I cannot stand gimmick metal. It's generally terrible and everyone spreads it around as "awesome" just because of the joke. Looking at you, Babymetal, Spongecore, and Okilly Dokilly.
If you think blackgaze is "mainstream" I challenge you to go out to any bar on a given night and find many people who've even HEARD of Deafheaven, Ghost Bath, Lantlos, and Russian Circles let alone are fans or could name an album. XD
Metal was mainstream in years gone by, it ain't even close to it now. People trying to act like Sabbath, Priest, and Slayer weren't household names back in the day. Unless Cattle Decapitation being number ONE HUNDRED on the Billboard Top 200 counts to you as mainstream, you're just being elitist, and being surprised that there are hipsters in a blackgaze show is like being surprised to find sports fans at a football game. What are you expecting in a blackgaze show? Corpse paint? Bloody arms? A moshpit?
I'll tell ya who I don't want to see in the audience at a metal show: a guy who gets mad that the "wrong crowd" is in the audience at a metal show. :etysmile:
Black Sabbath may have sold a lot of records but I can tell you it was not mainstream. This cover for example scared the hell out of people in 1973. Some guy on a bed (with a 666 headboard) being attacked by devil people! It was the stuff you hid if relatives or friends came by the house.
Due to everyone being desensitized even Ozzy biting a bird head off is no big deal now. Shocking has to be taken to a new level for any effect. It almost has no place to go. In the early 1990s they walked a thin line. Stuff was censored but by 2000, even the censored lyrics were no big deal anymore. I think the envelope changed the most from 93-2000?
Black Sabbath may have sold a lot of records but I can tell you it was not mainstream. This cover for example scared the hell out of people in 1973. Some guy on a bed (with a 666 headboard) being attacked by devil people! It was the stuff you hid if relatives or friends came by the house.
Due to everyone being desensitized even Ozzy biting a bird head off is no big deal now. Shocking has to be taken to a new level for any effect. It almost has no place to go. In the early 1990s they walked a thin line. Stuff was censored but by 2000, even the censored lyrics were no big deal anymore. I think the envelope changed the most from 93-2000?
Oh come on. By the 80s metal was as mainstream as it got. Ozzy had his hair all fluffed up and was fighting with Dio (in Sabbath at the time) to see who could sell out the most arenas. ARENAS.
You're focusing too hard on shock value instead of looking at mainstream permeation. Metal doesn't need to "shock" and it hasn't needed to "shock" in a long time. The fact is that the shocking SOLD. When Ozzy chomped that dove head he turned into a household name. These bands went multi-platinum and played to crowds of tens of thousands. They toured the world and were beloved globally. They had their videos played on MTV and sold lunchboxes.
Look at this AC/DC concert from 19-friggin-79:
You cannot find a metal band playing on that level. Lamb of God? Amon Amarth? Five Finger Death Punch? Maybe a few of them play large crowds but nothing like that, and CERTAINLY not a single metal band is big enough to have the kind of notoriety and fame any bands had 30 years ago.
Yeah it's true that metal as an aesthetic is in the mainstream in the sense that Lady Gaga will wear crust punk garb and H&M makes fake metal merch with logos for bands that don't exist, and metal music shows up more in movie soundtracks than before, but the bands themselves? They're as underground as ever. There are no metal superstars in 2015, there are no metal bands tearing up the Billboard charts, no metal bands ruling the radio stations. The aesthetic might be more culturally accepted, but to look at blackgaze and call that mainstream is just silly.
Oh come on. By the 80s metal was as mainstream as it got. Ozzy had his hair all fluffed up and was fighting with Dio (in Sabbath at the time) to see who could sell out the most arenas. ARENAS.
You're focusing too hard on shock value instead of looking at mainstream permeation. Metal doesn't need to "shock" and it hasn't needed to "shock" in a long time. The fact is that the shocking SOLD. When Ozzy chomped that dove head he turned into a household name. These bands went multi-platinum and played to crowds of tens of thousands. They toured the world and were beloved globally. They had their videos played on MTV and sold lunchboxes.
Look at this AC/DC concert from 19-friggin-79:
You cannot find a metal band playing on that level. Lamb of God? Amon Amarth? Five Finger Death Punch? Maybe a few of them play large crowds but nothing like that, and CERTAINLY not a single metal band is big enough to have the kind of notoriety and fame any bands had 30 years ago.
Yeah it's true that metal as an aesthetic is in the mainstream in the sense that Lady Gaga will wear crust punk garb and H&M makes fake metal merch with logos for bands that don't exist, and metal music shows up more in movie soundtracks than before, but the bands themselves? They're as underground as ever. There are no metal superstars in 2015, there are no metal bands tearing up the Billboard charts, no metal bands ruling the radio stations. The aesthetic might be more culturally accepted, but to look at blackgaze and call that mainstream is just silly.
And.............I would not exactly call AC/DC metal, more hard rock?
I agree, I had MTV on cable TV in 1986. Yes, metal was mainstream, but just like Sabbath in 73, Don't Break The Oath was not close to mainstream. There was always a metal underground which I believe was the cutting edge.
Did any of you see the Metalsucks recent post where they cross posted (maybe from Rolling Stone or something) bands with the greatest record sales....something like that. We can argue whether these groups are metal or have some kind of metal tangent, but I wonder if it will take a band of a Nirvana (no, they're not metal), Metallica, Motley Crue or Guns'N'Roses to usher in any kind of wave of popularity. I think of Nirvana, Tool and Guns'N'Roses being sort of the last bands that generally were received well critically and commercially. And, of course Metallica-but they are in their own kind of universe it seems.....
Wait? I agreed? Take a pill? I had MTV in 86 metal was mainstream, and way more than it is now. It was soo mainstream they had KNAC night in nightclubs and instead of dance they played metal.
All I'm pointing out is there has always been a metal underground which never totally became mainstream. That is all?
Wait? I agreed? Take a pill? I had MTV in 86 metal was mainstream, and way more than it is now. It was soo mainstream they had KNAC night in nightclubs and instead of dance they played metal.
All I'm pointing out is there has always been a metal underground which never totally became mainstream. That is all?
Sorry, my mistake. The posts about calling them "rock" made me think you were saying the point was invalid because AC/DC isn't "metal". Totally my misreading, sorry about that.
My posts earlier were going after this notion of "extreme metal is going mainstream" with the only evidence being the existence of blackgaze, as if the fact that bands are doing a sound means the genre as a whole is becoming mainstream, which is just silly. You stack modern metal bands up against titans like Zeppelin, Sabbath, and Deep Purple and it ain't even a fair comparison. Those guys were gods. None of the "hipster" metal bands are anything but underground.
Metal is never gonna be mainstream just because it's not a sound that's been made in a way to have really good crossover appeal. It's not casual listening, it's not easy background music, a lot of it goes at really goofy tempos. You'll get a handful of bands that break through but they'll be the exception rather than the norm.
Now I'm thinking about reading all those "greatest metal bands/albums" lists in magazines, with most of them being by rock bands, not metal bands. I always thought the magazine writers were totally clueless. And uh...I thought Ozzy bit the head off a bat, not a dove.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Take a pill? I had MTV in 86 metal was mainstream, and way more than it is now. It was soo mainstream they had KNAC night in nightclubs and instead of dance they played metal.
