Kings of Leon on the TODAY SHOW

jwhite173

Middle aged Moms singing along in the audience...

I'm out!

soulsinging

jwhite173 wrote:

Middle aged Moms singing along in the audience...

I'm out!

You're right. Who cares how the music sounds, what matters is how cool it makes you look to own their cd or who is at the concert with you... want to make sure you don't get seen with the wrong people.

jwhite173

Don't get me wrong, the first 3 albums were killer.

I get it... they want to change, want to sell more albums and concert tickets.

Unfortunately, the music changed too with OBTN.

If you watched it today... IMHO, they're pushing boy band status!

mfc2006

i've gotta admit, it's a little strange seeing them on the Today show. but as a long time fan, i'm glad that they're getting the recognition. but it's still a little strange. the links are on youtube, by the way.

pearljgirl2010

mfc2006 wrote:

i've gotta admit, it's a little strange seeing them on the Today show. but as a long time fan, i'm glad that they're getting the recognition. but it's still a little strange. the links are on youtube, by the way.

I missed it this morning, so I'll have to Youtube it. I agree with you--glad they're finally getting out here in the States :-)

drew0

I still love them, though. Probably the best new band that has made it "big" beside the White Stripes since only God knows when.

They went a little poppy on their last album but I still liked it. Every band that gets that big will obviously have to bring in some of the musically ignorant crowd.

I think of it that at least I get to see another band that I like a lot and has talent in a big arena. I mean, that category is getting slim these days.

I saw them in April in Pittsburgh and thought they were awesome. The new songs sound great live - Crawl and Mahattan were awesome in the arena and Use Somebody is a nice sing-a-long. People complain about where they went with the last album but I didn't think it was that far away from their roots (Use Somebody/Sex On Fire were but outside of that there were a lot of great old-school songs).

DewieCox

I don't really hear much of a difference between the last 2 albums, except OBTN is a better written album.

justam

Well, thanks for pointing this out.

tcaporale

DewieCox wrote:

I don't really hear much of a difference between the last 2 albums, except OBTN is a better written album.

I think Because of the Times is much better.

justam

I like parts of all of their cds. :geek:

81

they need to stop wearing girls jeans

Zoso

81 wrote:

they need to stop wearing girls jeans

their fashion comes off as try hard.. their new boy band type image is absolutely terrible.

username

Zoso wrote:

81 wrote:

they need to stop wearing girls jeans

their fashion comes off as try hard.. their new boy band type image is absolutely terrible.

Not that it matters, but they've been wearing those jeans since their first album.

tvismyfriend

I totally agree with the OP, middle aged people shouldn't be allowed to listen to and enjoy new music. They had their time to enjoy life, now it's my time and I don't want them cramping my style.

Zoso

username wrote:

Zoso wrote:

81 wrote:

they need to stop wearing girls jeans

their fashion comes off as try hard.. their new boy band type image is absolutely terrible.

Not that it matters, but they've been wearing those jeans since their first album.

You're right I just don't like them at all now... I just watched the today show performance out of curiosity as a fan way back when and my god it was embarrassing to be honest.

dreamtonic

I'd like to know how certain bands get suddenly picked up into the mainstream like KoL. Did they get a new promo team? Did they get the Colbert Bump at some point? What's behind this explosion of popularity?

Indifference71

Obviously, what KOL wears and who sings along to their songs are what is most important.

tcaporale

dreamtonic wrote:

I'd like to know how certain bands get suddenly picked up into the mainstream like KoL. Did they get a new promo team? Did they get the Colbert Bump at some point? What's behind this explosion of popularity?

"Sex on Fire," mostly.

And now "Use Somebody" is becoming a hit.

Wordless Chorus

I just happened to be browsing through a people magazine and I have to admit its pretty disappointing to see them all over the celebrity favorites and the "songs for summer 09" (which is just unbelievably irritating to me... "Use Somebody" is a song for summer 2009!?!). Then again I'm sort of embarrassed to admit to have looked through a people magazine . But I'm planning on seeing them in September, though hopefully I won't regret it.

ledvedderman

Damn them and their massive hit. Damn them for actually being a legit rock band at the top of the charts. Damn them for wearing the same clothes the whole time but now being in style. Damn them for making a well rounded album that can appeal to the rock fans and fans of popular music. Damn them and their great live shows.

Zoso

I wouldn't call KOL a legit rock band anymore and their live show was much better in mid/small theaters. They are a different band from say 2005 and not in a good way. Absolutely disappointing as I was a huge fan before OBTN came out. When the teen pop jumped on the bandwagon I jumped off.

Lifted

what is with some of you who seem to get so bent out of shape when someone states the obvious?....kings of leon have sold out. get over it. it's a fact, they would probably happily tell you themselves. it's like some of you take personal offense to it and have to go out of your way to defend them to reassure yourselves that you are actually listening to an original heartfelt piece of art. you are not. you are listening to a manufactured product for teenage girls who like to spend daddy's credit card on i-tunes purchases. if you still like their music that's fine, but don't deny the fact that they stopped making music for themselves and started making music to sell out arenas. i'm pretty sure the band has openly admitted that that was the new direction they planned on taking. you really think that, as someone stated earlier, middle aged moms with their teenage girls would be singing along to their songs on the today show just because they had some better marketing? absolutely not. it's because they delibrately made a disposable pop album for top 40 radio. pearl jam for instance has obviously tried to up their game on the last two albums from a marketing standpoint, but you don't see the top 40 crowd gushing over them. the reason is because they've kept their musical integrity. there's a huge difference between good marketing and completey changing your sound to fit in with the mainstream, which is what kings of leon have done. i even heard that they are supporting a remix that is being done for the whole 'only by the night' album'. i forget who's doing it but i'm pretty sure it's some big time hip hop producer and justin timberlake is involved. give me a break...

by the way, i'm not saying all music that breaks out to the mainstream is bad, obviously their have been some great albums that have broken through to the masses, so if i come off as a snobby asshole, that isn't the intention. but when a musician or band comes out with a generic sounding mainstream album after being around for 6 years or so making rawer grittier albums....and then they get huge and start doing hip hop remixes to their songs, then yeah, it's a real head scratcher.

ledvedderman

Tiki Barber wrote:

what is with some of you who seem to get so bent out of shape when someone states the obvious?....kings of leon have sold out. get over it. it's a fact, they would probably happily tell you themselves. it's like some of you take personal offense to it and have to go out of your way to defend them to reassure yourselves that you are actually listening to an original heartfelt piece of art. you are not. you are listening to a manufactured product for teenage girls who like to spend daddy's credit card on i-tunes purchases. if you still like their music that's fine, but don't deny the fact that they stopped making music for themselves and started making music to sell out arenas. i'm pretty sure the band has openly admitted that that was the new direction they planned on taking. you really think that, as someone stated earlier, middle aged moms with their teenage girls would be singing along to their songs on the today show just because they had some better marketing? absolutely not. it's because they delibrately made a disposable pop album for top 40 radio. pearl jam for instance has obviously tried to up their game on the last two albums from a marketing standpoint, but you don't see the top 40 crowd gushing over them. the reason is because they've kept their musical integrity. there's a huge difference between good marketing and completey changing your sound to fit in with the mainstream, which is what kings of leon have done. i even heard that they are supporting a remix that is being done for the whole 'only by the night' album'. i forget who's doing it but i'm pretty sure it's some big time hip hop producer and justin timberlake is involved. give me a break...

by the way, i'm not saying all music that breaks out to the mainstream is bad, obviously their have been some great albums that have broken through to the masses, so if i come off as a snobby asshole, that isn't the intention. but when a musician or band comes out with a generic sounding mainstream album after being around for 6 years or so making rawer grittier albums....and then they get huge and start doing hip hop remixes to their songs, then yeah, it's a real head scratcher.

So at what point does a "evolving sound" become "selling out"? Say a band wanted to put out a album like "Help" or "Rubber Soul". It's pop rock aimed at a large audience, but it is also artistic and needs to be looked from a different point of view. If the songs were crap on OBTN, it would be one thing. However, they show a ride range that the band has. I think the KOL suffer from the same thing as Pearl Jam on this board, everyone gets a stiffy over the old stuff that when anything different or could be viewed as commercial comes out, it becomes total shit.

DewieCox

Am I the only one that doesn't hear much of a stylistic difference between BOTH and OBTN?

Tuolumne Mama

Personally, they rather remind me of The Band in their early days - but have yet to hit their "Big Pink". If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I suggest you look them up. I think I'll hang around with these guys for the ride, because as they mature - so will their music.

As a "middle aged woman" who likes KOL, I am curious just how the fuck you are supposed to get heard today???? There are no more music channels, unless you consider the idiocy of 23hours each day of reality shows with an hour thrown in for current music " Music Television". Has it ever occured to you that the guys in Pearl Jam are "middle-aged" men??? Sometimes the absurdity of the reasoning on here simply astounds me, yet amuses me at the same time.

soulsinging

DewieCox wrote:

Am I the only one that doesn't hear much of a stylistic difference between BOTH and OBTN?

You're not. There isn't one. The difference that does exist is their popularity and success, which is the problem for some morons around here. Never mind that the music is the same as the last album, this new one is a clearly calculate move, along with fashion choices and other nonsense, to become nsync. Stop listening to the music and forming your own opinion, just look at all the magazines they're on and refuse to consider anything else.

soulsinging

Wordless Chorus wrote:

I just happened to be browsing through a people magazine and I have to admit its pretty disappointing to see them all over the celebrity favorites and the "songs for summer 09" (which is just unbelievably irritating to me... "Use Somebody" is a song for summer 2009!?!). Then again I'm sort of embarrassed to admit to have looked through a people magazine . But I'm planning on seeing them in September, though hopefully I won't regret it.

Yeah, it's really disgusting. I mean, imagine is PJ was ever all over mainstream magazines! I mean, aside from the times they were on the cover of Rolling Stone, Spin, Time, etc. Those don't count.

And what posers KoL are for writing a song that a lot of people love. I am so glad that PJ never sold out like that and wrote music everyone liked. I mean, aside, of course, from Black, Alive, Jeremy, Even Flow, Daughter, Elderly Woman, Better Man, Corduroy, etc. Those don't count.

ledvedderman

soulsinging wrote:

Wordless Chorus wrote:

I just happened to be browsing through a people magazine and I have to admit its pretty disappointing to see them all over the celebrity favorites and the "songs for summer 09" (which is just unbelievably irritating to me... "Use Somebody" is a song for summer 2009!?!). Then again I'm sort of embarrassed to admit to have looked through a people magazine . But I'm planning on seeing them in September, though hopefully I won't regret it.

Yeah, it's really disgusting. I mean, imagine is PJ was ever all over mainstream magazines! I mean, aside from the times they were on the cover of Rolling Stone, Spin, Time, etc. Those don't count.

And what posers KoL are for writing a song that a lot of people love. I am so glad that PJ never sold out like that and wrote music everyone liked. I mean, aside, of course, from Black, Alive, Jeremy, Even Flow, Daughter, Elderly Woman, Better Man, Corduroy, etc. Those don't count.

Just another reason why soulsinging is my favorite poster on the pit...

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

they are sellouts, but i like them anyway!

tvismyfriend

soulsinging wrote:

DewieCox wrote:

Am I the only one that doesn't hear much of a stylistic difference between BOTH and OBTN?

You're not. There isn't one. The difference that does exist is their popularity and success, which is the problem for some morons around here. Never mind that the music is the same as the last album, this new one is a clearly calculate move, along with fashion choices and other nonsense, to become nsync. Stop listening to the music and forming your own opinion, just look at all the magazines they're on and refuse to consider anything else.

I kind of see BOTT as the transition to OBTN. BOTT still had a couple of songs with somewhat aggressive vocals, but OBTN most aggressive song is Crawl.

Wordless Chorus

soulsinging wrote:

Wordless Chorus wrote:

I just happened to be browsing through a people magazine and I have to admit its pretty disappointing to see them all over the celebrity favorites and the "songs for summer 09" (which is just unbelievably irritating to me... "Use Somebody" is a song for summer 2009!?!). Then again I'm sort of embarrassed to admit to have looked through a people magazine . But I'm planning on seeing them in September, though hopefully I won't regret it.

Yeah, it's really disgusting. I mean, imagine is PJ was ever all over mainstream magazines! I mean, aside from the times they were on the cover of Rolling Stone, Spin, Time, etc. Those don't count.

And what posers KoL are for writing a song that a lot of people love. I am so glad that PJ never sold out like that and wrote music everyone liked. I mean, aside, of course, from Black, Alive, Jeremy, Even Flow, Daughter, Elderly Woman, Better Man, Corduroy, etc. Those don't count.

I didn't say that them being in mainsteam magazines is disgusting (though I'd prefer Rolling stone, Spin, or Time over People magazine!). And I still really like their music and I'm fine with a band being popular. I just think its so strange when a song can suddenly catch on a year after it comes out...I hope that doesn't rub anyone the wrong way