Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

Been reading through tons of post here and I'm still left a little confused on the Creed legacy.

Questions:

1. Why do so many people have a hard time admitting they like Creed's music?

2. To this day, I've never heard any member of Creed say they were a Christian band. Why do some people insist that they are? And the further question is...even if some people insist that Creed was a Christian band, why do those people have to hate Creeds music. I mean if it rocks...it rocks right? Plus if they were a Christian band...would Creed's music ever have been played on Rock radio stations???

Just hoping to get some discussion going on here. To millions of people in this country...Creed freakin' ROCKED for a good while. They are one of the best selling artist of all-time. Why did the perception change?

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

Probably because, since so many people dislike Creed, the people that do like the band don't want to seem "uncool" by admitting that they are fans. I for one have no qualms abut saying that I'm a Creed fan, but I can't speak for other people


Whether or not they were truly a Christian band, you can't deny that they had some pretty explicitly Christian songs on their first album, like My Own Prison, Illusion, and America. I think that's what may have originally got them to be noticed, and people early on came to associate Christian messages with their music, even if later songs had very little in terms of Christian messages. And even in later works, there was heavy Christian imagery and literary phrasings, like in Faceless and Freedom Fighter. People just came to associate Christian messages with their music, and it was a perception that the band was never really able to shake.

About Christian bands not being played on rock radio, what you said is not exactly true. A number of Christian bands like P.O.D. and Switchfoot have gotten considerable airplay on rock radio right alongside secular bands.


They did rock, and you have to remember that in the early 2000s, when Creed hatred (and popularity) was at its highest, they still sold millions and had one more number one album. Thus, I don't think that all of the slander really affected the core Creed fanbase.

I made a really long thread a while ago as to why I think Creed became so hated. To sum things up, I said that it was a combination of the confusion over whether or not they were a Christian band, Stapp's outrageous behavior, the accusations that Creed ripped off ealier grunge bands, people getting tired of hearing Creed songs on the radio all the time, and a general backlash against post-grunge music, which was quickly becoming very generic and tedious, which caused the public to turn against the band. Other bands have suffered from these kinds of problems and public images, but Creed was unlucky enough to have all of these things coalesce around it at the same time, creating a very negative image.

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

Thanks for the comments Scorpion King. All good points, and I think your last paragraph really nails it.

Creeds legacy is no doubt huge in what they accomplished, but in today's society their "perception" is skewed for all the reasons you pointed out. Like many other Creed fans, I've adopted a seperation between Creeds "music" from whatever public perception the general public wants to believe. In other words...I don't care about anything except the music. To me if the music is good and appeals to me...I'm not gonna let public perception change that for me. I enjoy Creeds music as a whole and don't really give a darn about much of anything else regarding the band (personalities, Christian label, etc.) Literally it's all about the music. If more people could do that...I believe Creeds legacy for solely their MUSIC would be more appreciated.

It's funny. When you look back at the history of heavy rock music...so much of the lyrical content is about "man" and "spirituality" and "experiences". Sometimes I wonder had Creed came out 10-20 years earlier would they have ever gone through the same modern day "perceptions" and "labels" they were tagged with?

I guess it's just too bad they didn't talk about herion in their songs. Had they just simply done that...they would still be idolized as a rock icon and held in the highest esteem as 90's rock legends. lol

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

Well...there is that one song about marijuana they never released.... I forget how the lyrics go.

And My Own Prison (the song) was supposedly written the morning after Stapp overdosed on shrooms. That's where the line "should have been dead on a Sunday morning" came from.

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

Umm, according to Mark (and I believe Scott said this in another interview), that song was written during the night. I think it being "written about overdosing on shrooms" is one of those fake, often thrown around rumors about the song. I mean, obviously, we don't know what was in Stapp's mind during the writing of the song, but he's said in interviews that he wrote it about how he was acting with other people and how he "created his own prison" because he isolated himself.

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

I think most people view Creed as non-descript, one of a ton of bands in a genre that wasn't very excessive, or loud, or very anything. It was grunge without the depressing lyrics. People like '80s hair metal b/c it was so over-the-top, prog-rock b/c it's so intricate, classic rock b/c it was original at the time. Post-grunge was pretty much a fad for 3 or 4 years.

It also seems that the disdain stems from the perception of Scott Stapp. Most comments I've heard and/or read that diss Creed take aim at Stappy's poses, the *alleged* drug use, the "holier-than-thou" lyrics in some instances. And when you mix all that together, it leaves a bad taste in people's mouths.


People insist they are b/c of the lyrical content of many songs, especially from Human Clay. Higher, WAWO, WTLF, ITTE, Faceless Man, One, and so many more have some spiritual imagery on some level.

I'm not sure people hated them because they were allegedly Christian. I've got some non-Christian friends who have admitted to me that there's some pretty good Christian bands out there. And Switchfoot, P.O.D., blindside, Anberlin, Underøath, and so many others seem to have been well-received by the secular music community. And even several of these bands go so far as to say that they're not Christian bands, insofar as that they don't sing songs about Jesus 100% of the time with the express purpose of converting people. For these artists, oftentimes it's about allowing their faith to show through their music, and if people find God in it, super-duper.

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

I remember reading that several years ago, as well.

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...
 

imo that's fuckin hilarious

Re: Some Creed Legacy Questions...