He had that bootleg Kurt Cobain thing going on that was so popular in the late вЂ90s (2001 is still technically the late вЂ90s, since the 2000s didnвЂ™t begin in earnest until BeyoncГ© and Jay-Z released вЂњCrazy in LoveвЂќ). And may I remind those of you who did spittakes upon reading that, how eminently crushable of a character Scott Stapp was in 2001. It doesnвЂ™t feel like that long ago that I developed my first ever mega-crush, which, fine, happened to be on CreedвЂ™s lead singer Scott Stapp. Grandstanding aside, IвЂ™m sensitive about my love for Creed. IвЂ™m merely making explicit what most of us prefer to keep under wraps, which is that I like many things in this world, not all of which have the approval of n+1 or Artforum. Creed headlined two sold out shows at New York CityвЂ™s august Beacon Theatre as recently as 2012, is what IвЂ™m trying to say.

We enlightened coast dwellers may sneer at Creed, Puddle of Mudd, P.O.D., Insane Clown Posse, et al, but somebody is buying up all those concert tickets, and not just in the sorts of cities we think weвЂ™re better than because we no longer projectile vomit in them on spring break. The world is rich with pieces of pop culture that are corny, tacky, and yet balls-to-the-wall popular. IвЂ™m emboldened to say this now because I think everybody feels this way, even if itвЂ™s not always Creed that they feel this way about. And I always have, and even now IвЂ™m tempted to hedge and say вЂњI kinda likeвЂќ or вЂњused to like.вЂќ Well, itвЂ™s bullshit! I still like Creed! So there! More because he didnвЂ™t realize he was protecting anything in particular. My father may have literally taken it to his grave, but not out of any loyalty to me.

I used to worry that my parents would give me away someday (вЂњremember when Rax was so into _?вЂќ), but I neednвЂ™t have-as shameful a secret as this has always been for me, it was unremarkable to them. Entire relationships have passed without my partners sniffing this out about me. Try though I might to eliminate snobbery from myself, I worry that I have one secret where I should be drawing the line against candor. ThereвЂ™s also some really sad shit in it too if you need that kind of thing to feel alive. In other music-related and more light-hearted Hell World news if you missed this one from the other day it was a lot of fun. Like many of the essays in the book this one which I am excited to feature as an excerpt below is about taste and desire and how we formulate taste and desire as young people trying to figure out who we are.

Considering the reevaluation of the music of the turn of the millenium going on of late with the release of the Woodstock 99 documentary (which I havenвЂ™t been able to bring myself to watch for reasons unclear to me) it seemed like a natural fit. As luck would have it when I was reading through the great forthcoming book of essays TACKY: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by RaxВ King (available for pre-order here ) one of them happened to appeal to the latter concussed part of my brain. Longtime readers of this newsletter will know that if thereвЂ™s one thing I like reading and writing (and tweeting manically between the hours of 5:30-9:00 EST about) as much as how fucked everything is itвЂ™s reading and writing (and tweeting manically between the hours of 5:30-9:00 EST about) 90s/2000s post-hardcore and post-grunge and nu-metal.

Six feet from the edge