The Hidden Battles Behind Evanescence & "Bring Me to Life"
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
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At the turn of the century Nu Metal was riding high. Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach were all selling millions of records, and angry boys rapping over Helmet-riffage and record scratches were the order of the day. Testosterone in mainstream rock was at an all time high. Emerging in 2003, Evanescence offered a twist on the format. At first derisively seen as merely “Linkin Park with a chick,” Evanescence had the chunky guitars and electronica flourishes but revitalised with gothic overtones and a feminine point of view in vocalist Amy Lee. But the music industry men, not knowing how to sell a female-fronted metal group, planned to make Evanescence sound more like everyone else. This is How “Bring Me To Life” was brought to life.
#Evanescence #BringMeToLife #Documentary
Fact-checking by Serenity Autumn.
This video is sponsored by Skillshare.
Soundtrack:
Luar - Beyond ( / luarbeats )
Jesse Gallagher - Satya Yuga
B-Side - Pen Unubis
Luar - Anchor ( / luarbeats )
0:00 Introduction
01:33 The Origin of Evanescence
05:42 Dancing with the Daredevil in the Pale Moonlight
12:08 The Immediate and Massive Success of Evanescence
16:14 What Amy Lee Did Next
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DO A VIDEO ON LEFTFIELD OR UNDERWORLD!!!
I'd love to see a video on the darkness
Please do Take That
Don't forget The Gathering too
How about a video about Curve
Label stories like this demand that you don't refer to them as "the label" and instead name them. Alan Meltzer didn't think this band would succeed, Alan Meltzer demanded that the singer lose weight and show more skin. Think about the uncountable bands who he treated this badly or worse.
Alan Meltzer is so incredibly gross
@@kaikaibee2982 Given wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer's perchant for body-shaming women as well, it's fair to say that's just a cursed surname
1,000 times THIS.
I mean, to be fair, you have to take the times into context. That's the type of thing that was selling, and the label is a business. And, if we've learned nothing from the late stage capitalist hellscape we're currently living in, it's that businesses care about only one thing: making money. At least the guy did something genuinely good on his way out, by giving his driver and door man a shit load of money, which is not common for these rich assholes
@@hitthegoat no, no you don't. Its perfectly okay and reasonable to be heavily critical and uncompromising when representing the terrible things that have happened, and still happen to this day with any female in any form of entertainment.
Amy Lee has such a unique singing voice. You only need to hear one line and you can say "Yeah, that's Amy".
Her voice is heavenly and beautiful! 🖤
"denying the fast food rockers the top spot" thank you evanescence; the world will never know the magnitude of the horror you saved us all from.
Yeahhh - having never even heard of them before .... I now need some ear bleach =\
They saved us from the nothing we have become.
Evancescence were just as poppy as those fast food rockers, kiddie stuff.
Lmao! Seriously
Truer words have rarely been uttered and even more rarely, so succinctly.
The Open Door will always be one of the most important albums to me personally, I'm so happy they got the chance to shine despite all the pushback.
Same. The Open Door was Amy's brainchild, and she co-composed it with guitarist Terry. TOD is an epic and very personal album top to bottom, rather disturbing but throughout a rollercoaster release of emotions.
Can we just talk about for a moment how fucking AMAZING Amy Lee's outfits are? Like fr..
IKR
she has always been the blueprint
Amy is a freaking queen!
And she made many of them herself!
What an absolute influence she was
Genuinely such an underrated band just because of this song. Stuff like Hello, Like You, Whisper, Taking Over Me, Imaginary, and Call Me When You're Sober are all absolute fucking gems of songwriting. They really capture the angst and ache of grief that isn't really the most palpable thing, but is felt by all. Especially those first two songs. Chills
I'm so happy I saw this, because, despite being a massive fan when I was a teenager, I'd somehow forgotten how amazing they actually are. Retrospective cringe over my mallgoth blunder years tinted my memories, reducing them down to the meme that Bring Me to Life became. But this song is so much better than that, and their overall output is so much better than this song. I'm excited to check out everything they've done after Crimson Door now!
How do you list all these songs and not also mention lithium
Call me when your sober made its way back into my playlist of favorites along some newer music. But i wish i heard more of evanescence besides the most famous and over played, the band is amazing.
I started listening to Evanescence in my teenage years. I'm 27 now and they have never left my playlist.
@@elvillivle i only had going under and bring me to life, but it was along the pop playlist between hundreds of songs. Now im more interested, so i have been hearing some old and new songs
With these videos, some could say that one man's trash theory is another man's treasure
Amy Lee is and will always be a goddess in my eyes and ears.
Hyper mega sexy 😍 goth goddess!
@Brique Zallivam have a nice day too, man.
You know what, to hell with Brique Zallivam. Life is meant to be enjoyed. So do what you wanna do, listen to what you wanna listen to and watch what you wanna watch. I dont normally comment on youtube vids, but some things need to be said. I applaud your graciousness, but just because you like a song or like the singer of a song, feel moved by someone's presence or the sound of someone's voice, lifting your spirits and brightening your day does not in no way make you a loser.
she was definitely an awakening, once that woman's face showed on screen i knew i was not straight™.
You haven't heard much music in your life, have you? There are singers that are FAR better than Amy Lee...
I was 12 years old when Evanescence blew up in Europe. Every single one of my classmates was obsessed with them and every girl wanted to be like Amy Lee, myself included.
This is one of the best music channels on UA-cam. No contest.
Hell yes
Do they have contenders?
Absolutely! So good
Criminally underrated
Absolutely.
The Middle 8 is similar and damn good as well.
But I think I like Trash Theory more.
Honestly, they're both excellent. The video essay community on UA-cam is stellar. At least one good thing that's survived whatever UA-cam has turned into....
Depriving the Fast Food Rockers of a number one... tragic
If I didn't already love Evanescence, that would be a good enough reason to do so.
Good, glad they did
@@RatelHBadger sounds like somebody didn’t get a Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut
I saw that and thought, "Jesus Christ that would have been embarrassing."
@@Littlestraincloud Or a McDonalds
So that "friend of a friend" who asked her if she was happy, that spawned the song bring me to life - is now her husband. Josh. He is a Therapist. As far as the Christian thing is concerned - it wasn't long after fallen came out that Amy and Ben both said the band wants nothing to do with Christian rock, please stop calling us that and that got them pulled from all christian stores. That was a band decision not so much of a label one.
"Please stop calling us that"?
What?
@@jasdanvm3845
Amy Lee and Ben Moody made statements at the time, saying to stop calling them christian rock and that they are in no way associated with Christian rock. I hope that helps
@@Trespasser249
I see.
I still feel some spiritual influence in their music.
It obviously wasn't ever Gospel.
@@jasdanvm3845 i mean, the original keyboardist(David Hodges) that was fired when they signed with the label, was a devout christian and he did influence some lyrics, tourniquet for example. But everything post fallen (and most of fallen it self) has nothing to do with religion as they really had no interest in writing that kind of music, especially Amy who writes more about things that happen in her personal life. But - to each his own. I just listen to what the musicians themself say and take them at their word.
@@ihaveavintageheart I mean, they came out pretty quickly after they found out christian stores were selling the music. You forget this was 2003, information like that didnt travel anywhere near as quickly.
thank you so much for covering artists like evanescence the absolute bashing they faced for their entire careers and the way that media and critics dug into Amy’s voice, image, weight and love life is horrendous. I fully believe that most of the hate came from the fact that evanescence is led by a woman and that if they had been fronted by a man they wouldn’t have received the level of hate that they did
You're right in a way - if they'd been fronted by a man, they'd never have got the hate because nobody would have heard of them. Amy is what made them stand out.
You're sadly probably right
I agree with women being undermined most of the time, but I thought how in this case it's not it, I mean, just look at Linkin Park and the hate they always get, even now. It seems like if you're incredibly famous for a rock/alt band, you get that kind of thing in the package.
@@dislecsyk991 But not merely her singing. Her songwriting is what made the band great.
I used to be impartial to Evanescence... I only really knew Bring Me To Life and thought that was their whole sound. It was a bit uninspired and "cringey" to a certain extent. Don't get me wrong, I like the song, it's a decent song, but it never blew me away.
A couple of years ago, I discovered "Tourniquet" and in turn, the entirety of "Fallen", and was blown away.
Tourniquet will forever be the song that turned me on to Evanescence from being that uninspired Linkin Park rip-off to a band with their own unique sound that is actually truly epic.
"Going Under" was always tainted by the precedent set by "Bring Me To Life" for me, but now that I've heard "Fallen" in its entirety, I truly appreciate it for what it is.
I knew Amy was special when she broke away from her group and did that song with Seether. I till this day I cannot get over how raw and real that song is. i cant even talk about it the way I get so emotional... ugh
Which song?
@@RachitaThaldi Broken
At the time that happened, she was dating Seether's frontman; they had met while touring together. Call Me When You're Sober was written about him.
Yeah, Broken is amazing!
That was Seether's song long before Amy put herself on it.
I’m surprised everyone thought Evanescence was just “Bring me to life” they were more that even before Fallen came out. They’re still going strong and it’s abundantly clear Amy Lee is and was always the talent. I suggest people take a look at all of their albums.
I loved their sound until the open Door wich wasn´t back then their best work for me personally but at least I truly liked (and still like). The last albums Bitter truth, Evanescence and Synthesis aren´t quite my kind of sound but there are a few songs that resembles to the one of Origin
Ben moody was the talent.
@@skybladeslinger1788 A lot of people don't realize that. But he was really a driving force behind the music being actually good. The Open Door proved it. It barely sounded like evanescence. Took a much industrial sound that was harder to listen to. It lacked the nuance and feel of an Evanescence song. I understand wanting to progress and grow as an artist, but there is a way to do it without drastically changing the sound. A lot of the rumors were on that 18 Month world tour, that the Amy Lee became the Diva. Dating Shaun Morgan of Seether, becoming the biggest band in the world and you can see it when most of the band leaves or is fired. I mean there was so many Ex Evanescence members they made their own band. Also, I am pretty convinced that tour ruined her voice. I heard her at the beginning of it and then again at the end. The voice was raw and chopped up. Lyrically, she was always fantastic, but like Vanessa Carlton, she never really wanted to make populist music, so she went against the band who wanted to you know....make popular music, make money.
@@Dragynphyre The Open Door it is a masterpiece in comparison to Fallen, produced for the masses. TOD is pure symphonic metal, there are compositions of classical music that moody would never be able to replicate and that only Amy's talent has been able to create. The sound of Fallen is raw and mediocre, there is no attention to detail. In addition, Amy was technically unripe and only after TOD did she improve. You told a series of lies.
@@ale_98_ your opinion. But the majority consensus is the open door was a shitty follow up to fallen. Musically and lyrically inferior. It's cool you like it. Just most other people don't.
When the very first clip is of Weird Al, you know it's gonna be good.
I love Amy Lee and Evanescence. They took me to Lacuna Coil, Nughtwish and Within Temptation.
I dressed like her for 4 years of high school 🤣
You should check out “in this moment”-it’s another female front singer
When I first heard Evanescence I had just started listening to The Gathering and Lacuna Coil, and it took me a while to shake up the feeling of them being a "watered down" version of such powerful bands. Somehow I realized I was listening their album more and more, so I had to admit I liked it a lot.
I'm glad to read someone discovered WT and LC through Evanescence :D
Nughtwush riles, I agree.
it's not like amy lee has a bad fashion sense
Yeah as much as I love Tori Amos, she is not the most obvious influence on Evanescence... first time I heard them I briefly thought it was new Lacuna Coil music.
My mom was Amy Lee’s music teacher in Little Rock!
Miss Carter right?
Pics or it didn’t happen.
@@coppersulphateradio361 no
@@bigcheese2128 Miss bigcheese 212
@@coppersulphateradio361 yes
This was my first "dark" album I ever bought (complete with shocked parents, 2003 was wild) and led me down a very fun and interesting path in music. To hear how personal the lyrics were is really really touching to me.
also, sure, Bring me to Life was what brought me in back then but I sure loved the whole album. *"you need a dude"* my ass. I'm glad we got over that
Same here! I was 14 when "Bring me to life" and "Fallen" came out. Evanescence's music was such a gamechanger for me. I started listening to bands like System Of A Down, Linkin Park, Korn, Slipknot, HIM, Placebo, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Leaves' Eyes and German bands (except L'âme Immortelle, they're Austrian and partly Lacrimosa, they're Swiss but singer and founder Tilo Wolff is German) like Rammstein, Eisbrecher, ASP, In Extremo, Subway To Sally, Unheilig, Blutengel, Lacrimosa and L'âme Immortelle. I also listen to Japanese rock/metal bands like Dir en Grey, The Gazette, D'espairs Ray, MUCC, lynch. and Girugamesh just to name a few. Evanescence just opened the doors in my mind to so many dark rock, metal, alternative rock music and Symphonic Metal, Gothic Metal and Goth music. I owe them so much! Amy Lee's voice is so heavenly and beautiful and I admired her so much as a teen. She opened the door to many female lead rock/metal bands to break through the mainstream especially back in the early and mid 2000's. Sorry for writing a goddamn novel here but I get really passionate when I talk about music. I've just got carried away 😅
This totally makes sense. I always thought that guy on Bring Me To Life sounded out of place.
Fully agree. I always thought it was odd too.
Same here. It always felt out of sync, like it was just tacked on. Now I see that it exactly was. This had kept me from looking more closely at them. Now I think I will.
It's not at all a stretch to say that if the label(s) got what they wanted, Evanescence would never have existed. That makes me incredibly frustrated with the entire industry.
This is why it's important to phase those labels out, make them unimportant.
Amy is great but she is wrong with "bring me to life", the label version sounds waaaaay better
That's why so many artists end up unstable or committed Suic De
@@calypso a) We haven't had a studio version of the acoustic, and b) It's the artists song about their personal experiences. The lack of artists authority over their own work is really quire revolting.
Please do something about the great PJ Harvey! Thank you.
Seconded
thirded
Fourthed
Fourty-twothed
Best he's got is Portishead , but yeah PJ Harvey plz
Who would want to listen to female fronted gothic symphonic metal?
You mean all the fans that fill up arenas to see Nightwish, Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil and so many other bands?
We have to understand these are american record execs who had probably never heard of Theatre of Tragedy or The Gathering as their followings were specific to Europe at the time and had yet to hit critical mass.
Critical mass=americans?
Critical mass attests to height of European media in this context too. Lacuna Coil and others had not hit their stride yet either and names like ToT and The Gathering weren't exactly headliners at Wacken either.
To be fair, Nighwish also has proeminent vocals by Marco Hietala
Oh god I love Lacuna and Nightwish! And who can forget Eyes Set To Kill, and the occasional gem from Paramore and Skillet... And who doesnt love Amy Sturm from Flyleaf?
This video really highlighted the difference in Lee's vocal between Fallen and Synthesis. I have always enjoyed her voice and I think in either version, Bring Me to Life holds up. I'm glad she chose to revisit it though; two very different experiences of a great song.
This was wonderful. I really feel for Amy, she's been through some shit. I saw Evanescence on tour with Lindsey Stirling not too long ago and I'm happy I got to experience them in a way Amy would've wanted to be heard.
Evanescence is by fast one of the most important alternative rock bands of the last decades. Unique sound, powerful deep lyrics and Amy Lee with her unique and haunting voice. Many of us have certainly grown with the band. I treasure Amy Lee and evanescence in my heart.
😂😂😂
Coming up next on New British Canon: Fast Food Rockers
Such a rare opportunity to get into the comment section early. Such purity.
Indeed, it's surprisingly sparse at the moment!
It was wierd hearing you say there were no female fronted rock bands in the mainstream at that time, I remember hearing Evanescence for the first time and it fit right in with pre-existing and very successful bands like The Gathering and Lacuna Coil that had gotten popular in the 90s, but then I realize you mean North America, and American labels do tend to think that the US is the world.
Yup! Can’t forget about The Gathering!
with the Brits following their every move. Music from continental Europe rarely makes it across the Channel, and when it does, it almost always feels accidental.
@joybuzzarD x the US & England ARE the world when it comes to rock & pop music, all that music started here and in Britain, and all of the biggest record labels are in NYC, LA and London. I’ve been in the goth culture since the mid-80’s, and I was a goth club promoter and DJ from 1997-2008. I was well aware of bands like Lacuna Coil, Nightwish and others like them, but almost no goth club would ever play their music because they were essentially metal bands who wore black and wrote about “gothic” things. Same with Marilyn Manson and Evanescence later on. People in the goth scene can smell an outsider a mile away and they go to goth clubs to get away from the mainstream. Just like any other scene I guess. In the US where everyone tries to blend in and be like everyone else, a club night to call your own is a sacred thing and it sucks when frat bros and suburban Karens come up requesting Morrissey.
@Mtieli98 thank you for asking. I’m a lifelong music fan and as far as I’m concerned, a good song is a good song. Evanescence wrote really good songs and their commercial success is a testament to that. If you’re aware of some of the other bands mentioned in this thread, like Lacuna Coil and Nightwish, then you’ll know that Evanescence’s style was nothing new. Bands who played hard rock or mainstream metal music with an exceptionally good female singer with a fashion sense & lyrics leaning gothic - that style goes back almost 10 years before Evanescence hit it big. So the rhetorical question is why did Evanescence do so well while so many other bands who predate them still struggle for recognition? In my opinion, it’s mostly writing really great songs that people identify with, and the rest is image, personality and luck. It’s a sad but true fact of life that a good look carries more weight than a bad one, and Amy Lee is beautiful in addition to her amazing voice and musical talent. Also, goth started in London around 1982 and in 2003, music from that time period was having a resurgence of popularity.
If you’re asking if I listen to Evanescence, then I apologize for taking so long to answer the question. No, neither my wife or I own any of their music. If I’m in the car and one f their songs comes on, I’ll listen to it, but I don’t enjoy it enough to bother buying it. And that just comes down to personal taste. I like really weird, underground music. I’m a piano & guitar teacher and I listen to weirder music than most of my students in high school and college. That always makes for interesting conversations!
Agree... Evanescence was a literal copy/paste to Therion, Nightwish, The Gathering, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation: bands toured South America in 1998 already. Wind-Up records saw an opportunity of the symphonic-metal active fan base and the rest is now history. The only 2 reasons 'Bring Me To Life' was relevant at the time: Nightwish - Wishmaster, and After Forever (both albums launched in 2000 generating more profit than the Nu-Metal scene and Evanescence together back then).
Bless her. She shaped girls like us more than she'll ever know.
13:23 "operatic yet vulnerable" probably a big reason the song hits me so hard.. it doesn't matter how much power or strength you have, there will always be a level of vulnerability no one can escape.. and no matter how much you try to make it looks like you don't need it on the outside, not having anyone there to help with that vulnerability... it just multiplies whatever pain you could experience exponentially.. and for me, knowing what that's like and seeing someone else in that situation..knowing that there's little... If anything.. I can do to help....puts that multiplication on an endless feedback loop that just destroys me..(and the longer they've dealt with it the worse it gets 😞)
Hearing Fast food rockers for the first time in 18 years hit me like a baseball bat round the face and I ended up laughing in my bed just now. I was obsessed with this song when I was 6.
Funnily enough that's when I heard Evanescence for the first time too. That album ended up defining my teenage years.
Amy is one of *_THE MOST_* underrated singer - ever. Her voice always gives me chills.
When I saw her with Dre & MnM, I went crazy!
She's not "underrated at all. Amy Lee received (and continues to receive) TONS of praise, lots of people exclaim how amazing they find her voice. So I think she gets a ton of well-deserved credit for sure lol.
I remember back when it came out, I was in those awkward pre-teen/almost teen years. I used to listen to Fallen and Hyrid Theory a lot, alongside The Eminem Show and Gorillaz (their first album by the same name of the band).
Couple of years later, I might have been 15 maybe, I still listened to all of them a lot (altough branchin out into more classical old school heavy metal, trash metal and even some death metal), but one specific day I happened to put Fallen in the CD player on the car, driving back from the countryside to the city after a lake-camping weekend. Maybe three or four hours drive. My dad was driving, and when he heard Going Under his eyes widened and he looked like he couldn't believe what he was listening.
Then Bring Me To Life came, and he literally stopped the car, just intently listening.
After that, he DEMANDED that we listen to those two songs on repeat the entire four hour drive XD By that time, I had listened the entire album more times than I can remember, and I was more into songs like Torniquet and Taking Over Me (The Open Door hadn't still been released). Even though he would just fix on the first two songs, not even wanting to go further, I was pretty happy to oblige XD
To this day, when we get together, sometimes we re-listen to those songs, maybe while sharing a beer or something.
Having once been a 13-year-old boy, when Evanescence came out with "Bring Me To Life," I was completely blown away. The juxtaposition of traditionally masculine metal and Amy's powerful but feminine vocals captured me immediately, and I begged my mom to buy me the whole album. I listened to it through and through for hours every day.
And to think, I never would have been exposed to it if record companies had refused to touch it because the band is fronted by a chick.
Yeah, I was 14 when Evanescence broke through the mainstream music scene. When I first heard "Bring Me To Life" on the radio it blew me away. Their music was such a gamechanger to me and I started listening to dark rock, metal and alternative rock music and a little bit later to Goth music. Amy's voice is so heavenly and beautiful and I admired her so much as a teenage girl 🖤 I owe her and Evanescence so much!
The language as well that's typically used of "female-fronted" is also sexist because it takes it as if the female is just "fronting" the band. Meanwhile in Evanescence Amy was always the creative core. Amy is a classically trained pianist and multi-instrumentalist who's also produced, programmed, arranged, written choirs, mixed.
I'm so so proud of Evanescence and Amy Lee
The open door is my favorite evanescence album. The fact that it got a 15 year anniversary repress (on colored vinyl, black and white splatter, for the first time) for record store day makes me soooo happy.
the open door is an amazing album.
Mine too. It's an absolutely killer album.
brillant video! Why doesn't this channel have a million subs yet??
When I was young, I first heard them on the daredevil soundtrack. Then my uncle gave me his copy of fallen and I instantly became a huge fan. Still love Evanescence 15 years later!
16:59 ... "Their success opened the doors for other bands" ... erm ... not to put too fine a point on it, but Within Temptation predates Evanescence by almost a decade. Their breakout hit, Ice Queen predates Evanescence by almost 4 years. Same goes for Nightwish ... In fact, when Evanescence popped up, Europe was like, "oh, the Americans finally caught on, have they?"
Evanescence's success opened the doors for other bands in North America. I discovered Nightwish because I had Evanescence on my Pandora radio and it suggested Nightwish. I then heard Ghost Love Score for the first time. It was a good day.
He didn’t say that. He said that it opened the door to other female fronted acts who had otherwise only had some success in mainland Europe.
Hes talking about world wide fame, and that generally starts (or at least used to) by hitting it big in the US.
Nightwish already had three albums before 'bring me to life' was written. I loved the story behind the song, but I agree that the statement that they opened the door for bands like WT and nightwish was invalid. At least from a European standpoint.
Totally!!!! but their fans are not ready for that conversation.
It's interesting how the male vocalist wasn't a part of the band, I always thought he was lmao
@limelight81 I'm kinda indifferent about it, I've never been too into them but I just always wondered of he just stood about whenever they played the songs he wasn't on live lmao
I thought the exact opposite about Linkin Park because of In The End and Burn it Down
@@heggy_69 No, this is the one and only song he was on. Although judging by that live clip the guitarist has a pretty good voice that sounds exactly like the 12 Stones guy, don't know why they didn't just have him do it on the record (unless he wasn't in the band then)
Thank you so much for this! I have found a new appreciation of the people behind the songs. Your videos are so good and I am always excited for new ones, no matter who it's about!!
This song came out, litterally, right when I needed it. After my grandpa's death is 2005, I was so depressed and had been feeling so alone and music like this saved me in a way. I know it saved a lot of others; it showed them they weren't alone, that others felt that darkness around them too and that it was okay to express it. Not only that, but that it was GOOD to express it. I'll always be thankful to the alt scene, emo, punk, metal & all the other variations of rock and music as a whole. The ones who aren't packaged by the cold unfeeling Corp & have real meat in their lyrics, something to relate to & to feel, well always do well in my book.
"You're a girl singing in a rock band. There's nothing else like that out there..."
Was that studio exec 12 years old??? Ever hear of HEART???? VIXEN??? Aye aye aye...
Heart and EV are two completely different sounds. You can't compare them really. Both of course had and have crazy hot lead singers thou:) In Amy's field of music so to speak it was male. Odd how a Studio exec can look and Amy and hear her and say what do we do with her. Let's see hot girl, great voice, way more talented than she was given credit for at the time. Not hard to promote at all. Just her looks alone would have sold records for a while pushing up the sexy on MTV at the time.
Don't forget the Gathering. Anneke is one of the best hard rock/metal frontwomen ever-years before Evanescence. They were huge in Europe.
@@larrylindgren9484 They should have left the goofy rapper off that tune. It ruins the song and she is beyond good enough. The band should have been built strictly around her.
@@ferox965 Yeah symphonic/gothic metal already had momentum in The Netherlands and Belgium well before Evanescene had their moment, but that was also in Europe. The United States had yet to give those sounds a chance until Evanescence apparently showed it was fairly marketable. The execs who heard the demo also probably had no clue who The Gathering or Theatre of Tragedy were.
I think he meant on the top of the charts back in the early 2000s.
I have always thought that the male voice on this song was somewhat wrong and badly mixed with Amy Lee, and now I discover these difficult backstories
I love your videos not only, but mostly, because I get to discover a whole bunch of artists influenced by artists that I like.
your work is precious and seriously underappreciated
Legit fantastic video. This was my introduction to this channel and already finna binge it all.
Interesting that a band formed at a Christian event would be boycotted by Christians. I guess they weren't specifically a Christian band, but there's certainly an element of that in there.
For sure! If you read the liner notes of Origin you’ll see them explicitly thanking Jesus Christ and making other spiritual statements. The song “Lies” on there also seems to be a specificity Christian song. I believe the decision to move away from being explicitly Christian is why keyboardist/vocalist David Hodges left right before the release of Fallen. But even after that they still had Rocky Gray from Living Sacrifice playing in the band for awhile and they did a cover of My Tourniquet by Soul Embraced who are an explicitly Christian band.
Needless to say, yes, we’re very good at eating our own over here smh
Yeah you see this with Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, the members of both bands were quite religious and yet they were branded as Satan worshipers and boycotted by Christian organizations
Skillet and Evanescence sound very similar
@@JohnSmith-gf3vz oh yeah I’ve met Alice Cooper a couple of times (such a gentleman!!!) and he is openly christian and I believe attends bible study.
I can't believe this song is 18 years old. Damn
Wow, I’ve had this song stuck in my head and here is this video in my feed! Awesome video!
I always watch your videos even though I don't know or like the groups you talk about, and always discover great new music.
Thank you very much!!
evanescence had such an influence on me growing into my teens. their music was always on repeat. i loved to try and recreate amy's outfits and tried to do her ribbon braids at one point. i had to be very creative because i couldn't find anything that looked like her clothing or just alternative at all. it was fun. i got some bad looks at school for it but i didn't care. evanescence will forever have a place in my heart
I loved Amy Lee since 2011 and I’m still a big fan of evanescence, I even went to an evanescence concert in 2016! She is absolutely amazing singing live 🥺
So inspiring how you are able to speak with such love about a wide variety of bands an genres
I just discovered your channel, guess I will binge it all evening, fascinating stuff.
god, i remember the Daredevil movie and the hype around this band.
A lot better movie than people give it credit for. Solid B-/C+.
Unfortunately so do I.😭
When you going through some inner struggles or depression, Evanescence's music hits harder than you expect! That Lithium song, gawd!😩
Great video! I could watch videos on the history of Evanescence 24/7. I'm so glad they're still doing so well after all these years.
ANother great episode, thanks. Loved this song ever since it came out but wasn't aware of all the little intricacies behind it. But that's what this channel's so good at, keep on doing it.
I had this video on my recommended feed for a couple days, and I'm pretty sure older videos by the channel too, but I never really sat down and watched one, partly because the length being higher than most videos I consume and many of the covered themes and artists not entirely hitting home for me. Evanescence's Bring Me To Life was the right song for me at the right time, as I was starting to grow out of teen angst nu metal like Linkin Park or Limp Bizkit (though I grew to appreciate them again since) and was looking for something bolder and bigger.
Evanescence proved to be that gateway for me, as they combined the simple yet heavy basslines, catchy choruses of the nu-metal wave, with a much more grand and epic production value that eventually led me to spend a great whole of time on bands like Nightwish, Within Temptation or Epica, other than the other facets of "actual metal" that nu-metal was a simplified version of. Funnily enough, I loved their singles like this and Going Under, but then I was initially disappointed by the full album, which I rushed to buy a CD of as soon as possible.
This video really shed a light on how that happened. They simply pulled a catchy, memorable and iconic single that did sell their album for sure... but one that was also nothing like any of their songs before or after, thanks to their label. It surely cemented their name in the scene, but also gave a wrong impression to many.
Excellent video and channel btw, I've hit the Subscribe button as soon as the video was over. If I may just point out a slight error in an otherwise excellent video: on one of the TV footage parts, you cited as source "Mediaset 1" for the performance, based on the logo. That's not the channel's name: Mediaset is the media group's name, while the actual channel's name is Italia 1. It's no big deal, but I figured I'd point it out. Keep up the great work, now off to watch several other videos!
Omggggg Amy Lee has the most angelic voice in Rock ♡
The absolute nostalgia I feel just from seeing her in the thumbnail, they were my childhood, hearing the opening notes of Where Will You Go literally smacked me across the room
Thank you for this beautifully created documentary,
bits of history normally shoved under the carpet.
Explains a lot, makes us love it more,
the way they connect, avoiding the boring "Radio pop".
She really opened doors both for other artists
and helping with emotional torment for her fans.
I totally remember this album blowing up, it was never my jam but I didn't dislike it. You know though, I would love to see an episode on the insanely influential British band Killing Joke or the underrated but also technically important Godflesh ;D
Keep this top notch content coming!
Thank you so much for bringing this contents in 2021🖤
I learned so much from this. Great video man
I remember hearing this song for the first time and thinking the band was a joke because of that male vocalist and how unfortunate he was.
For some reason this hit way harder than I expected. Thanks for giving the band and the song the spotlight it deserves!
This evokes the brilliance of Trash Theory's early vids. Great work
Love the channel you should
Make a video about the stone roses and their 2nd album
12 Stones were also on Wind Up Records. Paul is a really good singer and 12 Stones have some really good songs.
Yes they do! They deserved way more recognition!
@@ilovebabyyoda712 I still listen to "The Way I Feel," "Broken," and "Crash" from the first album regularly. And whether Amy likes the rap or not, I think Paul really adds to the song.
@@coolnegative I do too! I find the song kinda boring without him. I never liked how Amy would talk about the rap part and how she hated it so much. I think he adds to it as well. He understands where she's coming from though, and she did say she loved what he brought to the song, that it's not him, it was more the situation they were put in.
Holy forking shirtballs, I just put this on as background while getting some speakers set up and you've definitely for a new fan! Fallen was among my first albums. Also, as a film lover and a Marvel lover I'm glad something good came out of Daredevil/Electra
I really can’t explain the way that song made me feel when I heard it for the first time. Evanescence was the band that followed me through my teen years and they always spoke to my heart. To this day, these songs still touch me. I think that I feel them even deeper right now that I am an adult.
What an amazing channel you ve got dude
Where's the rest of my "I Look Just Like Amy Lee!!!" 2003 fam? 🤣
oh god PLEASE I was so happy when someone said this to me that I humblebragged about it later (it's not even true lmao)
why am i tearing over this omg…
Thanks for sharing the history behind such an iconic song
My mom is a big fan of Evanescence
As another die hard fan, thanks for this amazing essay! I know everything you've mentioned, and I'll add this to my expanding list of sources! Saw them live twice, both amazing! Love from Pittsburgh PA dude!
Beautiful documentary about my most favorite band ❤️ thank you
I love Evanescence. They've pretty much introduced me to symphonic metal. Pretty formative. To hear how much of an uphill battle Amy Lees Story is is inspiring.
I always loved Bring Me To Life. When it was released I was forever hiding behind the coolness of Dischord Records or the San Diego hardcore scene but it hit me so hard I just couldn't deny it's power!
Would have been far better with just her singing it. The goofy rapper guy ruins it.
I so look forward to these vids
I totally missed out on Evanescence. I was a a kid (~10-11 years old), was into nu metal, and Daredevil definitely gave me the wrong first impression - I had not yet developed my interest in gothic rock and metal. After seeing them get immensely popular and not finding other songs I was liked as a preteen boy, I just wrote them off as a one-hit wonder. Decades later, I'm finding all my favourite musicians have immense respect for Amy Lee, but because I got the wrong impression all those years ago, I found this perplexing. When I saw Trash Theory video essay on Evanescence I knew there would be no better opportunity to rediscover Amy Lee and Evanescence as a purveyor of gothic metal. Now I see why she is such an inspiration, and I thank you for giving this opportunity Trash Theory. [tips hat]
Thank you for letting us know things that were difficult to discover back in those days without full internet access. Although the video is not about who came first or who was more popular, it is kind of misleading the idea that Evanescence's success "opened the door" for other similar bands. I believe in any case that Evanescence opened the door of symphonic metal for those who didn't know the genre. Other bands were already successful in both Europe & America & continued being successful without Evanescence. Many of us (30+) were already listening & supporting bands like Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, Theatre of Tragedy & Within Temptation when Evanescence came out. I consider they were already successful, mainstream or not. I understand Evanescence has their niche because they exposed symphonic metal to a wider population that began spreading their music in ways older bands couldn't when they appeared.
Agreed! But don’t forget about The Gathering and After Forever!
Truly, Evanescence just lead to more formations, and an "open door" (yes I know I said it) to let these already thriving bands become more popular. It'd say it had some negative side effects at times but then again when you make a lot of albums your going to dish out one bad one at some point. I'm sure they enjoyed those 500,000+ sales some of them an album versus 100,000. Evanescence was just the USA's gateway into it-labels knew it too, spiked up Lacuna Coil with much more expensive music videos when that really mattered too.
I used to think, and still like to believe, that this song was #1 in the US the week I was born 16 weeks premature lol.
EDIT: So I was apparently somewhat right.
Thanks for the vid. I watched these guys live early in their career. It was such an emotional performance by Amy Lee. The memories came flooding back.
This honestly one of the best youtube channels of all time: informative, entertaining and full of passion. Please never stop making videos
I feel like though Fallen was a fantastic album, Evanescence just got better over time. The Open Door is a fantastic follow up that completely blew fallen out of the water and I wish more people would listen to Evanescence’s later stuff. And though the self titled album didn’t quite top the open door in my opinion it was still soooooo good.
Oh, I'd say you'd get great fun out of looking into Horslips and The Stunning. Two classics of Irish Rock!
Ty so much...great video
one of my favorite things about evanescence that i don't see people mention: they made their demos & eps FREE with zip files publicly available! that is and always has been a huge deal to me, i love hearing the creative process behind making music. it was something i had never heard before when i was just a kid with a MP3 player. it means so much to hear your favorite band making the very first version of songs that sound totally different now. "our very first songs were not that great, but we kept trying and trying, look at us now!"
That's sad story for that lady. I'd be curious to know more about the inner tensions that led to Ben's leaving.
Reportedly, Ben WAS the 3-year abusive relationship that inspired Amy's lyrics. In other words, she was literally in the band and touring with the guy the songs were about. It apparently reached a boiling point where, while manic, Ben held Amy down and screamed at her that he wanted her to die. It wasn't long after that that he left the band. (He was later diagnosed bipolar.) Amy later referenced this on the track, "The Last Song I'm Wasting on You" (bonus track on the second album), and years down the line, she spoke about it in a couple of interviews.
She was my early teen crush, loved her voice as well.
Pity i didnt heard anything from her pretty much after the few songs that hit the top charts
I really liked the songs of theirs that used to be played on radio in the early 2000s and ‘Daredevil’. Thanks for this vidéo !
“How can you see into my eyes…” the first line in a song written for a movie about a blind superhero.
And to continue this theme: Daredevil, a movie no one saw…
Nu Metal was very male dominated. This video gave me a new perspective on that scene
Never got into this band ...but I respect the journey
I love your videos , you are such a good writer!
Thanks for this beautiful video about one of my fav bands ever. I love 'e more now.