To an extent it’s understandable. TOOL fans basically ruined TOOL for me, the fanbase is just fucking insufferable, but that doesn’t mean the band themselves make bad music or something. I personally think it just means for whatever reason it appeals to people who are desperate to find meaning in music, and so things that have obvious surface level “meaning” become things that are easy for that subset of fans to latch onto. So especially for classic rock a lot of the interpretation of meaning has already been done so you’re not having to puzzle it out the way you do an entirely new piece of music and that baseline “meaning” is appealing to some people.
I mean, it’s also the take of someone with a smidgen of education who isn’t deeply impressed by the philosophy or ideas that Maynard Keenan put forth in his lyrics. It doesn’t mean they’re bad, but it does mean they’re somewhat simplistic and not all that interesting, especially as you get older. So people who spend an inordinate amount of time praising it and acting like Maynard is like the coolest person alive for first year philosophy takes just seem like they’re overrating it to me. I know that makes me a bit of an elitist, but I mean, I don’t really care. I think stanning over any kind of celebrity whether it’s an artist or a movie star or movie director or fashion designer or whatever is foolish, and leads to a lot of unhealthy behaviors in our society. It’s a behavior that I can tie to actual negative social consequences, such as continuing to support an artist after it’s clear they are terrible (Chris Brown, for example, still has fans) which can lead groups of fans banning together and attacking innocents (Taylor Swift’s online army famously won’t stand for any criticism of her whatsoever without the critique being labeled “misogynist” by the fans). It can lead to genuine victims being dogpiled and abused by legions of fans. It’s just a behavior that I think leads to these negative outcomes when people put so much emphasis on a piece of art and who made it.
I had friends who were massive Tool fans, and all they spoke about was how great Tool was. Their fanboyism turned me away from Tool without even wanting to give it a proper try.
I wasn’t until years later when I no longer regularly saw those friends (we got old-er) that I ended up listening to it, and it turns out I really like them.
If it wasn’t for the annoying cult of Tool, I would have had the pleasure of enjoying them much sooner.
To an extent it’s understandable. TOOL fans basically ruined TOOL for me, the fanbase is just fucking insufferable, but that doesn’t mean the band themselves make bad music or something. I personally think it just means for whatever reason it appeals to people who are desperate to find meaning in music, and so things that have obvious surface level “meaning” become things that are easy for that subset of fans to latch onto. So especially for classic rock a lot of the interpretation of meaning has already been done so you’re not having to puzzle it out the way you do an entirely new piece of music and that baseline “meaning” is appealing to some people.
Isn’t this kind of a haters take? Painting those fans as desperate, idk.
I mean, it’s also the take of someone with a smidgen of education who isn’t deeply impressed by the philosophy or ideas that Maynard Keenan put forth in his lyrics. It doesn’t mean they’re bad, but it does mean they’re somewhat simplistic and not all that interesting, especially as you get older. So people who spend an inordinate amount of time praising it and acting like Maynard is like the coolest person alive for first year philosophy takes just seem like they’re overrating it to me. I know that makes me a bit of an elitist, but I mean, I don’t really care. I think stanning over any kind of celebrity whether it’s an artist or a movie star or movie director or fashion designer or whatever is foolish, and leads to a lot of unhealthy behaviors in our society. It’s a behavior that I can tie to actual negative social consequences, such as continuing to support an artist after it’s clear they are terrible (Chris Brown, for example, still has fans) which can lead groups of fans banning together and attacking innocents (Taylor Swift’s online army famously won’t stand for any criticism of her whatsoever without the critique being labeled “misogynist” by the fans). It can lead to genuine victims being dogpiled and abused by legions of fans. It’s just a behavior that I think leads to these negative outcomes when people put so much emphasis on a piece of art and who made it.
I had friends who were massive Tool fans, and all they spoke about was how great Tool was. Their fanboyism turned me away from Tool without even wanting to give it a proper try.
I wasn’t until years later when I no longer regularly saw those friends (we got old-er) that I ended up listening to it, and it turns out I really like them.
If it wasn’t for the annoying cult of Tool, I would have had the pleasure of enjoying them much sooner.