I try not to use the whole "This Band Is Ruining Everthing!" argument if I can help it becuase when you really think about it... its pretty lame. This is true for a number of reasons; most poignant among them: 1. If a band cultivates a certain sound, and that sound is copied by other bands, people obviously like it and they connect with it on some level. I can identify with this position because god knows no one else on the planet listens to Johnny Society or The Black and White Years. (EVEN THOUGH THE LOT OF YOU SHOULD!) Being a fan of obscure music I try not to hold it against other people for enjoying music I don't personally get. 2. At least they're doing something, which is more then I can say for my musically untrained ass. Me becoming a recognized musician is about at likely as Al Franken banging Ella Fitzgerald. I have two words for you... stubby fingers. I always have some reserved respect for anyone who is halfway decent at their instrument, which to sell millions of albums like a lot of these guys do, you'd have to be doing something right, and that points to some skill or talent in my book.
The one band that I will pull the TBIRE! card on though is Blink 182. Pop-punk took a series dive in the 90's and Blink 182 seemed to be at the center of this fall from grace. They played a part in portraying pop punk as a artistic medium only slightly more sophisticated then fart jokes or midgets kick themselves in the head. As a fan of pop punk, I find my self incapable of forgiving them. They really did ruin everything, and not just for pop punk, but for punk in general. Its seems like it would really take something special to cheapen what was already at bargain bin prices by the time they came around, but they some how pulled it off. Good for them... and by "good" I mean DIE!
As stoked as I was when they announced they're indefinite hiatus all three of them have managed to suck even more separately then they ever did together. Tom DeLonge has gone on to form the absolutely horrible Angels and Airwaves (which I would deem the musical equivalent to having an aluminum drill point burrow through my thigh), Mark Hoppus is now in +44, a slightly more tolerable version of his previous band (proving himself, once and for all, to be a one trick phony), and Travis Barker has deluted what ever respect I once had for him by adding some truly predictable percussion to +44's set as well as being part of "The Great Phone In Mascaraed" that was the Transplants' second album (Being a big fan of their debut, their second effort was a huge disappointment).
I know these guys have a lot of fans, and that's just fine for those who like their style of music, but for me they'll always be enemy #1. Admittedly they where always more of a nuisance then they ever were destructive, but with that said, if they were a mosquito they'd be about the size of a german-shepard and sound like an apache when they flew over head.
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