Most Confusing Bands/Artists

There are certain artists that just confuse me for some reason or another.  While many artists confuse me in terms of how their popular or their style of music, there are also some that confuse me for other reasons.  In some cases, changes in their public persona, extreme variations in their musical styles, similarities to the careers of other artists, or how different the sound is compared to other groups formed by members has puzzled me.  I opted to focus on these sorts of situations in the ten artists I listed below.

 

Poppy

I consider Poppy’s career arc to be one of the strangest ones out of currently rising artists.  The Youtuber/musician’s first album, Poppy Computer, was likely a pop album at its core while blending art pop and bubblegum pop.  Her second album, Am I a Girl?, incorporated a little bit of nu metal, while her third album, I Disagree, took on much more of nu metal approach while incorporating some pop and synthpop sound.  While the shift in genre isn’t too confusing to me, the shift from a Youtuber and musician signed to Mad Decent and with a cult like following to a nu metal artist who was supposed to be one of the openers for Deftones’ 2020 tour alongside technical death metal band Gojira is a bit odd.

 

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is one of my favorite artists (along with Bring Me the Horizon and Rise Against), and the best way to describe him and his music is probably eclectic.  While his music is often viewed as weird due to its nature, that isn’t what confuses me; rather, it seems to be some rotation of a sound that’s either indie folk/indie/baroque pop or a sound that’s experimental/electronic.  In just his last 3 solo studio albums, he released The Age of Adz in 2010, an experimental/electronic album capped by the 25-minute “Impossible Soul”, Carrie & Lowell, a lo-fi indie folk album, and The Ascension, an electropop album that adventured into some drawn out, experimental songs as well.  Add into the mix from his career a collection that includes a pair of Christmas albums, an orchestral album, and a new-age album, and you realize how unpredictable his music can be.

 

Linkin Park

I’m not sure if the word I would best describe what I think about Linkin Park is confusion or more intrigue, but I am listing them here anyways.  There are many bands that are influenced by and try to incorporate multiple genres, but I have seen few who seemed to try something new each album.  After their first two albums incorporated more of a blend of rap rock, alternative, and metal, their third album, Minutes to Midnight, was more melodic and featured a more pop sound.  Their fourth album, A Thousand Suns, they incorporated more electronic music and even some industrial sounds.  Their fifth album, Living Things, incorporated an alternative sound blended with electronic music.  The Hunting Party, their sixth album, incorporated a metal sound that was even heavier than their early releases.  They finished off the late great Chester Bennington’s life with more of a pop sound in One More Light.  Even though their first two albums were similar stylistically, they focused more on the sound of the album on their second album, Meteora, than their debut, Hybrid Theory.  I find it really neat that they did it, but it is uncommon to see that much change.

 

Fever 333

What confuses me about Fever 333 isn’t the band itself, but the reaction to them.  The group is best classified as some blend of rap, rock, and metal (they’ve taken a more metalcore/punk/rapcore), but I have likened them to Rage Against the Machine due to their musical style and outspoken political lyrics and actions.  They aren’t massive yet, but they do have a growing following around the world and a passionate fanbase.  That said, they have their detractors regarding how political they are.  In particular, many criticize the idea of bringing politics into their music so much.  While I have previously expressed my views of separating politics and other activities in my podcast, “Groupie and Harmony”, and my basketball blog, “Is ‘Baller’ Trademarked Yet?”, so I won’t rehash them here (that said, I hate that mindset and think it’s dangerous).  However, Rage Against the Machine has received the same criticism throughout their career and still are polarizing for that reason.  Now that Rage Against the Machine is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee for the third time in four years, it is interesting to see their newest successor still receive the same criticism that RATM heard 30 years ago.

 

Lady Gaga

I imagine most people would list her on here because of her eccentricities during her career.  That said, this isn’t what confuses me about her; rather, the change in public persona after the release of Artpop is what does.  After having a more eccentric persona, she released a collaboration album with Tony Bennett, Cheek to Cheek, which signaled a change in her public persona.  She followed that up with Joanne and a role in A Star is Born.  While her newest album, Chromatica, featured a bit of a shift in persona again, she performed the National Anthem at Joe Biden’s inauguration has another collaboration with Bennett upcoming.  The main thing that I’m confused about isn’t the transition itself but more so that she started more eccentric and transitioned to one more like the stereotypical pop singer.  Historically, most pop artists have started out with a more conservative image, get more eccentric, then tame down after.  To start as a pop artist with the eccentric one and remain relevant through a shift to a more reserved image is interesting.

 

Babymetal

Babymetal are pioneers of a style of music called Kawaii metal, which is a blend of J-pop and metal; in particular, Babymetal’s metal portion is usually influenced by power metal.  While I will confess that the style itself has surprised and confused me, what surprises me more is the sustained following they have found.  I expected the group would have some popularity during the rise of K-pop, but this is a bit different; their popularity has risen steadily worldwide, their last two albums having charted in the top-40 in the U.S., and their most recent, Metal Galaxy, peaked at 13 in the U.S.  They have won awards internationally, received positive reviews for their music, found success with singles, and have been booked by various festivals, where they consistently draw crowds (especially at metal festivals).  While I think it’s exciting for them to find this continued success, I am surprised and confused as for how they continue to find sustainable success.

 

Twenty One Pilots

What confuses me about Twenty One Pilots is likely not something that would immediately come to mind.  Their music is a bit weird for mainstream radio, which might make them confusing, but that doesn’t even surprise me that it is.  Their personality and antics might make some people place them on here, but that doesn’t do it for me.  What confuses me about them is that I watched a recording of a live set they did at an international Lollapalooza and I still can’t tell you whether they are a good live band.  While a lot of artists attempt to go over the top with various things, Twenty One Pilots had multiple antics that they did that were part of their set.  Two of the more unusual were when frontman Tyler Joseph climbed atop a lighting tower during the set for no reason and when drummer Josh Dun had a drum battle…with a recording of himself.  While adding in things like this is often helpful to make the performance more entertaining, these decisions were just puzzling to me.

 

Falling in Reverse

The safest reason to say that Falling in Reverse is confusing is due to frontman Ronnie Radke being a loose cannon, but that’s not what I will focus on in this post.  Rather, my opinion of this is more shaped around their second album, Fashionably Late.  After the group released The Drug in Me Is You, their debut that was more post-hardcore and emo with some touches of metalcore, they released their follow-up album that incorporated these styles at its core, but also incorporated several other genres, including touches of rap, electronic, Nintendocore, dubstep, and even country.  It was a mess, and most critics gave it negative reviews, with British magazine Kerrang! not even sure how to review it, grading it “Fuck Knows”.  Their third album, Just Like You, was released 2 years later, removed the weird styles thrown in there and is considered by some to be their best album.  Outside of live performances of these songs, the band effectively went on like this album never existed, which has always thrown me off.

 

Audioslave

What confuses me about Audioslave isn’t anything that would be weird upon isolating their music, but more so the result when listening to their music compared to the band’s previous projects.  This supergroup featured the instrumentalists of Rage Against the Machine (guitarist Tom Morello, Bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk) and Chris Cornell (previously the vocalist of Soundgarden).  While Cornell had specified that the group wouldn’t be performing political music and he wasn’t interested in being the new vocalist of Rage Against the Machine, I’m not sure I could say that I would’ve (in retrospect) predicted that the result would be fairly generic hard rock/alternative metal music.  It doesn’t make sense to me that a group of some of the best musicians of my lifetime released music that, at times, sounded like it could have been released by lesser groups.

 

Creed

Like Audioslave, it isn’t that Creed on their own is confusing, but rather what they did with other projects.  After Creed, guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips, and (at that time) former bassist Brian Marshall formed Alter Bridge with Myles Kennedy and their music has been generally regarded as much better than that of Creed.  While Tremonti is credited with writing the music of Creed and the entire band is credited with writing the music of Alter Bridge, I figure that Creed singer Scott Stapp, who is credited with Creed lyrics, likely played a larger role than credited with the music.  In particular, Alter Bridge has instrumental parts that are incredible, but Creed’s instrumentals are much weaker; I doubt that Tremonti, who might be the best guitarist in rock right now (depending on how you feel about Jack White and Tom Morello), was the sole writer of the instrumentals that gave him a highlight of a few small riffs in “Higher”.  I never felt like replacing one member could change one band from a band that is largely viewed in a negative light to a band that even Metallica loves.   As such, I consider Creed the most confusing band.

 

What do you think of these artists?  Who are some artists that confuse you?  Let me know in the comments!