DATE | WEEKS |
June 21, 2003 | 2 |
What was it about some of my favorite early-2000s bands where their lead singers turned out to be raging assholes? Why are they such horrible people? And why did I like their music at the time, and perhaps still do?
I've already talked about Aaron Lewis of Staind's descent down the MAGA wormhole. And I guess Chris Taylor Brown walked a similar line. Before all that happened, however, he helped create one of my favorite albums of 2003, one that I'll still spin every once in a while because it takes me back so vividly to that time in my life.
I'll state this at the outset: "Headstrong" is a banger. If it comes on my radio at any given moment, it stays there because I just love the song so much. It doesn't help when someone in the band turns out to be as insecure as Brown is, but I can't control that, now can I? Sometimes you just have to separate the art from the artist, and I guess that's what I'll try to do here.
Brown and the other members of Trapt met in middle school in the San Francisco suburb of Los Gatos in the mid-90s. They joined a NOFX cover band at the time, but eventually formed what would become Trapt by around 1997. Soon they were opening for another up-and-coming California alt-metal band, Papa Roach, and independently released a few EPs that they sold at wherever they played. (Papa Roach's biggest hits on my chart, 2001's "Between Angels and Insects", 2002's "She Loves Me Not", and 2006's "To Be Loved", all peaked at #27.)
By 2001, the band was signed to Warner Bros. Records, and began work on their self-titled debut album. Like previous Number Ones subject Chevelle, Trapt was making a strain of hard rock that was more melodic than their peers, fitting neatly into a subgenre some would call alternative metal. This blend of melody and aggression struck a chord with me, and sure enough I had Trapt on heavy rotation for much of 2003 and 2004.
"Headstrong" was the first single from Trapt. It starts with a hook that's really difficult to get out of your head. Brown's narrator seems to be reassessing a relationship with someone who hasn't been truthful. "Contemplating everything you ever said/Now I see the truth, I got doubt/A different motive in your eyes and now I'm out". He's headstrong and he knows that you were wrong.
Reading the lyrics, I don't know if they resonated with me as much as a song like "Send the Pain Below" did. The musical aggression on "Headstrong" is more naked, so maybe that's what I vibed with at the time. Still, you can tell that the production is more nuanced than some of Trapt's hard rock contemporaries. I mean, maybe people were getting emotion out of Godsmack's songs, for example, but I sure wasn't. There's texture to the guitars on the song, particularly in the bridge.
Looking back, Trapt's debut is one of those albums where they probably didn't release the best songs as singles. Whose fault that is, I have no idea. I just know when you have a song as strong as "These Walls" on your record, you shouldn't hide from it.
Nevertheless, "Headstrong" made its impact felt when it was released. It topped the Billboard Modern Rock chart, and was that chart's top song of 2003. It eventually managed to cross over to pop radio, and would peak at #16 on the Hot 100. The video got spun all the time on MTV2 and Fuse, so it was always on my brain in that spring and summer.
I went out and got Trapt and played the hell out of it that year. (You could say I was trapped by Trapt.) They were doing something right with me, and since social media didn't exist yet, no one knew how much of a dick Chris Taylor Brown was or would become. But we'll get into that story another time because they weren't done having hits in my book. Trapt will be back in this column soon.
EXTRAS
Not much to work with here; there are no notable covers of "Headstrong" that I can find, nor was it used in any TV shows or movies. I'm not a mixed martial arts fan, but if you are then maybe you'll like this. Last year, Israel Adesanya used "Headstrong" as his walkout music at UFC 287 before facing and knocking out Alex Pereira. Here's fan video of that walkout:
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