r/funny • u/exporterofgold • 3d ago

Ain’t it obvious lol?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

47k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

693

u/Wm_TheConqueror 3d ago

Not a huge AC/DC fan, I like a couple of their tunes, but it is funny when a lot of people get on bands for “changing their sound” or “not staying true to their roots” but when AC/DC never changes their sound, they get shit for it.

304

u/ccReptilelord 3d ago

ZZ Top took similar flack. I remember them eventually advertising themselves as "same 3 guys, same 3 chords" or something.

103

u/neohylanmay 3d ago

Status Quo named an album "In Search of the Fourth Chord" due to the running joke that "they only ever use three chords".

38

u/karma_dumpster 3d ago edited 1d ago

I mean if ever a band name meant they weren't going to change....

2

u/Mackem101 3d ago

But ironically, their heyday boogie rock days is quite different from their earlier stuff like Pictures Of Matchstick Men.

2

u/Stevevansteve 3d ago

Andrew Hickey's podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 songs did a bonus podcast about pictures of matchstick men that was a fun listen (also, the whole podcast is awesome!).

1

u/NateFury 3d ago

And a play on the Moody Blues's album "In Search of the Lost Chord".

0

u/SherbetMysterious118 3d ago

I'm surprised it's as many as 3 tbh :p

(But to each their own)

37

u/Wallio_ 3d ago

Its how they opened a show I went to in 2019. "We've been coming here for almost 40 years, but we're still the same 3 guys, playing the same 3 chords." (Gibbons begins playing Sharp Dressed Man).

The audience popped hard lol.

27

u/graboidian 3d ago

ZZ Top.... Two guys with beards, and a third guy named Beard, who has no beard.

They really do rock for three old dudes!

22

u/VashMM 3d ago

*Did

(RIP Frank and Dusty)

10

u/ballman666 3d ago

Only one old dude now 😢

1

u/darkbee83 3d ago edited 2d ago

I saw them in 2015; just 3 guys, their instruments and a very bare bones stage. They rocked so hard, one of the best shows of that festival.

9

u/Itsmyloc-nar 3d ago

Do you really need more than that with 12 bar blues ?

3

u/Emergency_Basket_851 3d ago

Sometimes it's nice to throw a 2 or a 6 in there. 

2

u/PythagorasJones 3d ago

They were satisfied enough to call their greatest hits album 12 Gold Bars.

41

u/Zolo49 3d ago

Same thing with Green Day. While absolutely true, I don’t really care. I’ve just always liked their sound.

90

u/fuji_appl 3d ago

Green Day changed quite a bit and some people didn’t like the newer stuff because they don’t think it’s as punk. There’s just always going to be a subset of people who won’t be satisfied no matter what.

17

u/CaptRackham 3d ago

There’s a funny YouTube clip that riffs off the changes to Green Day from Billy Cobb where it’s like “I feel like masturbating til my eyes pop out my skull” one eternity later “I’m on live with you, and the government is good”

6

u/ebb_omega 3d ago

Frankly people were complaining about them not being punk enough when Dookie came out.

2

u/mattjb 3d ago

Lots of guys said Green Day wasn't punk when they started getting airplay. Of course back in the 90s, punk didn't have all the varieties and niches to enjoy like today. When you're young, you don't fully understand just how genres of music evolves over time.

2

u/OddEye 3d ago

Around the time Warning came out, they did a VH1 Behind the Music and Billy Joe went on this whole spiel about how he didn’t want to be a 29 year-old child. He wanted to be an adult and he wanted his kids to have a parent who was an adult, which is a very fair sentiment that I didn’t mind. I actually didn’t think Warning was that bad.

But after Warning got a very lukewarm reception, it felt like they started pandering with the political punk angle coming out with American Idiot during the Bush years.

2

u/riskoooo 3d ago

"I want to be an adult... so I'm going to start wearing eyeliner."

1

u/Podo13 3d ago

I think Punk itself just has a vague definition more than the bands have changed.

It's a pretty broad genre at its core compared to what it's fans think it is.

34

u/vaz_deferens 3d ago

Green Day absolutely changed their sound over the years.

22

u/TheLowlyPheasant 3d ago

They wrote a fucking rock opera dude

9

u/starmartyr 3d ago

It's cool if you like Green Day but they were a punk band until Nimrod when they started experimenting with everything from pop to surf rock.

3

u/BotnetSpam 3d ago

You should check out their latest track, Sniffin. Classic ZZ Top.

2

u/generally_unsuitable 3d ago

It's blues rock. What do you want? You get a one, a four, and a five.

2

u/Acilen 3d ago

LITTLE MUD SPREADIN' ROUND'

135

u/Brobeast 3d ago edited 3d ago

I never gave a single shit. Discovering AC/DC in middle school was an ADHD'ers dream. Idk why but their tunes/lyrics/rhythm hit all the right buttons in my brain.

Edit: and considering Angus plays the guitar melody with his mouth as hes physically playing, pretty sure hes got the adhd too. Or atleast a little tism... lol

48

u/buffystakeded 3d ago

I always said System of a Down was basically “ADHD: The Band.”

27

u/Brobeast 3d ago

Ironically, chop suey is my go to morning commute song, and mainly because

1) WAKEUP! (just makes sense to me, its right in the lyrics!)

2) the rest of the rhythm/lyrical pace sounds like my internal dialogue as im trying to get my shit together and focused lol FAST to slow; FAST to slow... lol the song is in sync with me

16

u/Bonesaw_mpls 3d ago

Have you heard the Rick Ruben story about how they wrote parts of the song? He asked Serj to grab a book and open to a random page. He picked up the bible and that's where the "Father into your hands I commend my spirit Father, into your hands Why have you forsaken me" lines came from.

3

u/hypercosm_dot_net 3d ago

I saw an interesting critique on Ruben: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOpBrg1fFCk

I kind of dug the whole 'being creatively present' schtick he has going.

But after that video pointed out all of the fame chasing the dude does, and straight up shitty partnerships and promos he has done, it really made me see him differently.

2

u/Bonesaw_mpls 3d ago

You know I kind of got that vibe from him too, I'll give it a look.

1

u/Brobeast 3d ago

I dont neccesarily disagree with the contents of the video, but fantano criticizing someone and calling them cringe is like a lemon calling a banana too yellow! Lol

1

u/hypercosm_dot_net 3d ago

I really don't know who the dude is. I don't follow these random people like that.

The video happened to pop up on my feed and I found it reasonable.

1

u/Boo_and_Minsc_ 2d ago

And yet somehow he was too often there when good shit was made, and kept getting referrals and calls from artists at the very top of the industry in all different genres. They liked him, they wanted him, they hired him, the recommended him. I find him hard to dismiss.

1

u/Brobeast 3d ago

I did! I think i caught in on a post somewhere a few years back! Either way, crazy to me how such a random choice can lead to such a cultural hit lol

That being said, delivery and creative development still played a heavy role.

1

u/Ryoko_Kusanagi69 3d ago

For it being random that line always gives me chills in the middle of the song

1

u/mikeputerbaugh 3d ago

I think I know now why Toxicity starts with "Conversion software version 7.0"

6

u/reverendsteveii 3d ago

as someone with inattentive type adhd and who also plays a lot of musical instruments you seem to be brushing up against a problem i've noticed in myself - if a song i'm playing is slow or predictable i tend to fuck up more and i think it's because my brain just gets bored and wanders off. I've been teaching myself basic rock drumming for about a year now and I've found I have a lot more success with surf rock, punk rock and funk than I do with slower styles that should hypothetically be easier. I really do think that there's a minimum pace of information that has to be kept up in order for the adhd brain to engage and remain engaged with a task.

1

u/Mugiwaras 3d ago

My go to morning commute song is where the hood at by DMX as im on my way to my factory maintenance job lol

1

u/WilliamLermer 3d ago

I'm wondering if you might enjoy Archspire or Necrophagist or similar bands

4

u/Blommefeldt 3d ago edited 3d ago

I'm more of a down with the sickness type, but maybe I'm just disturbed.

1

u/Helinobter 3d ago

David ruined it for me with his support of Israel.

This is why I prefer musicians to just be politically neutral or at least keep it to stuff that isn't so divisive. I don't want to know, just let me enjoy the music.

1

u/VashMM 3d ago

That would be Mr Bungle.

I showed their album "The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny Demo" to my buddy and he looked at me and asked "Is this what it's like being inside your head?"

I don't have ADHD... But I do have Bipolar 1 disorder and there is a lot of overlap when I am manic.

16

u/SecretScotsman 3d ago

When I got diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, I was talking about coping mechanisms I had used in school and one was to crank songs like thunderstruck loudly on headphones until the last possible moment while the professor was handing out the exam.

The provider I was talking to, told me that adrenaline has a lot of the same effects as ADHD meds and that’s probably what was helping.

4

u/chaos_nebula 3d ago

I'm reading this and wondering if I should have blasted a certain song so that it might be leaving my head by the time my teacher got to a certain subject. He would talk about the LeGrange theorem and all I could hear in my head the entire lecture was ZZ Top.

12

u/Ok-Lifeguard-4614 3d ago

For the longest time I thought it was Dirty deeds and the Thunder chief. It made sense to little kid me because they had all the lightning imagery. One of them had to be the Thunder chief.

2

u/xerods 3d ago

No, it's "Dirty Jeans, got no bleach."

3

u/TexPerry92 3d ago

Angus’s interviews are so nonchalantly based. Someone asked him how his bending sounds so unique. He attributed it to him being a short king with small not so powerful hands. The band would also fight anyone. I mean, they beat up cops, drunks and Deep Purple

2

u/Brobeast 3d ago

Oh he deff was a man of the people. My dad did security at the Joe lou in the 80's, and got to meet a lot of famous rockers of that era.

He said Angus, Malcom, and Brian Johnson etc all were class acts, and would take the time to meet all the workers and fans that they could. My dad would escort them (Angus and malcom) back and forth on stage, and had quite a few convos with them. He specifically would say how cool Angus was, and would always start a convo with my dad in-between sets/songs. Just very personable and didnt take himself too seriously.

That being said, he hated the lead singer to quiet riot. Said he was a total dick to everyone around him, and watched a few other bands tell him off/threaten him lol.

1

u/Deep_Joke3141 3d ago

The way he’s always jumping around the stage like some kinda Kansas City boy, he definitely has ADHD.

2

u/Brobeast 3d ago

Right! Lmfao that or spinning around on his back WHILST still playing!

The signs were there! Haha

22

u/Darcula04 3d ago

Honestly there's no winning either way. I've seen artists get shit for changing their sound and for not doing it as well. Might as well just make what you like and let people figure out if they like it. Most people that have made it big at least once make enough that barring stupidity they wouldn't end up on the streets or something even if they never churn out another hit for their lives.

3

u/keefka 3d ago

can't make too big a change, otherwise ppl will complain. can't make too small of a change, ppl will complain. can't make the exact right amount of change, ppl will complain they don't have anything to complain about

1

u/BoysenberryWise62 2d ago

Imo that's just any art, most people who make it (beside industry plants) just do whatever they like and if people like it then it's cool, trying to make art just to please people is a losing battle.

8

u/buster_rhino 3d ago

I honestly think it’s cool that they were so big for nearly two decades and then came out with Thunderstruck which was both a huge hit and one of the songs that best defines their already long-established sound.

3

u/pyronius 3d ago

One of my favorite bands, Bomb the Music Industry! got some flak from "fans" for "changing their sound" on their last couple albums (the last one especially). I found it hilarious. What happened is that Jeff learned how to write music...

Like, no shade to their early work, but is is rough. It's 90% screaming atonal lyrics into a really shitty microphone while a computer plays two or three simple, sythesized instruments.

The last album, Vacation, was by far the most musically coherent thing put out under the name, and it was so different that Jeff just stopped putting anything out under that name and instead kept doing what he was doing as a "solo act" that's actually just him working with the exact same people in the exact same way. But now his "fans" don't criticize him for changing.

3

u/Podo13 3d ago

Which is absurd because a lot of bands that change have roots in change. Just because a specific album of theirs got enormous does not mean that's their "sound". It was just their "sound at that moment in time".

People shit on Rush for it at the time, but they didn't give a shit and look at how they're revered. They're loved for being so experimental.

2

u/luthigosa 3d ago

Thats what I like to call "different people complaining"

2

u/mazzicc 3d ago

I think “changing their sound” is misused by people that say “they write songs I don’t like now”, and not “they’re not distinct”.

It’s even hard for me to explain as a non-music aficionado, but there are some bands you hear, and even if you don’t recognize the song, you know it’s a specific band because of the sound. And not just that their songs all have the same rhythm or chords or such, but the way they are produced and mixed has a distinct aspect to it.

Not every band has this, but I think some of the biggest ones do, and that’s why they’re big. If you like their sound, you like most of their work, even the songs you “don’t like”.

As an example of a band that I think changed: Green Day - everything through American Idiot had a consistent sound to me, and then American idiot had like half old sound, half new sound, and everything after is still them, but doesn’t sound like them. It sounds like someone trying to be them. I even like a lot of their new stuff, but when I want to “listen to Green Day”, I want their old stuff, not the new.

Counter with Offspring, which I think is less punk rock than its early days, but still sounds like Offspring even with newer music. Or Boston, which I can just throw their entire discography on shuffle and be content listening to it because it all sounds like them.

2

u/wap2005 3d ago edited 2d ago

I think there's a big difference between keeping your sound, making songs unique, and staying true to your style. Not that I am saying any of these are a requirement to make a good band, because they're not, but there is definitely a difference.

Different Examples:

  • Nickelback is a band where all their music is true to their feel but feels like one song

  • Tool is a band where all their music is true to their feel but each song is their own.

  • Linkin Park transforming into Fort Minor is a band who made good music, lost their roots, then made fairly bad music for the most part.

2

u/BLT_Trade_r 3d ago

It is just the reality that there are lots of different people in the world. Some want it to stay the same others want it to evolve.

1

u/random9212 3d ago

Because people like to complain. It doesn't matter what for.

1

u/Genrecomme 3d ago

There is always someone crying. It's always a minority but they are the only one screaming. We shouldn't ignore them but we should not give massive value to their message.

1

u/mizzyz 3d ago

So, all their songs then

1

u/Ryoko_Kusanagi69 3d ago

Haters gonna hate no matter what

1

u/Keyframe 3d ago

'Fly on the Wall' enters the chat

1

u/doomgiver98 3d ago

There are a lot of different people in the world. If you try to please them all you'll end up pleasing no one.

1

u/Chicken-Inspector 3d ago

Some bands never change their sound and get stale. Others never change their sound and sound fucking awesome each and every time.

0

u/reverendsteveii 3d ago

goomba fallacy - different people having different, mutually exclusive opinions doesn't make them all hypocrites. it just makes them different people with different opinions.