10 Hard Rock Bands That Totally Sold Out
3. Creed
It may seem a bit weird saying this nowadays, but Creed started off their career with a lot of potential. The band's debut My Own Prison is full of dark introspective songs with a more crunchy approach to the guitar riffs. Sure, it might have sounded a bit derivative of grunge, but it had a lot of promise to it.
Once the band reached the major labels though, their sound shifted drastically to include a certain alt-rock polish. Instead of dropping the Eddie Vedder mannerisms of the band's first album, Scott Stapp doubled down on the more yarly vocal delivery and ended up quickly becoming a caricature of himself.
With the band finding a whole different audience with the massive Human Clay album, their follow up Weathered was the point where we realized that the band was officially out of ideas and were looking to make a cash grab. It's almost a shame looking back on these records, with the non-Stapp members of Creed not able to truly showcase their talent like they are able to do in Alter Bridge. It's easy to roast a band who didn't have good songs from the start, but it stings even more when a band had the potential to be something good and decided not to.