Google again suggests Creed is the worst band in the world

As we know, Google can help us find the answers to a lot of questions. Who was the 21st U.S. president? What is the square root of 10 multiplied by 3? And thanks to the year-end Google Zeitgeist, released Wednesday, we can determine which SoCal school had the more popular sports program this year. (It's USC. Sorry, Bruins.)

However, the search engine generally won't provide a definitive answer for subjective questions, such as which Chinese restaurant is the best in in L.A., or which celebrity has the worst hairstyle.

But punch in the term "worst band in the world," and you might be surprised with the answer. "See results for: creed," the Google page suggests.

Creed, for those who don't remember (or who have since repressed those memories), was a popular Christian rock band in the 1990s and early part of this decade. Their hit single, "With Arms Wide Open," won a Grammy Award in 2001.

A couple years before the band broke up in 2004, lead singer Scott Stapp performed so poorly ...

... at a concert in Chicago that fans in attendance sued the group to recoup the cost of their tickets. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

So, what's the deal? Was Google co-founder Sergey Brin part of that class-action lawsuit, and now he's exacting revenge through the search engine?

Sadly, no. Google's search results are compiled using complex computer algorithms that are not influenced by manual intervention. No Google employee planted this Creed quip, a Google spokesperson said in an e-mail.

In fact, according to a Google blog post, the company will never manually edit search results. But software engineers will use instances similar to this one as catalysts for making changes to their search algorithms, which affect all queries, the blog post said.

The Creed joke is an oldie but goody. It has been appearing on the "worst band in the world" search page for at least two years, as evidenced by a post on the social news website Digg. The gag resurfaced this week on Digg and Reddit, a similar website.

But how did this happen in the first place? A Google spokesperson wouldn't go into specifics on how the search algorithms work.

Perhaps it was a "Google bomb," similar to President Bush's White House profile page being linked to the search "miserable failure." Or maybe the Internet's collective consciousness really does associate Creed with the title "worst band in the world."

For humor's sake, let's go with the latter.

-- Mark Milian

Photo: Creed lead singer Scott Stapp. Credit: Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[dan]

they weren't a christian band.

[Mark Milian]

Dan, all of Creed's albums address Christian themes -- faith, the afterlife. They may not have been signed to a Christian rock label or specifically target a Christian audience, but they're still regarded, in many circles, as a Christian rock group.

[Jonathan]

Creed was one of the best rock bands ever!!!!
they sold over 30million CD's, so please have a little respect.

CREED forever !!!!

[Nolan Martin]

Okay I understand that allot of people hate Creed, I know a lot of people hated Creed when they were popular. Scott Stapp was a little overexposed with his bad behavior but come on. I was a fan of the band during their hayday and I would always feel guilty and or stupid for admitting to anyone I liked this band. And when they broke up, I thought oh Great, Stapp just blew it. However, My love affair with the band has been rekindled over the last two weeks since they announced that they might reunite next year. Been listening to Human Clay, pretty good rock and roll music. All the haters probably listen to music with lyrics like, " HUH, WAH HUH WAH, I Like your booty shorty, shake it!! (Yes that it is a slam on the crappy hip hop culture which has ruined pop culture.

Creed was a solid rock band. They became pretty big because their songs were good. Theres not many decent rock bands out now so anytime something ok comes along it gets big. Then people start calling them sellouts. Unfortunately the culture is dominated by rap which is mostly (not all dont kill me) crap.

[Scott]

I saw Creed flame out at a KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show. A very unprofessional and weak performance where the lead singer pouted and refused to go on for quite a while because of an equipment problem. The audience spent most of the dead time chanting for Coldplay to come back on. Three or four songs into their set there was almost no one left in the Amphitheatre. They had a few songs with nice hooks but weren't able to handle what success they had.

[Christian Chiakulas]

They were NOT a Christian rock band. Is every band that has lyrics relating to Christianity a Christian rock band? You'd be telling me then that Our Lady Peace is a Christian rock band. The Goo Goo Dolls are a Christian rock band. The Rolling Stones are a Christian rock band. And dozens others.
People target Creed a lot lately, I don't know why. The fact of the matter is Creed was a rediculously talented band. Maybe that's why people hate on them, because they overshadowed about everything around them.
Learn your facts, and actually listen to the music you criticize.

[Ryan]

Personally I would take Creed over Nickelback or Shinedown any day of the week. I have seen both in concert during their respective primes and Creed blows Nickelback away. I think people hate Stapp, he does appear to be one of those winners on American Idol. but Mark Tremonti is bad mother on a guitar.

[Chris]

This is an outrage. They only had a few christian sounding songs. Ode is a really awesome song but it's not christian. Agreed with Christian Chiakulas

[Mike]

Creed was not a Christian rock band. The writer of this article is biased and uninformed. Creed was a powerful rock group with well-written songs.

[Alex]

Let me explain something. Posting the word "creed" and "worst band in the world" together makes this happen. By spawning so many articles associating the two the internet has inexorably linked the two by the heuristics that google uses. Good job fanboys.

[eva]

The fact that the majority of their lyrics revolve around christian themes makes them christian, regardless of whether they wanted to be labeled that way or not. And Our Lady Peace was regarded a christian band by many in it's time too. If a band talks about god that much, they're going to get labeled as christian, like it or not.

BTW, what is up with the rap haters here? I used to like Creed, but i thought they got a little heavy-handed in the later albums. I also like rap, and I do not find the two to be mutually exclusive. Can someone explain why liking rap automatically makes me part of some kind of ruined culture?

[bagoed]

in my country indonesia most band had play songs from creed, i think creed is good band, weii that's my opinion

[MrMitch]

Selling 30 million albums only proves that there are 30 million idiots in the world.

[B2]

...or 10 million idiots who bought an average of 3 CD's each.

[dan]

Sorry, but Creed most certainly was a Christian Band and they didn't deny it early on. They only started to deny it when their fanbase started to drop off. They felt that it was their faith in Christ, not their craptacular music that was causing people to abandon them.
They were a Christian band. The name Creed itself is taken from the "Apostle's Creed", which is a mantra that is recited by Catholics and some other reform churches.

it goes...

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell. [See Calvin]

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.

Amen.

[Jotun]

Whoever defends this band should shoot themself in the face. Their songs are insipid crap and aren't much better than the glib piffle their fans contrast them against. Most people don't know good songwriting when they hear it because talented songwriters aren't played on the radio anymore, ever.

[Leanne]

LOL The reason for the whole worst band of the year thing is because Guitar world magazine ranked them secnd to Limp bizkitin its "worst bands of the year" feature article

[Greg]

So it looks like every mom's basement-dwelling loser in the world who ever liked creed is showing their support in the comments here. You all suck. Creed is piss poor music.
I get the point. Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback, and everything else of that ilk also sucks. But the fact remains...Creed sucks and so does anyone who likes Creed. Period.

[v1nsai]

I was really glad to see this, I don't like the 'generic' rock genre that I blame bands like Creed and Puddle of Mud and Nickelback for. Their music all sounds the same because none of them can actually play the guitar.

When's the last time you heard a guitar solo from Hinder or Candlebox? Most of their songs only have 3 chords. They're just not talented musicians. They're mediocre, at best.

I know it makes a lot of people happy and blah blah, but it has killed classic rock and roll. I remember when musicians had to know how to play music......Take a good look at this music you so heinously call 'rock'

[Kevin]

Classic! I literally laughed finding that out. That being said I do agree in general that Creed wasn't really a Christian band... heck didn't the lead singer have a sex tape? They might be Christians in a band... but not a Christian band.

[TairyHesticles]

Creed probably isn't the absolute worst band ever, as there are plenty of god awful pop-punk groups to choose from, but they are god awful nonetheless. I agree that real music is very rarely played on the radio, which is why you have to dig for good music much of the time.