10 Worst Hard Rock Lyrics Of The 2000s
6. Old School Hollywood - System Of A Down
Worst Offender: "Old School Hollywood baseball/Jack Gilardi is 10 feet tall"
As '00s America gave way to a new political regime, the new faces of nu metal had begun to speak up and say their piece on the matter. Though bands like Rage Against the Machine had since fallen by the wayside, System of a Down became a savior for rock fans, with thoughtful lyrics and unforgiving teardowns of those drunk with power. Even though the Mezmerize/Hypnotize twin albums capture the band at their most venomous, there are a few rough edges to sift through.
From a conceptual standpoint, "Old School Hollywood" is actually pretty great, with Daron Malakian tackling artificial celebrity culture and the fake emotions that come from it. However, when inspiration comes from a celebrity softball game, the very literal lyrics from Malakian tend to take you out of the experience. As opposed to veiling the experience in a metaphor, a lot of the song lyrics read as Malakian absent-mindedly insulting his fellow softball players rather than actually making a point.
It's great that Malakian got to rub elbows with Frankie Avalon and Tony Danza, but we aren't able to hear the full teardown of Hollywood until "Lost in Hollywood" in the next track. System of a Down have above-average standards when it comes to lyrics, but Malakian's strongly-worded metaphors didn't take him nearly as far as the rest of the band's tunes.