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Do you think metal could ever become massively popular again?


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I hope to god not. Last thing I need is some Coachella Latte drinking hipster douchebag, getting into bands that they thought would've sounded like "noise" just because a few got popular now the suddenly feel the urge to wear a Destroyer 666 shirt and come see the local black metal gig. I know that sounds outlandish but I've grown accustomed to the underground nature of this type of music, let the hipster douchecocks suck the cocks of bands like Ghost and Mastodon this music at its heart is underground.

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I don't think he actually means the more extreme bands RtC these will by their very nature always be limited to the underground. He refers to the bands who simplified the sound of metal in order to become more accepted in mainstream circles and fortunately for all concerned even bands who seek to craft similar styles will never again reach the lofty depths of mainstream dominance.

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Bands like Megadeth' date=' Metallica, White Zombie, Ozzy, and Pantera all had massive success during the 90s. I think metal can be popular if it strikes the right cultural nerve and finds the right niche in the pop music market.[/quote'] Well, I suppose it could happen but the thing is, metal usually doesn't try to strike the cultural nerve. It would rather talk about relevant and/or interesting subjects.
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Mainstream metal bands will continue to experience popularity and notoriety as they always have, though never again on the scale of Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc..., that time is simply over. More popular though, as always, will be pop bands masquerading in metal clothing, and some new pop/metal abomination evolves seemingly immediately following the demise of the previous trend. Bands that are actually metal can and still will get popular in rare instances, but I doubt very much that they will ever become household names again like the did in the 80's.

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The real stuff is rarely if ever accepted. I'd love it if Metal suddenly got the popularity it deserved. Then again I'm one of those people that doesn't care what the current trend is. If it rose to popularity I'd still be a die hard fan. I don't care who listens to my bands music either. More people into it means more people at our shows, means more merch is sold means we can accomplish more than we would've otherwise. I've been into metal since I can remember and I never wavered during its "unpopular" period in the 90's. People seem to forget that the hair/pop scenes died in America but were still drawing crowds all over the world. The bigger underground bands do the same and always have. It's popular and generally more accepted everywhere but the USA. Then again the best bands come from abroad. The real question is, do you think Metal, REAL Metal could ever become popular here? No. Music is a commodity no different than fast food in this country in our pro-thief economy.

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The real stuff is rarely if ever accepted. I'd love it if Metal suddenly got the popularity it deserved. Then again I'm one of those people that doesn't care what the current trend is. If it rose to popularity I'd still be a die hard fan. I don't care who listens to my bands music either. More people into it means more people at our shows, means more merch is sold means we can accomplish more than we would've otherwise. I've been into metal since I can remember and I never wavered during its "unpopular" period in the 90's. People seem to forget that the hair/pop scenes died in America but were still drawing crowds all over the world. The bigger underground bands do the same and always have. It's popular and generally more accepted everywhere but the USA. Then again the best bands come from abroad. The real question is, do you think Metal, REAL Metal could ever become popular here? No. Music is a commodity no different than fast food in this country in our pro-thief economy.
For the most part you're right, but metal is not generally accepted everywhere but the USA. It is accepted in Europe, some of Latin America and maybe in Japan and Australia, but the entirety of Africa and Asia are metal wastelands by and large. Of course there are metal scenes but they are tiny in comparison with those here. Also it's a bit unfair to compare the United States with the entire rest of the world musically. There is so much more variety out in the world that I wouldn't expect any given nation to compete competently with everyone else.
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One thing that really bothers me in this subject is just that behavior when certain people get pissed of when a band actually starts selling records and get some popularity. ''Sellouts'' I hear people complain about... Ive never cared about those things. If a band can make really good music they atleast deserve to get credit for it. Especially around Black Metal fans here in Sweden i see that. They compete in whos listening to the most absurd bands still,. I could get that when tapetrading still was something, but at this state. With our technology, No. But at the same time i think metal is pretty big as it is, at least here. But that depends on what you classify as metal. If crap like Dead by April and Amaranthe is metal then i would call it pretty popular.

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I hope it won't. You will always have the mainstream metal like Volbeat (is that even metal?), Sabaton, Kamelot, etc. As I've read above, I don't care if these bands are mainstream, but they have to earn it in my opinion, like Machine Head. But the reason I hope it will never be populair, is because small venues will dissappear. Nothing better than going to be at a concert with only 200 people or something. But also, if metal becomes mainstream, it is not metal anymore. Most of the people who are listening to (good) metal seem to be smart people. They are not blinly following the mass or something like that. When it becomes mainstream, well, it is just pop music, every radio, music channel on tv, it forces you to listen. When you think about it, it may look awesome, but the whole metal culture will dissappear, I think.

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You will always have the mainstream metal like Volbeat (is that even metal?)
Yeah, it is. They buggered up with their last two albums, but their latest one is a much better effort. Nothing phenomenal (the band themselves aren't) but I really enjoyed it.
I dissagre, All metal will never be mainstream and commercial, its not easy enough to take in. Many band are to complex or sound to aggressive or too slow for the average listener.
This is a valid point. I had to start playing guitar to understand why technical death metal, melodeath and avant-garde were good. Before then I really only liked a pretty small subset of metal itself.
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Re: Do you think metal could ever become massively popular again?

One thing that really bothers me in this subject is just that behavior when certain people get pissed of when a band actually starts selling records and get some popularity. ''Sellouts'' I hear people complain about... Ive never cared about those things. If a band can make really good music they atleast deserve to get credit for it. Especially around Black Metal fans here in Sweden i see that. They compete in whos listening to the most absurd bands still,. I could get that when tapetrading still was something, but at this state. With our technology, No. But at the same time i think metal is pretty big as it is, at least here. But that depends on what you classify as metal. If crap like Dead by April and Amaranthe is metal then i would call it pretty popular.
I love it when good bands get popular, but hate it when bands "sellout" by compromising their sound to gain that popularity. I don't fault a band for being good at what they do, but by dumbing down their sound for wider consumption, they don't deserve the popularity. There's a difference between evolving or progressing, and just making easy music to sell records. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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For the most part you're right' date=' but metal is [i']not generally accepted everywhere but the USA. It is accepted in Europe, some of Latin America and maybe in Japan and Australia, but the entirety of Africa and Asia are metal wastelands by and large. Of course there are metal scenes but they are tiny in comparison with those here. Also it's a bit unfair to compare the United States with the entire rest of the world musically. There is so much more variety out in the world that I wouldn't expect any given nation to compete competently with everyone else.
We don't have the most awesome metal scene here in Australia. It's okay, but could be better. I have heard lots of touring musicians say numerous Asian countries have a really awesome metal scene with massive audience turnouts.
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We don't have the most awesome metal scene here in Australia. It's okay' date=' but could be better. I have heard lots of touring musicians say numerous Asian countries have a really awesome metal scene with massive audience turnouts.[/quote'] Hm, OK. I know that Chthonic fans are pretty enthusiastic...don't know about the rest of Taiwan. Maybe Singapore since they're so densely populated?
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As an old fart, I'll bore the knickers off you with another history lesson (or maybe it's just a reminder to other old farts?): Metal/hard rock has always been underground. Even in the '70s and '80s. It's always been treated with contempt but it's always been popular. AC/DC, Lizzy, Sabbath etc were all selling out venues in Europe and the USA etc. But they were effectively underground bands, snubbed by the music press and media in general. When Slayer and the thrash bands hit the scene most metal fans at the time said "christ-that's too much". I include myself in that. But Metallica and Slayer etc soon became, if not stadium bands, then arena bands. I see no reason why another 'wave' of metal can't come through and be popular/big again. That's because, IMO, the things that make metal popular will always be there-the music. It's that simple! Loud, fast, aggressive rock 'n' roll was first (AC/DC, Lizzy, Sabbath etc), this evolved into metal as we know it (Saxon, Maiden, Motorhead etc) and this evolved into/influenced the thrash/death/black/more extreme stuff and so on. It's a 'blood-line' and it continues to this day. Sure, Deathspell Omega ain't gonna sell out a stadium, but just look at the size of some of the metal tours and festivals that sell out-it's maybe just as popular as ever? What I do find disturbing though, is posters on here saying they don't want it to be popular!!??? Why??? I certainly don't want phonies latching onto my bands, but if metal becomes too 'underground' it will cease to exist. These bands have to feed and cloth themselves, for god's sake! I've said it before and I'll say it again-the biggest threat to metal is elitism within it's own scene.

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As an old fart, I'll bore the knickers off you with another history lesson (or maybe it's just a reminder to other old farts?): Metal/hard rock has always been underground. Even in the '70s and '80s. It's always been treated with contempt but it's always been popular. AC/DC, Lizzy, Sabbath etc were all selling out venues in Europe and the USA etc. But they were effectively underground bands, snubbed by the music press and media in general. When Slayer and the thrash bands hit the scene most metal fans at the time said "christ-that's too much". I include myself in that. But Metallica and Slayer etc soon became, if not stadium bands, then arena bands. I see no reason why another 'wave' of metal can't come through and be popular/big again. That's because, IMO, the things that make metal popular will always be there-the music. It's that simple! Loud, fast, aggressive rock 'n' roll was first (AC/DC, Lizzy, Sabbath etc), this evolved into metal as we know it (Saxon, Maiden, Motorhead etc) and this evolved into/influenced the thrash/death/black/more extreme stuff and so on. It's a 'blood-line' and it continues to this day. Sure, Deathspell Omega ain't gonna sell out a stadium, but just look at the size of some of the metal tours and festivals that sell out-it's maybe just as popular as ever? What I do find disturbing though, is posters on here saying they don't want it to be popular!!??? Why??? I certainly don't want phonies latching onto my bands, but if metal becomes too 'underground' it will cease to exist. These bands have to feed and cloth themselves, for god's sake! I've said it before and I'll say it again-the biggest threat to metal is elitism within it's own scene.
Though I understand the point that you're trying to make, Deathspell Omega is a bad example because they've never played live, so of course they would never sell out a stadium. If they did, it would be great if they could gain enough popularity to do so, because I certainly feel that they're talented enough to deserve a reward for their hard work and musical excellence. The problem is that when most bands (not all) gain some recognition, they settle down a bit and make less interesting albums at best, and pieces of shit at worst, or start producing pieces of shit aimed at mass consumption in an attempt to gain that popularity. I would love it if my favorite metal bands could make a profit and tour all the time, and even play in smaller areas and make money and sell merch there, but that's simply not the way it works. Most metal bands that aren't signed to Nuclear Blast or Metal Blade records don't even make enough from their music to self sustain, they still have to put money into the band for merch/recording/touring without taking any out. It's unfortunate, but I honestly don't see it changing.
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As an old fart, I'll bore the knickers off you with another history lesson (or maybe it's just a reminder to other old farts?): Metal/hard rock has always been underground. Even in the '70s and '80s. It's always been treated with contempt but it's always been popular. AC/DC, Lizzy, Sabbath etc were all selling out venues in Europe and the USA etc. But they were effectively underground bands, snubbed by the music press and media in general. When Slayer and the thrash bands hit the scene most metal fans at the time said "christ-that's too much". I include myself in that. But Metallica and Slayer etc soon became, if not stadium bands, then arena bands. I see no reason why another 'wave' of metal can't come through and be popular/big again. That's because, IMO, the things that make metal popular will always be there-the music. It's that simple! Loud, fast, aggressive rock 'n' roll was first (AC/DC, Lizzy, Sabbath etc), this evolved into metal as we know it (Saxon, Maiden, Motorhead etc) and this evolved into/influenced the thrash/death/black/more extreme stuff and so on. It's a 'blood-line' and it continues to this day. Sure, Deathspell Omega ain't gonna sell out a stadium, but just look at the size of some of the metal tours and festivals that sell out-it's maybe just as popular as ever? What I do find disturbing though, is posters on here saying they don't want it to be popular!!??? Why??? I certainly don't want phonies latching onto my bands, but if metal becomes too 'underground' it will cease to exist. These bands have to feed and cloth themselves, for god's sake! I've said it before and I'll say it again-the biggest threat to metal is elitism within it's own scene.
You make a good point about what is extreme today is mainstream tomorrow. As for bands being snubbed by the media, it's all for the sake of a story. They like to build up different trends, then denigrate them to create drama; this goes for almost every genre. And you are definitely right about the popularity thing. If a band puts out good music, then they deserve to sell millions. Trying to keep a scene underground just limits its potential and hurts the bands.
Though I understand the point that you're trying to make' date=' Deathspell Omega is a bad example because they've never played live, so of course they would never sell out a stadium. If they did, it would be great if they could gain enough popularity to do so, because I certainly feel that they're talented enough to deserve a reward for their hard work and musical excellence. The problem is that when most bands (not all) gain some recognition, they settle down a bit and make less interesting albums at best, and pieces of shit at worst, or start producing pieces of shit aimed at mass consumption in an attempt to gain that popularity. I would love it if my favorite metal bands could make a profit and tour all the time, and even play in smaller areas and make money and sell merch there, but that's simply not the way it works. Most metal bands that aren't signed to Nuclear Blast or Metal Blade records don't even make enough from their music to self sustain, they still have to put money into the band for merch/recording/touring without taking any out. It's unfortunate, but I honestly don't see it changing.[/quote'] Pop music is in flux right now. Dance and bubblegum pop music has been massive for the past two or three years, but I think people are getting tired of it. The hipster/indie scene also seems to be fading as well. People want something different, and I think hard rock and metal really have a niche that they could fill in the mainstream market.
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You make a good point about what is extreme today is mainstream tomorrow. As for bands being snubbed by the media, it's all for the sake of a story. They like to build up different trends, then denigrate them to create drama; this goes for almost every genre. And you are definitely right about the popularity thing. If a band puts out good music, then they deserve to sell millions. Trying to keep a scene underground just limits its potential and hurts the bands. Pop music is in flux right now. Dance and bubblegum pop music has been massive for the past two or three years, but I think people are getting tired of it. The hipster/indie scene also seems to be fading as well. People want something different, and I think hard rock and metal really have a niche that they could fill in the mainstream market.
Maybe it's a regional thing, Dude, but 'rock' music (very loosely termed-AC/DC, Bon Jovi, G n R, Led Zep) are probably getting recognition from the mainstream media and music press in the UK for the first ever. If you flick through the UK tabloids for instance, these bands are starting to get mentioned in the gossip columns!!! Metal and hard rock will always be popular, though stadium bands may be thin on the ground. However, my point about 'metal' fans shooting themselves in the foot with elitism still stands-that's maybe why we won't see stadium metal bands like Metallica, GnR, AC/DC again-'metal' (very broad term I'm using here) has become split within itself, and polarised. It wasn't in the past, certainly not to the extremes is it now. Folk like myself turned their noses up at thrash etc when it came out, but we were open minded enough to admit we were wrong and to give it a second listen. That's how popularity spreads. We never said 'oh that's not metal so I'm not listeneing to it'. But that 'it's not metal' attitude is prevelant in the scene now, and that's why I think it's bad for 'metal'. There's some folk on here and elsewhere who say Machine Head aren't metal!!! That's just preposterous, and bad for the metal scene as a whole. Remember-the biggest selling 'metal' band ever are AC/DC, and they were slaughtered at the peak of their creativity for being 'metal-just a bloody racket'. Those same folk now class them as 'classic rock' and have bought their entire back catalogue. That's why AC/DC sell out Wembley Stadium in 30 mins. They would have done in 1980 as well if those folk had been open minded.
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Pop music is in flux right now. Dance and bubblegum pop music has been massive for the past two or three years' date=' but I think people are getting tired of it. The hipster/indie scene also seems to be fading as well. People want something different, and I think hard rock and metal really have a niche that they could fill in the mainstream market.[/quote'] Far as I can tell the basic genre set isn't really going away any time soon. Although country and rap have become less popular I think there's a basic set of popular music that just sort of rotates. It's R&B, country-rock like Nickelback, WGWAG music, boy bands, rap, electropop/techno and classic rock. Yes, people want something different, but luckily they're not comprehensively bored of all of these. Or at least the charts suggest as much.
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Re: Do you think metal could ever become massively popular again?

Far as I can tell the basic genre set isn't really going away any time soon. Although country and rap have become less popular I think there's a basic set of popular music that just sort of rotates. It's R&B' date=' country-rock like Nickelback, WGWAG music, boy bands, rap, electropop/techno and classic rock. Yes, people want something different, but luckily they're not comprehensively bored of all of these. Or at least the charts suggest as much.[/quote'] No, all of those genres are so intertwined with pop music now that they will go nowhere. Trends will come and go, but the pop variants of rap, hip-hop, emo, indie, country, techno, etc... are going nowhere. Just look at American Idol, those main genres show up there without fail and win, with millions voting for each, more than for the presidential election even. Those genres all still exist without pop music in legitimate forms, just like everything else, but the genre mixed with pop is what everyone sees. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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Re: Do you think metal could ever become massively popular again?

Maybe it's a regional thing, Dude, but 'rock' music (very loosely termed-AC/DC, Bon Jovi, G n R, Led Zep) are probably getting recognition from the mainstream media and music press in the UK for the first ever. If you flick through the UK tabloids for instance, these bands are starting to get mentioned in the gossip columns!!! Metal and hard rock will always be popular, though stadium bands may be thin on the ground. However, my point about 'metal' fans shooting themselves in the foot with elitism still stands-that's maybe why we won't see stadium metal bands like Metallica, GnR, AC/DC again-'metal' (very broad term I'm using here) has become split within itself, and polarised. It wasn't in the past, certainly not to the extremes is it now. Folk like myself turned their noses up at thrash etc when it came out, but we were open minded enough to admit we were wrong and to give it a second listen. That's how popularity spreads. We never said 'oh that's not metal so I'm not listeneing to it'. But that 'it's not metal' attitude is prevelant in the scene now, and that's why I think it's bad for 'metal'. There's some folk on here and elsewhere who say Machine Head aren't metal!!! That's just preposterous, and bad for the metal scene as a whole. Remember-the biggest selling 'metal' band ever are AC/DC, and they were slaughtered at the peak of their creativity for being 'metal-just a bloody racket'. Those same folk now class them as 'classic rock' and have bought their entire back catalogue. That's why AC/DC sell out Wembley Stadium in 30 mins. They would have done in 1980 as well if those folk had been open minded.
My "that's not metal" attitude comes from bands that are really pop in metal clothing. I personally believe that this is an important distinction, as for the last few decades, pop music has become so banal and stuck in a creative nadir of pandering to the lowest common denominator that anything it is mixed with is like oil and water. I don't just say this with metal, but all genres, though since this is a metal forum and that's predominantly what I listen to, that's what you hear me say it about. Good Charlotte isn't punk, they're pop, which should take nothing away from legitimate punk bands because it's not the same. Same goes for crap like Rascal Flatts being labeled country, Lil Wayne being labeled rap, and all of the various screamo bands being called metal. There's plenty of metal I don't like, I have a hard time with slam death, really blasty tech-death and black metal, Euro flower metal, some gothic metal, retro heavy/thrash/occult rock, but I'm not going to say that it's not metal because I don't like it. This is also not to say that metal bands can't mix their sound with other genres, quite the contrary as I like interesting hybrids, but mixing any genre with pop music totally negates its original purpose and it becomes invalid in my eyes. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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