Originally Posted by
Kid Charlemagne
I brought up the over the top spectacle bands because I was inclined to agree that those types are what you fear is missing. Aerosmith, Van Halen, KISS, etc., I say it because I'm under the impression that these are the types of bands you want to come back, all came with a over the top swagger that turned a lot of people off despite whether or not the music was good. It was made to look macho and manly to the naked eye, when it's all just dumb, bloated rock, plenty of it part of a production to compensate for the music being very poor.
Van Halen may have had a huge impact, but to whom? They quickly ushered in and broke new ground on the cock rock of the 80's which is probably my least favorite genre. I'm not going to act like the bands that I listen to may or may not loved Van Halen growing up, but if I look at their legacy, and other bands in their like, they paved the way for mindless lyrics sung at the top of their lungs to overdubbed guitars, schreeching solos and over the top bombast, and people became okay with that. I look at Van Halen and I don't say "well, they inspired Deerhunter or Tame Impala or Arctic Monkeys", instead I see their influence in Nickelback, or Creed, or any run of the mill rock band that your local radio station is trying to jam down your throat. Did Van Halen have a major impact? Absolutely, I'd be stupid to say they didn't. Was it a positive impact? For the time being, not at all.
As for Oceania, it's okay, but come on, Billy set the bar so low on Zeitgeist that anything would've been acceptable at this point. Much like a good majority on this board, Smashing Pumpkins were influential to me growing up because they were awesome and introduced to me to a ton of bands I would not have listened to otherwise (I call this the Deftones theory), but Billy releasing half assed albums under the SP name is ridiculous. I don't care whether or not the public considers what you listen to as "washed up", and for all I know, they could, but from my standpoint, you namechecked a large group of bands who have released their best material years, sometimes even decades ago, way past their prime as if it's some sort of consilation prize (much like what Rolling Stone does, and if you don't believe me, they placed the new John Fogherty record in their top 10, and I can say for a fact that it isn't at all deserving. Furthermore, already being touted as washed up and still releasing new albums isn't helping at all. What makes someone who liked the first Filter LP and fell off since Title of Record going to want to come back to the new album, especially since in that time they've released a string of forgettable records. Same for Queensryche, same for Deep Purple. If someone has checked out because of poor quality of material, whay would anyone want to go back?
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