when they found out that they were gay. :wtf:

Isn't it possible to listen to music without being totally anal about how only people of your religious/political/sexual alignment are the only ones who can write good music?

[DaveWadding]

Good music is good music. :y:

[Cactus Sid]

I agree with what you say, but sometimes you have to take a step back and say "what the fu</>ck?"

I saw The Used at Reading last year, and the lead singer came out and was saying "We are the motherfuc</>king Used, we hate God and worship Satan" Which was completely unneccessary

[Kane Knight]

Did it make their music any worse tho?

most of these "satanists" are full of shit anyway. They're about as Satanic as most of these lip-service Christians who preach, but don't practice.

Might have been unecessary, but if that's their belief, who's to stop them? And if they're just posing for the attention, they're no different than most of the bands at the Reading fest anyways.

[Jonster]

I don't really care about the religion of a band, as was said, good music is good music.

But I really can't stand being preached to, in any way, be it via song or otherwise

[Kane Knight]

Well, far as I'm concerned, there's really no such thing as a good preachy song, regardless of what it's preaching. I don't carry this over to songs that mention God or satan.

I'll admit, the line's kinda hazy.

[Y2Crippler]

I agree to an extent. I consider myself Christian, but I still have a few Slayer songs I listen to. I don't prefer listening to so called "devil" music, but I love metal and rock. I only listen to a few Christian bands. But I will not listen to a band who is absolutely devoted to Satanic worship in EVERY song. Most of the "satanist" bands out there just do it for shock and attention anyways.

[Seyda]

What's wrong with listening to someone/band vocalize their beliefs? Just because you don't agree with the perse message being sent in the verbage doesn't mean they're anymore right or wrong than you. I find it interesting to listen to different groups, sometimes you get a better feel for what people in various areas of the world are actually thinking/believing.

It's an expression, buy into it what you want. Everyone's entitled to expressing themselves.

[Kane Knight]

Everyone's entitled to express themselves.

That goes for everyone from Ghandi to the KKK. That doesn't guarantee that we have to listen

[Seyda]

No, you're right. No one HAS to listen. If you find the lyric message that offensive, turn the station. Don't listen to those groups.

I still find it interesting to hear the differences in cultural thinking. Whether it be here in the US, or abroad. That's all I was saying.

[Requiem]

It's like people that liked Metallica, and then said "they suck ass" as soon as the Napster thing happened. It didn't take away from the quality of their music (even though recent stuff does happen to suck.. they still don't suck overall).

[el fregadero]

When the whole "Napster thing" happened, most people just said they hated Lars.

[Requiem]

And then later, went back and said "Metallica sucks because of the Napster thing".

I'm just using that situation as an example. There are probably a lot more.

[asphyXy]

<font color=969696>Tom Araya [lead singer of Slayer] is Catholic.</font>

[Kane Knight]

It's like people that liked Metallica, and then said "they suck ass" as soon as the Napster thing happened. It didn't take away from the quality of their music (even though recent stuff does happen to suck.. they still don't suck overall).
Metallica does suck overall. Mostly because of Hetfield and Ulrich. Ulrich can't play unless he's got like 9,000 takes to go. He even butchers some really simple songs (Stone Cold Crazy has very little complexity to it).

Hammett's actually a pretty good guitarist. It's a shame that their music is intolerable live, because Ulrich has no rhythm at all.

most people started saying MEtallica sucked before Napster. They started saying it with Load and ReLoad. Some people did decide it after the Whole Napster thing, but most of them just went after the appropriate target and said "Lars is a dick."

Which he is. :)

[The Icon of Elisim]

I agree with you but there is a point where image comes into play. I don't like to listen to songs where artists are just saying things to sell the song, and they don't actually believe it, for example Limp Bizkit.

[Boomer]

The KKK took my baby away...

[Requiem]

Metallica does suck overall. Mostly because of Hetfield and Ulrich. Ulrich can't play unless he's got like 9,000 takes to go. He even butchers some really simple songs (Stone Cold Crazy has very little complexity to it).

Hammett's actually a pretty good guitarist. It's a shame that their music is intolerable live, because Ulrich has no rhythm at all.

most people started saying MEtallica sucked before Napster. They started saying it with Load and ReLoad. Some people did decide it after the Whole Napster thing, but most of them just went after the appropriate target and said "Lars is a dick."

Which he is. :)


All I'm saying though is that it was stupid to say an entire band's music sucks just because of one person's non-musical action. I agree that Load and ReLoad sucked, but before that I loved the group.

[Y2Crippler]

I don't agree about Ulrich. I think he's very talented. I think he grew as a drummer over the years.

[Kane Knight]

When he learns how to play Dyer's Eve live, or any song in time, we'll talk.

[Kane Knight]

I like how some bands just leave people guessing.

You compare songs like "God isn't dead," "seven Sundays," etc., to "There is No God," "Evilangelist," and "Left for Dead," And you gotta wonder what Cherone thinks. The guy's actually spiritual, but some of his songs would make you think otherwise. The dangers of taking literally lines like "There is no God."

(Actually, that song can be taken both ways, either berating people who believe in God or those who don't)

[el fregadero]

I only know the religious beliefs of a few bands.

[Wondermouse]

It's even funnier when some people try to convince themselves that such and such is or isn't a Christian band so they don't feel bad about listening to them.

[Kane Knight]

It's even funnier when some people try to convince themselves that such and such is or isn't a Christian band so they don't feel bad about listening to them.
Indeed.

It's fu</>cking stupid. If you like the band enough to rationalise, then it doesn't fu</>cking matter what their religion is.

I listen to music by artists whose religious and political beliefs are pretty radically different. In fact, Freddie Mercury was Zoroastrian (Born and raised, at least), and VERY few Queen fans are.

I don't care, unless you're preaching, which is not what I listen to music for.

[DaveWadding]

Can I use this as an example?:


<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=376 bgColor=#9a6600 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=376>Evanescence's Label Tells Christian Outlets To Yank Fallen
</TD></TR><TR><TD align=right>04.16.2003
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- Story include --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=376 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5>http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/images/spacer.gif</TD><TD vAlign=top width=366 height=30>http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/images/spacer.gif
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=185 align=left border=0 hspace="0" vspace="0"><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=center align=middle bgColor=#e5e566></TD><TD rowSpan=4></TD></TR><TR><TD class=copyBlack bgColor=#e1ffff>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>
</TD></TR><TR><TD>http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/images/spacer.gif</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Perhaps the chairman of Wind-Up Records asked himself the eternal Christian query, "What would Jesus do?" before making the decision to recall copies of Evanescence's Fallen.

Alan Meltzer sent a letter to Christian radio and retail outlets last week to explain that despite the "spiritual underpinning that ignited interest and excitement in the Christian religious community," Evanescence are "a secular band, and as such view their music as entertainment." Therefore, he wrote, Wind-Up "strongly feels that they no longer belong in Christian markets."

The letter coincided with an interview published in Entertainment Weekly, in which the band's principal, guitarist Ben Moody, who founded the band in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the late 1990s along with singer Amy Lee, made it clear that they weren't a proper Christian group by dropping a few taboo terms and taking the Lord's name in vain — a direct violation of the Third Commandment.

"We're actually high on the Christian charts, and I'm like, 'What the f--- are we even doing there?' " he said.

Later in the piece, he compares himself to the "the guy who was crucified next to Jesus" because "all I want you to do is remember me."

Singer Amy Lee echoed her bandmate's puzzlement at their album's placement in Christian bookstores. "I guarantee that if the Christian bookstore owners listened to some of those songs, they wouldn't sell the CD."

Fallen has sold more than 561,000 copies and has been a fixture in the top 10 of the Billboard albums chart since its release six weeks ago.

Meltzer expected an adverse reaction from the Christian community after knowing what was said in EW, so he issued the letter a day before the current issue arrived in subscribers' mailboxes, according to a Wind-Up Records spokesperson. Almost immediately upon receipt of the letter, many Christian radio stations pulled Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" from their playlists.

While Wind-Up isn't exclusively a Christian label, it secured ties to the community through the success of spiritual rockers Creed and 12 Stones, whose frontman Paul McCoy appears on "Bring Me to Life." Meltzer claimed the decision to push Evanescence in the Christian market was made with the band's consent.

"The decision to release Fallen into the Christian market was made subsequent to discussions with and approval by the artist," he wrote in the letter.

However, in the article Lee made it sound like it was unfair pigeonholing that led to their album sharing shelf space with Jars of Clay and Steven Curtis Chapman.

"There are people hell-bent on the idea that we're a Christian band in disguise, that we have some secret message," she's quoted as saying. "We have no spiritual affiliation with this music. It's simply about life experience." The fact that Evanescence drummer Rocky Gray also plays with outspoken Christian metal bands Living Sacrifice and Soul Embraced doesn't help distinguish Evanescence from the Christian set; neither does a 2000 interview with the spiritual-leaning magazine Stranger Things, in which Moody said, "The message we as a band want to convey more than anything is simple — God is love."</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1471313/20030416/story.jhtml

[Wondermouse]

That's a great example. Creed was mentioned. Others are Sixpence None the Richer ("Kiss Me") and POD.

[Kane Knight]

I like POD's last couple records. not big on their previous. They're Christian, don't care.

I think it's funny that the inferrences drawn can be so wild. Some of my own lyrics have been called "Christian," and i'm wondering just how philosophical they had to wax to make that one work.

[DaveWadding]

POD have become more secular since Fundamental Elements...

Consequently, that's when they became "big"

Then again, I've followed them for years...they were my first big band..and that was 96/97.

[Requiem]

I can't stand POD anymore. I change the station when they come on :-\

[Kane Knight]

POD have become more secular since Fundamental Elements...

Consequently, that's when they became "big"

Then again, I've followed them for years...they were my first big band..and that was 96/97.
I'm not even that big on southtown.

[FacelessBum]

I made this topic a long time ago concerning people who bashed Creed because they were Christian Rock.

[Kane Knight]

Well, that's it. Now we've gotta close this thread. Ninti did it a long time ago. :roll:

[Ninti the Mad]

You are brilliant.

[Kane Knight]

I really should block all your names or unblock Ninti the mad. Bah. Like I want to block 18 usernames because some retard can't post under a single name.

[Champion of Europa]

I don't listen to George Michael, not because he's gay, but because he writes and sings terrible music.

[Kane Knight]

I don't listen to George Michael, not because he's gay, but because he writes and sings terrible music.

He's gay????????? :?:

[Kane Knight]

BTW, I don't listen to Creed not because they're Christian, I don't listen to them because they're a generic suck band.

[Kane Knight]

I've got a really good example, here, I guess.

CoE was a bit surprised to see the lyrics to "When I'm Gone" in my SN a few days ago. The reason? 3DD are most definitely Republican.

And honestly, from what I've heard about them personally, I doubt I'd want to meet them, get to know 'em, or ever get to a personal level with them. However, their music isn't exactly hugely Republican in Nature (I could make an argument for the aforementioned song being very liberal, actually, if I wanted to spin the music). Even on their live disc, when they mention they support the troops, they're only kinda skirting a touchy political issue.

Contrast that with someone like Toby Keith, who wears his politics on his sleeve...:nono:

[Rob]

People are obsessed because the media loves to make stories and make and break bands. Nothing pleases them more than making a mountain out of a mole hill. At the end of the day, people are act like a bunch of sheep.

I'm still baffled to how people who like rap music, listen to anything that is close to that genre (R'n'b, soul, etc) but won't give rock a chance. A rapper has a song with a guitar in it and it's automatically crap. Same the other way around too.

[Kane Knight]

I'm still baffled to how people who like rap music, listen to anything that is close to that genre (R'n'b, soul, etc) but won't give rock a chance. A rapper has a song with a guitar in it and it's automatically crap. Same the other way around too.
Some people don't like the sounds of certain instruments.

[DaveWadding]

.

I'm still baffled to how people who like rap music, listen to anything that is close to that genre (R'n'b, soul, etc) but won't give rock a chance. A rapper has a song with a guitar in it and it's automatically crap. Same the other way around too.
My best friend is like that. He's dumb. It's hilarious.

[Kane Knight]

It reminds me of a friend's boyfriend. He hates anything unless it's played by a symphony. I even have some of those "Royal Philharmonic/Boston Pops performs" (X) CDs, including Queen and the Beatles. It's amazing how he can think Queen sucks on guitar, but is awesome on strings and brass.