Kid Rock...

Let me start by saying I am from Detroit. I say this because it really does impact my opinion on Kid.

I spent roughly half my life in Detroit before moving out to the suburbs. Half my family still lives iN Southwest and no matter how much I might think the city is a shithole full of burned down and/or vandalized buildings, I can't really get away from the influence it had on me growing up.

Firstly, you don't talk bad about Steve Yzerman. I don't really want to anyway but everyone loves Stevie Y.

And after that there is a huge love for Kid Rock. I remember talking with my friend from Massachusetts years ago while I was listening to the WRIF. They were counting down the most popular rocker of all time as voted by listeners. Guess who came in #1?

My friend flipped her lid and a part of me can't help but agree. Kid is certainly not the best rocker or rapper or...anything of all time. And yet, I can't really not-like him. I'm not sure how much of this is from where I was born and raised and how much of it is me actually enjoying his music. I really only like his Southern Rock stuff.

I mean I know a looooooooooooot of people hate him but I just can't.

So, witht hat long preface out of the way, I'm curious to hear what people here think of him. Supreme contempt? Complete indifference?

edited 21st Jan '12 11:58:17 PM by Nikkolas

I think I've heard two of his songs on the radio; "All Summer Long" and the new one with Martina Mc Bride and T.I. When I heard the latter, I honestly thought it was Rod Stewart until they said who the male vocalist was at the end of the track. I suppose I'm kind of indifferent to him.

I guess everybody has a certain affection for performers from their own home town.

edited 22nd Jan '12 4:10:08 AM by TheGloomer

I prefer his older nu-metal music to his current country stuff. American Badass will always be awesome in my mind.

His old stuff never really struck me as nu-metal. When I think of nu-metal I think of Korn and stuff like that. Kid Rock's old stuff seemed more like he was trying to continue the style used by Run-DMC or the first Beastie Boys album than nu-metal.

Then again that might be my unfamiliarity with nu-metal showing.

edited 22nd Jan '12 7:00:41 AM by TheGloomer

I find Bawitdaba to be Guilty Pleasure distilled in musical form.

I'm chiefly familiar with the bigger hits, but yeah, I'd put something like "Bawitaba" more in the category of straight up Rap Rock if anything - Nu Metal is sort of related as a genre though, and I don't think it's a coincidence that he started getting mainstream rock radio play right when Nu Metal was at it's most popular.

edited 22nd Jan '12 11:21:05 AM by MikeK

The reason why people hate Kid Rock is because he is so into his Southern Rock phase despite the fact that he's not at all Southern. He's an upper middle class kid from the Detroit suburbs pretending to be a redneck. Also, he's a painfully average hard rock musician who started sucking after his one decent album and yet he still sells. And there was the way he destroyed "Werewolves of London" in his awful song "All Summer Long" (which is proof of his "pretending to be a redneck" phase).

Last year, you had Southerners hating on Gwyneth Paltrow for attempting a country music career (based on her work in the critically panned flop Country Strong). Here, it's everyone except a few Southerners who somehow love the guy.

I must admit I'm rather surprised that (unless I'm misinterpreting the OP) folks from Detroit regard Kid Rock more highly than Bob Seger and Stevie Wonder.

Intense, instinctive dislike of Kid Rock. Starting with the very name.

I hesitate to say more.

Oh come on...nearly every "southern rock" artist has not been from the South. Creedence was from fuckin' Fresno California, for Christ's sake. Aerosmith was from BOSTON. Only Skynyrd actually came from anywhere nearby (Florida). It's the only reason southern rock survives...these guys aren't capturing reality, they want the feel, which is something that only comes from digesting mythology.

As to Kid Rock, I've liked him for a while now. I like the fact that he took a while to get established. I like the fact that he attempted to take the two manliest genres of music (hard rock and hip-hop) and blend them into something that wasn't angst-ridden. I like the fact that he's just doing what he wants to do.

Is any rock star 100% what they claim? Most likely not. Robert Plant spent many, many songs basically talking about his dick, when his was the smallest in his band. CCR, as I already mentioned, wrote paean after paean to the South, when they weren't from anywhere close.

Rock music is artifice. We shouldn't expect it to be real, we should expect it to be good.

edited 24th Jan '12 11:22:47 PM by drunkscriblerian

Aerosmith aren't a southern rock band.

Also, Lynyrd Skynyrd are hardly the only southern band that actually came from the south. The Allman Brothers Band came from Georgia, ZZ Top are Texans, .38 Special are from Florida, the Marshall Tucker Band are from South Carolina, Le Roux came from Louisiana (even though they did go AOR when they recorded Up and Jeff Pollard was replaced by Fergie Frederiksen) and the Kings of Leon are Oklahoma natives who travelled all around the south as part of their father's tent revival meetings and formed in Tennessee.

Maybe I missed your point, though.

Robert Plant has a small dick?!?!?!?!?

My thoughts on Kid Rock? Well, okay, but only because you asked.

Kid Rock is to music what Carlos Mencia is to comedy. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that this guy still has anything resembling a career while Ronnie James Dio is dead is proof that there is no God.

Strangely enough, I'd rather listen to Kid Rock.

"I must admit I'm rather surprised that (unless I'm misinterpreting the OP) folks from Detroit regard Kid Rock more highly than Bob Seger and Stevie Wonder."

I've never actually listened to Stevie Wonder.

As for Bob, he's kinda faded into obscurity and apparently he took a huge dip in quality later on anyway. I wouldn't say Detroites don't like him, just that less of the younger crowed know or care about him. (I guess I'm part of that crowd since I'm only 23 but I like a lot of older musicians)

edited 27th Jan '12 10:19:34 PM by Nikkolas

I figured that the Detroit natives loved Eminem (who actually wasn't born there) the most. After all, the auto companies made him the city's ambassador for rebuilding.

Huh. I forgot all about Eminem.

Yeah I like some of his stuff, mostly the tracks from American Badass and Grit Sandwitches For Breakfast.

About the only album of his I can stand is The History of Rock. He really just comes across as trying too hard to be "country" nowadays (since when does rich white kid from Detroit = country musician?).

Born Free was an excellent album IMO. I wrote a good review on it a while back. It's not pretentious at all — besides a cameo from T.I., it's mostly heartland rock like Springsteen or Seger.

And I like All Summer Long. But my favorite from Kid by far is "Picture". Excellent balladry between him and Sheryl Crow:

edited 11th Apr '12 5:24:49 PM by Twentington