People who like a band's older material BETTER

[cheesedip1]

I know that it's different for different people, but with some of my top favorite bands, I find that I enjoy their old material better. Idk why.

Hmm maybe I just feel that way cuz their "old" sound is what I was used to idk. Sometimes ppl dont like change. Also, bands have forever to make their first album but usually only so long to come up with their others (mostly).

With some bands, I cant help but feel that I like their older material better.
T Swift, Shinedown, Nickelback, Creed, 3 doors down, florence and the machine, New found glory, Trapt, Linkin Park, Staind (dysfunction album was sooo choice), Evanescnence.......


Alter Bridge even. To me, its hard to top "open your eyes" or "broken wings".

There's my rant for the day.





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DIFFERENT TOPIC: I like music where the lyrics help me picture a scene in my head when I think of the song. Although sometimes when I think of a song now, I only think of either

A. the music video B. the youtube video or C. the place I was when I first heard the song.


Sometimes.....that really bothers me.

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

Depends on the artist, but a majority of the time I like the newer stuff better.

Alter Bridge - Newer
Tremonti - Newer
Disturbed - Newer
A7x - Newer
Breaking Benjamin - Newer
Periphery - Newer
Evanescence - Newer

You get the point.

[psycosquirrel789]

Funny you mention Florence and the Machine. I was just listening to Lungs this morning - great album. This don't care for their last two records besides a few select songs.

I almost always like bands' older material. The only band thats an exception, for me, is Sevendust.

[Nick_917]

Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, and Saliva are probably my top 3 on this list. I really loved each of their first 2 albums, but then most of their stuff after that started falling flat with me.

[anguyen92]

^^ All right, yeah, you may have a point regarding bands like Shinedown and Saliva, but I really enjoyed Breaking Benjamin's Dark Before Dawn and Dear Agony.

Another band I may want to add is Seether. Somehow, they just did not appeal to me after their Karma and Effect album for some reason.

Oddly enough, though, regarding old bands like Iron Maiden and Rush, I'm more inclined to enjoy The Book of Souls and Clockwork Angels over The Number of the Beast and Moving Pictures (still good stuff though).

[Fish Tacos]

Being a band seems to come with a set of difficulties in trying to stick to their unique sound / vibe versus trying to make things new and fresh so they aren't constantly rehashing stuff. That being said, I generally care for the older material of most of the bands that have been listed if I had to choose.

[AB23]

Fortress was different, but I find ABIII virtually unlistenable. One Day Remains, in my opinion, had by far the best vocals and lyrics. I think Blackbird had better instrumentals. But the vocals-part may just be due to Myles aging, growing a bit more tired, playing the guitar more. As good as his voice is now, there is no question that it had much more "UMPH" back then. More snarl, more haunting, etc.

[Jim]

Foo Fighters are a prime example of this.. Their stuff is all absolutely shocking, forgettable and samey. The old stuff is superb

Don't even get me started on Shinedown

[One Drew Remains]

I think we hold bands first material in such high regard that it's hard to top it. I'm a big Def Leppard fan. Nothing they ever do will top albums 2-4 (High n Dry, Pryomania, and Hysteria). But those were recorded in the early to mid 80's. The world is a different place, thier fans are 30 years on in thier lives and if they remade albums like them now, I think the world would yawn, honestly. Just an example.

It also doesn't help that bands normally only play the classics. In today's disposable music climate you may hear a couple of new songs in the setlist at the show, for them only to disappear forever. That doesn't help.

That said, I do try and give equal listen to my favorite bands new albums. I'm pretty democratic like that. If it gets me going in the gym or on a run, it's good for me.

[anguyen92]

^^ And it's the funny thing regarding the "classic" bands. If bands like Def Leppard, Kiss, Motley Crue, Aerosmith, etc. released an album today, I would in the "Meh, I'll take a listen to it on Spotify, and that's all, but I would not really get excited about it at all." The irony is that some of those bands are vocally opposed to having their music be on Spotify, Youtube, and piracy outlets.

However, if bands like Rush and Iron Maiden were to release an album today, I would be on my way to Best Buy right now. Going to buy it without even listening to leaked album versions of it, because I know they are going to deliver a top-notch quality modern album that does not sound outdated and sounds like something people, my age, can get behind without sacrificing their musical integrity and history.

[One Drew Remains]

Rush maybe. Maiden sounds the same to me as they did in the Powerslave days. I'd lump them in with the other classic bands. I haven't heard BoS yet. But I haven't jumped for joy over a new Maiden album since Brave New World, and believe me, I like those guys.

[cheesedip1]

Tremonti - Newer

I dont really count Tremonti because well, most of his stuff is recently new.

[Nick_917]

However, if bands like Rush and Iron Maiden were to release an album today, I would be on my way to Best Buy right now. Going to buy it without even listening to leaked album versions of it, because I know they are going to deliver a top-notch quality modern album that does not sound outdated and sounds like something people, my age, can get behind without sacrificing their musical integrity and history.

I agree. I haven't heard a lot of Maiden (although they're at the top of my list of bands I want to get more into), but as far as Rush goes, they are one of those bands that still has the same magic they've always had. Sure, Geddy's voice has changed a ton, but they've always been at the top of their game. Some of the other classic bands that were mentioned tend to try so hard to keep their magic that they end up losing it.

And I am prepared to give Breaking Benjamin another chance. I liked their earlier stuff because it seemed simpler and not as dark, but that doesn't mean their other stuff isn't as good.

[Timotheus]

Bands like Radiohead have changed and changed countless times and are still really successful and respected by their fans. Maybe because they don't have a specific sound which people expect from them, opposed to a band like Linkin Park.

I think the Alternative Rock/Metal sound from the 00's is quite dated. Bands that try to break away from it have a really hard time keeping the fans' interest and bands that do the same thing over and over again tend to be remembered for their older material only. You could say the same thing about any type of sound I guess, but I feel like a lot of classic rock bands managed to stay relevant a lot longer than most bands that peaked in the 00's.

[Violent Corpse]

I don't see a pattern honestly. Some bands were better when they were new, some get better at a later stage. Few are consistent throughout.

[One Drew Remains]

I agree with that, Timo. I guess personally other than AB and a handful of other bands, I really don't get too excited about those '00 bands. Even the 90's bands in a way. I'm a child of the 90's (teenage years) and I'd rather go see an 80's band than some of the more hyped 90's bands. Although I would jump at the chance to see AiC or Soundgarden.

[cheesedip1]

Devil's advocate here.

A lot of ppl I know say that a lot of "classic rock" bands are classic, in the sense that their music is better than music nowadays.


Idk, sometimes I feel like classic rock gets a lot of praise today just because those bands were really popular back then. People who were around back then hear the same old music they listened to as kids and enjoy it.

Like, sometimes I feel like some classic rock bands are overrated even if they are really popular. I mean, you hear a lot of ppl nowdays saying all newer music sucks. I'm not sure if I agree.

[anguyen92]

^^ I concur which is why I have this f' the old bands and f' nostalgia mentality. Nowadays, it will take a lot of convincing for me to really like "classic" albums.

In my Top 50 albums thread, that I've been slowly updating, at a Dream Theater Forums, I found that I only have three albums on that list that was released before 1995 (Rush's Moving Pictures, Led Zeppelin IV, and Soundgarden's Superunknown) and I thought, why those albums, in particular and not like something like Master of Puppets or The Number of the Beast or Paranoid. To tell you the truth, I'm still looking for a concrete explanation myself, but I just choose the classic albums I picked, because I quite frankly like those albums, but mainly want to cover a lot of the modern albums that I love.

In short, I'm not letting nostalgia affect my enjoyment of modern music of bands I still love today, and I'll probably love AB V as much as all of their other albums. It was the same I felt about Fortress, and I do not have a reason to be convinced otherwise.

[Timotheus]

I'm not saying classic rock bands are better.

What I was saying is that classic rock bands managed to stay relevant a lot longer than bands from the 00's. Bands like Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, AC/DC, Queen (imagine if Freddy had lived longer), The Who, Rush, Black Sabbath were all releasing successful and relevant music 20 to even 30 years into their careers. Some of them changed their sound, some of them didn't, but they all, even today, are really popular. Songs and albums like Pink (Aero), Tattoo You (Stones), Innuendo (Queen), Black Ice (AC/DC) are all way into their careers.

People like the old bands because they were often the first ones to do something. It's not only nostalgia. A lot of things modern bands do can be traced back to classic rock bands, just with more compression. If you get introduced to modern rock first and get used to that, it's harder to appreciate the older bands I think, but the other way I around, I can understand that people who grew up in the 60's or 70's are not impressed with modern rock.

[Gingerella72]

I think your geographical location might matter, too. I live in small-town Nebraska....there aren't any radio stations here that play hard rock. We have ONE classic rock station here that seems to play nothing but Led Zeppelin and Foghat....but if you're not into country or rap/top 40 pop, you're shit out of luck. And you're only going to get exposed to new music if you go and seek it out on the internet. If I want to see bands I like, I have to travel several hours to Lincoln or Omaha, or make the trek to Denver or Kansas City. Last night Brett Michaels and Lita Ford played our county fair, and I bet you money that it was sold out because they're "nostalgia acts" that people here can relate to. If a band like Alter Bridge or any of the big hard rock bands popular today came through here, no one would have ever heard of them. Unless you live in a big metropolitan area, or you love music so much that you intentionally go and seek out new stuff online, you're just not going to get exposed to new rock bands.

That said, I'm guilty of preferring to listen to some bands' earlier stuff than new, Def Leppard is the perfect example. But then when Steve Clark died, I had no interest in keeping up with them so perhaps it's just my personal bias.