Are the Foo Fighters really that popular???

[budda12ax7]

Watched the Glastonbury performance....I know songs off their first three albums, but nothing after that. Are they that popular...?? They seem to have become the de-facto "rock band" of the ages. I love Pat Smear, but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FC-f9cXwRI

[sal paradise]

Yes, they had 2-3 pretty big songs on each of their first 6 albums. They been playing stadium sized shows consistently for the last 20 years or so. It definitely helps that every Foo Fighters song/album is instantly recognisable & sounds alike.

De-facto rock band is probably the right term. The drop in mainstream sent a lot of fair-weather rock fans their way imo.

Amazing live. And it’s Dave Grohl. With Pat Smear. And I’m also a NUFAN fan boy, as well as a Sunny day real estate fan back in the day.

Their secret show in London back in 2014 or so was unreal. They played for 3 hours in a tiny club, only changed guitars once for different songs in a different tuning.

Long story short, they deserve the popularity even if I have never gone much deeper than a few albums & their greatest hits.

[Embenny]

Yeah, the Foo Fighters are an interesting case. They're basically the youngest (i.e. last) band to achieve "rock god" status because of Dave Grohl. With Kurt dead and Krist not being in the music scene, and Nirvana being the last rock band to ever truly have an impact on pop culture, Dave sort of inherited the mantle. Younger/smaller acts can't fill arenas like Dave can. If a kid grew up in the last 30 years or so with "average" exposure to music, and wanted to focus their hero worship on a rock musician, Dave Grohl was the closest thing they'd probably be able to find.

Previous generations of rock fans had multiple people to choose from. The last couple basically had one. Most of the older alternatives either stopped touring, stopped making new music, or died. Nobody younger ever had as much reach. Nirvana marked the inflection point where rock's impact on popular culture started shrinking. Sad but true.

Of course, many rock subgenres are alive and well, they've just become more niche. Unless there's another cultural moment where a rock band breaks through to the mainstream the way Nirvana did, there will never be another rock musician worshipped by as many fans as Dave Grohl. Rock music is following in the footsteps of previous cultural phenomena like jazz, where it persists and diversifies, but never reaches the popular status it enjoyed in its first few decades.

It feels weird, but it really seems to be a product of broad cultural trends more so than the actual music his current band has been producing in the last 10-20 years.

[budda12ax7]

Yes, that makes sense. I liked his book, but maybe I need to listen to their recent stuff. Good points in the above two posts.

[sal paradise]

Yes, that makes sense. I liked his book, but maybe I need to listen to their recent stuff. Good points in the above two posts.

Wasting Light & the new album are probably the best beyond their first few if you want the classic Foo Fighters sound.

[dinosaurkale->]

yeah. they are

[Telliot]

Is it weird that I think of them as modern classic rock?

[marqueemoon]

Is it weird that I think of them as modern classic rock?

Not at all.

[Embenny]

Yeah, their first album is about to turn 30 years old. I'd definitely have called AC/DC classic rock in 2003, when they were the same age.

[tombs]

I think they deliver on every album. And as many said, it's not only Dave, the other members are top too. Never saw the live but I guess I wouldn't be disappointed. I just don't like stadiums or huge arenas

[OffYourFace]

not a fan but DG is a good guy. I give him huge props for going out and BBQing for homeless people all day and night

[BoringPostcards]

I LOVED their first album. The second was mostly good. Haven’t really dig into the later ones at all.
Dave Grohl is a really funny and nice chap.

[Jonesie]

As others have said, they're a great live band. In my mind they're "our generation's" Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. You somehow know the words to every one of their singles when they play the songs live.

[Futuron]

It's weird for me, because I lost interest in them about 20 years ago when the music seemed to have lost most of its raw edge, traded in for that boring stadium sound.

[Chippertheripper]

Wasting light is where I checked out…
IMHO, that’s where they became true dad rock. They definitely always carried a dad edge, but had always blended in enough interesting stuff to make it worthwhile, listenable, and enjoyable, but WL was so boring and such a letdown for me, that I walked away.
I’ll give the newest one a go for science.