With Fall Out Boy gearing up for another tour and studio album release, singer Patrick Stump took to his site last night to post another lengthy note on popular culture. This time using Nickelback as his introductory focal point.
The post — entitled "Hey! Don't You Just Hate That (every) Thing?" — opened with "How many people reading this are fans of Nickelback?" before mentioning Limp Bizkit, Creed and other groups that have "become ubiquitously hate-able." Stump also added he's never met anybody who admitted to liking any of the aforementioned groups.
"Hell, the misogynistic subtext of James Bond movies offend more of my sensibilities than anything Nickelback ever did and yet I don't have any problem escaping to a world of fast cars and women with offensively suggestive names (Pussy Galore? Like...are we not even trying?)" Stump wrote. "Yet for some reason, here I am crippled by a vague and probably unwarranted desire not to appear to be a fan of Nickelback and Dane Cook." He also wrote that "criticizing art and the artists that make it is a lazier pass time than creating or appreciating it."
Stump also said he considers himself an artist and has worked hard to craft the music he's created, making several sacrifices "in order to perform to the best of my abilities," including his eating habits, sleeping habits and medications he can take. "I'm always working to improve my abilities as a songwriter or a guitarist or a producer or a programmer or a lyricist, etc.," he wrote. "I'm sure Nickelback, at least somewhere in they're career, are or were no different. They worked (and potentially still are working) to be the best damned Nickelback they can be. All of the agreed upon pariahs throughout pop-culture history put their identities into the thing we decry."
While pointing out people's hatred towards the likes of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, Stump said it would be ridiculous for people to make similar statements when it came to food or groceries in the way they do when it comes to music. "There's not instant value judgement in removing yourself from the crowd of barbecue sauce lovers," he wrote. "You see it all the time in the music community. We partition ourselves off into little sub-groups. From those sub-groups, even littler still."
The musician also said there were several times when he asked another artist to tour or work together with either himself or as a part of Fall Out Boy, only to be "shot down on the grounds of, 'Oh you guys are lame.'" Stump — who also said he's probably done the same thing — wondered why people "have to stamp it into the ground and shout it from the rooftops; 'Let it be known that I wouldn't be caught DEAD in a St. Anger t-shirt... just in case you were wondering."
Stump concluded the piece by saying people have "exhausted" the idea of "ignorantly dismissing things as loudly as we can" before getting back to Chad Kroeger and company. "I started off talking about Nickelback," he wrote. "I really couldn't tell you one of their songs. What qualifies me to say I dislike them?"
Fall Out Boy releases its new studio album, "Save Rock And Roll," in April, and starts a lengthy North American trek behind it in mid-May.