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August 24, 2011
Five Unbearable Singers We Can Blame on Eddie Vedder
The Pearl Jam frontman's ugliest offspring.
By Alex Heigl
There's no denying Pearl Jam is one of the great modern rock bands. They managed to weather the storm of grunge by diversifying their sound. They kept up their biblically epic live shows and fought against Ticketmaster. They stopped wearing such incredibly stupid hats. But while Kurt Cobain's untimely death seemed to keep most people from openly aping his vocal stylings, poor Eddie Vedder wasn't quite so lucky. Since Pearl Jam's heydey, a whole host of singers have emulated a vocal style critic Stephen Thompson has termed "hunger dunger dang." On the twentieth anniversary of Pearl Jam's first album, Ten, we now take a look back at the bastard children of Eddie Vedder's voice.
5. Scott Weiland, Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots were always a great three or four bands. By which I mean, when they all got on the same page as to who they were stealing from, they made rock music that you and your dad could probably both nod your head to. STP started out as intensely derivative of Pearl Jam ("Plush," "Wicked Garden"), and progressed to being intensely derivative of David Bowie; Scott Weiland's vocal style changed with the band, leaving behind Vedder's "chesty bleat" school of singing as it fell out of style. Thus, the early hit "Plush" is probably most indicative of the Vedder influence. It's included here in its Headbanger's Ball acoustic version, so ready your Bics.
Listen: "Plush (acoustic)"
4. Brett Scallions, Fuel
Now that we've dealt with the only decent music on this list, the kid gloves can come off. Fuel's frontman, whose name alone conjures rage (seriously: "Brett Scallions"), has made an entire career out of stealing Vedder's baritone histrionics, stripping them of subtlety, and repeating them, ad nauseum. I almost feel bad making fun of him, because his band only had three hits, and he looks like a weasel. But then I listened to those three hits again, and remember that Fuel deserves more scorn than I could possibly dish out. Each songs hits the same "I'm masculine as hell but I hurt" tone; it's like listening to the same damn song, three times, with different arrangements. I'm hard-pressed to choose which to include here, but I'll go with "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)," because I'm pretty sure I got to third base listening to it once.
Listen: "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)"
3. Gavin Rossdale, Bush
I forgot when I pitched this article that I'd actually have to listen to these bands again. Hearing "Glycerine" today reminds me of a dark time in the late '90s when sounding like you were struggling with hemorrhoids was somehow profound, as long as you had a chuggy guitar and a string section. Meanwhile, "Machine Head" sounds like the Smashing Pumpkins with a pompous, gravelly-voiced dickhead singing, instead of a bald, whiny-voiced dickhead. I've never heard a human being use such a ravaged voice while still sounding so inexpressive. At least Eddie Vedder always sounded like he meant it. Thank God Rossdale's known more for being a housedad these days than for making music.
Listen: "Glycerine"
2. Chad Kroeger, Nickelback
Take Eddie Vedder's voice; remove its flexibility and depth of expression. Take every lyrical banality possible, then add a lead singer who looks like a Muppet with a Jesus complex... and you won't even approach how awful Nickelback truly is. How this band snuck over the Canadian border to dominate radio for half a decade remains a mystery.
Listen: "Hero"
1. Scott Stapp, Creed
I might burst a blood vessel while writing this. More than any other band on this list, Creed made a career of Vedderian bombast. Melding Vedder's marble-mouthed baritone with rock's all-time worst messiah complex (except maybe Bono's) made Scott Stapp a star in the post-Nirvana vacuum of the late '90s and early 2000s; Creed has sold in excess of 28 million records in the U.S. alone. (There goes that blood vessel.) But whatever deal he made with the devil came due, as he was quickly undone in a series of highly public shamings, most of which involved him making a drunken ass of himself on camera.
Listen: "My Own Prison"
Commentarium (96 Comments)
ohhhh Gavin......................
My head hurts from nodding my head so hard at the Nickelback one. Ugh, "Photograph" is the one that popped into my head.... SO bad. Although I did like the "This is how you remind me" one. But otherwise, spot on.
as a Canadian i can never apologize enough for the aural terror known as nickelback which we so recklessly unleashed upon good people everywhere.
I'm not sure you guys can ever live this one down. Was Shania Twain not enough? Really. What did we ever do to you?!
how you remind me is...good.
Celine D too.
Never heard of Fuel before, or Scallions (snigger), but boy that song is truly awful.
See... I didn't think I had ever heard of them either, but then I listened to the song and realised that it was just the bland background rock music I would hear endlessly repeated on the radio way back when. In fact, a lot of this list can be summed up as that.
Haha, you hit the mark with this one. Personally, I'd add Vedder himself to the list.
God, yes.
So I know they're bad and all, but you're destroying my early teen years here.
All of these guys can equally be blamed on Kurt Cobain. They can be blamed on grunge, itself, for G-d's sake. Vedder doesn't stand out among the field of grunge singers as overly-affected, it was indeed part of the grunge sound, like it or not. Layne Staley and Chris Cornell were also a couple of guys who laid on the affectations pretty thick, but few people (other than Godsmack) have tried to emulate their voices since.
Ooh, good call on Godsmack. Completely forgot about Sully.
My wife likes to call this music whiney rock
ja, that is funny
I've always thought that Nickelback's "Photograph" sounded like South Park doing a parody of Nickelback. Can you be self-derivative?
This was painful but necessary. Well, sort of. Why do male vocalists think that affecting an "errr"...what is that, a twang?...does ANYTHING for their voice? Good grief. It's the male equivalent to the Christina Aguilera school of shrill melisma oversinging frog voice. (Which she copped from female country singers. FACT.)
On behalf of Canada, we're sorry about letting Nickelback out of Alberta. Someone obviously left the pasture gate open.
ha!
Look I can fogive you for Nickelback (I never listened to them anyway) if you would just take back Rush.
Rarely has a music article reflected my own feelings so precisely. I've often thought that about half the rock bands working should be paying royalties to Vedder. The first time I heard Stone Temple Pilots, I thought it was an Eddie Vedder side project. Alhough Nickelback may set some kind of record for talent in inverse proportion to record sales, Creed may be worse.
as a canadian, I also want to extend my deepest apologies for all things Nickleback (my fingers developed sudden arthritis cos i just typed that). heck add theory of a deadman, shania twain, justin beiber and celine dion to that list (although her chest thumping is actually quite hilariously entertaining). then again, for all the aural diarrhea that poured down from the great white north, we made it up for y'all with one clean swoop. Leonard Cohen. you're welcome america.
We forgive you because of Leonard Cohen and also Alannis Morrissette. Even the black fly in her chardonnay couldn't make us hate her.
Also the divine Joni Mitchell and the almost as divine kd lang.
Joni Mitchell!
Neil Young!
All is forgiven. (Except maybe for Nickelback :)
Say-YAVE-er-eeow.. meEee! Aym drown. Ing. In. Ah-ah. AhnG. Ssst. Uh!
Jeez Im not the only one who hates on Stap, I remember when Creed came out, I was like dude seriously???? Is like Eddie Vedder on oxycoton!
I'm pretty sure that Eddie Vedder was Eddie Vedder on oxycontin.
Scott Staphlocochus should just die of the bad infection he is!
A bang-on list with a few more eligible entrants out there, but it's not just the singers; it's the bands as whole entities, too, all playing that same kind of brooding-to-snarling epic-yet-sensitive sound. They copped a lot of the look, as well. In sort of the same way that Van Halen got everyone into fingertapping guitar solos and spandex and fun-fun-fun!, Pearl Jam (unintentionally) showed that earnestness and old-school grooving and earth tones sold big, and the rest is (a deeply mixed) history.
Some things don't carry. If nothing else, Eddie and Stone and the guys would have never even considered playing GWB's second inaugural party. Fuel did. (So did 3 Doors Down, a good runner-up for this list.)
But, well...um, confession: I'm a hopeless sucker for a good stairstepping riff, so "My Own Prison" is a bit of a guilty pleasure. "With Arms Wide Open," though - THAT'S execrable.
i really hate that fucker in counting crows, the one with the hair.
I hate that fucker too. Lumberjack shirt wearing fool.
I wonder if, after reading all of this acerbic wit, these guys wipe the tears away with all of the money they have. Or maybe they fuck away the sorrow with all the hot chicks they get. Who knows - certainly no one on here, since none of us has achieved anywhere near the level of success these guys have.
What a completely uninspired response, and one that doesn't alter the fact that they suck
Apparently they don't suck to the millions of people who have bought millions of their records. You can hardly make an objective claim that it is a "fact that they suck." You might not like them, but that doesn't mean they don't hold value for others. I don't particularly care for most of this music, but what an uninspired waste of time to write an article bashing a bunch of bands that your audience obviously won't like.
This continues the trend of nerve green-lighting articles on the pointless me-too bashing of low hanging fruit. This is bargain bin VH1 humor, well beneath what I thought this site was capable of.
Eh so did Jani Lane have lots of hot chicks and money and he died in a Comfort Inn all by himself and even the maids didn't want to touch him.
How is Nickelback not number one on this list? Granted, Creed and Scott Stapp are awful, but not at the levels of that assclownage that Chad Kroeger achieved.
Nickelback is arguably the worse band, but that's a different list (and one that requires a stronger stomach than most of us have). Stapp is closer to being a straight Eddie acolyte/clone/near-parody than Kroeger, who at least has a somewhat different voice, and that seems to be the deciding factor.
i don't think scott weiland belongs on this because he only occasionally sounds like eddie vedder and really mostly only on one album.
Gavin Rossdale and Scott Weiland unbearable??? Really, yes STP had their first album out in 92, but they were still performing as a band since 86 and Scott sounded the same. This article half-sucks, because Nickelback and Creed both blow balls.
You have got to be joking. Creed and Nickleback in the same list as fuel, bush and STP - WTF!!! You speak as if todays music has made you so much more aware of quality. You are the WORST music reviewer i have ever come across and whats more is that classics like Glycerine are obviously way over your head but you with your meger brain is trying to analyse it and obviously you find yourself in too deep. Please go and study some form of academia for 5 minutes and perhaps your IQ will just as that is the only place it can go from where it is currently and this music not including creed or nickleback may actually sound a bit better. PS the smashing pumpkins were geniuses too.
Come on now. Glycerine? This has to be the twentieth song made with this same old chord progression. It's only classic because it's channeling other mediocre songs, Green Day's"When I come around," to cite an obvious one.
To the author of this blog: STP was formed in 1986 and Pearl Jam was formed in 1990. Any chance you had of being taken seriously died the second you mentioned STP.
Not totally true. STP's first demo tape came out in 1990, which is still pre-Pearl Jam
WhatF: hang yourself. Also, you tell this guy to go experience some "academia" (lamest word in the entire english language) and you fail to realize he's a goddamn English major. People don't just hire assclowns to write this shit, if that were the case we'd probably all be reading your shithole list of "top ten songs to RAWK to" with "Photograph" and some other dumb as hell songs on it. None of that shit is anywhere close to over our heads. Listen to the volta, hopefully your brain will collapse and we can get back to hating on shitty music.
Duros: You may be right about the formation of STP, to be honest, I'm not sure. But one thing I am sure about is that they weren't a successful band until 1992, a full year after Pearl Jam acheived nearly immediate success with "Ten". I'm just saying that it doesn't matter who was "FORMED" first, it's not like when you form a band you go to some tribal council with all the other recently formed bands, get stamped and dated and start making music. Clearly STP got famous with "Core", exactly a year after "Ten" was released. If they weren't ripping off Vedder for fame, then why didn't anything happen during their first six years as a band? Because they were ripping bong hits and probably figuring out their sound.
Truly the A-List of the 90's grunge bandwagon's suckiest turd makers.
As a teenager I would have fucked the gay out of Gavin, just saying.
you go girl!
They're all so lame!
I remember being in a club, about a decade ago & a PJ song came on & all the college age bros started singing along. It was haunting, I felt like Margaret Mead on one of her journeys, bearing witness to the call of the wounded male.
* arms wide open *
"Muppet with a Jesus complex" - spot on.
Cudo's Durros I noticed the same thing. These bands all draw influence from mother love bone really. But I'm pretty sure though the author doesn't have balls to call out Andrew Wood. He and the rest of that band were responsible for and or influenced close to close to 30 years now of Rock Music.
Holy crap Veronica. It's "kudos", and it's stuff not things, so there's no apostrophe.
On the day of the earthquake in NYC, I inexplicably couldn't get Nickelback out of my head, despite not being tortured into hearing one of their songs in several years. I am now certain the apocalypse is upon us.
I have to admit that I sort of love the heroin chic-ness that is scott weiland. Basically I like the sexual slant of their songs much more than I like the depressing pearl jam grunge
You grew up loving 80's hair metal, didn't you? Because you just hate the 90's a lot. Yes, Creed has generally been sucky but catchy, nickelback got worse and worse, but the rest of these bands were great, and in STP's case, still are.
I used to work in telemarketing for a dating company (think "Lowered Expectations and you got it). There was one woman who was madly in love with Nickelback. She used to hum their songs all day. I wanted to stab her to death while she was on the phone. I used to bring in my CDs with Wilco, Feist, Kathleen Edwards, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as well as Norah Jones and everyone else loved them but her. She wanted to marry Chad Kroeger and have his mentally-challenged children, I guess.
I hate Nickleback as much as the next person but if I had to work with someone who played Snorah Jones, Feist (urgh!) or The Beatles I would go fucking postal. No offense to you or your taste, just saying....btw Norah's sister Anoushka is pretty legit.
I'm a huge Pearl Jam/Eddie Veddar fan (I have Eddie's and Gossard's pre-Pearl Jam stuff), I kind of disagree with this. Eddie's style, and passion he put into the songs (especially in the first few albums) can not be imitated.
STP, at least with Core, in no way reminds me of Eddie. Core to me is amazing album from start to end. And the style is nothing like PJ.
Bush, or Bush-X, was great back in the day, with Glycerine, Mouth, Machinehead, ... but in no way sound like PJ or even Eddie.
As much as I dislike Nickel Back, they too don't even sound like them.
The only band on here, that I think might belong on here (I didn't listen to Fuel), is Creed.
Like I said above, Eddie, especially in the early years, had such a unique voice, style, and passion, that it could not be imitated. And anyone who even tried to copy this would be laughed off stage, assuming anyone would go see them.
Fuel? They had one song that was popular for about 20 minutes over ten years ago. Meanwhile the dude from Kings of Leon somehow escaped this list despite the fact that his band is headlining festivals and he's the worst singer on the planet.
KoL have some great songs but he sings like he's got dicks in his mouth.
Where is Three Doors Down? When they came out, I dug the Kryptonite song (I was also about 15), but since they essentially became the mouthpiece for the Marines I want to shove sharp things in my ears every time I hear them. Creed makes my soul die a little whenever it's mentioned. Nickleback: Spot on. Thankfully, I missed most of the STP years, except that time I was in the midst of getting it on and was trying to figure out what the hell was playing in the background, only to realize a bit later it was either a mix CD or some sort of Greatest Hits compilation of STP's bigger songs. Note to all of you who like to woo the ladies: Maybe STP isn't the best soundtrack for sexytime.
Seriously? STP kinda sucks but some of their songs make me wanna fuck like a demon!
You know who sounded like Eddie Vedder before there was Eddie Vedder? WAY before? Ray Charles. This has been done.
Whoever wrote this article clearly didn't do any research. Stone Temple Pilots released their first demo album before Pearl Jam released Ten (and possibly before Pearl Jam even formed. Brett Scallions sounds nothing like Eddie Vedder. They don't even have the same vocal range. Gavin Rossdale? Again, voices sound nothing alike and they have different range. Nickelback? Without a doubt one of the worst bands of all time, but again, vocals do not sound similar and range is different. Scott Stapp? Yeah he sounds like Eddie Vedder but everybody already knows that. Way to post the obvious, author. Maybe your next article can tell us that water is wet and that the sky is blue.
Back in 2000 I would have cried blasphemy at the SP comment. But we live in a crapsack world now and Billy Corgan should have died in 97.
these singer's vioces go with the bands. What's next "Bob Dylan's Vioce Sucks?
The biblical progression...
PJ and Bush begat STP who then begat Creed, who regretfully shit out Nickelback who then proceeded to fart out Fuel... who was too good to even think about Puddle of MUDDDD
Except STP was around before either Pearl Jam or Bush.
Can we please stop comparing STP to PJ because of one vocal track?...."and I FEEEEEL it." We get it, he sounds like Vedder there, on that ONE line. This is like comparing Interpol to Joy Division. The vocalist sounds like Ian Curtis, but that's where the similarities end.
how about john kosco?
jamie stem also sounds pretty much the same as eddie vedder
You sing how you sing. E.V. isn't the only person in the world with a warbly singing voice.
You sing how you sing. E.V. isn't the only person in the world with a warbly singing voice.
Eddie, Layne, Weiland... They were all doing their best "Jim Morrisons." It's easy to say Weiland ripped off Vedder because you might have heard PJ first, but as "Bad Article" pointed out, STP formed prior to PJ. And yes, though the STP sound (Mighty Joe Young) experimented with funk and classic rock back then,Weiland's vocals were similar to those heard on "Core."
There's some real irony missed in claiming Vedder as being an original. Did you know he fronted a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band? Yep, he imitated/impersonated Anthony Kiedes.
Actually, it was a San Diego Alternative funk based rock band & original . Not a RHCP tribute band dumbfuck. That's like saying Minor Threat is a tribute to Black Flag.
According to Kiedis' autobiography, "Scar Tissue," Vedder was in an RHCP tribute band. So, Fell on Black Days, I'd take the word from an autobiography (which is fact-checked) by Kiedis as the truth, you dumbfuck. It's like saying Minor Threat is Minor Threat.
I just stumbled across this turd of a story. Some research should have been done before this was written. Alex Heigl shouldn't quit his/her day job. This is just lazy. I won't be returning to this website for anything music-related again.
Ran across this article while I was researching Eddie Vedder's voice for a piece of fiction I'm writing. You made my day. This is a riot, had me laughing more as each new band came under your scalpel!
You're dumb. Good luck with your piece of crap... ur, fiction. Idiot.
Bob Scallions??
Im pretty sure none of these bands were tryin to copy ev. If anything it would be kurt cobain. Bush doesnt belong on this list there a great band
I've been arguing with a group of Eddie Vedder supporters for the last few weeks, trying to explain my disdain for "The Eddie Vedder" voice and how it's such a lazy, easy crutch-method for anyone without singing talent to actually sing. I googled the phenomenon so I could make my argument and found this article.
I would also throw Hootie and post haircut James Hetfield Metallica to this as well. Hootie didn't do the macho angst thing, but used the same "hunger dunger der" crutch to softly belt out bis mind numbing creeds. And James, when he wasn't screaming, and when his music devolved from classic heavy metal to radio friendly rock ballad, sort of sounded just like Fuel and Nickelback.
Alex Heigl you clearly know nothing about music, I suppose you prefer today's music? some manufactured teenager that gets rich and famous for having their voices auto-tuned and miming other peoples songs.
Your completely close minded, even if you dont like these bands it doesnt mean they cant sing, they have to actually sing not use computers to fix any mistakes, they play instruments at the same time, and id better mention that Nickelback ( although) im not exactly a fan are one of the biggest selling bands in the world today
also singing isnt the only thing to define an artist. look at Bob Dylan hes a crap singer but because he write, plays and sings his own songs he is well loved and will be remembered long after people like miley cyrus, justin beieber anything to come from the x=factor are all dead
Stp for sure coppied pj Plush came out after pearl jam started and they were like hey lets sound exactly like that band. There not even on the same page as pearl jam. Stone Temple Pilots blow its just took th that long before they were even noticed as a band.
I say if you don't like them then just don't listen to them. Is it always so necessary to trash everyone ?
Wow, bunch of f'n haters! All these bands are very good. Their recognition says otherwise to your claims. I say they must have done something right to cause you post this.
STP wasn't really stealing from PJ, though they both made really good music as well!
Anglo sons of privilege bemoaning the fact that they couldn't get a date with the prom queen. This genre should be renamed "White Whine."
Damn the author is a loser hater... Bush is a good band and Gavin Rossdale a good singer...
Btw Eddie Vedder isn't that great of a singer, He can't touch Layne , Layne = best singer of all time
Alex, this is a work of genius.. I laughed my ass off reading your article but even more so the comments. People say that rock music is dead.. that can't be the case because so many _care_ enough to post either tributes or flames. Thanks again for a good thread.
And Eddie Vedder took his inspiration from Jim Morrison so we should erase that guy from history too right?
Come on guys this is a pretty fucking stupid article, how can we deny something people love on the account that it doesnt work for us ?
Creed's still ok 2 me i mean i could not find a better post grunge band than creed and FF. I agree that stapp too has a powerful voice as does Eddie(i like both). BUT SURE AS HELL I CANNOT STAND NICKELBACK AND FUEL.
WITE TWO LINE ON SEX,PROSTITUTES OR DRINKING
ADD A SHIT SOUNDING CHORUS
STEAL AN EASY RIFF OF ANOTHER SONG
REPEAT THE CHORUS AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN...........
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE SOLD OVER 50 MILL ALBUMS WORLDWIDE USING THIS SIMPLE TECHNIQUE.......!!!!!!
i feel like you have a huge glaring omission here: Spoongarden. i mean Soundgarden. Hell, so many "i'm masculine as hell but i hurt" male singers are STILL throwing it out there...
i call this "style" the herba zerba. Sing it with me: "Gaherrbie herrba... gerrba zerrba... herrrbie gerrbie werberrr... Grrrrr AAAAOWWWW!"
Now that Chad Kroeger is engaged to Avril Lavigne, they both need to stay in Canada and not get out again.
Butt. Rock.