I was never a fan of Creed, and the whole "they sold out" argument irritates me.
First off, I agree 100% with Clay, I don't judge an artist's merit on how many records they've sold. But, I accept that some people do, and that's fine.
Creed goes out of their way to make "rock" music that is homogenized enough to be accepted by pretty much anyone. All their songs sound more or less the same.
But, the reason I single Scott Stapp out is because the rest of the band seems to be kind of down to earth, whereas (at least to me) he comes off as a pompous douchebag.
"Vulnerable masked as pompous? I don't think so. What about the "Higher" video, where he demanded that the director add more shots of him in a Christ pose with his chest all greased up. Then again, that could be any of their videos.
The lyrics do little for me. Outside of "With Arms Wide Open", every song I've ever heard by them has been about the same exact thing, and kind of poorly written at that. Again, this is just my personal bias, but Creed, along with most nu-rock/metal bands, have no clue how to write lyrics. I'll admit that Creed's lyrics are better than the average Nickelback or Puddle of Mudd ("she fuckin' hates me", that's deep, man!), but still not that great.
I'm a huge music snob, I won't deny that. Most of you guys would hate my favorite bands, so we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one, I guess.
