One of my very favorite statistics is the fact that on Spotify, Trapt’s signature song “Headstrong” outstreams (on Spotify, anyway) the band’s second most-popular song (“Echo” at 21.6 million, if you care) at an almost 18-1 ratio. To say the former was a big hit is an understatement, to be fair. It ended up peaking at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100, which charts the 100 most popular songs in the USA. Few musicians of any kind are fortunate to experience even fleeting success of that nature, let alone the long-lasting kind. And while the good times didn’t last for Trapt, even one song reaching that kind of success is a big deal. Even to this day, it’s inescapable on rock radio and on Pandora music (just don’t ask Chris Taylor Brown about Pandora). Oddly enough, their subsequent three records all peaked higher on the Billboard 200 than the self-titled Trapt did. And yet, their firebrand of a frontman decided to throw it all away using simply the power of his words – and social media.
Now, Chris Taylor Brown (what a name, amirite?) and his career have plummeted to far worse depths than just about any of their post-grunge peers. Arguing with local bands on TikTok? Check. A list of controversies chronicled on Wikipedia that rivals the one that Ronnie “I enjoy picking fights with my critics even though I’m almost 40” Radke has? Double check. Playing bars in towns you’ve never heard of to empty crowds and almost nonexistent album sales? Also yes. Even Puddle Of Mudd still tours to crowds much larger than Trapt generally draws now. It didn’t have to be this way, though. In fact, it’s a cautionary tale for musicians and public figures who are scatterbrained enough to speak about subjects of which they know little to nothing about. You can almost hear the echo in the still frame.
in case y’all was wonderin what tr*pt was up 2 pic.twitter.com/thXkvaO29Z
— ᴇʟɪᴊᴀʜ (@ElijahJamez) August 17, 2023
Karma is a really funny thing, though. If you thought things couldn’t get any lower for Chris Taylor Brown and whoever else is in Trapt these days, well, they’re proving us wrong yet again. It’s now to the point where your local hardcore band is likely drawing better than Trapt, despite having an instantly recognizable song. What’s more is that apparently the band can’t even play it correctly on guitar, as shown in the above video. Oh, and stage scrims, seriously. These are the logical consequences of spouting off reprehensible and uninformed opinions about the circumstances surrounding George Floyd’s death, inviting the Proud Boys (?!?!) to his shows, supporting the Unite The Right rally (you know, the one that was teeming with Neo-Nazis and where a protester actually killed someone in a vehicle), and generally spouting hateful misinformation to the public. Absolutely hilarious, or at least it would be if said misinformation wasn’t so destructive and disrespectful. One wonders if Chris Taylor Brown was intentionally trying to sabotage his career with these remarks, despite there being no positive reason for doing so.
After all, it wouldn’t have been hard to just keep his mouth shut about whatever opinions he might have, and not let people know them instead. It’s obviously not the first time a band or musician has torpedoed their career with irresponsible social media use, and it won’t be the last. Even discounting the moral aspect of espousing these beliefs, it’s not like the nostalgic market for post-grunge era bands isn’t marketable or profitable. Not all post-grunge era bands are/were capable of putting out constant hits on every album, but even the ones with only a few big songs or one big album are doing well. (It should be known that not all of these bands are exclusively post-grunge), but Staind, despite the antics of vocalist Aaron Lewis spouting similar anti-vaccine rhetoric when he tours solo, have been touring with Godsmack to pretty sizable crowds. Bands like Matchbox 20, Seether, and Three Days Grace still command large crowds and still have charting songs with recent music, in the case of the latter two. Shinedown and Nickelback are still massive, of course. Even bands like Saliva and Drowning Pool, who you might think peaked well over a decade ago in popularity, are still finding ways to stay relevant and bring fans to shows. Trapt’s “Headstrong” was arguably as big as some of the aforementioned bands’ biggest hits, and it’s not like Trapt didn’t have any other popular songs. “Still Frame” is also relatively well-known, as is “Echo” and “Stand Up”, two of their biggest rock radio hits.
Just 15 years ago this summer, Trapt was popular enough that they were opening the highly profitable Crue Fest tour, headlined of course by Motley Crue. And directly because of Chris Taylor Brown’s statements, they’ve taken one of the largest falls from grace of any post-grunge era band. While there’s a variety of metrics that go into this, it might even be factual that they’ve experienced the biggest decline. Lying about first-week album sales and espousing racist beliefs doesn’t endear yourself to most people, in fact it just makes you a laughingstock. And no, not the iconic Talk Talk album, the kind of laughingstock that makes you the target of some hilarious memes. Oh, and this is a true story. It also does no good to make an interviewer who’s interested in chatting about your band, to wait over 7 hours after a scheduled interview on your tour bus. It gets better, though. When he finally called us on his tour bus (this was in 2014) at almost midnight, he then proceeded to race through 15 or so questions in the span of less than 10 minutes, with the shortest responses you can possibly imagine. Talk about not wanting to be there. I guess the foreshadowing was there all along with such a negative attitude.
