The Clinton Years: Rapey-Ass Bands In American Peacetime

glad I cood contribute

(and frankly, smashmouth is a whole nuter league)

LOL nooter vs. nutter

i forgot sublime

Korn is god.It is everything I have ever wanted in a band and dresses hella cool too.I love them anyway, even if they suck!

― Adrian McCoy

that sugar ray guy always seemed like an asshole

what is even the criteria for voting? best, worst, funniest, rapey-assest?

Vote for the worst. Accepting write-in candidates from the Vans Warped Tour.

o my bad

i think bizkit will win this, but i wanna see who else makes a good showing.

Rapey is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapey

I like at least one song each by 311, Korn, Bloodhound Gang, Limp Bizkit, Sugar Ray, Smashmouth, and the unlisted Sublime. I couldn't name you a song by Slipknot or Fun Lovin' Criminals. Which leaves me with Incubus.

One of the hardest threads of late.

The title also makes me curious about which presidential period had the best music.

that is, hardest to answer

sugar ray and smashmouth are both pretty great, and korn are really the cream of their crop even if it's ultimate nagl to begin with. this is either 311 or incubus, i don't think i've ever heard fun lovin criminals.

flc's hit was "scooby snacks."

the late 90s were weird

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

korn dude. korn.

Crap I voted for the one I find most tolerable.

No Papa Roach no credibility

wow, if Papa Roach were in here, I would have instaclicked them

ahem.

THA BIZKITTTT just because I feel the most guilty/embarrassed when I hear their stuff. Hate to go with the obvious vote, but sometimes it's obvious FOR A REASON.

Fun Loving Criminals are the only ones here that aren't totally abhorable, just bad, the rest though. Voted for Bizkit for the above reasons, pretty much. Though their music may not necessarily be worse than that of Korn or 311 or whoever, they take more of a role as a figurehead for the whole movement of awfulness of this time.

voted for bizkit, but it's really just a reflection of ignorance. i mean, i don't know enough about any of these bands to evalute them fairly. have a friend who was really into the bloodhound gang and so heard a couple of their records a few times. they were mostly awful (except for the "discovery channel" song, of course), but i can't say i hate them. i just don't want to have to hear them again ever ever ever until a long time after i die. but that's probably true of most of this stuff. probably. i dunno, maybe some day i'll find out that korn were really great after all.

all these bands are lame but ultimately/surprisingly the one whose existence turns out to be least justifiable is 311

goddammit i missed "worst" and voted for sugar ray. those guys have like 2 (3?) songs i can't help but like.

does bloodhound gang go here?

I voted Limp Bizkit but it wasn't a runaway victory. Sugar Ray could have won too. Ironically they were more pleasant when they played poppier songs, it was their attempts at being heavy that were pretty laughable.

Also Incubus were pretty damn good at one point. S.C.I.E.N.C.E. is an enjoyable album, even if it wears its influences on its sleeve. Korn, I actually liked the first two albums before Jonathan Davis decided to sing every song in a nasal-bad 80's pop voice.

Not much else I'm gonna stick up for on that list.

re Sugar Ray's laughable attempts at heavy - I've never heard any of these, but i understand that's where they were originally coming from? seems really weird.

voted for Slipknot because every other one of these bands has at least one pop jam i've probably enjoyed at some point or another.

xpost yea. I had the "pleasure" of hearing Floored, which was their breakthrough album which had "Fly" on it. I think my bro was into that song and borrowed it. And played the rest -- it was all watered down nu-metally stuff, but done worse than the norm. "RPM" actually got radio play, and it has the lamest chorus ever.

They started playing more "Fly" like songs after that album when it was well received.

Slipknot deserve a fail alone for actually titling a song "People=Shit"

i remember seeing this on SuperRock on mtv when it came out and thinking american music was fucked

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VL5LV9PVZ8

lol I HAD NO IDEA THAT WAS THEM. I remember that song. such an unimaginative riff.

Rapey-Ass Band
http://nicoleeggertsspot.com/wp-content/uploads/lemonade.jpg

Wot no Deftones

i remember seeing this on SuperRock on mtv when it came out and thinking american music was fucked

At least he looks good with his shirt off.

fuck i voted for sugar ray before i realized this poll was for the worst u_u

OH OK

Wot no Deftones

― PaulTMA, Saturday, May 15, 2010 4:23 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

deftones aren't musically rapey

curtis otm about 311. They've got a frighteningly dedicated fan base, too.

Anyway, in a perfect, beautiful world, none of these bands would have existed and merely reading their names makes me want to vomit in revulsion.

thread also missing

http://www.chasermerch.com/images/SBLST01.jpg

Bizkit, for having suffered through at least three opening-band slots by them when I worked at First Avenue.

http://guitarhype.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/slipknot-02.jpg

^do not know how anyone can not vote for these guys

one of sublime's biggest hits was anti-rape, should probably give them a break on this thread

Slipknot have a decent tune or two, but they do seem awfully rapey.

Bizkit is the obv answer, but after a bit of thought, Christ, slipknot really were fucking atrocious, weren't they? So I voted for them.

imo Siamese Dreams has one absolutely stone cold cut (Mayonaise) and a bunch of stunners on it (Quiet, Soma, Today, Hummer, Rocket) but yeah Pisces Iscariot is way better, and I even like Adore more.

^also count Sweet Sweet & Luna in that whole list-o'-stunners mentioned above sorry.

multiple xposts: i like all the third eye blind singles i've heard. they probably had too many female fans to be properly rapey.

my bf just said that by that metric, incubus have to be disqualified because they have a shit-ton of female fans.

Only because that rapey-ass lead singer likes to take his shirt off mid-show.

ross robinson should be an option in this poll. he kinda single-handedly ruined hard rock/metal records/production for an entire generation. every other nu-metal band emulated that sound. i think there is some really good stuff on the s/t slipknot album and on iowa, but the production is so fucking horrid. i root for ANY metal band with three drummers! can't help myself, i'm a latin jazz/salsa/etc fan as well as a metal fan.

the first fun lovin' criminals album is fun!

i'd vote for limp bizkit in this poll, i suppose. only cuz i can't vote for bush.

ross robinson should be an option in this poll. he kinda single-handedly ruined hard rock/metal records/production for an entire generation.

A lot of death metal sounds the same though because of those drum trigger things that all producers use.

scott thank you for repping for the first 2 slipknot albums :)

theyve got some good stuff that I could connect with (sic, Surfacing, yes People = Shit), and most of my angst was the standard post-adolescent kind. My point was what everybody was reading as macho male aggression overload (as evidenced by the repeated bandying of the term "rapey") was actually very much empowering to anyone unlucky enough to grow up in an intensely hostile and negative environment, regardless of gender. Bloodhound Gang's sexualized self-and-other-loathing, and Limp Bizkit's positing of the Feminine as nothing but an affront to FD's peace of mind don't stand a chance at attaining those kind of emotional resonances.

not only fall short of attaining emotional resonances, but are both also proolley a lot closer to the actual psychology of rape (tho that might be pop psychology, i'm not sure)

wait...did the smashing pumpkins influence anyone other than mcr?

(probably yeah, but who?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7wZhURS7X8

I remember hearing Sugar Ray's "Fly" and Smash Mouth's "Walking On The Sun" all the time on Detroit area radio during the summer of 1997. I absolutely hated the former and I still really dig the latter, though Smash Mouth as a whole is just horrible.

I know I have the first two Korn records and the first Fun Loving Criminals records but I have no idea why. They're in the ever shrinking pile of CDs that I've been too baffled or ashamed to dump into itunes.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Marilyn Manson was like the Elvis of popular American Rock during this ugly, ugly period.

Static X should probably be on this list as one of them actually got in trouble for being a rapey asshole.

Man I actually quite liked the 311 songs Ive heard! :/ They just seemed like fun party faux-ska tunes. Is there some cultural wart attached to them I'm unaware of?

Is there some cultural wart attached to them I'm unaware of?

faux-ska tunes.

faux-ska >>>> grunge

Wrongo. Plus 311 were more like reggae-metal than faux-ska. The cultural association with them is that they were widely embraced by ilx's favorite strawmen - fratboys. I personally wouldn't mind them if their lyrics weren't abyssmal.

Oh, and their singer/rapper too. Is that the same guy? Different guys? Better shoot everyone in that band with access to a vocal mic. It's the only way to be sure.

where is that old dom "I SURE DO HATE THOSE FRAT BOYS" thread when I need it?

Locked for meta.

naw, I can't even find it in search

Sorry, I meant "deleted from existance by an angry mod for meta."

right

Marilyn Manson was like the Elvis of popular American Rock during this ugly, ugly period.

Is this a compliment or a putdown?

depends on the Marilyn Manson album

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

interesting distribution of results! i knew bizkit and slipknot would have a strong lead, but the others got a lot of votes too.

Slipknot is so much better than half of this list. I don't know if its the lame masks or their more knuckleheaded fans, but something really seems to give non-listeners a false impression of them as just mooks. I'd take either of their first two albums over anything else released by any band on this list, except Korn's debut.

definitely the most extreme/noisiest band to hit it big. slipknot. meaning, they have made some music that wouldn't be out of place on a hanson or rrr release. i can definitely see a lot of people here hating them more than sugar ray or whoever.

"Bloodhound Gang's sexualized self-and-other-loathing"
wha? I thought they were basically PG-13 Weird Al?

did voters not (re-)listen to "come original" upthread? i feel trapped in the middle of a terrible, terrible road when i hear that song. wish i could agree that frat boys and their ilk are strawmen, but the really sad thing is that people who should be better than that also think "purple is the color of your energy - whoooaaaa" or whatever is some deep shit.

curious what slipknot voters' rationale was. they're basically a metal band with a dj right? crazy image + catchy "wait and bleed" chorus brought them above ground i figured.

Slipknot is so much better than half of this list. I don't know if its the lame masks or their more knuckleheaded fans, but something really seems to give non-listeners a false impression of them as just mooks. I'd take either of their first two albums over anything else released by any band on this list, except Korn's debut.

― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

^this, though I've kind of outgrown Korn's first album; I can't really hear it anymore save for a couple tracks (other albums where this has happened for: Gish, The Bends)...in 1996, Korn had a weird, dangerous mystique, and the people I knew who were into them were weird, fringey, almost-goth druggies; definitely NOT jocks or other mooks!

my rationale for voting for Slipknot, as noted upthread, was that the other bands all have at least one goofy pop song I can enjoy. and also I hate '90s metal.

kinda surprised by how many votes Incubus got, they're definitely not a well liked band around here but they seem kind of inoffensive and unobtrusive to be getting the same number of votes as KoRn.

agree on incubus. at the time i actively hated goofy pop songs, so that definitely colors my impressions!

korn were probably a little outside of my high school's jock dude mainstream, but i think they got pretty good amount of local radio play. and mtv, right? have not listened to them since then. "blind" still sounds alright in my head.

Defense of Slipknot making me remember the late Don Decker, and this vintage 2001 article:

http://www.citypages.com/2001-12-19/arts/defying-death/all

actually, i'm thinking '95...it was 1996 when Life is Peachy came out...by that time they had that "A.D.I.D.A.S." song playing on MTV a bunch (I kind of dug it, I liked Twist and Porno Creep more though)(yeah they were a little rapey), plus they had that song on the Crow 2 soundtrack, Sean Olson...a lot of folks were starting to catch on; quite a few people were getting into them. they didn't get any kind of mainstream exposure or widespread acceptance really until 98, when Follow the Leader came out; it broke big right around the time when Three Dollar Bill Yall$ broke big, and both those albums were huge in my high school.

But in 1995, I'm telling you, it was the weirdo stoner misfits who were really into Korn.

ehhh Life Is Peachy and "A.D.I.D.A.S." really weren't any bigger than the self-titled album and "Blind"

life is peachy was the album for me, but think i'm a little younger maybe...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korn#Follow_the_Leader.2C_mainstream_success_.281998.E2.80.931999.29

wow - who watched KornTV??

yes.. it's on youtube

Prior to the release of the band's third album, Korn produced a weekly online TV show, KornTV,[17] which documented the making of the record and featured special guests such as porn star Ron Jeremy, Limp Bizkit, and 311.

^^ rapey-ass hall of fame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xq0YgC8RkM

ron jeremy to thread. click on part 11 at your own risk.

ehhh Life Is Peachy and "A.D.I.D.A.S." really weren't any bigger than the self-titled album and "Blind"

yeah kinda...I remember the first time I heard Korn in '95, it was on the local modern-rock station, the first one we had in these here parts...it was called Buzz 95 and they used to do an hour where they would play any song you requested...somebody requested Korn, and they made a big deal out of playing something so...provocative. Or at least that was the implication. And then they played Chuted and Ladders.

Then I found out a little later the huge stoner/acid-head in our school was obsessed with that album...and the pair of goth-like girls who pretended they were witches were really into them too...but by the time Life is Peachy came out, it seemed a lot of people in my high school band were really into them, and not just the dorks I hung out with in the low brass section (I played baritone), but like the real well-to-do kids too...the girl who turned me on to Jim Morrison and Grace Slick, who was a member of one of the richest families in Homer, went all metalhead and she was obsessed with Korn for a while...but like I said, that was def. more '96/'97...

I'm prolley not qualified to make the generalizations I made...I'm speaking more from personal experience than anything.

yeah...they probably had a slow build like that all over where their demographic gradually changed

yeah we will agree that most mooks likely got into them after Follow the Leader, right?

I used to thing that All in the Family song they did with Fred Durst was super-cool, but now I'm thinking it's probably heavy metal's Gigli...

'used to think' grrr.....

which homer, drugs?

i grew up outside of baltimore. we definitely had an established "modern rock" station by mid 90s. i was 13 in 96, and i can remember hearing "bulls on parade" on there for the first time that year. couldn't give much of an overview off the top of my head otherwise. as for korn, by "freak on a leash" i was a guitar nerd and thought they were lame.

homer, michigan.

i hate to be like *groan* sticking up for 311, but their shit has nothing to do with ska-punk or whatever. they never used horns for one thing. but they get plenty of lols for song titles like "off-beat bare ass".

incubus are fucking disgusting, should've swept this poll

are there really eight fucking people in slipknot?

― The Reverend

Count again! It's worse than you think!

― Sean Carruthers

Eight again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiYwWeIUdJw&feature=related
(8:07-8:41)