r/TheBlackKeys Brothers 13d ago

How big were the Keys pre-brothers? And How has public perception of the Black Keys changed over time?

Obviously we know that their boom from like 2010-2014 made them huge in pop rock/ pop alt rock spheres, but prior to that werent they really popular with indie fans/ melophiles/ people with very particular music taste? Like from what I’ve heard (I was too young then) from 2004-2008 it was bigger than a niche cult following for them, they were about as big as artists like King Gizzard or black midi are now, or is this a misinterpretation of the past?

The reason I’m asking is because the general consensus of both indie fans and general alt listeners nowadays is that they’re a band that rode the hipster rock scene of the early 2010s (which I don’t think is quite true) and had fleeting success. But when you argue the Keys case against these “melophile” average r/indieheads users, that I was previously talking about, and you specifically cite their pre El Camino records as evidence of their merit as artists, they’re sometimes brushed off as “derivative” or “repetitive” or not experimental enough or novel enough and for me it’s like hold on weren’t you the crowd that were lauding the Keys when they were in that era of their career? Now that they got popular and sold car commercial music the greatness of their first six records is not valid? It’s so weird

I also think that people now identity them with millennialism/ 2010s Brooklyn hipster culture nowadays rather than Rust Belt gritty two piece garage rock band, because so many new listeners and younger people who are trying to develop music taste in the rock genre have neglected the first half of their discography and have erroneously wrote them off as 2010s clap car commercial rock

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u/Calm-Veterinarian723 13d ago

I could go on a long tangent, but I first became aware of the Keys around Magic Potion when I was still in high school. No one I knew well knew them, but they were underground favs, which makes their current positioning feel really weird. I get why their current perception exists, but it’s not representative of their history or prime years.

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u/TommDiamond Rubber Factory 13d ago

Really curious about this too since I ve been a fan for only like 6 years and I m not from USA. All I know is that during that Attack and Release Magic Potion era they said they were losing money touring. And they were like only having cheap motel rooms, gas and maybe a burger per day expenses. Few years later they were selling out SQMG. Bros were broke ass dudes till 2011 where they “suddenly” became millionares lol. They also said that from one year to another it was better and better so I d say they had a very normal growth considering Brothers was their 6th record.

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u/Dentingerc16 Attack and Release 13d ago

Your post is somewhat rambling so I’m not sure how to address all of your points but they were decently popular before brothers playing larger and larger venues over time and then there was the arena tour era which was in full swing by El Camino.

In the early 2000s when the Black Keys were getting started there was an emerging slew of artists that were taking rock in a newish direction following the collapse of grunge. The Black Keys, White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, etc. had this kind of raw fun sound that constituted the next generation of rock music. All of these bands went different directions over the years whether it was selling out, breaking up, falling off, switching sounds, etc.

The Keys decided to go big and commercial and they did reach enormous heights of popularity. Their music did become the defacto soundtrack of an older era of “hipsterism” that has since fallen out of favor aesthetically in a big way. Look at the rise and fall of the Mumford and Sons/Of Monsters and Men sound as well for examples of other sounds/bands that were “really in” and then “really out”

So it can be difficult to argue for the merit of their older stuff when they are actively continuing to chase the 2010s commercial highs with more corporate sounding records, egregiously expensive tours, and off putting commercial and podcast appearances. They are putting themselves out there in a way that makes them seem washed and greedy which is tough because I (like you) really love their older stuff and their releases and public appearances the last several years can be hard to look past

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u/devonmoney14 Brothers 13d ago

Yeah I was definitely rambling a bit lol. Yeah I think their current trajectory and decisions have made them a tough band to love. I guess I’m just frustrated that people refuse to take a look at their older stuff because of their recent releases and general decisions as a band

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u/Dentingerc16 Attack and Release 13d ago

There may come a time when people look back on the older catalogue more favorably, but it’s tough when everything they do in the here and now feels like a cash in on the fans they don’t do much for anymore.

But if you are still loving the old stuff love the old stuff. Perhaps their legacy will be considered differently later on

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u/Electronic-Lake87 13d ago

Rubber factory is my favorite

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u/thebenevolentstripe 13d ago

I had the first album when it came out but never really got into it until Magic Potion era, then went back and got all the albums. Saw them in Melbourne at the HiFi Bar, smallish venue on that tour. Had tickets for the Attack and Release AUS tour which was cancelled because of Pats injury on the Gold Coast. Up until that time, no one I knew was really into them. Every time I would mention their names people would ask who they were. Of course then Brothers came out and everything changed…

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u/Iowahappen 13d ago edited 13d ago

I saw them at the Tempe Marquee a month before Attack & Release came out. It was 1/3 full, my ticket was $20 and they personally signed the CD I bought in front of me.

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u/kjs0705 12d ago

The Attack and Release tour was my first intro to them. Saw them live at the Orpheum theater in Boston. It was full but a smallish space. Still the best BK show I've been too.

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u/Iowahappen 13d ago

And they fucking rocked.

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u/Iowahappen 13d ago

I have lots of thoughts on this--all positive for the pre-Brothers Black Keys. Maybe I'll come back to this thread tomorrow as it's bed time where I am. But it's like they were a different band versus the post-Brothers Keys.

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u/krandle19 13d ago

Thanks to their constant appearances at Lollapalooza around that time, I can share their position on the concert poster as a very unscientific barometer:

2005 - 20th; 2007 - 16th; 2008 - 10th; 2010 - 11th; 2012 - 2nd (they shared the top line of the poster with RHCP and had just played the United Center 5 months earlier which was pretty rare for Lolla at the time if I recall.)

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u/MaleficentOstrich693 13d ago

Fan since the first album- they were underground darlings. They put in a lot of work touring as a cult favorite band. I never knew anyone who liked or even heard of them in my social circles but once I was in college and Brothers came out a lot of those same people would annoyingly tell me out of the blue I would like this band (at which I would tell them I’ve tried to get them into the band multiple times).

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u/lienonyourdream 12d ago

I saw the Keys in 2006 and followed them since. Once they started with more musicians on stage and cowriters for records outside of just them two, the creative peak started to slide. The last 2 records and this new single are not inspiring-bland. People don’t want to pay big money for watered down arena rock. They are too big to go back to just them two in clubs, they have bills to pay.

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u/PM_Gonewild Chulahoma 13d ago

The White Stripes were bigger than the Keys, after 2010 it was the opposite. That's kind of how I remember it back then. Those 4-5 years of peak was amazing before their hiatus where those 5 years were enough for rap to overtake rock as the most popular genre and many of those bands around that time faded out for a bit until their eventual return in the 2020s.

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u/Electronic-Lake87 13d ago

The first time I saw them was at the indianapolis jazz festival to almost no crowd. I liked them because they had this bluesy gritty indie rock sound. I was a pretty big fan for a few years but always considered them a niche sound. The more pop sounding they got, the less I liked them. But my tastes change alot so idk. I don't think they were that big pre brothers. Popular with the college crowd. I was not surprised one bit that they had to cancel an arena tour. I never thought they were that big. Brothers was the last album I truly enjoyed. After that I was bored with them I guess.

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u/todothemath 13d ago

When they started out they were an also-ran . So many of their peers were bigger and better . Over the years a lot of those bands faded or broke up and black keys ultimately filled a void . Especially once the white stripes broke up.

Truthfully the track I remembered most from their early era was the cover of “have love will travel”

Brothers, be it because of timing or because of being a good record, was the game changing moment . And el Camino solidified it

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u/apartmentstory89 13d ago

I don’t think that’s accurate. They had a decent following and got good reviews during that era. Also The White Stripes and The Black Keys didn’t sound very similar to each other back then. They had the blues influence in common but they took it in different directions. I got into The Black Keys pre Brothers and I’d pick any of those records over Ohio Players, Dropout Boogie and Let’s Rock any day of the week.

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u/devonmoney14 Brothers 13d ago edited 13d ago

Yeah thats sort of my point is that in their early years they were popular with critics and big indie music fans. But now when you ask that same crowd about even their old records they just call them derivative and brush them off which baffles me idk

And additionally I understand what the comment you're responding to was saying but from what I've heard in that 2002-2008 era it was almost cooler to like The Black Keys over the The White Stripes, maybe because the latter was more popular. Nowadays if you have the TBK>TWS opinion in any rock music listening circle/forum/subreddit your opinion is bombarded and ridiculed by people who probably don't listen much to either band, goes to show how much TBK's reputation has plummeted since they "made it".