Do a lot of people really hate Sublime? Why?

I didn't really realize this until fairly recently but there seems to be a ton of hate towards the band. I always like their music and I've listen to them for countless hours. I'm wondering if people could explain to me what the hate is all about. It's even at a level where people hate the people that like them.

An example:

No idea, I've seen some of that too lately and I think it's the dumbest thing ever. Like whatever it is you like.

I think people of a certain age probably associate it with people they didn't like from high school? Which seems like a dumb ass reason not to like something.

My only exposure to Sublime has been that bit in Saints Row The Third. Sublime is a-ok in my book.

I've don't know them, but asking people to articulate why they like or don't like certain music is always kind of tough.

But if there is a specific reason then sure, that could be interesting!

I would suspect it has to do mostly with disdain for their stereotypical nineties/naughties fratboy listener. Sort of like 311 or Dave Matthews Band.

Yeah this is pretty much it for me. If Sublime comes up I would never say I hate the band but it's a band that can have annoying fans for sure. The two you mention are great examples as well.

OP says it's at the level where "people hate the people who like them" but that's not really a level thing. You can always just find fan groups annoying even if you are a fan of something. I can feel that way about videogames a lot of times actually.

Always loved Sublime. They really had it going back in the day and I still find myself rocking their tunes, especially in summer. (Summer time and the living's easy!) Since Bradley's death though the only music I've heard from them is Sublime With Rome album "Yours Truly". Which, imo, not very great. Anyway, can't see why people can straight up hate their whole musical anthology, they have a decently diverse sound in some of their work.

I'll go on record saying that the 1996 self-titled album was good, but that's it.

I was in high school when it came out, and like other people previously said, it has a lot to do with the fanbase at the time. Not so much these days because I rarely come across the music anymore.

It was obnoxious at the time, though. From my perspective, people devoted to that band -- specifically to that album -- were weird elitists about the band but not a lot of other music. Dudebros and burnouts who didn't know anything about ska, alternative, or punk music of the time. Just Sublime. All the time. A few years later, a guy in my dorm played that album loudly non-stop for weeks until an RA finally told him to stop.

It's like Jeff said, they only know how to play "Santeria" and nothing else.

Santeria is still pretty great to listen to.

Well, here's somebody who explains why he hates Sublime.

To summarize: he thinks they make bad music, that the lyrics are poorly constructed, and that the band reminds him of jerks he dealt with in school.

Yeah I don't get the hate? Especially of an entire catalog of music. Like what you like and ignore what you don't. I've always liked Sublime and still have a bunch of their CDs around somewhere that have been ripped for ages now. Throw it on on a nice hot day in the back round while doing some BBQ, hanging with your buddies and it makes for a good afternoon. Often imitated, never duplicated. Can't bring back Bradley Nowell, sadly. Much like the more recent Scott Weiland (Of which, I'm also a huge STP fan from these same Sublime days), his loss was great and that SOUND will never grace another band or artist.

I give credit to Sublime for having a style unlike a lot of what's out there, but I don't really have a strong opinion about them. I like "Santeria" and "What I Got", for whatever that's worth...

I put them in that category of bands that are very California. See also: Red Hot Chili Peppers. Both of whom were formed in the 80s but got really big in the early 90s.

I've never personally encountered any backlash to them. I've known some people who were into alternative music and liked Sublime, and I've known people who probably don't know the band at all. I've yet to meet a person, for Sublime in particular, who is like "fuck that band" or "fuck everyone who likes them." Then again, I'm no longer in high school, and I feel like that's where I had the most experiences of people saying "fuck that band/fuck everyone who likes them."

I like some of their music, but I feel like they're wildly overrated because of Bradley Nowell's death. Like he was unable to reach his potential due to death, but that is a huge assumption. If he lived he could have been great or he could have ended up a sloppy junkie has-been.

I dislike Sublime if you're starting a sample pool. I could go in depth with my responses but they're just going to boil down to personal music taste (I like heavy metal and all its subgenres and have a pretty severe dislike of most 'ska' in general) and overexposure - which is the same reason I can't listen to bands like Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, ACDC, System of a Down or Led Zeppelin. I was just in some perfect window where their music was ever present and always being played on somebody's radio, so much so that I will die a happy man if I hear nothing from any of those bands ever again.

Also being from California probably magnified this to some extent with Sublime and RHCP since they're both very 'California' bands so that has amplified the number of times I've heard them.

Sublime is one of the best bands of the 90's as far as I'm concerned because Bradley Nowell was a great songwriter. I have no hate for that Sublime. But I'm sure a good majority of people look at them derogatorily since they were a contemporary of all the other pop/ska/punk bands of the time people seem to trash-talk nowadays like No Doubt, Rancid, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Less Than Jake, Blink-182, etc. Bands that get really popular, seem to be slagged off due to their popularity or prominence. We see it in video games series like COD, Battlefield, and others all the time.

I also feel like they've also become a sort of band the drug culture idolizes like The Grateful Dead or Frank Zappa so a lot of people just write them off pretty quickly just based on that.

I hate Sublime with Rome as it is at most a crappy cover band, living off the fond memories people have of Bradley Nowell's Sublime. To me it's like if Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl decided to continue Nirvana after Kurt died. Sublime ended when Bradley passed away, for me at least.

I'd never heard of them until seeing this thread, searched for them on Youtube, listened to one song, and already hate them.

so she told me to come over, and I took that trip

and then she pulled out my mushroom tip,

and, when it came out, it went drip, drip, drip

I didn't know she had the G.I. Joe, kung-foo grip

Sublime - "Caress Me Down"

Haven't the faintest idea why.

EDIT: @gunslingerpanda beat me to it!

@gunslingerpanda: I'm sure you've heard of Santeria. That song you picked out though...eh its pretty bad.

Similar to vaping/weed I think a lot of people hate sublime because of the fans. They are totally obsessed with the band in a way that is kind of insufferable to deal with.

Never heard of them, but Wikipedia says they're Ska punk so I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have liked them if I had heard of them.

i don't know what it is but lately i just can't stand to listen to sublime. every time it comes on the radio, i change the station, i always found it ok but lately just grates on me. Also that saints row scene was funny as shit and i had all but forgotten it until you mentioned it. good call.

Mostly because they're terrible.

Edit: And I'll add - not all ska is/was, nor were all bands of that era and style, terrible. Just Sublime. They were, are, and will always be terrible.

And, at least in my experience, most of the hardcore Sublime fans are huge stoners, so it is a double whammy.

The interesting thing about the Bosstones is that they just happened to be playing the right music at the right time. Some people hate them because that one song was everywhere in 1997 or whatever, but they'd been playing 3rd wave punk-infused ska since the late 80s. I became a fan of theirs when they started gaining popularity, and eventually bought their entire back-catalog. This song is from their first album, and was released in 1989.

As far as Sublime goes, Caress Me Down is a horrible song, but most of their other hits are alright. Wrong Way has some really screwed up lyrics and subject matter, though. Good song, but I'm surprised that was ever picked as a single.

They're okay. Like everything, it comes down to personal tastes.

Not as bad as 311. That's about the nicest thing i can say about them personally.

I really like one and a half of their albums. I will admit that I group people who like Sublime in my head with people who are way too into smoking weed, but I try to not be around those people so it's okay.

Hating anything is fucking stupid. Like what you like but don't give people shit because they like something you don't. That's a fucking dumb thing to do. I'm not going to stop talking to my friends or get angry with them because they don't like The Moldy Peaches, and they don't get mad when I say I'm not the biggest fan of Rush. Don't live your life getting mad about things people like. Sigh.

Indifferent I guess, I like their "hits."

Badfish is my favorite song by them.

I actively hate Sublime, which is not something I can say about that many bands. In my case, it stems from the fact that the local radio stations, which used to be good rock stations that played good music have been playing increasing amounts of Sublime (and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who I also hate) in recent years. And, it makes me angry because I don't know.

Also their music is terrible. That one song that's in Saints Row The Third is okay, but every other piece of music of theirs that I've heard has been unlistenably bad.

I actually have never heard anyone say they hate Sublime. They seem like a band everyone almost universally like.

spot on. won't lie; i went through a phase. but i have no desire to listen to any of those groups now.

eh, I grew out of Sublime about a decade ago but then again I must have listened to 40oz as well as the self titled album a hundred times by then so maybe I was just bored of it. Also, hearing the original (and usually superior) versions of the songs sampled and/or covered by Sublime kinda tarnished the nostalgia factor.

There was a recent album called Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Sublime that made A.V. Clubs list of Least Essential Albums. That might be what you are mistaking for Sublime backlash. Personally I like Sublime. Yeah a lot of their output was definitely a product of the 90's but their bass lines are surprisingly complex and quite a few of their songs still hold up. Eric Wilson deserves some recognition as being a gifted bassist.

It's actually a pretty funny article: http://www.avclub.com/article/least-essential-albums-2015-229347

Same reason people hate Dave Matthews. Bros.

Bizarre question duder.. People just don't like stuff. Doesn't have much to do with the stuff, just how it goes. When my ears here Sublime on the radio they want to change the station. That's pretty much all I can say on this topic. Enjoy liking them though, s'all good with me.

edit: to try to answer more specifically: a hate group always appears to oppose anything that is loved.

I don't remember Sublime ever reaching the levels of backlash that DMB did back in the day. Of course DMB was more popular and unfortunately what happened to Bradley Nowell stopped the band in its tracks.

But I can appreciate some Sublime. Nowell had a distinct voice and Caress Me Down, Badfish and Santeria are all solid tunes.

I love Sublime, and very rarely have met people who didn't like them who had heard of them.

One reason why I've heard why people don't like them is that they've listened to it too much. OP's example is a case and point. Doin' Time (Uptown Dub) is one of their most overplayed songs, but it is a good example of their style.

Some of the "hang ups" I'm reading in this thread seem to be US specific e.g. jerks listened to it in College, certain type of fan base being dicks etc.. etc....and I say that because everyone in NZ loved Sublime, everyone.

i like dave mirra bmx a lot so sublime is alright

Why do people hate nickelback? More or less same reason really.

I like that Nickelback song with the abused wife that shoots her husband. They're alright.

I can appreciate some of their songs, but find them to be over hyped. Certain bands have fan's that put the band on an incredibly high pedestal, and Sublime happens to be one of those bands. The kind of praise i've heard for them from old friends completely turned me away from the band.

Growing up around Long Beach, you can hear them everywhere. I don't hate them but i dont actively listen to them.

No it's actually 311. Sorry, but Amber is not the color of my energy. Thanks.

It might have something to do with the lyrics of their songs and the image of the people who listen to it that said lyrics evoke. As a kid of the 90s I tried to listen to them as they were so popular. I did not care for their music and tone. The lyrics were particularly offensive.

In the song Smoke 2 Joints there is a line that portrays any people who smoke pot as the lazy, uneducated, imbeciles that the government told you pot would do to you. "Then one day I meet a man, He came to me and said, Hard work good and hard work fine, but first take care of head." Priorities. There are none here. When I hear this I don't think of someone smoking pot after a hard days work to relax. I think of this guy on a street corner more interested in smoking weed than taking a shower or going to work. This person might not have the time for this with their constant pursuit of smoking weed.

Then there is the song Santeria. Should I start with the violence or women's rights? " If I could find that Heina, and that Sancho that she's found. Well, I'd pop a cap in Sancho and I'd slap her down." There is the obvious threatened murder. Add to that he is going to commit violence on the women he cares so much about as well. Not once in the song does he even hint that he has any ability to objectively look at the situation. Top that off with treating the woman as nothing more than a possession. That last nugget puts the image I see of this person as just below that of a trailer park meth dealer who weeps after beating his girlfriend for the third time.

The image the music portrays of the people who listen and sing along to the lyrics is a little gross. That is my take anyway.

I didn't know who they were when I came into this thread and then I listened to those songs and I was like oh they're those kind of obnoxious sounding people that I've never liked.

(I don't have particularly strong feelings here and I know absolutely nothing about the band themselves, I just have an instinctive mild repulsion to their sound. Same with RHCP.)

I don't "hate" them like say I hate Hitler or hating a rapist/murderer, I hate Sublime in that I hate listening to their music. It's overplayed, generic and boring. Their song structures are so basic and predictable while their lyrics are asinine and self indulgent to such a degree. The worst part is their lack of self awareness, their most critically acclaimed/popular album is a fucking hour of ska punk. How far up your ass is your head that you release an hour of ska punk? That's tortuous.

Probably because they're a ska punk band? Just a guess. That genre is just so ridiculously easy to hate. I feel like it takes active effort not to hate it. Makes me think of macho dudebro stoners who play Tony Hawk all day and talk endlessly about moving to "Cali". That's probably where the, "hate people that like them," part comes from. As long as a Sublime fan isn't an annoying stereotype I don't see why I'd hold it against them though. Listen to what you want. Personally I've never understood the appeal of ska punk. It always came across as a cheap gimmick rather than actual music you're supposed to take seriously. Whoever invented it was playing a joke on the world.

I kind of hate them. I don't sit around actively hating any music, cause that's just a waste of time. But I've always hated drug culture and "yolo" life philosophies.

Stuff like, "yo man, I just love life you know? I just love the world and I just wanna get high and laid and live my life to the fullest. You know what I'm saying? Like I wanna go skydiving and see the beauty of the world cause life has so much to offer." I've always been annoyed by that kind of mentality and Sublime seems like one of those kinds of bands.

As a dude living in Florida around the beach, I can honestly say that everyone I know who describes themselves as a Sublime fan are either a beach bum who can't hold a job for more than a month, or a drug addict, or both. The type of people in their early-teens-to-late-twenties who care more about getting high and partying than literally everything else. That's the stereotypical Sublime fan around here. Went to high school and was friends with a lot of them.