I keep hearing people call In Flames some variation of "pop with a hint of Gothenburg sound"....Seriously, I would fight anyone who spoke such of such heresy to my face! =D
First of all, it's ridiculous to call In Flames pop for several reasons, mainly, pop is a BS genre! Just because they have an ever-growing fanbase and are popular worldwide doesnt make them 'pop' in the sense that it is regarded/defined today. Popular doesn't = Pop! By that merit, Bethoven would have been pop in his day. Also, you can't say that they are following the "Gothenburg sound" trend when they fuckin created it! That's just ridiculous. Not their fault they set a trend that's become pretty popular! And why would they want to change their style to be outside of this trend when it's such a HUGE part of their identity?! I think In Flames is one of the best bands in metal and I know a lot of people agree with me on that...but I think too many people get cought up in the fact that they're no longer an underground band with horrible production qualities. You can't blame them for changing and you can't say they changed to become famous. At least they had the ballls to do it...when I got a chance to talk to Bjorn and Jesper as part of my Scandi Studies research, they said they wouldn't have changed a thing about the progression of their band...the "Older In Flames" was a different part of their lives, particularly Jesper's, that they both say is something that should stay history. Why would they want to spend the remainder of their careers trying to recreate something they could never possibly recreate? Music is never completely subjective, it is shaped by environmental/external influences as much as internal creativity...In Flames could never return to Gothenburg 1996...thus they could never recreate Jotun or the Jester Race etc...
not sure where I'm going with this...just felt like writing what was on my mind...
First of all, it's ridiculous to call In Flames pop for several reasons, mainly, pop is a BS genre! Just because they have an ever-growing fanbase and are popular worldwide doesnt make them 'pop' in the sense that it is regarded/defined today. Popular doesn't = Pop! By that merit, Bethoven would have been pop in his day. Also, you can't say that they are following the "Gothenburg sound" trend when they fuckin created it! That's just ridiculous. Not their fault they set a trend that's become pretty popular! And why would they want to change their style to be outside of this trend when it's such a HUGE part of their identity?! I think In Flames is one of the best bands in metal and I know a lot of people agree with me on that...but I think too many people get cought up in the fact that they're no longer an underground band with horrible production qualities. You can't blame them for changing and you can't say they changed to become famous. At least they had the ballls to do it...when I got a chance to talk to Bjorn and Jesper as part of my Scandi Studies research, they said they wouldn't have changed a thing about the progression of their band...the "Older In Flames" was a different part of their lives, particularly Jesper's, that they both say is something that should stay history. Why would they want to spend the remainder of their careers trying to recreate something they could never possibly recreate? Music is never completely subjective, it is shaped by environmental/external influences as much as internal creativity...In Flames could never return to Gothenburg 1996...thus they could never recreate Jotun or the Jester Race etc...
not sure where I'm going with this...just felt like writing what was on my mind...