Linkin Park- Yes, when I was a dumbass 12-14 year old kid, and didn't know any better, I thought this was a great band. Seriously. Thankfully, I discovered metal upon entering high school. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- I used to LOVE the goddamn cartoon show as a kid. I would watch it every day, my parents would rent me VHS tapes with special episodes, I had action figures, and my friends and I played all the video games as kids. We also watched the live action films multiple times, to the point of memorizing them, and liked the hell out of them. A few years ago, I decided to re-watch the cartoons. Garbage. Total fucking garbage. I could only shake my head that I ever thought it was any good. I watched the live-action movies too, and the most I could say is that the second one was an okay, watchable action film. The first one, which I had liked so much, sucked horribly. On the flip side, "Turtles in Time" is widely considered one of the greatest beat em' up video games ever made, and is still tremendous fun to this day. Almost every goddamn live action show and cartoon I watched as a kid- People have already mentioned the awful shit that was on Nickelodeon. There was also Dragonball Z (yuck), the X-Men cartoon, etc, etc. The only things that I watched as a kid that I can tolerate today are Simpsons Futurama Beavis and Butthead Daria (I thought I would hate this as an adult, but its constant mockery of touchy-feely, new age, PC, liberal parenting/educating, etc. is surprisingly fresh) Conan the Adventurer (It's not good, but it's the only kids oriented cartoon show that doesn't suck, either) Marvel Comics cards- I had a collection of 500, including dozens of limited editions, and would trade them with my friends, each of whom had even larger totals. I don't mind the socializing, but it was still a dumb pursuit. I think I threw them out or something.
Porcelain dolls I had a stupid number of these as a child (15-18 probably). It wasn't a "these will be worth money" thing... I actually liked having them. The only rational reason my adult mind can come up with is that I didn't like to actually play with dolls or Barbie's as a kid and I didn't have to "play" with these.
Raves The funny thing is, if this scene was still popular in Canada, I would still go to them. Sure chemical drugs flowed through them like vapour and looking back staying up 100 straight hours isn't what you'd call "healthy", but I never had one bad encounter with somebody at a rave. In fact, sometimes you have to beat friendlies off with a stick. I wasn't the "candy raver" type with the pants that qualify as low-income housing spinning glow sticks around like a Skip-It, but I loved the music (still do), loved the people and the unlike watching uncoordinated idiots in bars the dancing was at times eye-popping. This guy here is off the wall:
I've got to say the same thing about any book written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read "Tarzan of the Apes" and his whole "Pellucidar" series when I was 9-13 years old, but recently I tried reading one of his "John Carter on Mars" books, and it was awful. I went back to some of the books I read in the past, and realized that I was a very blind, accepting reader in my youth. (Ex: In "Tarzan of the Apes," Tarzan learns the whole English language from some old books that his parents left behind, with no teachers. He just somehow picks it up from the squigly lines he sees written on the pages).
As long as we're bringing up horrible shows that were supposed to be scary. Goosebumps. That TV shows was horrible.
Just a few weeks ago I relistened to some of the shitty ass fucking rock I used to dig so much when I was a tweener. My god Static X is fucking horrible. I remember I fucking stayed up extra late one night to watch their Push It video, one I'd seen a hundred times, on MTV2 when they played music videos A-Z. I still have a tshirt of theirs from the first concert I ever went too, they opened for Powerman 5000 (another band I feel Ill realize suck if I re listen to their stuff). My guitar teacher shook his head in disgust when I played him some Rammstein and asked him to teach me it. I still actually dig them but I really should have had him teach me some Pink Floyd or something awesome instead. I actually watched a couple of episodes of Bobby's World on youtube last week and I thought it stood up really well. They had 3 references to the movie Psycho in about a minute and a half of that show. You won't see that today...
Wife™ and I bought tickets to a Static-X concert at The Phoenix about 2 years ago mainly because In This Moment were opening. We watched the band that we paid to see and decided to stick around for Static-X just for fun. We're not fans, but we'd heard a few songs in passing. The band didn't seem that bad. Once they hit the stage, we made it through 2 full songs, I think, before we walked out. The band that I used to really like and can't stand now, though, are The Offspring. I didn't even find myself getting tired of them. It was an overnight kind of thing. I liked them one day and was convinced that they sucked the next.
I agree with you overall, but for me it was different. It was a gradual distaste for them. Their second album "Ignition", is an unbelievably great album with a completely different sound than their other albums. (and one of my most underrated albums) Then their most popular album "Smash" while still very good, was more of a move to a popular side of the "Rock/Punk" genre. Every album since "Ignition" has been gradually worse than the previous one. It seems as if they are tired of sounding good, and instead are trying to sell records to 17 year old boys. Its horrible. I went from championing their cause in 93' to wanting to fist fuck their faces by the turn of the century. What is somewhat interesting is that (in my humble opinion) both "Ignition", and "Smash" are their two best albums, and both were under the Epitaph label. (Which we all know was owned and operated by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion) They left Epitaph for Columbia after "Smash" and released a mediocre album "Ixnay on the Hombre" (which do include decent songs like "All I Want", "The Meaning of Life", "Gone Away", and humorous ones like "Mota", and "Don't Pick it Up") then released the putrid "Americana", which championed craptastic songs like "Pretty Fly for a White Guy", and "Why Don't You Get a Job". So I find it interesting that you liked them one day, but hated them the next. It was a slow and hate filled burn for me. At first I was pissed every time that they released an album that didn't sound like the first three, but didn't really mind because some of the songs were catchy...... To when they released albums that not only didn't sound like their first three but couldn't even be classified as sonically pleasing or at the bare minimum,,, catchy. Of course all of this can be said for tons of artists. They blow their artistic wad right out of the chute, and get exponentially worse as they expand their catalog.
Good call. The Offspring was THE band every teenager living in NorCal listened to in the mid to late 90s. And I was a huge fan for a while. While I don't hate them nowadays, (I got a chance to meet their lead singer, Dexter, and he is the nicest, smartest guy imaginable) listening to their old stuff on Youtube...it's primitive, and nothing special. As Luke mentioned, their early material was considerably better (although nothing amazing), and then things got progressively worse. Focus- Another band I liked in junior high which I grew out of was Korn. Even among the mostly crappy nu-metal genre, they were far from the best. I do rank them significantly above Linkin Park and The Offspring among bands I liked as a 13 year-old, though; they have about 3 or 4 songs I still like to this day. The problem is just everything else...
Jesus. I may be older than I think. I was listening to The Police, The Cult and the kings of awesome Huey Lewis & The News as a kid. The only difference is, they still kick ass:
As a teenager in the 80's I was a big fan of the band Queen. I think what killed it was when Freddie Mercury released his woefull "Mr. Bad Guy" album in 1985 and each of their group albums after that stank.
Subwoofers. I use to be heavily into them. By my senior year of high school I had a 4 thousand dollar car system that I went to competitions with. I sold it a couple years later and whenever I see someone drive by with a car system I just sigh to myself and wonder how I ever thought that was cool. The back massage, maybe?
Lucky for me I never enjoyed most of these bands mentioned. But I used to listen to the Afghan Whigs and then The Twilight Singers, up until sometime a couple years ago. I can't get past over dramatic whining of Greg Dulli anymore. That said though, the Gutter Twins was a great album. That kind of went out the door for me when I realized I didn't need to be in a relationship with a woman and could be perfectly happy dumping a broad if it wasn't working out. So glad that's been cleared up.
Webcomics and comics in general. When I was a kid, I'd spend most of my time reading shitty webcomics by mouthbreathers with far too much self-worth about blathering drivel. I also was huge into Image comics and manga. Somewhere around the time I could drive, it struck me just how pathetic the whole scene was. Those cats are the kinds of nerds that get shoved into lockers by other nerds. I keep up with some of it by way of certain websites more out of habit than anything else. Professional Wrestling:. I went from WCW mark in the dying days, to a WWE mark back when they were still called the WWF, to an insufferable Japanophillic smart mark, to a guy who doesn't really care anymore. The business is down everywhere, and my heroes are either dead, whoring themselves out to the man, or non-entities. Japan: Like with pro wrestling, I used to be an insufferable Japanophile; a black Wapanese (Blapanese?) kid, all GRORIOUS NIPPON and shit. Then I learned about the school system, the xenophobia, and the general shittiness. I'd like to go, and I still enjoy their jazzy hiphop and alt rock, but don't throw random Japanese words into my everyday speech. I can make some mean fucking Tamago-donburi though. Waitaminute... I also used to like all of the shitty rock acts of the late 90's early 00's. You name it, I'm ashamed to have listened to it.
*sigh* I don't know if this should go here or the guilty pleasures thread. Fall Out Boy. Never got into the whole emo scene at all, but their album before Under the Cork Tree (Take This To Your Grave) was really good. I hate to say it but, it was one of those, "Hey, I knew them before you did" situations. Then they got popular, then they got over-popular, then everyone hated them. I still like that album, I just hate what they've come to represent.
I tried rewatching an episode of Ren and Stimpy recently. I died a little inside. Stupidly enough, I still dig Rocko's Modern life. But everything else from that period of time gives me stabbing pains in my skull. I don't know if it's sad or awesome that I've been playing video games since I was five and I'm going to do so until arthritis sets in.
I will admit to at one point in time liking The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Looking back I can not imagine how I was into this show. There was nothing good about it. The fight scenes were choppy, boring, and over the top silly. The "acting" (I use that term loosely.) Was pathetic at best, hemorrhage inducing the rest of the time. And I include Dragon Ball Z, when I say this is the most rigidly formula following show I have ever seen. Monster comes down, and wrecks shit. Power Rangers show up, and kick monsters ass. Monster grows. Power Rangers bring out their "zords" instantly form the "Mega Zord", and kill monster. Throw in some foot soldiers made of clay, and a different protagonist, and rangers every other week, and you have EVERY EPISODE of the "Power Rangers" EVER!!! It shames me greatly to admit I was ever into this show, and even more so to think about how many of the toys I used to have. It was a dark time in the life of BigPerson. Oh I was a HUGE DMX fan. Although I still like his early stuff, and I will admittedly defend "It's Dark and Hell is Hot" as one of the best debute hip-hop albums ever. He has degenerated into and idiotic douche who when he is not in jail, releases albums of progressive shittyness.
I'm not saying I don't believe you, but this is a pet peeve of mine. It's not just for FallOut Boy either. Uber-hipsters make this argument with a lot of other bands. Anyway, I like the way you worded this, because the uber-hipster make me want to punch them in the face when they make this argument. I wanted to give you rep points, but I've already done that recently.