History DeaderThanDisco / Music

However, a number of factors would lead to his career's demise before the decade ended. Firstly, for someone who claimed to be a hardcore gangsta rapper, he sang far too often in his songs (and wasn't even a good singer to boot). Another was his overabundance of, as WebVideo/TheRapCritic describes, "thugs need love too" songs. Essentially, these were songs that had a female on the chorus singing soulfully about how much they need Ja Rule and what great a person he is, while he, in turn, raps about hardcore sex and how much of a gangster he still is despite his relationship with her. While these songs did do well, "Always on Time" being one of them, the dissonance was too much for some people, as a woman saying how much she loves you while you're simultaneously calling her a bitch and gold-digging whore rubbed people the wrong way. Not to mention he did an ill-advised collaboration song with Music/{{Metallica}} in 2002, which was widely hated by fans of both and promptly forgotten.\\\

* Music/TobyKeith was a big name in CountryMusic for many years. His 1993 debut single "Should've Been a Cowboy" was a #1 smash on the country charts and was the most-played song on country radio for the entire 1990s decade. His first three albums were all certified platinum, and all but two of his first fifteen singles had made Top 10 on the country charts. He hit a bump in the road with some label disputes that caused him to leave Creator/MercuryRecords for Creator/DreamWorksRecords at the end of the decade, but his second [=DreamWorks=] single "How Do You Like Me Now?!" went on to become a five-week #1 smash in 2000, while also becoming the biggest country music hit of the year ''and'' his first top 40 pop hit. He amassed five albums for [=DreamWorks=] between 1999 and the label's closure in 2005, with all five producing a near-endless string of smash hits and, for the first time in his career, multi-platinum sales. The increase in hits was not without controversy, as some fans derided him for beginning to include macho posturing in his material (such as "How Do You Like Me Now?!" and the CountryRap "I Wanna Talk About Me"). He also inspired further divisiveness with his [[TheWarOnTerror post-9/11 release]] "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)", which some felt was too over-the-top in its PatrioticFervor (and the subject of a highly publicized feud with Music/DixieChicks lead singer Natalie Maines). Despite the pushback over his new image, he remained a major draw at radio, and seamlessly moved to his own Show Dog label after [=DreamWorks=] Records closed.\\\

* The sub-genre of bro-country has come to be this. In late 2012, duo Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine had a smash crossover with their debut single "Cruise", which would set the tone of country music by male artists in the years to come: hip-hop beats, hair-metal guitar work, and street slang were combined with lyrics about hot women, trucks, beer, and partying. In other words, bro-country effectively ran the hedonism of GlamRap through both {{fratbro}} and DeepSouth filters simultaneously. An article published in 2013 by ''New York'' magazine writer Jody Rosen coined the term "bro-country" to describe the insurgence of artists who were playing FollowTheLeader in the wake of "Cruise", including up-and-comers like Music/ColeSwindell, Music/SamHunt, Music/ThomasRhett, Music/BrantleyGilbert, and Chase Rice (who co-wrote "Cruise"). Existing acts like Music/LukeBryan, Music/JakeOwen, Music/BlakeShelton, and Music/JasonAldean also released singles that were at least partially indebted to the new sound. While younger male fans kept the songs in heavy radio rotation and strong sales, bro-country was quickly subject to derision for being StrictlyFormula, as lampshaded in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o a viral video mashup which played six bro-country songs on top of each other]] to show that [[FollowTheLeader they all sounded pretty much the same]]. The genre was also mocked for its misogynistic and shallow lyrics, along with an overall absence of country influence. Even other artists lambasted the shift: Music/{{Zac Brown|Band}} openly called Bryan's mid-2013 hit "That's My Kind of Night" one of the worst songs he had ever heard, and Music/SteveEarle called it "hip-hop for people who are afraid of black people" and criticized new male artists from Nashville, while artists such as Music/BradPaisley and Music/KennyChesney expressed derision toward the mindset that bro-country was creating.\\\

* AutoTune — specifically, the vocal distortion that was popularized by Music/TPain in the late '00s — has fallen victim to this. When Music/TPain used autotune to make his singing voice sound more "robotic", it launched [[FollowTheLeader a trend of countless rappers and singers doing the same thing]], such as Music/KanyeWest, Music/LilWayne, Akon, Music/FloRida, Music/{{Kesha}}, and 3OH!3. Songs featuring the technique were inescapable from 2007-10 and filled up parties everywhere. However, it was also subject to frequent mockery, and eventually, the backlash became too much to bear. Most artists who used it began to move away from the technique, and those who continued using it found diminished sales and show attendances. T-Pain, the one who popularized it, would hit this status himself. It's now viewed as a punchline for late '00s hip-hop and one of the most regrettable trends as of late. In contrast to other trends that had fallen out of the public, autotune is still in use throughout most of the 2010s thanks to trap artists like Future, Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, and Bad Bunny using it in the majority of their songs and all having long term success because of it.
* {{Crunk}} music is firmly dead in the water today. Created by the Music/ThreeSixMafia in the '90s, and then [[GenrePopularizer popularized by]] Music/LilJon and the Eastside Boyz in 2003 with their huge hit "Get Low", it was absolutely massive in the mid-2000s. It was this genre that put SouthernRap on the map, making the city of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} ''the'' capital of HipHop (an effect that's still being felt today). Crunk filled clubs and house parties all across the nation, basically being to rap in the '00s as to what PostGrunge was to rock music in that same decade. And not unlike post-grunge, crunk quickly gained a large number of detractors both in the hip-hop community and out, with its [[MisogynySong misogynistic objectifying of women]], [[OdeToIntoxication glorification of drugs]], and screaming lyrics about immature subject matter (primarily about being drunk/stoned, and [[IntercourseWithYou having sex with prostitutes/strippers]] InDaClub, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs or both]]) that took ClusterFBomb and NWordPrivileges to the extreme (which, being a subgenre of HipHop, is really saying something). Today, virtually all crunk artists are completely forgotten, with the possible exception of Lil Jon (mainly because of his viral hit "Turn Down for What", in collaboration with DJ Snake). The basic idea of crunk ("danceable hip-hop music") lives on in the form of TrapMusic, but the genre itself is unlikely to come back anytime soon, as it's among [[TheScrappy the most hated genres]] of hip-hop and modern music in general.

* AutoTune — specifically, the vocal distortion that was popularized by Music/TPain in the late '00s — has fallen victim to this. When Music/TPain used autotune to make his singing voice sound more "robotic", it launched [[FollowTheLeader a trend of countless rappers and singers doing the same thing]], such as Music/KanyeWest, Music/LilWayne, Akon, Music/FloRida, Music/{{Kesha}}, and 3OH!3. Songs featuring the technique were inescapable from 2007-10 and filled up parties everywhere. However, it was also subject to frequent mockery, and eventually, the backlash became too much to bear. Most artists who used it began to move away from the technique, and those who continued using it found diminished sales and show attendances. T-Pain, the one who popularized it, would hit this status himself. It's now viewed as a punchline for late '00s hip-hop and one of the most regrettable trends as of late.

Its downfall came almost as swiftly as its rise for three reasons. The first was the rise of smartphones, which allowed people to store a library of hundreds of full songs on their phones, killing off the ringtone market. The derisive term "ringtone rap" was largely referring to snap, and as the genre derived most of its popularity from cheap digital singles and ringtones, this view was not inaccurate. The second was backlash from both hip-hop fans and the mainstream as a whole, who saw snap as stupid, substance-devoid, and MoneyDearBoy personified.[[GenreKiller The third and final killing blow]] was likely Music/SouljaBoy's backlash. By the end of 2008, snap was having its last gasp by way of V.I.C.'s "Get Silly"; following this, the genre spent 2009 rapidly dying and was essentially gone completely by 2010. Nowadays, snap is viewed as the absolute nadir of 2000s pop music and one of the worst things to ever happen to hip-hop, and there has been absolutely nothing even resembling a revival of the genre. The artists themselves are invariably remembered as {{one hit wonder}}s if they even are remembered, as it's more likely that people will just recognize the songs without knowing who recorded them.

By the late 2000s though, fatigue would set in for a variety of reasons. Firstly, while other rock genres grew to popularity around the time period, post-grunge reigned with a virtual stranglehold on the mainstream to the point where it became inseparable from rock music as a whole, and due to its mainstream-friendliness, this led to an oversaturation on the radio stations. On top of that, the genre built up a reputation for being [[StrictlyFormula formulaic]] in its musical structure and lyrics. With those two combined, it didn't take long for a backlash against the music and the bands playing it to reach full swing. Bands like Creed and Nickelback became the biggest targets of SnarkBait and were held responsible for having [[GenreKiller "killed rock music"]] (or at least leaving it stagnant). The harder-tinged acts also faced backlash for the [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll childishly hedonistic]] and [[MisogynySong misogynistic]] themes of their own lyrics; the bands that avoided these sorts of themes had to either modify their sound or GenreShift completely in order to stay afloat. And because post-grunge had become nearly inseparable from rock music as a whole for over a decade, many rock fans felt that once the genre succumbed to its own fatigue, it did [[TakingYouWithMe lasting damage to rock music's reputation]] and contributed to its decline from the mainstream music scene of the 2010s — Music/{{Shinedown}}’s 2009 #7 hit "Second Chance" remains, as of 2019, the most recent pop crossover hit from the Mainstream Rock genre charts — enabling ElectronicMusic to fill in the void and finally establish a foothold on the mainstream American music consciousness.\\\
Today, post-grunge is held up as a cautionary tale in what happens when you take a genre as unique as grunge and turn it into a [[MoneyDearBoy mass-produced commercial product]]. Only a few bands managed to survive the fall and still consistently put out hits and play to decently sized audiences (though not nearly as large as in their prime). Even then, it was largely because those bands [[NewSoundAlbum incorporated elements of other genres into their sound]] to the point that some would say they're "[[NoTrueScotsman not really post-grunge anyway]]" or [[GenreShift abandoned it altogether]]. Besides them, the scene is a graveyard full of bands that can't chart to save their lives, are stuck playing in small clubs and are little more than SnarkBait (if they aren't completely forgotten altogether). Whenever anyone uses the term [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Butt%20Rock "butt rock"]] in a derisive fashion, they're most likely referring to post-grunge, and one would have a hard time finding a rock band formed in the 10s that plays this style, since LighterAndSofter pop/indie-inspired rock and ElectronicMusic-infused rock have become the vogue, and if a band is going to play harder-edged rock in this day and age, it will most certainly not be in the style of post-grunge.

Finally, the anti-disco backlash is seen by many as having had a very ugly undercurrent. Music historians who have investigated why disco became so fiercely hated agree that overexposure and elitism weren't the sole factors behind the death of disco, but that [[ValuesDissonance homophobia, sexism, and racism]] also played into it (disco having succeeded, if only for a brief time, in uniting Americans across color and sexual lines). Robert Christgau [[http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj78.php called out]] the latent homophobia and racism in the "Disco Sucks" movement as early as 1979, and witnesses to Disco Demolition Night noted a startling amount of destroyed records that belonged to black artists who never actually touched disco. What's more, [[https://timeline.com/disco-sucks-movement-racist-homophobic-2d4e63b43a0e?gi=74d214def5eb the racism was more than open in the Midwest]], as Music/TwistedSister found out.[[note]]They had Music/BarryWhite hung in effigy, which the white male patrons loved, yelling "Hang the n---r!"[[/note]] As WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows [[https://youtu.be/pvzgn9XSjgI?t=4m47s pointed out]], hatred of disco often spilled into a more general backlash by white listeners against ''all'' African-American music, effectively raising a wall between the "white" and "black" music worlds that wouldn't be crossed until the mid-80's, when black artists like Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}} and white artists like Music/TalkingHeads and Music/PeterGabriel became superstars with artistically strong music that was easily accessible to both white and black audiences; top tens in the early 1980's were topped by strictly white-oriented talent such as Eddie Rabbitt and Sheena Easton. While overexposure and concerns of elitism are generally seen as having been more valid reasons for the backlash, the bigotry that intertwined with much of it cause many retrospective analysts to call the nature and extent of the "Disco Sucks" movement into considerable question, with most nowadays feeling that the bigoted aspects ultimately co-opted and overshadowed the whole affair, turning it into a display of far-right strongarming that coincided with the Conservative Revolution of the late 70's. \\

For a time in the late '70s, the music genre of {{disco}} was the biggest thing ever. While it had its roots in the ethnic and gay club scenes of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} in the late '60s and early '70s, it burst into the popular consciousness with the blockbuster success of ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' and its soundtrack in 1977. Clubs like New York's Studio 54 became ''the'' places to be and be seen. Then, even before TheEighties officially started, a backlash emerged from both white and black music listeners. Whites gravitated towards various forms of rock, specifically {{punk|Rock}}, {{new wave|Music}}, [[ProgressiveRock prog rock]] (though that too was on its way out at the time), and assorted types of hard rock and [[HeavyMetal metal]] (including HairMetal, which itself became the Disco of the '80s), and rejected the genre's hip, urban image. Meanwhile, the black leaders of {{funk}} (e.g. Music/GeorgeClinton) actively led a campaign to "rescue dance music from the blahs," rejecting disco's fusion of "their" music style with mainstream pop. Additionally, working-class music listeners rapidly grew resentful of what they perceived to be a culture of elitism in the disco scene, given the large amount of money needed to afford the flashy outfits and dance lessons that were necessary to survive on the dance floor. Not helping matters was a number of factors that added bigotry into the mix: disco's popularity (and continued CultClassic status) in gay clubs, the popularity of black musicians and large presence of nonwhite disco fans, and the European origins of some successful musicians and record labels all became fodder for homomisia, xenomisia, racism, and nationalism to be thrown into the mix, leading disco to be perceived among these crowds as "pretentious, gay, and un-American". Many radio stations promised "[[Music/TheBeeGees Bee Gee]]-free weekends", and a novelty country song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqSBQFJRKq8 "Disco Sucks"]] became a crossover hit on the pop charts. Meanwhile, hard rock and punk rockers mocked it publicly, even if several of them admitted in Creator/VH1's "I Love the '70s" that they thought the soundtrack to ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' was brilliant.\\

Finally, the anti-disco backlash is seen by many as having had a very ugly undercurrent. Music historians who have investigated why disco became so fiercely hated agree that overexposure and elitism weren't the sole factors behind the death of disco, but that [[ValuesDissonance homomisia, sexism, and racism]] also played into it (disco having succeeded, if only for a brief time, in uniting Americans across color and sexual lines). Robert Christgau [[http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj78.php called out]] the latent homomisia and racism in the "Disco Sucks" movement as early as 1979, and witnesses to Disco Demolition Night noted a startling amount of destroyed records that belonged to black artists who never actually touched disco. What's more, [[https://timeline.com/disco-sucks-movement-racist-homophobic-2d4e63b43a0e?gi=74d214def5eb the racism was more than open in the Midwest]], as Music/TwistedSister found out.[[note]]They had Music/BarryWhite hung in effigy, which the white male patrons loved, yelling "Hang the n---r!"[[/note]] As WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows [[https://youtu.be/pvzgn9XSjgI?t=4m47s pointed out]], hatred of disco often spilled into a more general backlash by white listeners against ''all'' African-American music, effectively raising a wall between the "white" and "black" music worlds that wouldn't be crossed until the mid-80's, when black artists like Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}} and white artists like Music/TalkingHeads and Music/PeterGabriel became superstars with artistically strong music that was easily accessible to both white and black audiences; top tens in the early 1980's were topped by strictly white-oriented talent such as Eddie Rabbitt and Sheena Easton. While overexposure and concerns of elitism are generally seen as having been more valid reasons for the backlash, the bigotry that intertwined with much of it cause many retrospective analysts to call the nature and extent of the "Disco Sucks" movement into considerable question, with most nowadays feeling that the bigoted aspects ultimately co-opted and overshadowed the whole affair, turning it into a display of far-right strongarming that coincided with the Conservative Revolution of the late 70's. \\

For a time in the late '70s, the music genre of {{disco}} was the biggest thing ever. While it had its roots in the ethnic and gay club scenes of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} in the late '60s and early '70s, it burst into the popular consciousness with the blockbuster success of ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' and its soundtrack in 1977. Clubs like New York's Studio 54 became ''the'' places to be and be seen. Then, even before TheEighties officially started, a backlash emerged from both white and black music listeners. Whites gravitated towards various forms of rock, specifically {{punk|Rock}}, {{new wave|Music}}, [[ProgressiveRock prog rock]] (though that too was on its way out at the time), and assorted types of hard rock and [[HeavyMetal metal]] (including HairMetal, which itself became the Disco of the '80s), and rejected the genre's hip, urban image. Meanwhile, the black leaders of {{funk}} (e.g. Music/GeorgeClinton) actively led a campaign to "rescue dance music from the blahs," rejecting disco's fusion of "their" music style with mainstream pop. Not helping matters was disco's popularity (and continued CultClassic status) in gay clubs, which added homophobia to the backlash. The European origins of some successful musicians and record labels also added xenophobia and nationalism to the mix, leading disco to be perceived as "pretentious, gay and un-American". Many radio stations promised "[[Music/TheBeeGees Bee Gee]]-free weekends", and a novelty country song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqSBQFJRKq8 "Disco Sucks"]] became a crossover hit on the pop charts. Meanwhile, hard rock and punk rockers mocked it publicly, even if several of them admitted in Creator/VH1's "I Love the '70s" that they thought the soundtrack to ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' was brilliant.\\

Finally, the anti-disco backlash is seen by many as having had a very ugly undercurrent. Music historians who have investigated why disco became so fiercely hated agree that overexposure wasn't the sole factor behind the death of disco, but that [[ValuesDissonance homophobia, sexism, and racism]] also played into it (disco having succeeded, if only for a brief time, in uniting Americans across color and sexual lines). Robert Christgau [[http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj78.php called out]] the latent homophobia and racism in the "Disco Sucks" movement as early as 1979 -- and [[https://timeline.com/disco-sucks-movement-racist-homophobic-2d4e63b43a0e?gi=74d214def5eb it was open racism in the Midwest]], as Music/TwistedSister found out.[[note]]They had Music/BarryWhite hung in effigy, which the white male patrons loved, yelling "Hang the n---r!"[[/note]] As WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows [[https://youtu.be/pvzgn9XSjgI?t=4m47s pointed out]], hatred of disco often spilled into a more general backlash by white listeners against ''all'' African-American music, effectively raising a wall between the "white" and "black" music worlds that wouldn't be crossed until Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}} became huge in the mid '80s; top tens in the early 1980's were topped by such talent as Eddie Rabbitt and Sheena Easton. \\

One of the first real blows to bro-country came in late 2014, when female duo Music/MaddieAndTae came from nowhere with "Girl in a Country Song", a song lampooning bro-country's perspective on women which shot to #1 on the country charts. A few months later in 2015, radio consultant Keith Hill came under fire for making a sexist comment in an interview with ''Country Aircheck'', saying that radio stations should play fewer female than male artists, respectively comparing them to the tomatoes and lettuce in a salad. The ensuing controversy, dubbed [[{{Scandalgate}} "Tomatogate" or "Saladgate"]], led to a massive outcry about sexism and misogyny in the genre. By 2015, Rosen had [[OldShame expressed disdain for coining the term "bro-country"]] and regretted how it had come to become a derogatory term, while many music critics felt that the trends of the subgenre were dying down. Most of the artists who spearheaded bro-country -- Bryan, Aldean, Rhett, and Florida Georgia Line -- weathered the backlash by shifting to a more ballad-driven sound. Even the poppiest-sounding country songs since 2016 have displayed none of bro-country's themes whatsoever, and some artists even began to go out of their way to put more positive portrayals of women in their songs (such as Chris Janson's "Drunk Girl"). Also not helping matters was the changing politics of country music and its fans —- the genre was rapidly gaining popularity with young, culturally liberal women from pockets of the country generally less enthusiastic about country music. These fans were generally much more likely to push back against bro-country than the more conservative and predominantly male fans who made bro-country popular in the first place. As of the late 2010s onward, trends in country music have clearly leaned away from bro-country: many male acts are either offering more sensitive and romantic themes sometimes termed "boyfriend country" (as seen in the likes of Music/DanAndShay, Kane Brown, or even some of Thomas Rhett's later releases) or a more twangy and traditional sound (Music/ChrisStapleton, Music/LukeCombs, Jon Pardi, Midland), while women have started to regain a considerable amount of traction (such as Music/MarenMorris, Music/KelseaBallerini, and Carly Pearce). In short, "bro-country" is very much dead and an OldShame for the genre as a whole.

* Music/TobyKeith was a big name in CountryMusic for many years. His 1993 debut single "Should've Been a Cowboy" was a #1 smash on the country charts and was the most-played song on country radio for the entire 1990s decade. His first three albums were all certified platinum and the fourth was certified gold, and all but two of his first fifteen singles had made Top 10 on the country charts. He hit a bump in the road with some label disputes that caused him to leave Creator/MercuryRecords for Creator/DreamWorksRecords at the end of the decade, but his second [=DreamWorks=] single "How Do You Like Me Now?!" went on to become a five-week #1 smash in 2000, while also becoming the biggest country music hit of the year ''and'' his first top 40 pop hit. He amassed five albums for [=DreamWorks=] between 1999 and the label's closure in 2005, with all five producing a near-endless string of smash hits and, for the first time in his career, multi-platinum sales. The increase in hits was not without controversy, however, as some fans derided him for beginning to include macho posturing in his material (such as "How Do You Like Me Now?!" and the CountryRap "I Wanna Talk About Me"). He also inspired further divisiveness with his [[TheWarOnTerror post-9/11 release]] "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)", which some felt was too over-the-top in its PatrioticFervor (and the subject of a highly publicized feud with Natalie Maines of the Music/DixieChicks). Despite the pushback over his new image, he remained a major draw at radio, and seamlessly moved to his own Show Dog label after [=DreamWorks=] Records closed.\\\

As of TheNewTens, Keith himself is now seen as a punchline for the use of cartoonishly overblown PatrioticFervor (not helped when he kept going back to America well so many times with "American Soldier", "American Ride", and "Made in America" -- nor by such things as his restaurant chain unironically calling its French fries "freedom fries" as late as 2015!), TestosteronePoisoning (see "I Wanna Talk About Me", "Who's Your Daddy?", "She's a Hottie", etc.), and [[TheAlcoholic booze]] (nearly every single from "Red Solo Cup" onward) in country music, as well as [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the utter incompetence of his label]].

* Music/{{Sugarland}} went from being one of the hottest duos in country music to falling completely off the radar. The group was founded by lead vocalist Jennifer Nettles, guitarist/mandolinist Kristian Bush, and guitarist Kristen Hall, all of whom had varying degrees of success in Atlanta's folk-rock scene. Their debut album ''Twice the Speed of Life'' produced three Top 10 hits and sold double-platinum, and Nettles sang duet vocals on Music/BonJovi's "Who Says You Can't Go Home", a surprise hit on country radio in summer 2006. Not even losing Hall after the first album seemed to slow them down, as their second album sold even better, and accounted for their first #1 hits along with the SignatureSong "Stay", a spare five-minute acoustic ballad which won them two Grammys. ''Love on the Inside'' fared almost as well as its predecessors, netting the duo three more #1 hits and becoming their first album to reach #1 on Top Country Albums. Sugarland was also sweeping the Duo categories at the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association, and seemed to be dethroning Music/BrooksAndDunn as the genre's biggest duo.\\\

* Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten?" was a huge country hit in 2003, ascending to the top of the country charts in only five weeks (tying an at-the-time record for fastest ascent to the top) and staying there for seven weeks, in addition to peaking at #22 on the Hot 100. The song was intended to bridge the gap between 9/11 and the Iraq War, with [[PatrioticFervor politically charged]] lines like "Have you forgotten how it felt that day / To see your homeland under fire and her people blown away?" and "You say we shouldn't worry 'bout [[UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden Bin Laden]]". While the country fanbase took very well to the song for its patriotic themes, many people who weren't country fans derided it as an aimless tune full of straw-man arguments. Between its {{narm}} factor and the [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece lyrics that could only have come from one very specific time period]] -- it's hard to "worry 'bout Bin Laden" anymore now that he's dead, and the US pulled out of Iraq at the start of UsefulNotes/TheNewTens -- this song isn't played at all anymore, not even around patriotic holidays like Memorial Day or Independence Day.

One of the first real blows to bro-country came in late 2014, when female duo Maddie & Tae came from nowhere with "Girl in a Country Song", a song lampooning bro-country's perspective on women which shot to #1 on the country charts. A few months later in 2015, radio consultant Keith Hill came under fire for making a sexist comment in an interview with ''Country Aircheck'', saying that radio stations should play fewer female than male artists, respectively comparing them to the tomatoes and lettuce in a salad. The ensuing controversy, dubbed [[{{Scandalgate}} "Tomatogate" or "Saladgate"]], led to a massive outcry about sexism and misogyny in the genre. By 2015, Rosen had [[OldShame expressed disdain for coining the term "bro-country"]] and regretted how it had come to become a derogatory term, while many music critics felt that the trends of the subgenre were dying down. Most of the artists who spearheaded bro-country -- Bryan, Aldean, Rhett, and Florida Georgia Line -- weathered the backlash by shifting to a more ballad-driven sound. Even the poppiest-sounding country songs since 2016 have displayed none of bro-country's themes whatsoever, and some artists even began to go out of their way to put more positive portrayals of women in their songs (such as Chris Janson's "Drunk Girl"). Also not helping matters was the changing politics of country music and its fans —- the genre was rapidly gaining popularity with young, culturally liberal women from pockets of the country generally less enthusiastic about country music. These fans were generally much more likely to push back against bro-country than the more conservative and predominantly male fans who made bro-country popular in the first place. As of the late 2010s onward, trends in country music have clearly leaned away from bro-country: many male acts are either offering more sensitive and romantic themes sometimes termed "boyfriend country" (as seen in the likes of Music/DanAndShay, Kane Brown, or even some of Thomas Rhett's later releases) or a more twangy and traditional sound (Music/ChrisStapleton, Music/LukeCombs, Jon Pardi, Midland), while women have started to regain a considerable amount of traction (such as Music/MarenMorris, Music/KelseaBallerini, and Carly Pearce). In short, "bro-country" is very much dead and an OldShame for the genre as a whole.

However, a number of factors would lead to his career's demise before the decade ended. Firstly, for someone who claimed to be a hardcore gangsta rapper, he sang far too often in his songs (and wasn't even a good singer to boot). Another was his overabundance of, as WebVideo/TheRapCritic describes, "thugs need love too" songs. Essentially, these were songs that had a female on the chorus singing soulfully about how much they need Ja Rule and what great a person he is, while he, in turn, raps about hardcore sex and how much of a gangster he still is despite his relationship with her. While these songs did do well, "Always on Time" being one of them, the dissonance was too much for some people, as a woman saying how much she loves you while you're simultaneously calling her a bitch and gold-digging whore rubbed people the wrong way. An ill-advised collaboration song with Music/{{Metallica}} in 2002 also didn't help matters.\\\

However, a number of factors would lead to his career's demise before the decade ended. Firstly, for someone who claimed to be a hardcore gangsta rapper, he sang far too often in his songs (and wasn't even a good singer to boot). Another was his overabundance of, as WebVideo/TheRapCritic describes, "thugs need love too" songs. Essentially, these were songs that had a female on the chorus singing soulfully about how much they need Ja Rule and what great a person he is, while he, in turn, raps about hardcore sex and how much of a gangster he still is despite his relationship with her. While these songs did do well, "Always on Time" being one of them, the dissonance was too much for some people, as a woman saying how much she loves you while you're simultaneously calling her a bitch and gold-digging whore rubbed people the wrong way.\\\

It got to the point where, on July 12, 1979, the UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams White Sox]] (whose South Side base meant that their fans were black and white in about equal measure) hosted a "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Disco Demolition Night]]" promotion (see picture on main page, see Wiki/TheOtherWiki for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night more information]]), the brainchild of a White Sox executive and a spurned album-oriented rock (code for progressive) DJ. Fans could bring in their disco records in exchange for less than a dollar admission; since the game was a doubleheader[[note]]Incidentally, against the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} Tigers, probably the closest thing the White Sox have to a rival within the American League. The Sox, of course, have a FandomRivalry with the Cubs, but until interleague play was instituted in 1997, they had only played each other in six official games--all part of the 1906 World Series.[[/note]] the plan was the records would get blown up in the middle of the field between the games, and the stands at Comiskey would be extra-full because everyone and their uncle would pay to see those stupid disco records get what they deserved. Instead, the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game (the last time a game was forfeited in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} American League]]) after the explosion led to a riot--fueled by another ill-considered moneymaking venture that afternoon: Comiskey Park had a discount on beer that day (whoops). It got so bad that even rock artists who were ''influenced'' by disco, like Music/RodStewart and African-American Creator/{{Motown}} record artists like Music/MarvinGaye, were attacked and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvxD1v-NXg parodied.]]\\

However, the band's popularity rapidly collapsed in the early-mid '00s. First was when their guitarist Wes Borland left - [[EnsembleDarkhorse he was a fan-favorite and considered the most talented band member]], so his departure left a huge hole in the lineup. Next, they were forced off the stage on the Chicago date of the [[Music/{{Metallica}} Summer Sanitarium Tour]] in 2003 when audience members hurled trash at Durst and chanted "FUCK FRED DURST!" until Durst stormed offstage. Finally, their 2003 album ''Results May Vary'' was delayed multiple times, got terrible reviews when it finally came out, and barely made it past platinum. Not helping matters was an ill-received cover of "[[Music/TheWho Behind Blue Eyes]]". This album proved to be a GenreKiller for Nu Metal (which was already in decline at the time, and had also come to hate Limp Bizkit as a whole; the general feeling within nu metal was that they had made a monster that was going to destroy the genre, and had turned it into every single thing it was not supposed to be) and a CreatorKiller for Limp Bizkit, as the band soon went on a hiatus. They later reunited in 2011, when their album ''Gold Cobra'' got the best reviews in their career, yet it debuted at a dismal #16 on the Billboard 200. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7r1IctCR_A "Endless Slaughter"]], their latest single off of the [[DevelopmentHell oft-delayed]] ''Stampede of the Disco Elephants'', was met with near-unanimous derision and was widely decried as an incoherent, nonsensical mess.\\\

However, as he got more and more popular, an equally large backlash had also been forming. He was already widely disliked for his use of auto-tune that so many mimicked, as well as his lyrics that often [[OdeToIntoxication glorified]] the use of [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll alcohol and drugs]] and [[MisogynySong objectified women]]. Auto-Tune itself was also starting to get a backlash by the '10s, which may have been spearheaded by Music/JayZ's hit "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)", made as a response to the omnipresence of the software. T-Pain began to be seen as a symbol of what was wrong with urban music, and while it wasn't immediately noticeable, the fall was beginning to take place. His 2008 album ''[=Thr33=] Ringz'' only peaked at #4 on charts despite being released a year after his last chart-topping album, producing one Top 10 with "Can't Believe It" that was powered by Music/LilWayne, and two other songs that only barely scraped the Top 40. Aside from a minor success with DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win" in 2010, the transition to the '10s marked the beginning of the end for him. While 2011's ''REVOLVEЯ'' produced a #10 hit with "5 O'Clock", featuring Wiz Khalifa and Music/LilyAllen, it was powered solely by a strong debut from Khalifa's fanbase, as he was a hot, fast-rising rapper at the time (and, to a lesser extent, some Americans deciding to give Allen a chance after [[AmericansHateTingle ignoring her for years]]). The followup "Turn All the Lights On" (featuring Music/NeYo) failed to even reach the ''Hot 100''; the album itself only debuted at a measly #28 and became his first album to not reach certification. Robotic auto-tune began to die out because of this; the many artists he influenced began to move away from that kind of sound. Not helping matters was hip-hop and R&B's general decline from being ''the'' mainstream genres, and the rise of ElectronicMusic supplanting it at clubs and parties. This may have been the result of hip-hop being flooded with obvious auto-tune in the first place. All of this left T-Pain in a tough spot since he couldn't easily escape the backlash to auto-tune due to being the GenrePopularizer for it. The fall became evident in 2013 when he released "Up Down (Do this all Day)", which featured B.o.B., and it reached a measly #62. The following year, he released a {{greatest hits album}} titled ''T-Pain Presents Happy Hour: The Greatest Hits'', which didn't even make the Top 200. T-Pain is set to release his fourth album ''Stoicville'', which has been [[ScheduleSlip repeatedly delayed since 2014]] and the three singles he released for it, [[TitleTrack "Stoicville"]], "Make that Shit Work" and "Roof on Fye", have failed to chart anywhere at all.\\\

Since then, Ja Rule has all but vanished from the spotlight and is now viewed as one of the prime examples of rappers who tried to leech off Tupac's fame and influence. He has been in and out of jail for various drug, gun and assault offenses, and the most noteworthy news to spring from him came in 2017 when he was indicted for fraud due to his involvement in the debacle known as the Fyre Festival. His last album, ''Pain is Love 2'' from 2012, received tepid reviews and only sold 3,200 copies. While he has a new album, ''Twelve'', scheduled for February 29, 2020, it's doubtful he will reach the heights he did in the 2000s.

However, the band's popularity rapidly collapsed in the early-mid '00s. First was when their guitarist Wes Borland left - [[EnsembleDarkhorse he was a fan-favorite and considered the most talented band member]], so his departure left a huge hole in the lineup. Next, their 2003 album ''Results May Vary'' was delayed multiple times, got terrible reviews when it finally came out, and barely made it past platinum. Not helping matters was an ill-received cover of "[[Music/TheWho Behind Blue Eyes]]". This album proved to be a GenreKiller for Nu Metal (which was already in decline at the time) and a CreatorKiller for Limp Bizkit, as the band soon went on a hiatus. They later reunited in 2011, when their album ''Gold Cobra'' got the best reviews in their career, yet it debuted at a dismal #16 on the Billboard 200. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7r1IctCR_A "Endless Slaughter"]], their latest single off of the [[DevelopmentHell oft-delayed]] ''Stampede of the Disco Elephants'', was met with near-unanimous derision and was widely decried as an incoherent, nonsensical mess.\\\

One of the first real blows to bro-country came in late 2014, when female duo Maddie & Tae came from nowhere with "Girl in a Country Song", a song lampooning bro-country's perspective on women which shot to #1 on the country charts. A few months later in 2015, radio consultant Keith Hill came under fire for making a sexist comment in an interview with ''Country Aircheck'', saying that radio stations should play fewer female than male artists, respectively comparing them to the tomatoes and lettuce in a salad. The ensuing controversy, dubbed [[{{Scandalgate}} "Tomatogate" or "Saladgate"]], led to a massive outcry about sexism and misogyny in the genre. By 2015, Rosen had [[OldShame expressed disdain for coining the term "bro-country"]] and regretted how it had come to become a derogatory term, while many music critics felt that the trends of the subgenre were dying down. Most of the artists who spearheaded bro-country -- Bryan, Aldean, Rhett, and Florida Georgia Line -- weathered the backlash by shifting to a more ballad-driven sound. Even the poppiest-sounding country songs since 2016 have displayed none of bro-country's themes whatsoever, and some artists even began to go out of their way to put more positive portrayals of women in their songs (such as Chris Janson's "Drunk Girl"). Also not helping matters was the changing politics of country music and its fans —- the genre was rapidly gaining popularity with young, culturally liberal women from pockets of the country generally less enthusiastic about country music. These fans were generally much more likely to push back against bro-country than the more conservative and predominantly male fans who made bro-country popular in the first place. Combined with the rise of more traditionally-minded male artists such as Midland, Music/LukeCombs, Music/ChrisStapleton, and Jon Pardi and a resurgence of new female artists such as Runaway June, Music/KaceyMusgraves, Music/KelseaBallerini, Carly Pearce, and Music/MarenMorris, and it's safe to say that bro-country has gone the way of the dodo.

Its downfall came almost as swiftly as its rise for theww reasons. The first was the rise of smartphones, which allowed people to store a library of hundreds of full songs on their phones, killing off the ringtone market. The derisive term "ringtone rap" was largely referring to snap, and as the genre derived most of its popularity from cheap digital singles and ringtones, this view was not inaccurate. The second was backlash from both hip-hop fans and the mainstream as a whole, who saw snap as stupid, substance-devoid, and MoneyDearBoy personified.[[GenreKiller The third and final killing blow]] was likely Music/SouljaBoy's backlash. By the end of 2008, snap was having its last gasp by way of V.I.C.'s "Get Silly"; following this, the genre spent 2009 rapidly dying and was essentially gone completely by 2010. Nowadays, snap is viewed as the absolute nadir of 2000s pop music and one of the worst things to ever happen to hip-hop, and there has been absolutely nothing even resembling a revival of the genre. The artists themselves are invariably remembered as {{one hit wonder}}s if they even are remembered, as it's more likely that people will just recognize the songs without knowing who recorded them.

* {{Crunk}} music is firmly dead in the water today. Created by the Music/ThreeSixMafia in the '90s, and then [[GenrePopularizer popularized by]] Music/LilJon and the Eastside Boyz in 2003 with their huge hit "Get Low", it was absolutely massive in the mid-2000s. It was this genre that put SouthernRap on the map, making the city of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} ''the'' capital of HipHop (an effect that's still being felt today). Crunk filled clubs and house parties all across the nation, basically being to rap in the '00s as to what PostGrunge was to rock music in that same decade. And not unlike post-grunge, crunk quickly gained a large number of detractors both in the hip-hop community and out, with its [[MisogynySong misogynistic objectifying of women]], [[OdeToIntoxication glorification of drugs]], and screaming lyrics about immature subject matter (primarily about being drunk/stoned, and [[IntercourseWithYou having sex with prostitutes/strippers]] InDaClub, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs or both]]) that took ClusterFBomb and NWordPrivileges to the extreme (which, being a subgenre of HipHop, is really saying something). [[GenreKiller The final killing blow]] was likely Music/SouljaBoy's backlash. Today, virtually all crunk artists are completely forgotten, with the possible exception of Lil Jon (mainly because of his viral hit "Turn Down for What", in collaboration with DJ Snake). The basic idea of crunk ("danceable hip-hop music") lives on in the form of TrapMusic, but the genre itself is unlikely to come back anytime soon, as it's among [[TheScrappy the most hated genres]] of hip-hop and modern music in general.

Its downfall came almost as swiftly as its rise for two reasons. The first was the rise of smartphones, which allowed people to store a library of hundreds of full songs on their phones, killing off the ringtone market. The derisive term "ringtone rap" was largely referring to snap, and as the genre derived most of its popularity from cheap digital singles and ringtones, this view was not inaccurate. The second was backlash from both hip-hop fans and the mainstream as a whole, who saw snap as stupid, substance-devoid, and MoneyDearBoy personified. By the end of 2008, snap was having its last gasp by way of V.I.C.'s "Get Silly"; following this, the genre spent 2009 rapidly dying and was essentially gone completely by 2010. Nowadays, snap is viewed as the absolute nadir of 2000s pop music and one of the worst things to ever happen to hip-hop, and there has been absolutely nothing even resembling a revival of the genre. The artists themselves are invariably remembered as {{one hit wonder}}s if they even are remembered, as it's more likely that people will just recognize the songs without knowing who recorded them.

* PostGrunge is dead in the water today, being to the TurnOfTheMillennium what the trope namer was to TheSeventies - the punchline of a decade. It originated when bands played music that took the [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth most popular elements]] of {{Grunge}} music while scrubbing down the more experimental elements and doing away with the dark lyrics that were undergoing a backlash at the time due in part to Music/KurtCobain's suicide. Post-grunge quickly became the most popular mainstream rock genre in the late '90s and only continued to get bigger in the 2000s, providing an ample amount of crossover hits and the forerunners of the genre such as Music/FooFighters, Music/{{Creed}}, and Music/{{Nickelback}} became some of the biggest bands in the world. And since post-grunge was mainstream friendly, people flocked to it to get away from more "dangerous" music genres; then, when "dangerous" music was in vogue again, a wave of harder-tinged acts like Hinder, Buckcherry, and Saving Abel came out to cater to those who were starting to write the original acts off as too light (though it was still mainstream-friendly).\\\

For a time in the late '70s, the music genre of {{disco}} was the biggest thing ever. While it had its roots in the ethnic and gay club scenes of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} in the late '60s and early '70s, it burst into the popular consciousness with the blockbuster success of ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' and its soundtrack in 1977. Clubs like New York's Studio 54 became ''the'' places to be and be seen. Then, even before TheEighties officially started, a backlash emerged from both white and black music listeners. Whites gravitated towards various forms of rock, specifically {{punk|Rock}}, {{new wave|Music}}, [[ProgressiveRock prog rock]] (though that too was on its way out at the time), and assorted types of hard rock and [[HeavyMetal metal]] (including HairMetal, which itself became the Disco of the '80s), and rejected the genre's hip, urban image. Meanwhile, the black leaders of {{funk}} (e.g. Music/GeorgeClinton) actively led a campaign to "rescue dance music from the blahs," rejecting disco's fusion of "their" music style with mainstream pop structure. Not helping matters was disco's popularity (and continued CultClassic status) in gay clubs, which added homophobia to the backlash. The European origins of some successful musicians and record labels also added xenophobia and nationalism to the mix. Many radio stations promised "[[Music/TheBeeGees Bee Gee]]-free weekends", and a novelty country song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqSBQFJRKq8 "Disco Sucks"]] became a crossover hit on the pop charts. Meanwhile, hard rock and punk rockers mocked it publicly, even if several of them admitted in Creator/VH1's "I Love the '70s" that they thought the soundtrack to ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' was brilliant.\\

Since then, Ja Rule has all but vanished from the spotlight and is now viewed as one of the prime examples of rappers who tried to leech off Tupac's fame and influence. He has been in and out of jail for various drug, gun and assault offenses, and the most noteworthy news to spring from him came in 2017 when he was indicted for fraud due to his involvement in the debacle known as the Fyre Festival. His last album, "Pain is Love 2" from 2012, received tepid reviews and only sold 3,200 copies. While he is reportedly working on another album for 2019, it's doubtful he will reach the heights he did in the 2000s.

* The sub-genre of bro-country has come to be this. In late 2012, duo Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine had a smash crossover with their debut single "Cruise", which would set the tone of country music by male artists in the years to come: hip-hop beats, hair-metal guitar work, and street slang were combined with lyrics about hot women, trucks, beer, and partying. In other words, bro-country effectively ran the hedonism of GlamRap through both {{fratbro}} and DeepSouth filters simultaneously. An article published in 2013 by ''New York'' magazine writer Jody Rosen coined the term "bro-country" to describe the insurgence of artists who were playing FollowTheLeader in the wake of "Cruise", including up-and-comers like Music/ColeSwindell, Music/SamHunt, Music/ThomasRhett, Music/BrantleyGilbert, and Chase Rice (who co-wrote "Cruise"). Existing acts like Music/LukeBryan, Music/JakeOwen, Music/BlakeShelton, and Music/JasonAldean also released singles that were at least partially indebted to the new sound. While younger male fans kept the songs in heavy radio rotation and strong sales, bro-country was quickly subject to derision for being StrictlyFormula, as lampshaded in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o a viral video mashup which played six bro-country songs on top of each other]] to show that [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth they all sounded pretty much the same]]. The genre was also mocked for its misogynistic and shallow lyrics, along with an overall absence of country influence. Even other artists lambasted the shift: Music/{{Zac Brown|Band}} openly called Bryan's mid-2013 hit "That's My Kind of Night" one of the worst songs he had ever heard, and Music/SteveEarle called it "hip-hop for people who are afraid of black people" and criticized new male artists from Nashville, while artists such as Music/BradPaisley and Music/KennyChesney expressed derision toward the mindset that bro-country was creating.\\\

* Music/{{Creed}} was arguably the biggest band in the world around the turn of the 21st century, reaching their peak with their Diamond-selling sophomore album ''Human Clay'' in 1999. However, between frontman Scott Stapp's on- and off-stage antics and their {{Signature Song}}s "With Arms Wide Open" and "Higher" being played on a seemingly infinite loop on the radio, a backlash formed from which the band would never recover despite breakups, reunions, and follow-up albums. The tipping point came when the band performed in Chicago at the Allstate Arena in 2002. Stapp was so drunk that he could barely stand up, and he fell off the stage several times and eventually got booed off after only three songs, with many people calling it one of the absolute worst performances in the history of rock music. Creed soon broke up, and [[TheBandMinusTheFace the backing band]] formed Music/AlterBridge with a different singer. While never nearly as successful as Creed (just one gold album and a #1 Mainstream Rock hit), Alter Bridge is [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel a much more respected band, with Mark Tremonti becoming an elite guitarist]]. When Creed reunited in 2009, tour sales were so poor that tickets cost ''less than a dollar.'' Stapp's personal life, meanwhile, spiraled out of control, to the point that he was broke and living alone in a hotel for a period of time.\\\

* The sub-genre of bro-country has come to be this. In late 2012, duo Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine had a smash crossover with their debut single "Cruise", which would set the tone of country music by male artists in the years to come: hip-hop beats, hair-metal guitar work, and street slang were combined with lyrics about hot women, trucks, beer, and partying. In other words, bro-country effectively ran the hedonism of GlamRap through both {{fratbro}} and DeepSouth filters simultaneously. An article published in 2013 by ''New York'' magazine writer Jody Rosen coined the term "bro-country" to describe the insurgence of artists who were playing FollowTheLeader in the wake of "Cruise", including up-and-comers like Music/ColeSwindell, Music/SamHunt, Music/ThomasRhett, Music/BrantleyGilbert, and Chase Rice (who co-wrote "Cruise"). Existing acts like Music/LukeBryan, Music/JakeOwen, Music/BlakeShelton, and Music/JasonAldean also released singles that were at least partially indebted to the new sound. While younger male fans kept the songs in heavy radio rotation and strong sales, bro-country was quickly subject to derision for being StrictlyFormula, as lampshaded in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o a viral video mashup which played six bro-country songs on top of each other]] to show that [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth they all sounded pretty much the same]]. The genre was also mocked for its misogynistic and shallow lyrics, along with an overall absence of country influence. Even other artists lambasted the shift: Music/{{Zac Brown|Band}} openly called Bryan's mid-2013 hit "That's My Kind of Night" one of the worst songs he had ever heard, and artists such as Music/BradPaisley and Music/KennyChesney expressed derision toward the mindset that bro-country was creating.\\\

Attacked on two sides and with a powerful image against it, disco was fading fast and completely dead in early 1981, and with it the fashions and styles related to or heavily associated with it (such as flared trousers). For the rest of TheEighties, admitting that you liked disco may as well have been admitting to cannibalism. While dance artists like Music/{{Madonna}} and Music/JanetJackson continued to take influence from it (not to mention the influence it had on early hip-hop), whatever remaining fandom the genre itself still had was restricted to gay clubs, which marginalized it even further. Disco would start to reemerge (or at least, come to the surface for fresh air) during TheNineties' [[PopularityPolynomial wave of nostalgia for the '70s and its backlash against all things '80s]], mainly in the form of {{sampling}} for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiKOif0UKRM rap and]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSV0D_Id8Ho&feature dance songs]] (it didn't hurt that most popular dance music, particularly {{house|Music}} and its offshoots, can trace its lineage straight back to disco). Still, during this same time, ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had a character named [[DiscoDan Disco Stu]] who was used almost purely for comic relief, showing that the genre was still a ways away from returning to public acceptance.\\

The first sign of serious trouble was when both of singles from 2010's ''All American Nightmare'' barely charted (though the TitleTrack was a #6 hit) and the album itself only debuted at #37. While plenty of bands would still see this as a big success, it was a ''massive'' slide from where they were. Not only did this not correct itself by 2012, but ''Welcome to the Freakshow'', their fourth major-label album, debuted at #65 (only selling 60,000 copies as of 2015), and "Save Me", the lead single, charted even lower. Sales were so bad that their major label Republic Records unceremoniously dropped them. The final nail in the coffin was when frontman and founder Austin Winkler left the band ''in the middle of a tour'' due to his drug issues. The band tested out Jared Weeks, the former frontman of Music/SavingAbel (another band that fell to complete obscurity when post-grunge declined), for the rest of their tour, only for him to leave soon afterward. Now signed to The End Records, a rock label owned by rising star BMG, they released ''When the Smoke Clears'' with a friend of the band on vocals to negative reviews; it managed to peak in the 70s on the Billboard 200 before vanishing the next week. Lead single "Hit the Ground" barely charted on Mainstream Rock, and the band had to crowdfund the album just to try and build some buzz due to nonexistent promotion from their label. Hinder's 2017 album, ''The Reign'', failed to chart, with "Remember Me" peaking at a lamentable ''#39'' on rock radio. Around that time, the remaining band members sued former lead singer Winkler [[http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7949080/hinder-sues-former-lead-singer-trademark over trademark infringement]].\\\

In 2017, Scantlin went to rehab, later sobered up and settled his legal problems. The band released its fifth album ''Welcome to Galvania'' in September 2019, which missed the Billboard 200. Despite very poor sales (about 1,675 copies [not including streams/tracks] on its first week), ''Galvania'' was generally seen as an improvement over ''Volume 4'', with lead single "Uh Oh" tapping into the Mainstream Rock Top 15. Today, Puddle of Mudd is one of the most hated bands of the new millennium, with any reference to them today only being done to criticize Wes Scantlin's "whiny voice" (or his uncanny resemblance to professional wrestler Wrestling/{{Edge}}) or as another example of "X-rated post-grunge garbage." Even in the "never say never" world that is the music industry, Puddle of Mudd has fallen so hard that it would be nothing short of a '''miracle''' for them to regain any respect.