Swift meets her match
A story of Tool’s comeback
The debate of rock versus pop music was ignited by the recent resurgence of the band Tool, who dethroned Taylor Swift from the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart. Swift has been one of the most influential and commercially viable icons of the past decade. Consecutively her music has been rated as number one on the billboards and Swift’s 7th album “Lover” was no exception.
Released on August 23, Swift’s newest album models after her song structure of catchy relatable love songs. The album varies between the old vulnerable songwriting of Swift and her newer pop vision. Swift even harkened back to her country roots when she featured the Dixie Chicks in “Soon You’ll Get Better”.
However, an unexpected group would rival Swift’s new music only one week later after the release of “Lover”. “Fear Inoculum” would rise and threaten Swift’s long-held reign.
Twitter exploded as fans from both sides defended their respective musician(s), especially Swift fans who seemed outraged and more importantly asked, “Who is Tool?”. Tool first debuted as a four-member rock band in 1992.
Tool’s style of rock music is uniquely soothing but distinctly rock sounding. The ensemble achieves this by relying on guitar and drum focused songs. Their last album was released thirteen years ago titled “10,000 Days”. The time between “10,000 Days” and their recent album, “Fear Inoculum”, was spent on a multi-level lawsuit. The lawsuit began when an associate of Tool claimed that he wanted credit for artwork that he produced for the band.
The situation proceeded to get more complicated as an insurer the band hired turned against them and also filed a lawsuit. The group has given countless countersuits to settle both disputes for the last thirteen years, which has cost them millions of dollars. Their next trial in the proceeding is scheduled for January.
Tool fans were none too happy about the thirteen-year hiatus of the group and were in disbelief after “Fear Inoculum” dropped. Soon after, Tool announced a tour for their recent album starting on October 13. The closest venue the group will be playing, relative to Grove City, is on November 8 at the PPG Paints Arena.
The fascination between Tool threatening Swift’s chart spot is found in the juxtaposition of the musical genres rather than the inherent likeability of the music. Presently, the pop genre dominates the music industry. When that normalcy was no longer in effect it made headlines.
Music is a subjective medium that has been made into an industry that is valued by the popularity and the monetary value it brings to companies. The interest in Swift and Tool’s rivalry demonstrates this.
It is up to the listener to truly decide if a song, album or group is worth listening to in the end because having the title of number one chart spot is a passing phase in the music scene.
