Thanks for calling us the biggest band in the WORLD
Battle of the Bands Written by Mackenzie Nichols (journalism/music industry) Illustration by Casey Price (business)
It’s no surprise that the music business is constantly plagued with ridiculous feuds between bands. When they happen, it’s just another way that bands make a name for themselves by entertaining their fans. The lethal mix of long hours in the recording studio and the stressful climb to the top of the charts can bring out an animalistic side in many artists, and thus tensions are bound to arise when an opposing band appears threatening. This notion is not a recent one by any means; the issue of feuding bands dates back to the 1950s when Joe Tex accused James Brown of copying his “stage moves” and later mocked him publicly during a performance. Brown later fought back by firing a gun at him, which, of course, is a totally reasonable reaction. Nowadays, feuds are mostly contained to angst-y social media battles via Twitter or sometimes-aggressive outbursts at awards shows. Thankfully these feuds don’t end on violent terms like the Brown vs. Tex incident. Instead,
they give the public a form of dramatic entertainment that unravels right before its eyes. The most recent feud occurred this fall when Rolling Stone published a cover story article in its January issue about the rise of The Black Keys. Drummer Patrick Carney stated in the article, "Rock & roll is dying because people became O.K. with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world. So they became O.K. with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit." No doubt, a pretty low blow for Nickelback and a pretty gutsy statement for Carney considering there had been no previous tension between the two bands. Nickelback responded to Carney via Twitter, stating, “Thanks to the drummer in The Black Keys [sic] calling us the Biggest Band in the World in Rolling Stone. Hehe,” a somewhat shocking reaction showing that it’s possible for Nickelback to have a sense of humor. Rap phenomenon Eminem unleashed his sense of humor and, perhaps unintentionally, fired up a feud between himself and late, pop icon Michael Jackson when he released his single “Just Lose It” in 2004. It’s hard to believe that
Eminem didn’t think he would get a hit from Jackson with the lyrics “I've done touched on everything but little boys/ That's not a stab at Michael/ That's just a metaphor...” but he stated to publicists that he had always been in awe of Jackson’s work. Eminem’s video for the single further mocked Jackson and the King of Pop’s response included a request for the video to be banned. However, the joke is on Eminem for this feud; Jackson ended up buying the rights to a stake of the rapper’s catalog. It doesn’t come to much of a shock that most feuds sprout within the heavy metal/rock industry, a side effect of the heavy amount of testosterone, the fast-paced lifestyle and the overall harshness of the music itself. A prime example of hard rock feuds is the one between Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana during the 90s. It started with Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain declining Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose’s offer to join them on tour and boiled over at the 1992 MTV Music Video Awards, where the two publicly showed their hatred. It was a reasonable venue to stick out one’s chest and fight to the death in front
of millions of people who would give them the attention they wanted. Cobain stated that Rose was “such an egotistical person that he thinks that the whole world owes him something,” while Rose responded by dragging Cobain’s wife Courtney Love into the mix, ranting about her and the Nirvana front man at a Guns N’ Roses concert. Love reacted at the MTV Music Video Awards by sarcastically suggesting that Rose be the godfather to her daughter, Frances Bean, and Rose responded to Cobain stating “If you don’t shut your woman up, I am going to take her down to the pavement.” Ouch, dude. The list of famous feuds is endless, and perhaps the length of this signals that most bands just need to release their aggression. And when it comes to the arena in which these artists fight, we can all agree that violence is not the answer, but it definitely makes for good entertainment.
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