Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[Gray Lensman]

I can't think of any band that's been included on nu-metal lists that I've had the time of day for I must say. Thing is, I'll openly admit that part of this is generational as much as anything else.

I was in my mid 20's when the likes of Limp Bizkit (urgh..) really took off. If I'd been a decade younger and listening to these bands up in my bedroom whilst simultaneously raging against my parents and the world in general then I may have been much more well disposed towards it. Not being an angry teenager, these nu-metal songs just came across as incredibly whiny and with an obvious level of corporately mandated 'angst'.

My teenage years were the hair metal years, hence me having a real soft spot for a scene that many consider vapid. They aren't wrong really but I lived and loved those years.

Limp Bizkit is one of those I qualify as 'most annoying things I have ever heard' - even when they started approaching a decent song, they would immediately kill it with a break where they just chant the band name over and over again. That's one of my musical rules, good bands don't need to tell me their names in the music. I'd like it enough that I would want to find out for myself.

But typing 'nu-metal' into Google got me a list of bands which included Linkin Park, Disturbed, and several others that I actually liked. But there are few genres where I can't find something I enjoy. Even the heydey of hair metal has a lot of gems, and I remember those bands as the ones on the T-shirts of the people who seemed to devote their childhoods to making mine as miserable as possible (I wasn't able to appreciate ANY hair band until after I got out of high school because of who I associated them with).

[WillieMorgan]

Limp Bizkit is one of those I qualify as 'most annoying things I have ever heard' - even when they started approaching a decent song, they would immediately kill it with a break where they just chant the band name over and over again. That's one of my musical rules, good bands don't need to tell me their names in the music. I'd like it enough that I would want to find out for myself.

But typing 'nu-metal' into Google got me a list of bands which included Linkin Park, Disturbed, and several others that I actually liked. But there are few genres where I can't find something I enjoy. Even the heydey of hair metal has a lot of gems, and I remember those bands as the ones on the T-shirts of the people who seemed to devote their childhoods to making mine as miserable as possible (I wasn't able to appreciate ANY hair band until after I got out of high school because of who I associated them with).

Yeah, personal experiences also influence our tastes as well. At secondary school my arch enemy was a huge Kiss fan. I don't mind hearing their songs on the radio but I've never been a fan of the band and he's at least partly the reason why. I'm sorry you got grief from hair metal fans in school. People can be arseholes sometimes. Thing is, although I'd never actively take part in or give encouragement towards bullying anyone, I'd probably have been a part of that clique, wearing the same T-Shirts.

I was a funny metal fan back then though. Those musical cliques that existed back then baffled me. I was a fan of both hair metal AND thrash metal. Being a fan of the hair metal bands meant that you got on well with the girls for a start.

[TriggerWarning]

Nevermind released in 1991. Kurt Cobain dead by 1994. If Nirvana don't define the 1990's then I don't know who does.

Nirvana is certainly an act you mention when defining the 90's but the 90's are also when music fractured thanks to the internet into tons of subgenres. It was also when the true rise of rap / hip hop began - it had started becoming popular in the 80's but the 90's is when it exploded and took over the charts. And it was the beginning of the end of CD sales as sites like Napster began at the end of the decade.

I think its very hard to define any decade since then because of how splintered listening has become.

[TriggerWarning]

But typing 'nu-metal' into Google got me a list of bands which included Linkin Park, Disturbed, and several others that I actually liked.

First two I was going to mention. I love Disturbed and like most Linkin Park.

[WillieMorgan]

Nirvana is certainly an act you mention when defining the 90's but the 90's are also when music fractured thanks to the internet into tons of subgenres. It was also when the true rise of rap / hip hop began - it had started becoming popular in the 80's but the 90's is when it exploded and took over the charts. And it was the beginning of the end of CD sales as sites like Napster began at the end of the decade.

I think its very hard to define any decade since then because of how splintered listening has become.

Yep, 100% agree with you there. One of the things that also truly frustrates me about nu-metal is the fact that this was the last metal sub-genre to have truly mass appeal and multi-million level sales performance before the internet came along and effectively made new music completely worthless unless you're the likes of Adele or Ed Sheeran. Even big artists like those suffer from most people listening to their music for free on Youtube.

What styles have we mentioned so far? Hair metal, grunge, nu-metal, disco and rap/hip hop. None of those scenes would have had a hope in hell in establishing themselves in the current music industry. If it wasn't for live music still being such a commodity I'm not sure how many younger musicians would be able to make a living under the modern status quo. And this is coming from someone who frequently uses Youtube to listen to music for nothing.

[TriggerWarning]

What styles have we mentioned so far? Hair metal, grunge, nu-metal, disco and rap/hip hop. None of those scenes would have had a hope in hell in establishing themselves in the current music industry. If it wasn't for live music still being such a commodity I'm not sure how many younger musicians would be able to make a living under the modern status quo. And this is coming from someone who frequently uses Youtube to listen to music for nothing.

Symphonic metal. Groups like Nightwish, Within Temptation, Delain, and the like have done quite well for themselves in this age of music. Though to be fair their popularity is mostly in Europe where Nightwish plays places like Wembley or headline Wacken (a festival like Coachella or Lollapalooza) but here in the US plays clubs that hold about 2000 people. That was actually awesome for me as I've seen Nightwish twice now in the US and been far closer to the band than I'd ever have been in Europe.

If you aren't familiar with Nightwish or only know them from some old stuff with past lead singers ago they went through quite a change 7 years or so ago when they acquired another new lead singer in Floor Jansen. She is in my opinion the most talented female singer of all time in that she can literally sing anything from opera to death metal and back again and in some Nightwish songs does so. Their prior two lead singers were both very limited as the original couldn't do anything but operatic and the second was a pop type singer.

Here are two live songs by them that show the range of their stuff. First is Romanticide which is perhaps the closest they have to a straight up metal song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_7OCCQlXs

Second is a live version of Ghost Love Score. This was considered their original lead singers glory song but Floor basically took it and made it hers. I can't even listen to the original anymore. This song is a good example of Symphonic metal as it features a full orchestra backing, a symphonic chorus backing, and at times sound operatic with a metal background. It also contains what Nightwish fans now call the Floorgasm where she does some things vocally that I doubt many other singers could possibly do. She starts building toward at the 7:48 mark and then for the next 1:30 the song builds and builds until Floorgasm at 9:21.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYjIlHWBAVo

[TriggerWarning]

One more European metal band for you that is still thriving today: Lacuna Coil. They are closer to Nu-Metal than Symphonic though. They've had some minor success in the US but still remain largely unknown to the public. They also have this annoying habit of letting one of the guys in the band sing. They have one of the greatest female rock singers in existence but severely underuse her.

One of their older songs but probably the most likely to be known in the US: Our Truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB9LXpO6yWo

And their new song which they just released a few days ago. Where a lot of bands tend to get softer and more pop over time they've said **** that and released their hardest album to date last album. If this new song is any indication they apparently decided that wasn't hard enough. This song however is a prime example of how they overuse the guy and underuse Christina Scabbia, their female lead singer. You could close your eyes and think your listening to one of Slipknot's screamo songs until Christina finally starts singing midway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGSed4hnEv8

[Star_Jammer]

Possibly. The point is that no one is likely to say something potentially offensive.

I’ve “offended” people without touching on any of the subjects you mentioned.

I guess if people just stopped talking, we would stop offending people then?

[Star_Jammer]

First two I was going to mention. I love Disturbed and like most Linkin Park.

Linkin’ Parks first 2 albums were excellent. The rest? Maybe a track or two each.

[WillieMorgan]

Symphonic metal. Groups like Nightwish, Within Temptation, Delain, and the like have done quite well for themselves in this age of music.

Yeah, I'm familiar with both Nightwish and Lacuna Coil. I agree with you on Cristina Scabbia. She plays second fiddle in that band to a far inferior male vocalist. And she's hot. Sharon Den Adel of Within Temptation is good too. These symphonic metal bands have really big fanbases in Continental Europe, places like Germany.

Out of the modern bands I'm quite a big fan of Alter Bridge, Black Stone Cherry and Blackberry Smoke. I've got most of Joe Bonamassa's albums too. And then there's Ghost who are just an awesome band. These guys can certainly do well enough in music to make a comfortable living out of it.

As good as these bands are though, they'll never experience the level of exposure and record sales that was possible last century. There's no structure in place to allow that growth.

[Kirby101]

I hate that this has turned into a 80s-90s music genre thread. There I said it.

[WillieMorgan]

I hate that this has turned into a 80s-90s music genre thread. There I said it.

Well, it's within your power to do something about that. Think of something controversial that has nothing to do with DC Comics, post it and steer the thread on a new course. Job done.

To be honest, I hadn't expected all this when I initially made that post about grunge or whatever it was.

[Dalak]

Controversial Opinion: People who don't appreciate good bagpipe music because "It's Bagpipes!" deserve to have it played at them until they break and go full Stockholm Syndrome for the beauty of the pipes.

[Tuck]

Controversial Opinion: People who don't appreciate good bagpipe music because "It's Bagpipes!" deserve to have it played at them until they break and go full Stockholm Syndrome for the beauty of the pipes.

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[Dalak]

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There's a reason AC/DC is one of my favorites