#i don't see them as being equivalent to fob in terms of how they got there

[omegalomania]

Ok honestly fall out boy is so interesting to me bc they’re a very huge example of what would realistically happen if just some dudes who like music got sprung into fame randomly… like they’re one of the biggest modern bands but aside from their actual talent, there’s nothing really “glamorous” or “celebrity” about them, and i don’t mean that in like a “ooh i forget they’re celebs they’re soo different/quirky” kind of way but like in the way that it’s insane seeing the contrast of patrick mentioning in a recent interview that he isn’t on social media/the internet anymore bc he’s paranoid everyone hates him vs the fact that he was literally trending on twitter yesterday bc people love his performance in de:pp… like everyone jokes around about fobs obliviousness to their fame but like that kind of anxiety is realistically exactly what would happen to any normal nerdy shy dude that happened to get thrust into fame for fixating on music… SORRY this is so long winded but your posts got me thinking about this weird lil band again

i think absolutely one of the most endearing things about all of them is that literally none of them know how to be famous and it's still extremely funny to me. they are literally just some guys and they're like oh right We're A Big Famous Band and they always seem surprised to be recognized. like oh my god you guys have been chart-toppers for 20 years you are allowed to have a FRACTION of an ego about it but they literally just dont!

but i think they’re just extremely aware that they were exceptionally lucky, and while they’re certainly all extremely extremely talented dudes, the sad fact is that the industry is constructed in such a way that raw talent is never enough to get you where you need to go. they had grounding and stability that a lot of other up-and-coming artists sadly don’t get, and i think they understand that very well and it has a lot to do with their perpetual surprise that people still care about them.

this ask reminded me of something i saw posted forever and ever ago on the fall out boy subreddit (which is a godless joyless place and i do not recommend frequenting it, except that it does, on occasion, serve as a good source for news update and the like) and i had to dig through literal years’ worth of ancient plurks to find it again, but i DID because it still rings true to me today:

transcript of the image, with some emphasis by me:

“Yes, I’m late 30s and wasn’t particularly into FOB’s early work b/c I saw all 00s pop punk as an extension of the havoc GD/Blink’s popularity on 90s punk, but I was quite aware of Racetraitor, Arma, and Chicago’s cultral moment with the sound in general from 90s message baords. It was easily some of the best challenging-to-enjoy work of that time. I was busy buying jumble lots of obscure East Coast punk, tossing ones with swastikas (yay anti-racist skins, fuck anti-anti racist skins) and mining for gold like a proper grumpy punk teen, so I didn’t listen to them a lot.

But as a child of the early 80s, tenors & hits, I got into FOB years later when they were doing weird top-shelf pop rock. That helped me understand what younger people appreciated about their early stuff.

I rarely get to say this, but searching for a comparison in terms of bands reaching/sustaining their level of success with that kind of shitty basement political punk history... Bad Religion, maybe? BR was absolutely an oddball pop-inspired punk band & they were/are massive given what they discuss, and more so via their label creation. They never really grew much, though. Rancid are great & have a duo at the core. The Clash were exceptional and experimented a lot.

FOB’s presence over the past two decades is just not a thing that is supposed to happen anymore. Couldn’t be happier it worked out for punks managed by guys who are music stories of their own. Knew of jonathan Daniel from The Loveless thanks to a superfan debate coach in the 90s, was overjoyed to hear he was managing Butch Walker in the early 00s. I wasn’t aware of McLynn at the time, but I’ve heard his stuff since and what a house bassists built.”

legitimately i struggle to think of a band like fall out boy in the mainstream. a band with legitimate punk and hardcore roots, who built their way into practically universal recognition, and have remained culturally relevant for literal decades. that’s not a thing that happens a whole lot and it’s not a thing that is meant to happen anymore.

i think it’s one of the reasons it’s easy to look at them as the underdogs, even now. like by just about any metric, they’re not underdogs anymore, but they still manage to feel like kind of an island. there truly is no other band like them on the planet, and i don’t think that there ever will be.