FanNation

Seether - Fake It

Sine the death of the 19th century, what has been commercially successful has been what has appealed to the masses (makes sense, right?). From the illumination of the City of Lights, to Henry Ford's assembly line, to the 150 animated Pokémon dreamed up in Ken Sugimori's Tokyo home, the excitement of concrete digestion has reigned supreme.

Unfortunately, as evidenced by the Pokémon craze (see chrono for more information), as life in the modern world becomes more chaotic and driven towards what we call progress, what captivates the physical and mental eye of the people is that which is fed to us like applesauce to a quadriplegic. That is, the attention of the populace lies with what is easy to recognize and understand as entertainment.

Enter music industry.

The Exploiter of Exploiters, the kings of cheap entertainment, the RIAA, often feeds off (and shares with us) some of the most droll and passionless music in human history, in the form of pop, rock, and hip hop. One of the music industry's greatest successes has been a little three man post-grunge band called Seether.

Since the band's mainstream breakout in 2004 (anyone remember "Broken [feat. Amy Lee]"?), Seether has thrived on stereotypically bland grunge vocals, made-for-radio lyrical setups, and pitifully pathetic guitar solos. Since "Broken", they've come out with hit after hit, including 2005's "Remedy", '06's "The Gift", and of course, "Fake It".

"Fake It". The inspiration for this piece. "Fake It". One of the most brilliant songs I've ever seen; a perfectly anti-punk punch thrown at its own listeners. Faking it. The story of Seether's success.

The song's obvious but subtle genius is startling.  Seether knows where they stand; they know they have no talent when compared to real musicians (I hope). Yet they have a massive, adoring fanbase anyway, so they're making us pay to listen to them make fun of us for enjoying them. I'd call this one of the best blatant mockeries of the general music populace that I've ever heard.

After all, we haven't seen a band/artist laugh so hard to the bank since Don McLean captivated us with his claim to his piece of the American industry's money pie.

Don't quite fully understand why I'm writing a full piece on this one, vastly overrated single? Take a look at an excerpt of its lyrics: 

And just fake it if you're out of direction
Fake it if you don't belong
Fake it if you feel lack of action
Woah-oh-oh you're such a f**king hypocrite

Whoah Whoah

I can fake with the best of anyone
I can fake with the best of them all
I can fake with the best of anyone
I can fake it all

Who's to know if your soul will fade at all
The one you sold to fool the world?
You lost your self-esteem along the way
Yeah

The more I look at it, the more it seems like an autobiography. These 13 lines of lyrics echo the cries of all those who despise he who penned them: Pop music is nothing but the plastic surgery on the face of music in its true form, making everything and everyone glamorous and camera-friendly at the expense of meaning and substance. This idea comes as common knowledge to the educated listener, but it remains an issue of ignorance to the common listener.

And so, while the end result may have already been attempted by other artists, we thank you, Seether, for shedding light on and bringing into the mainstream the pseudo-greatness of modern pop music.

Keep on faking it.