Sounds like Creed, smells like Creed, looks like Creed!

June 26, 2008 12:54 PM

How many bands sound like Creed? Listening to some of the post-grunge music over the past 5-10 years leads me to believe that it all sounds the same - heavy guitars, slow to mid tempo, growling lead singer who overenunciates, but an overall non-threatening sound.

I don't know a lot of these bands - I grew tired of the genre about 1995 - but from what I can tell, Nickelback, Staind and Hinder fall into this category. I've always despised older bands like Matchbox 20 and Bush, so I'm tempted to put them in this category. Who else has this formulaic "rock" sound?

posted by adverb to media & arts (33 comments total)

Not directly related to your question, but an old post in the blue gives evidence that Nickelback imitates themselves.
posted by quadog at 1:05 PM on June 26, 2008

I'm pretty sure the progression of this sound went Pearl Jam->Stone Temple Pilots->Bush->Creed as it was slowly distilled to its basic marketable elements. Yeah, around 1995 every band was sounding like this. It's just such an easy formula to reproduce. It's like the Boy Band version of grunge. I stopped listening, too. The only other one I remember off the top of my head is Silverchair. Oh, and a bunch of bands with numbers in their names. Seven Mary Three? Three Doors Down?
posted by team lowkey at 1:08 PM on June 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Godsmack and Puddle of Mudd should definitely be on the list as well.
posted by team lowkey at 1:15 PM on June 26, 2008

Fuel
posted by studentbaker at 1:19 PM on June 26, 2008

Soundgarden... and I think they pre-date Pearl Jam, although they didn't get successful until after Nirvana and PJ/
posted by kimdog at 1:19 PM on June 26, 2008

Oh... I misread the question. I thought we were tracing the roots of this sound.
posted by kimdog at 1:20 PM on June 26, 2008

Fuel sounds exactly like Nickelback. I'd probably add 3 Doors Down, Tantric, and Daughtry to the list.
posted by mattbucher at 1:20 PM on June 26, 2008

lifehouse. they are a total creed rip off, though pearl jam popularized the sound.
posted by Amby72 at 1:24 PM on June 26, 2008

i don't think chris cornel over enunciates anything, and would strictly point to pearl jam as the root of this.
posted by Amby72 at 1:27 PM on June 26, 2008

This doesn't fall into the "formulaic rock sound" category, but Metallica's James Hetfield is my choice for the most egregious over-pronouncer.
posted by PFL at 1:32 PM on June 26, 2008

The number of groups depends on where you set the fame bar. The number of dinks occasionally playing local bars is orders of magnitude bigger than the number of dinks who might reasonably go on a brief tour, and that in turn is orders of magnitude bigger than the number of dinks who get major-label contracts.

Also, I believe that style of singing is known as the yarl.
posted by box at 1:32 PM on June 26, 2008

Appropriately required reading
posted by rhizome at 1:37 PM on June 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

that article mentions days of the new. they are certainly on the list. Cold also takes the over singing stuff to a new level.
posted by Amby72 at 1:41 PM on June 26, 2008

My friends and I refer to this genre (the Pearl Jam ripoffs, not PJ themselves) as Ass Rock, or that rock which emanates from the ass. You can add Finger 11 to the good suggestions given up-thread.
posted by PhatLobley at 1:44 PM on June 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Additional required reading
posted by junkbox at 1:47 PM on June 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

yeah, or clenched teeth rock.
posted by Amby72 at 1:48 PM on June 26, 2008

In my house, we call all of these the "I Hate My Dad" bands, since blaming fathers/parents for messed-up childhoods seems to be a major theme in this genre.
posted by junkbox at 1:49 PM on June 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

smile empty soul also
posted by Amby72 at 1:55 PM on June 26, 2008

Man, Days of the New was better than all the other bands mentioned in this thread (excepting Pearl Jam and Soundgarden) put together. I wouldn't lump them in with Puddle of Mudd.
posted by adamdschneider at 1:58 PM on June 26, 2008

I'm thinking also Eve 6. Seriously, kids. Recipe for a record deal. Sound like Creed and have a number in your name.
posted by team lowkey at 2:07 PM on June 26, 2008

i can't say that eve6 does the yarl or oversinging with their teeth clenched.
posted by Amby72 at 2:14 PM on June 26, 2008

Disturbed
Staind
Alter Bridge (though that's cheap since they are creed minus the lead singer)
goo goo dolls (I think these guys predate creed though)
three days grace
Shine Down
Papa Roach
Breaking Benjamin
Seether
Chevelle
Crossfade
Trapt
Adema

Its slight but I disagree with Eve 6
posted by bitdamaged at 2:15 PM on June 26, 2008

Oh! An opportunity to use the phrase I coined, "Pearl-Jamification". I think it all flows from the Pearl Jam sound and somewhere along the line it became the standard sound for generic mainstream rock.
posted by mattholomew at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2008

Candlebox is similar to Creed. I can't decide which I hate more.
posted by chillmost at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2008

Hmmm. Days of the New is more of an Alice in Chains ripoff than a Pearl Jam ripoff, but I guess that's part of the progression. A bunch of bands were capitalizing on the "Seattle Sound", which really meant kind of like Pearl Jam and Alice and Chains, and ending up with this new genre of weak "heavy" rock with a yarling singer.

I guess Eve 6 is debatable, but I do think they were following in the footsteps of these other bands. It's the same formula, just further watered down. Of course I'm basing that only on the one song I heard. That stupid "Wanna put my tender heart in a blender" thing. Sounds exactly like an STP song, only even more radio friendly and less threatening singing.
posted by team lowkey at 2:26 PM on June 26, 2008

Your new American Idol David Cook kinda sounds like this.
posted by Lucinda at 2:42 PM on June 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Well, Creed tried to sound like Pearl Jam. They didn't quite make that mark though.
posted by caddis at 3:12 PM on June 26, 2008

I guess Eve 6 is debatable, but I do think they were following in the footsteps of these other bands.

I don't think Eve 6 was trying to be "all hardcore" like most of these bands are, though. The outlook has never been the same. The over-enunciation you might hear in their songs is an affectation more closely linked to emo and geekpop. Like "Look how smart I am, I can enunciate," as opposed to "Look how rugged and hardcore American I am, I'm pretending to have a tough voice." Listen to the rest of that album—their bias is intellectual, whereas I'd say most of the bands that have been named so far are distinctly the opposite. Many of the bands we're discussing consider their prototypical listener to be a sort of stomped-on, put-upon Everyman, while I'd say that Eve 6's prototypical listener is the misunderstood smart geek. Both presumed categories of listener are angry American males, but they're angry for very different reasons.

Because of that, I'd constellate Eve 6 closer to bands like Weezer, in that smart-ass-lyrics, pop-punk-rock vein.
posted by limeonaire at 3:16 PM on June 26, 2008

Default
Theory of a Deadman

*shudder*
posted by sunshinesky at 3:59 PM on June 26, 2008

Remind us who 'Theory of a Deadman' were again... was that a Nickelback/Chad Kroeger side project?
posted by Flashman at 5:11 PM on June 26, 2008

Every single 'rocker' from American Idol sounds exactly like this. It's the generic 'rocker' sound.. it's even worse than the generic 'r&b' sound! Yeah, David Cook, Bo Bice, ... oh, what was his name?... Chris Daughtry, also! I'm ashamed that I can recall any of these names. The judges always say that they have the perfect 'recording voices.' Well, yeah, because they've already been recorded countless times, and radio airwaves are filled with identical voices! Apparently, that's what's marketable.
posted by Mael Oui at 9:33 PM on June 26, 2008

Theory of a Dead Man. You made me do it.
posted by sunshinesky at 5:31 AM on June 27, 2008

Live, though I believe they were pre-Creed. I call it the soft-loud-soft dynamic, and I heard it first (and best) from The Pixies.
posted by shannonm at 1:58 PM on June 27, 2008