Well, well... Allow me to retort


First, read this, then come back.



Nice to see you've returned, first off, Willie, could you have least thrown me a bone and Linked to the Blog? :) now to the important stuff.... me from the previous blog in Italics, willie in bold



While I agree that Scott Stapp comes off as a glory hogging jerk (and can they please just do a performance video), Creed is a successful band that sell an amazing amount of CDs and has received mainstream success that most bands would give their left arm for.

No argument there. Creed is, indeed, exteremely successful. I would even go so far as to say they're the most popular rock band in the world today. However, that doesn't justify the behaviour we've seen them exhibit. Plus, I wouldn't think most bands would want the level of success that Creed has. In many cases, when a band reaches a pinnacle of such heights, they are very uncomfortable being there, with the spotlight on them 24/7. Sure, every band dreams of making it, but seldom really want to make it THAT far...


Bands that don't want to reach the levels of succees that Creed has reached should pack up thier gear and go home. The drive for success is what makes you work for what you want. No one, IMO gets in to Music or anything else for that matter to be second best. If you do, I question your desire.



how dedicated are they? I mean, there aren't many bands who can keep a strong fan base, especially when a band goes three albums into their career without any sort of significant artistic growth. Creed (and a whole lot of other bands) are like cheeseburgers... if you offer the same burger with the same toppings every day for lunch, eventually folks are going to want to try a different restaurant that offers different toppings.



While I do agree, in this 15 min of fame world, that it can be hard to keep a fan base for a band,but it is not as if these guys are just hitting the scene now. and as for artist growth, why...oh why must a band go somewhere find a different higher power and then start spouting lines from books and poems. If a band is enjoying the type of music they put out, and it's saying what they want it to say, why should they change it in order to experience "Artistic Growth". and for the cheeseburger analgies, Why would you want to limit yourself to one type of burger (or band) in the first place, go and sample different types of food (or music) and if you want to come back to the first burger (or band), do it anytime you want..



.if we must drag my boys into it, very well. While Creed has a larger fan base at this moment, what fans Pearl Jam have left are rabidly dedicated. And I'll gladly lay a five on the fact that one decade from now, there will be more Pearl Jam fans than Creed fans. It's one thing to make an album you know fans will enjoy, and it's another completely to offer it up again and again. The only band I can think of that's followed that formula to success over a long period of time is AC/DC. Let's face it, Creed's got a lot of haters now, and the numbers are only growing.



The only reason that I meantioned "your boys" is you do so in the piece that started this (something about thanking eddie for the voice) and the fact that some of the knocks against creed is that they're pearl jam ripoffs. Now, are you saying that Creed does not have for "rabidly dedicated" fans, I would beg to differ on that point. Are they younger? probibly, based on the fact that Creed's hayday is now and not 5 years ago(at least). but just as "PJ" had their fair-weather fans. Creed does too and when the fall comes, I think we'll see Creed sell a smaller amount of records, but still an amount of records that a lot of bands would sell thier souls for. There's an old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", the "Creed Formula" is working so why try something different just for the sake of trying something different. Another very successful artist tried something radically different from what he'd been doing for years and was raiked over the coals both critically and sales wise....who was it? Garth Brooks for the Chris Gains project. and BTW, I'll take that bet.



ONE: Never doubt a radio hit for Pearl Jam. They turned a cover song that was originally supposed to be released only to their fan club members into their biggest radio hit ever. That song was "Last Kiss", and it didn't get on the radio because they sent it to radio. Programmers actually added the song in their own volition, actually seeking it out on the internet or dubbing their own copy (which wasn't easy to do, seeing as how when it broke on radio, it was available only as a vinyl 45, and as I mentioned, only to members of their fan club). Only after this happened was the single properly serviced to radio. Pearl Jam didn't ponder for a moment whether that was going to be a hit, but it was, and a big one, EVEN without a video. Which brings an interesting point: how many bands do you know of that can consistently sell a million copies of each record, even after not appearing in a video since 1992?



I do doubt a radio hit from Pearl Jam, for the very reason that you state, they didn't send thier biggest radio hit to radio. radio had to go out if it's way to get it. The song (which I will agree is a good one) had to be pulled from a fan club album. How many times has Radio done this? how many times has Radio said "you don't want us to play this, but we're going to go through the trouble to play it"? Don't think this is going to happen again, it was a once in a lifetime situation. and please don't try to pass this off as a planned thing by Pearl Jam. If they had thought that "Last Kiss" was going to be as big as it was, it damn sure would have been on an album. but they thought so little of it, they threw it on a fan club freebe. as to your last question, none, Why? two reasons, how many of the top 40 bands from 1992 are still successful? I would guess not many, and tht's just a guess and I stand to be corrected on it. and second, how many artists would want to take that chance of not having something to go on MTV, MTV2, Much, Much More, to promote the album to people outside the core fan base?



TWO: The market may be driven by video play, but (and I'm saddened you didn't know this, considering your profession) 95% of hit songs are broken into the mainstream by radio stations. Think about it: every time a hot new artist comes along, they trace the roots back to some radio station in St. Louis, or Tampa, or wherever, that "broke the single". Besides, if the market were really so driven by video play, do you really think 'Weathered' would have sold so well in light of how incredibly shitty their videos have gotten lately?



First off...I said that the market is driven by Radio and (even more so) video play. I think we'e going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I will allow that hit 'artists" can be broken to radio, but as soon as they become successful artists, they run to MTV or Much to break their songs. but again I'll allow that's more "Top 40/pop" artists then "Rock". and yes, while the "weathered" video's are a little hard to look at as Stapp's Jesus complex, comes out, that didn't stop MTV/Much from playing 2 out of the 3 ad nausem. (Bullets being the exception). Also, 'My Sacrifice" was helped by the really cool WWF Desire Video's at a time when ratings were a bit highter then they are now.




Creed's first two albums have sold a combined 12 million copies in the U.S. (commonly referred to as the centre of popularity gauging when it comes to record sales). Pearl Jam's first two albums have sold a combined 18 million copies. I'll give you the fact that Creed is bigger than Pearl Jam ARE, but they most certainly aren't bigger than Pearl Jam WERE.



Here's some more math, from riaa.org Pearl Jam has had 6 studio albums that have sold aprox 26 million which comes out to an average of 4.3 million in sales. Creed has has 3 studio albums which have sold 20million making an average of 6.6


Pearl Jam:
Live on two Legs- Platnum

Binaural- Gold (gave them credit for 1million to make the math a bit easier and to also address some of the Bootlegs sales)

Vs.- 7xplatnum

Ten- 11xplatnum

No code- platnum

Vitalogy-5xplatnum

26/6=4.3



Creed:

Weathered- 5xplatnum

Humen Clay-10xplatnum

My own prison-5xplatnum

20/3=6.6



Be careful when your working with numbers,willie, you may not like what they say



I look forward to the rebuttle....