When you think about all the pieces of art in history that have been made for extremely inexpensive amounts of money, many items come to mind. For example, The Blair Witch Project movie, one of the most successful films of all time, was filmed from an extremely low budget. Under $1 million was spent on the movie’s creation, yet it brought in almost $250 million. Meanwhile, The Offspring’s 1994 album Smash, still the highest selling independent label album of all time, was recorded for under $20,000. It sold over 11 million copies worldwide, including over 6 million in the USA. A good sports example is Houston Astros OF/DH Yordan Alvarez. With a career OPS of .963 in 2358 plate appearances, a ROY award, and two AS games, he’s in year 1 of a 6 year, $115 million extension with the team. So yeah, history is littered with good value for a low cost.
There are few places that is more true than on Creed’s 1997 album My Own Prison. Recorded for a mere $6,000, the band’s debut album took advantage of fortunate timing as well as post-grunge’s emerging popularity in the mainstream. Originally released on the band’s own record label at the time, Creed was quickly picked up by Wind-Up records as their emerging popularity and their home state of Florida forced others to take notice. Led by a quartet of singles in “Torn”, “What’s This Life For”, “One”, and the title track, Creed quickly picked up steam. Just 18 months after the album’s release, Creed was essentially playing arenas in most places.
Selling over 15 million copies worldwide, My Own Prison was a post-grunge affair whose success also enabled future bands like Nickelback, Three Days Grace, and similar bands to gain success. Even though many critics criticized Scott Stapp’s voice as well as the band’s tendency to echo grunge bands of the past, it proved to be a big hit in the mainstream.
However, the album is usually considered Creed’s most prolific body of work. Much of that has to do with the fact that the album sound is far heavier in parts than any of their subsequent material. In fact, compared to future releases from the band, My Own Prison is very short on ballads and heavier on serious material. It was also the springboard for Creed’s overall success, as they released two more records before entering a lengthy hiatus after 2001’s Weathered.
