That's true, I wear baggy pants and baseball caps, have tattoos on my arms and everything automatically thinks I'm a gangster and that I listen to rap music. In fact, I hate 99% of rap music, and 100% of mainstream rap music. They freak out to see that my music collection is 90% HEAVY metal and 10% a little of everything else. They say my look doesn't match my taste. I tell them that I just dress how I find comfortable, I don't have to listen to rap because of how I dress, and vice-versa, I don't have to have long hair and ear gauges because I listen to metal. I listen to what I like and dress in what I like. I actually like Slipknot, it's funny because 5 years ago I used to hate them and make fun of them, but now I really like them a lot. Although Mushroomhead and Mudvayne are much better bands who have a similar look and sound, I still enjoy Slipknot too.

Slipknot? More like Shitknot. Slipknot always has been and always will be trash. I'd much rather listen to 90's punk music than mainstream music. Bands like Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, and Disturbed are garbage. August Burns Red... Now thats some good music.

I just listened to some August Burns Red out of curiosity, and I honestly can't tell the difference between that and any of the mainstream stuff you just dissed.

This is still the most kick ass song I've heard all year and it's from one of the most mainstream rock bands around.

Don't forget Korn.

Yup, and Korn. I didn't mention them because I was trying to think of bands that I like and for some reason I never got into Korn that much but they're definitely Nu Metal, in fact many people argue that they created the genre. I also said "Old Linkin Park" because they've changed so much I don't even know what the hell to call them anymore, their newest cd doesn't even sound like rock music at all, more like weird trance-pop-electronica or something and before that they were really Alternative, so who knows with them, but I still like them.

As for August Burns Red, they're a very good Metalcore band, one of my favorites in the genre. I just prefer other Metalcore guys like Bleeding Through, Burn In Silence, Caliban, The Empire Shall Fall, and Still Remains over them, but I still jam out to them a lot. and I don't think they sound anything like Slipknot or Disturbed, but that's cause I'm used to the various styles.

A lot of bands try to experiment or evolve with their music, getting worse over time. Only a few seem to know how to keep things fresh while still sounding good.

True, there's some bands where I actually prefer their newer sounds over their older ones, such as Cancer Bats and Bleeding Through, both got a lot heavier as they evolved. Most bands go the other way, like All That Remains and Killswitch Engage are doing. Killswitch got softer after losing Jesse Leach, but Jesse's two new groups are amazing as hell, sound like old school Killswitch Engage. All That Remains is getting more Alternative, slowly, still good though, just no as heavy as they once were. Mudvayne doesn't sound anything like they used to either, they're a lot softer now than they used to be (I preferred their older stuff), but they remain one of my all time favorite bands ever. So some bands age better than others. As far as mainstream metal/rock goes, I enjoy a lot of it, including really poppy groups like Bullet For My Valentine. The majority of my collection is of really obscure bands though, I mean how many people really know who any of these groups are:
Solution.45
Beneath the Sky
Antagonist
Bleed the Sky
Better Left Unsaid
Thy Art Is Murder
And Hell Followed With
Neaera
Mors Principium Est
Sylosis
System Divide
Miseration
Raintime
Into Eternity
Centicore
Abysmal Torment
Circle of Dead Children
Rose Funeral
Heart of a Coward
Distorted
Mercenary
Fear My Thoughts
The Unguided
Threat Signal
Hatesphere
Destruction of a Rose
etc.

That's one of the reasons I love Sonic Youth so much. They've been around for 3 decades and their last album sounded as fresh as anything they've ever done. They've never stuck to a formula and consistently put out great albums. Not many bands still have that in them after that long, especially at their age (In their 50s).

I'm really bummed that they might be calling it quits now, I really need to see them live.

I agree about Linkin Park. After Minutes to Midnight they fell apart. They are furthering themselves from what made them good. They went to mainstream and ruined themselves.

When was Linkin Park ever not mainstream?

Their older stuff was much heavier and a lot less mainstream

I didn't even know Linkin Park existed after Minutes to Midnight. I thought they fell off of the face of the earth. Isn't that becoming non-mainstream?

Ew, Metal..

Meteora or whatever was a great album. Reanimated and something else. Old Linkin Park rocks some serious shit.

You're missing Hybrid Theory. I saw Linkin Park live. They are fantastic.

Old Linkin Park is my favorite band ever.

^this, seriously people, they're like the nickel back of light radio metal

Hybrid Theory came out in 2000; "In The End" basically launched them into the mainstream almost two years later. It took a good while before they got recognition from the general public.
On that note, Nickelback only became mainstream with their second album, which came out 6 years after their first. Neither of these bands started as mainstream, and Nickelback had to work harder to get that label.
I don't give a fuck about either group at this point (though I like Linkin Park more), but I'm starting to find it annoying when people hate a group just because they're played too frequently on a radio. If you're getting fed up of hearing the same bands over and over again, then you're listening to too much radio. Buy a CD of your favourite group and put the volume up so that I don't have to hear everyone bitch about the same popular bands out there every time there's a music discussion.

Reanimation is amazing. I have never seen another remix album in my life come even close to doing what that album did to their songs.

Enth E Nd is particularly amazing. I love it. I love it more than the original.

Pardon me jumping in but...

I have to agree that Reanimation is a great album. I do think I like it more than Hybrid Theory.

Personally not to fond of Enth E Nd myself. That however mostly comes from whoever the guest rapper was, hated his lyrics. Dug Shinoda's alternate lyrics though.

Frgt/10 is probably my fav by only the closest of margins to a few other songs.

I never really get "involved" with bands or singers, most of the music I listen to, I have one or two songs by that artist on my ipod and not much else.

Eyeshine and Vampire Weekend I have more than one for them though.

Gonna get some games tomorrow hopefully.

Always falling for the damaged gals...