Growing Up With Bands

"The problem isn't that I've changed/the problem is that you've stayed the same."
                         -Taking Back Sunday, "Keep Going"


  Most of the bands I like have been around since like the early/mid-2000's, some even earlier. One of my favorite bands, Green Day, started in 1987. 
  When a band has been around for 15+ years, things are bound to change. If a guy starts a band when he's 20, 15 years later, he's going to be 35. A whole lot of life can happen in that time. To illustrate this further, I'll use Hayley Williams from Paramore.
  Hayley Williams and co. started Paramore when she was 15 years old, in 2004. She is now 35. Think about that. All this time she's spent being the lead singer of a band, she's reached and surpassed the ages of driving, drinking, running for political office, renting a car, etc., and now she's old enough to be the president. And if you think that's a lot, look at Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day. He was 15 when Green Day was formed; now he's 52. 
   The point is, if you're into a band for a long time, you have to realize that as you grow up and change, they grow up and change too. I'm not the same person I was when I was 15, so why should I expect Hayley Williams or Billie Joe Armstrong to be the same person they were? And I'm only 24!
  Bands that are active for any substantial amount of time are bound to change. You can't expect a band to sound exactly the same and play the exact same kind of music for 20+ years. To change what Harvey Dent said in The Dark Knight, "you either die the same genre or live long enough to change genres".
   I got the idea for this blog because I saw Taking Back Sunday live a week ago today. Leading up to it, I had seen some people say that Adam Lazzara's vocals were sounding rough and that he wasnt as good of a singer anymore. But after the concert, I told my friend that I didn't know what people were on about: Adam sounded great. And my friend agreed.
  I think those people are just upset that Taking Back Sunday doesn't sound the same and doesn't sing about the same things they did when their debut album Tell All Your Friends came out 22 years ago. 22 years! That's almost my entire life so far! 
   It has been twenty-two years. Over two decades. You can't expect Taking Back Sunday, or any band for that matter, to be the same after that long of a time. Adam's voice is still great, it's just different. You can't expect him to still have that edgy teen voice, because he's aged 22 years. Their music is great and their lyrics are still great, you just can't expect them to play the same exact kind of music forever.
  I think you get the point. You have to realize that for a band, just like for you, things are going to change over time. Don't expect a band to be the same exact band they were for their first album forever.



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