Telling a band that their music sucks?

Have you guys ever told a band that their music sucked or even that you only liked certain material of theirs in the past?

I think that's just plain rude. People put a lot into what they do and make sacrifices to do it. If I don't like it I don't listen to it. I'm not adverse to saying what i think but I don't go out of my way to insult people.

I agree with you, I am just curious if anyone would see it as necessary to be so harsh or would take a more polite route when telling people what they think of their music.

Never. I've met all kinds of bands and even if I don't like their music I am respectful. I generally don't even review music I don't like on my blog. I try to support the bands I like, and if I don't like a band, it doesn't mean I have to trash them. Some people need to grow up and act like adults.

That reminded me of this moment in my Death Angel blog:

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t18812p50-death-angel-discography

Read the last comment of the thread. It was so juvenile, I didn't even think about responding. Even if I loathed the band or a solo act, I would never do this. The thing is, you either have character OR you do not have character. So, you either bite your tongue and be magnanimous regarding the situation or look like an utter jack ass, who will probably insert their foot into their mouth on many more occasions throughout their lifetime.

I told the guys in Dangerous Toys that "The Artist Formerly Know as Dangerous Toys" sucked, and every one of them agreed with me and said it was a mistake to release it.  That came out of passion for the bands material and I cannot thi nk of another situation where I would do that.

metalinmyveins wrote:

That reminded me of this moment in my Death Angel blog:

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t18812p50-death-angel-discography

Read the last comment of the thread. It was so juvenile, I didn't even think about responding. Even if I loathed the band or a solo act, I would never do this. The thing is, you either have character OR you do not have character. So, you either bite your tongue and be magnanimous regarding the situation or look like an utter jack ass, who will probably insert their foot into their mouth on many more occasions throughout their lifetime.

To be fair, I think he hates everyone!

Never.

I wouldn't do it, it seems cruel and pointless. Besides, album sales and crowd sizes are gauge enough. They'll tell a band if/how much they need to improve, or if they should break up.

I've seen a whole crowd tell a band that they suck in really uncertain terms Malice opening for Slayer in '87. It was disgusting, literally dozens of people spitting in the bands faces!! It was disgusting and even as a 16 year old asshole I really felt for them.

Never said it to a band, but I yelled at Eddie Trunk to "get the @#$& off the stage" last year when he came out to introduce Overkill. Does that count? I was all the way at the back of the room so there's no way he heard me, but I couldn't help myself.

Boris2008 wrote:

I've seen a whole crowd tell a band that they suck in really uncertain terms Malice opening for Slayer in '87. It was disgusting, literally dozens of people spitting in the bands faces!! It was disgusting and even as a 16 year old asshole I really felt for them.

You should have seen the Iron Maiden crowd boo Twisted Sister off the stage on the Powerslave tour. It was quite comical.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never said it to a band, but I yelled at Eddie Trunk to "get the @#$& off the stage" last year when he came out to introduce Overkill. Does that count? I was all the way at the back of the room so there's no way he heard me, but I couldn't help myself.

Nope Eddie Trunk is always fair game!

S.D. wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

I've seen a whole crowd tell a band that they suck in really uncertain terms Malice opening for Slayer in '87. It was disgusting, literally dozens of people spitting in the bands faces!! It was disgusting and even as a 16 year old asshole I really felt for them.

You should have seen the Iron Maiden crowd boo Twisted Sister off the stage on the Powerslave tour.  It was quite comical.  

I used to have a tape off the radio of Twisted Sister's one and only appearance at Donington Monsters of Rock. The always hostile crowd just weren't feeling the make up and pop anthems and Dee got it all wrong, flew off the handle and ended up ludicrously threatening 60,000 people!!

I wouldn't tell a band that.

As far as in the live situation, I remember people spitting and throwing things at Waysted when they opened for Iron Maiden.

Who in their right mind would actually say that to a band (face to face)? That's asking for an ass kicking.

I try not to, but sometimes bands would not take a hint and let it go until told directly upfront. Or in few cases when so far detached from reality, it actually did them good to know.

UNCLE SAXON'S KICKASS CDS wrote:

I told the guys in Dangerous Toys that "The Artist Formerly Know as Dangerous Toys" sucked, and every one of them agreed with me and said it was a mistake to release it.  That came out of passion for the bands material and I cannot thi nk of another situation where I would do that.

You were just being honest. They knew it did too. Never understand that album.

I would never insult a band. Maybe try some constructive criticism.

I once told a local metal band, mostly made of friends of mine, that they need to work on their vocals.
They totally agreed. But I would never go as far as insulting someone in their face.

However, I totally enjoy telling fans that the music of their favourite band suxx. Just to tease them mainly.

Why has practically everyone who has responded to the OP assumed that the OP was asking if someone has ever been rude or insulted a band? He asked if anyone has told a band if they sucked he didn't ask if anyone has gone out if their way to trash a band to their face.

Quite honestly if I had the opportunity to tell a band they need to improve in certain areas then I would. I think contructive criticism is essential in many walks of life but in music I would honestly think I'd be doing a band a favour, especially if they were relatively unknown or quite new. Low album sales or a lack of reviews as some have mentioned in this thread are not always a sign to a band they need to make changes to their music. They might think they just haven't had the right exposure of the right break.

Example, a mate of mine is in a band and it's been going for a while. Due to work commitments and other stuff getting in the way I haven't had a chance to check them out till recently. My mate is a great guitarist and as his band had been going for about a year and they had played a lot of gigs I naturally assumed they would be a pretty decent band. Went to see them and boy did they suck, big time. The biggest problem was that it was obvious they don't rehearse enough as they were so sloppy and out of sync with each other. The other major problem was the songs themselves. Each member of the band seems to be into a different style of music. My mate is a total queensryche nut and loves def leopard and a lot of softer metal and hard rock. One of the band is a death metal fanatic another a prog fanatic and it totally tells in their songs. They are all trying to stamp their mark on the songs but they sound like a mess.

I told them they suck but instead of just being insulting I told them why I thought they sucked. They weren't happy but did accept a lot of my criticism which tells me in their hearts they knew they are just so desperate to make it they had just ignored a lot of their obvious problems.

I don't see anything wrong with telling a band they suck as your ultimately doing them a favour. If no one ever says anything how are they supposed to improve. Cruel to be kind and all that.

I highly commend your response, Wayne. As hard as it is to do otherwise, being too soft isn't always a good thing. Especially if you know a band with a lot of potential that you want to see improve. Tough love.

Back in the day, I've been known to yell at opening acts, telling them they sucked and to get off the stage. I rarely go to live shows anymore (or drink to excess either), so I probably wouldn't do it now.

If I were to find myself in an unlikely face-to-face situation with a band member that asked me an opinion of their music, I wouldn't have a problem answering them honestly, good or bad. I'm a pretty up-front dude.

There's a big gulf between just slagging someone off vs. offering (constructive) criticism of their stuff.

It ended up a big joke between my friends and I, but I met Jon Oliva on his Storytellers tour and he signed my copy of Raise the Curtain. He asked me what I thought of the album and I was honest and told him the sequencing of the album really put me off but that some of the best songs he'd ever written (as far as I was concerned) were on it.

He took it all really well and even took time to explain to me that he approached the sequencing more like it was a stage show than an album because of the diversity of the material. It was a really cool exchange though I probably could have just blown smoke up his ass about it.

Of course, my friends rag on me for meeting a guy I friggin' idolize and then critiquing his work, but it's all in good fun. He was cool as hell about it.

Now, if I'd gone, "Why haven't you made Power of the Night Part II yet?" or "Jesus, what happened to your voice? You sound like $#@%!" I think it's not only unnecessarily mean-spirited but also pretty pointless. That's coming from the "When did you stop beating your wife" school of conversation. Yeah, you could argue it honestly expresses your feelings, but who cares? There's speaking your mind and then there's being a knob.

Nope. Never have. I know how it feels to have someone crush your work when you had put so much time, energy and passion into it. However, I can't say that I haven't printed a review that was, uhhh, less than favorable.

Reading Wayne's comments reminded me of the closest I have come to this. A friend of mine was in a band where he just didn't fit and was playing music that just wasn't him as he was the guy who had introduced me to Minutemen, Black Flag, Husker Du, Die Kreuzen, Flipper, Meat Puppets and countless other great punk bands and he was playing in this insipid faux hippy band that sounded  a bit like All About Eve or River City People, all floaty shirts and tambourines! To be fair at one time they looked like they were going places and came extremely close to a major record deal (Ultimately they lost out to another band called Deacon Blue who did pretty well over here but were terrible) Well I did tell him what I thought of his current band (I may have used the word suck) I also persuaded him to ditch them and do a hardcore band with me 

That really turned out badly as we were both prone to bad behaviour and that quickly overtook any creative aspirations we might have had. 

I think that Scott's example is different, all bands expect their record to be reviewed and there is nothing wrong with honesty, but I did used to get annoyed when a mag would have some sort of problem with a band so would get someone who had always hated the band to do the review (this happened a lot with the early thrash albums until thrash became a bit 'cool' then they would claim that they had always supported the bands.