friends with Dan Reynolds and Wayne Sermon. I had heard some things about them playing house shows and whatever because they ran in the same circles as my wife and her friends. I had never really seen them play any of these shows, but I knew they were getting bigger here in town. So my wife had some of their earlier CDs (this is some time before their first major label release) and played me some of their music.

It was alright. Not really my thing, but good on them for pursuing their dreams and stuff. So fast forward to when they released Night Visions. It exploded. The singles were played everywhere. I couldn't believe how huge they got so quickly. I was genuinely happy for them, albeit a little confused because I still didn't care for their music and this new iteration I was hearing was so over-produced it was even more off-putting.

I have given each successive album a listen (my wife makes sure she gets all their stuff to "support them"), and they just keep going in a direction that gets further and further from what I enjoy. Not to mention that we are pretty close friends with Dan's best friend his whole life. These guys were inseparable. He helped promote them and get people to his shows at house parties when there would have been 5 people there otherwise. It sounds like the fame, notoriety, and liberal thinking of the celebrity elite has made him a little too self-important and maybe too big for his britches. That kind of bugs me. It also bugs me how they are becoming more of an activist band now.

It's kind of hard for me to have an unbiased opinion of them because I'm so close to their start. I've never really cared for their music from the start and to me, they just keep going further away from anything I would be interested in. Having said that, I am still happy for their success and I don't fault anybody for liking them.

And to be fair, the music I listen to is certainly not anything I expect others to like. I generally like slower, darker stuff. Stuff that CB makes fun of people for liking, and I'm ok with that. My post was more to do with BYU football and I was hoping to maybe ruffle a few feathers (all in good fun, mind you) because I know there are quite a few fans of ID on here.