Hit the Lights – “Anthem” • Page 2

I just don't think quality has a direct correlation with popularity. In retrospect, it's easy to look over HTL's career and see multiple events that stifled their chance to "make it big." They lost a singer, released an experimental album after a four-year gap that got mixed reception, and then went quiet for a while. So yeah, obviously not many people talk about them anymore, but it doesn't mean they don't remember them.

 

Skip School was fun as hell. That being said, pretty much everything since then (aside from a couple songs of Invicta) these guys are just so bland. And why does this song sound like two songs are playing at once? Is it mixed poorly or is it just a mashup of chords that just don't sound good. Why are the harmonics so loud in the mix in the first verse?

 

You made the were still popular/coulda been popular argument though, not me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I just said no one really remembers them, and I think that's accurate.

 

Band hasn't done anything memorable since "Pulse" tbh. I guess I kinda remember that Gravity song. Sorta.

 

I'm talking about popularity in "the scene," and I meant the overall number of people who've heard them over their career, not active fans. Last.fm alone has 304K, not counting previous YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook plays. So on paper, more people know them than most of the bands from that wave.

When I think of the mid-to-late-2000s, I picture the bands who made it mainstream big (Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Boys Like Girls) and the mid-level ones (Mayday Parade, Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals, Hit The Lights, The Audition). So to me, they're the type of band who would probably do decent numbers on an anniversary tour. Am I saying they have a big legacy? Not at all. But I don't see what separates them from other bands that were hyped at that time. They just didn't break up like most of their peers.

 

Weird. I've talked to these guys about Invicta a few times and they've mostly stood behind it. They were bummed that it didn't sell well because they enjoyed it, but just want to play upbeat pop punk now

 

No way is Hit the Lights on the same level as Mayday Parade. I would say that HTL and The Audition are pretty similar, but I think there might even be a level for SYG and FYS between HTL and Mayday...?

 

Yes, I agree, which is why I put Mayday at the beginning. I think they're "mid-level" in the sense they peaked at the House of Blues level and never really became mainstream. But I give them props for managing to stay at that level this long. I believe SYG, FYS, and HTL's most popular albums all sold in the tens of thousands, and now they all can only headline 500-cap venues at best.

 

It's funny bc HTL, SYG, and FYS all lost their popularity because they made an unexpected shift in sound. But hey, that's just how it goes I suppose

 

Saying no one remembers these guys is just stupid. They went on tours with Good Charlotte and Simple Plan last year and still seem to be pretty respected within the scene.

 

Yup! Invicta especially didn't have a market because none of their peers sounded like it. I honestly thought in 2008 they would end up at the same level as All Time Low, but nope.

 

They definitely should have been bigger than ATL. I think so many of the bands from that period (The Audition, Just Surrender, Halifax, Amber Pacific) were way better than ATL but unfortunately never achieved a fraction of success they did. I think ATL just got lucky.

 

Well, I love them and don't want to downplay their hard work, but it did seem like they were dealt a better hand than those bands. I truly think if HTL was marketed in the same way as them, they would've gotten bigger, though. Songs like These Backs Are Made For Stabbing and Drop The Girl were just as catchy, if not better than Dear Maria.

 

They are not respected even in the Simple Plan crowd. (And those albums and tours did really, really bad from everything I've heard.) I mean if people remember these guys where are the views? The tweets? The comments? The Facebook shares?

 

Not remotely close to true. They blew a lot of money trying to get people to care about "Drop the Girl" and no one cared. They went hard on that badly named neon album and I remember the marketing budget (they spent more than Hopeless did). Blaming "marketing" for the dude not being able to sing or write a good enough hook is the issue, their label lost a lot of money trying to make that band happen. They got way more of a push than other bands and had money behind them. And quite a few bands that survived and prospered had less than that.

 

"Just got lucky"

 

Every band had peaked an album before, they just didn't know it yet.

 

SYG have songs at least four times bigger than HTL. Fan uploads of that song with Hayley Williams have as many views as the biggest HTL song on YouTube. And I don't even think FYS or SYG can be considered mid-tier. They're a step down from the mid-level bands. HTL is under that. Closer to the round of Victory bands no one really remembers but gets nostalgic about just cause they broke-up.

 

Uh...what now? Damn, that's a first. I still listen to Invicta though - only album of theirs that's worth half a shit.

 

How so? Every major band from this wave seems to have good things to say about them. I can't comment on those tours, however, because I don't know the details.

Really? I'm struggling to believe FBR-level money could've been spent on that song when its biggest exposure was a premiere on the MTV website. I don't remember them ever having a video in rotation on TV or radio.

Drop The Girl:
MySpace - 3.5M
YouTube - 1.2M

Bodybag:
MySpace - 4.2M
YouTube - 978K

Speakers Blown:
MySpace - 3M
YouTube - 1.1M

Again, I'm not saying they have a big legacy or whatever, but they got further than a majority of bands, so I'm not going to pretend they were just a flash in the pan. Every wave of music has bands with a sizable following that fizzles over time.

 

MySpace.



I rest my case.

 

Obviously it's not a relevant site anymore, but you can't disregard millions of plays just because they're from a different era. Besides album sales, that's the only other measurement we have of bands' former popularity.

 

HTL's label spent more money on the sites I know specifics about than Academy Is, Panic!, and ATLs early albums. By a large factor.

 

Oh and by the way SWIR absolutely slaughters the HTL albums from the same time period, not to mention ATL have progressed a ton since SWIR

 

That they were verifiably forgotten in a decade ... and a bunch of spam plays were racked up, sure. I guess. That proves (if I believe the plays -- I don't based on every other streaming service and the known myspace spam) how no one gives a shit about them now more than anything.