Creed is getting a lot of attention right now. Or more accurately, it’s getting a lot of attention online, over and over again.
On Instagram, the band has been repurposed as a comedic device to poke fun at President Joe Biden, on TikTok, contributors imagine what it would be like to explain Bat-rock legends to aliens, and on X, Creed has become an easy punchline to comment on political theater. Meanwhile, these memes are collectively garnering millions of likes, views, and shares.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that if Charlie XCX hadn’t made 2024 the “Summer of Sassy,” this year would have been Scott Stapp’s season (meme-wise). And Stapp himself seems well aware of this. “I’ve seen a lot of them,” says the Creed frontman. “Some of them are funny and make you laugh, and some of them are really heartwarming because they show how much time and energy the fans put into making these videos.”
What’s most surprising isn’t that Creed has been memed, but that the band is having a meme-revival. In 2024, Creed has quietly risen from internet joke to real, bona fide, record-selling rock band. By June, the band was back on the charts — in the Top 40, actually. Last month, sales of the band’s greatest hits album were on the rise.
As a result of their unexpected comeback, Creed is back on the road, playing alongside post-grunge staples like 3 Doors Down to sold-out shows, with arena tickets selling for over $100. For the most die-hard Creed fans, the band’s second annual Miami to Nassau “Creed Cruise” will be held in 2025, with top-tier tickets costing a whopping $4,300. Tickets for the tour are sold out.
Sure, older music finds new audiences all the time, and a lot of that is thanks to the internet, but Creed isn’t like other bands: They haven’t released a new studio album in 15 years, and they’ve spent most of those years as the butt of internet jokes. By industry standards, at least, they were buried beneath the surface, until recently.
“In 2020, Creed hadn’t toured since 2012, so to see the interest and the songs getting new life and being resurrected and having a renaissance is the best way to describe it – we were intrigued,” said Creed’s agent, Ken Farmagrich, who has been with the band for decades.
All of this raises two obvious questions: Why are we here now?
According to YouTuber Pat Finnerty, who regularly criticizes bands like Creed on his channel What Makes This Song Stink, the formula for a Creed comeback is simple: time + embarrassment = popularity.
Finnerty said Creed has been around for over 20 years, and most older bands feel new again. “But there’s also the issue of memes. You see all these memes like, ‘This band sucks,’ but in modern terms, it’s ‘This band sucks,'” he added. “They’ve switched from ‘This band sucks’ to ‘This band sucks,’ and it’s actually funnier to them.”
