Ok, I know I'm preaching to the choir.

Something has always rubbed me the wrong way about society's disposition towards Pearl Jam, at least of late ('98-present).

Does society, or from what I've seen of it (mostly American) deem it cool to hate bands that have faded out of the spotlight? Is it trendy to hate Pearl Jam?

Most assume Pearl Jam to be "that band that made ten", or for the self-proclaimed music enthusiast, "that band that didn't make a good album after vitalogy". Why is this?

One answer might be because it's hip to hate pop music in some circles, whether ever giving a listen to it or not. In today's society, it is cool to not like what other people like; or at least act like you do not.

Well, Pearl Jam was once "pop music", but is now sort of an enigma. Still commonly mislabeled "Grunge", Pearl Jam is still around and touring. So, do the majority believe that because they have faded that that means they are no longer as "good" as they once were? And thus, that they "suck".

It is not just Pearl Jam; there are others. A friend and I were talking about bands we like, and we both agreed on Audioslave as a pretty good band (me saying I thought Out of Exile was a pretty decent album, but that's another story...). We got into the topic of older bands, and talking about Audioslave, I mentioned Soundgarden. Surprisingly, he told me hated them. I was shocked. "Why?"

The answer, if it does exist, is not readily available.

I am an 18-year old white male. Society gives me a few choices musically: I can listen to rap and house/techno exclusively, I can listen to pop (Fall Out Boy, The Killers, etc.), I can be a "classic rock guy" (Zeppelin is the only band in the world, Dude.), or I can like "Everything". I choose to do none of these (obviously: I'm on a Pearl Jam board, didn't they write "daughter"?)

Even among those who share some common music interests, I usaully find people have a few bands that they hate, for little or no reason.

Today, in some circles, I am expected to hate bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, etc. I don't hate them. I don't mind listening to them at parties and stuff, but I don't appreciate them like others might.

While shooting pool with friends, a band came on SNL, that most people in the room agreed sucked. At the end of the performance, one of my friends asked "Why do they suck?".

So I guess I'm saying don't be trendy (?). There is no need to fall into a category of music. This doesn't apply only to bands, either (obviously) but also to songs, as well. If you hate a song, do you hate it because others hate it or because you genuinely dislike it.

Ok, I know this is long. I know many people saw my post about the leaked album being fake, and will not take me seriously. (On a side note, that post got taken completely the wrong way by many people, i.e. I was poking fun at the stuff going on with Tool, and their fans, but not too seriously). Regardless, I hope this can lead to some decent discussion.

So again, is it trendy to hate Pearl Jam?

Well it might be, but I really dont care what other people care about the best band in the world (IMO)...

It makes sense.

Pearl Jam was super popular when their genre was popular. (We will call "grunge" and music from Seattle their genre)

They naturally faded out. If you think of all the other bands that were super popular back in the day, they still have their fans, but they surely don't sell records like they used to.

For example, I saw Live at Penn State this past weekend. They were HUGE! (not as big as PJ) but there was a time when their songs were all over the place.

Well anyway, they had about 3/4 of the arena blocked out with curtains and the part left over still wasn't full!

I am sure the same with Hootie, Ricky Martin and other bands that were once "on top of the world."

Now, the majority of people hate these people. For no reason other than, they went from doing no wrong to irrelevant.

I think PJ is doing pretty damn well considering that they actually TRIED to fade out and produced less accessible records.

no?

Didn't you start this exact thread on Synergy?

http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=183957

Why?

Whenever a scene ends there is a backlash against it for a while. PJ is the obvious target because

A--they're still around with a rabid fan base to get upset when people bash them

B--with nirvana they were one of the two leaders of that scene

C--people feel bad bashing nirvana because kurt killed himself.

That's what i meant.

Lists....I just need to use lists.

Lists are key

yes, tw, i did, but there is alot of hubbub about the new album there, and everyone is always so friendly to my posts here.

Ok. Just wondering if it was you.

Synergy stinks anyhow.

it definitely is trendy for the folks over at the velvet rope board. they are hating on pearl jam in a big way.

What the hell is the velvet rope board? Is that synonymous for "people who have horrible taste in music" board?

there are kids in my school that are sold that nirvana is ten times better than pj, and also is soundgarden, aic

when i ask them why they feel that way, and to back up their opinion, the answers i get are along the lines of "the only good songs they made were even flow and jeremy" thats where i want to rip their throats out, not one person i know(thats my age) likes pearl jam at all but they think kurt cobain is a genious, and none of those faggots have any knowledge of the band past ten, not even vs or vitalogy, im not saying that they are not entitled to these opinions, they just dont know 99 percent of pearl jams catalogue, so how do they know that pearl jam sucks, this is a little random, i know, but it really irritates me that they all like nirvana because everyone else likes nirvana and dont know of any pj
w/e
fuck em all

Dude...not cool.

Sure, it's cool to hate Pearl Jam. Ed's voice and posturing grate on a lot of people; it's just a matter of preference.

The kids at your school feel this way about Nirvana because Kurt killed himself. And I often feel this is exactly why Kurt killed himself.

i said that like a month ago and everyone said i was out of my mind, nirvana is extremely overrated because he killed himself i think what i said was along the lines of "he killed himself to cement himself as a great musician"-and i was insane to think that he killed himself to become a legend

are you against me calling people faggots?

it's not trendy to hate pearl jam.
why?
because no one gives a shit about pearl jam anymore.

I don't know if that's why he killed himself but it definitely had that effect. One thing I must point out and no offense to you cuz I loved PJ since I was 7 or 8. Most people at 15 are very very immature and impressionable. Nirvana is still talked about as one the most influential bands of all time, I don't see them being as influential as PJ considering the amount of PJ clones to spawn up after them. Nirvana wrote pretty immature and churlish lyrics and for the most part PJ is pretty motivated to express their convictions in their lyrics and don't compromise that for anyone. Not like Kurt was a compromising musician but he was a horrible guitar player and didn't have much sophistication in his lyrical input. Remember from Bleach, "NO RECESS, NO RECESSSSSSSS!!!!!!! Fuckin stupid, and SLTS for the most part makes no sense whatsoever. They are juvenile and I can see how most teenagers wouldn't want to be forced to think by the music they listen too. Tell me do these same friends, even one of them , like Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco or any of that emo shit, if so find new friends cuz they are gonna start to make you dumber if you spend to much time around them.

don't let it bother you vitalogy71890. 10 years from now most of the bands your friends listen to will be embarassing to them, and you can shove it in their face. And if those bands still matter then it's probably worth checking them out after all.

uhm... i'm sorry but hootie did wrong. a lot of wrong. cracked rearview was an hour of unabashed wrongedness. darius rucker's work with burger king is less wrong than his album