Daughtry vs. White

According to the Top Album section of my my.yahoo portal, two of the current best selling rock albums are The White Stripe's Icky Thump and Daughtry's self-titled record. Before I go on, allmusic.com tells me the band name is technically DAUGHTRY--all capitalized--to distinguish the band from its front man, former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry. Apparently Chris felt he'd get more credibility by being in a rock band. I think he should have differentiated his band name from his surname with slightly less subtlety than mere capitalization, though. Maybe a band name like DAUGHTRY SUCKS or DAUGH-FAIL would not only provide more distinction but a more accurate indication of the type of music they play. I cringe every time Daughtry's "What I Want" comes on, but I force myself to listen to it so I can justify my scorn. It should suffice it to say that the chorus hook is "What I want, what I need..."; that's the lyrical equivalent of the literary "It was a dark and stormy night..." In stark contrast to "What I Want" is "Icky Thump." I frequently head over to its video at vids.myspace.com just to listen to it since Pandora doesn't throw it into my rotation frequently enough. Sure, it's a beefed up "Seven Nation Army," but when your rockin' originates from your heart instead of from a highly paid producer's music market expertise, it doesn't matter.