What Would It Take To Create Another Boom in the Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Scene Like The 1980s Were?

Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU63P50ag0c

I’d go to see an entire show of this.

I saw Meshuggah last year, and you’ll never guess what but…there were women there.

And they were ENJOYING IT.

Must be those catchy songs.

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Let’s count the wrong assumptions made in that one paragraph. I think you may have set a record

  1. “So what you’re complaining about is that bands these days are too heavy.” - Wrong assumption. I wrote: “I see you’re not alone because there are bands these days that seem to be doing everything they can to make themselves repulsive to women and it’s working for them.” The most common complaint I hear from women regarding certain things in rock bands that are trendy at this time, even if only among a niche group such as modern day metal, is regarding the ultra long beards some of these modern day musicians are sporting.

  2. “Fine.” - Wrong assumption

  3. “Besides, you’re just wrong: there’s a lot of rock music these days that isn’t that heavy.” - No, I’m not wrong. You’re assuming I don’t know that there is a lot of current rock that’s not heavy.

  4. “It’s just not on your radar” - Wrong again.

  5. “…because it doesn’t sound exactly like the 80s.” - Even if you had been right about it not being “on my radar”, it wouldn’t be because it doesn’t sound like the 80s. My favorite album of all time is Sad Wings Of Destiny - 1976 I listen to a variety of music from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, an 1990s. There have been some 21st century songs I’ve enjoyed listening to but comparatively few compared to the greatness of 20th century music. BTW, who would you say is rock music’s quintessential band of the last full decade 2001-2010? I’ll give a couple examples so you can get the idea of what it is I’m referring to by “quintessential band of the decade.” For the 60s arguments could be made for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. For the 1970s I’d say that honor goes to Led Zeppelin. So, who is your pick for “quintessential band of 2001-2010”?

Let’s distill your original argument down:

  1. A major factor in the decline of the rock music industry is that rock bands don’t have female fans, because more female fans means more overall attendance at shows.

  2. Women don’t like heavy music or music that isn’t “optimistic about life” (Someone’s apparently never listened to Adele or any of the music that’s marketed to women these days, by the way). Alternately, the people making the music aren’t attractive enough, assuming your weird crack about “women complaining about beards” is about that (but really, you’ve never met someone who finds beards attractive? Really).

  3. ? ?

  4. Profit!

Your nostalgia is yours and that’s fine, I’ve got my own. But let’s take a good, hard look at point 2 and think about why our little microcosm tends to be male-dominated: I’d argue it’s because of attitudes like this.

I deal with this shit all the time in the STEM field I work in: “why are there no women in our field? it must be because they’re not good at doing the math. I wonder if it could possibly be anything else?”

Translated to this thread: “Why are there no women in rock? They must not like the music or the lyrics or how the musicians look. What else could it possibly be?”

:thinking:

And one more thing:

Oh come on. You can pick a “quintessential band of decade X” when that decade is 2+ decades behind us, that’s trivial. I noticed you didn’t pick a “quintessential band of the 80s” either, because there are too many that you like. One person might say Megadeth, another Judas Prest, a third Motley Crue, a fourth Metallica. In the 2000s example one might say Necrophagist, another Gorguts, a third Cryptopsy, maybe Gojira – and this is just the death metal bands. As technology advanced, it became easier for really good smaller groups to record albums and disseminate them, and subgenres bifurcated to the point where there’s not just one dominant genre of rock music that was pioneered by a particular band. There’s… honestly hundreds.

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Well written post.

BTW, my 80s pick would be Metallica for influence, achieving success the hard way, popularity, and longevity.

I also would be remiss if I didn’t point out that there are plenty of women in rock: Nightwish, Halestorm, Sarah Longfield are the examples that come to mind immediately. “Underrepresented” would be a better term, I’d guess.

She’s not hard rock at all but have you ever heard Tori Amos? She’s incredible.

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I would like to see writers and producers publish “heavy” songs more often to broaden the musical range of popular artists. I have no doubt that Max Martin could easily create a face-melting chart-topping (at least top ten) Taylor Swift or Pink song if he wanted to, the question is, why doesn’t he? I’d also like to see some top rap producers do things like sample Slayer riffs, etc., and really see rap/metal fusion, as well as EDM/metal fusion. Could it sell? Hopefully…

1980’s music is too dated for young people (music buyers), but hopefully metal can mix with the modern stuff and launch new waves of innovation.

Speaking of Slayer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUOuJJdjFHc

Speaking of Slayer, here is a fan-made video that combines them with Public Enemy. To my ears, it fits together very well and sounds commercial:

The above might have been inspired by this, Anthrax and Public Enemy:

The hip hop/metal collaborations are some of the most abominable musical creations lol.

Shred is not dead.

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There was totally a metal boom in the mid-late 2000s. I kinda credit it to guitar hero and specifically the Dragonforce tune Through the Fire and Flames. Metalcore was at its peak, and in the underground the melodic and technical death metal thing was super hyped. Bands like Necrophagist, Amon Amarth, Immortal, Children of Bodom, etc. I mentally remember these years as the years Dethklok was on TV. When that show went off the air, I knew the boom was done.

This thread again? Come on, man, you’ve posted the same basic argument four or five times now.

The 80s are over. There’s more to going to a show than seeing chicks. Music has always evolved and will continue to evolve. I like playing guitar, so I’ll continue to play guitar.

I’m not sure what else there is to discuss.

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While I agree that we shouldn’t do too much of the gone golden age thingy, I think in this case the post was revived by other users, not the OP :slight_smile:

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What were we thinking?!? :rofl:

What would it take to create another boom in the “What Would It Take To Create Another Boom in the Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Scene Like The 1980s Were?” thread like the July 2018s were?

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I agree the 80’s are over. I am also glad I was there as a teenager. Concert tickets were $17.50 to likw $21.00. A high school kid with a part time job could afford a ticket. I used to go every week, and there was always a good band coming through Philadelphia. There was also a local scene in the nightclubs where local bands would play mostly covers, and some originals. Fast forward to now, a headlining band playing the big city arenas, the tickets are $100 and up. I paid like $200 a piece for KISS tickets for the end of the road tour. I mostly look for what is left of the old school bands. they play small theateres now. i saw Yngwie in May at Sellesville theater, I think the tickets were $50.00 not bad in a small venue where every seat is good. in the local bars, yes there is an occasional band playing, but the bar manager wants “low volume” it isnt like the old days where bar bands usually played loud as hell. good thing is, with modern technology, you can get ant guitar overdrive sound you want with effects, and a low volume compact PA setup. People want to hear it, but not blasting loud. thee is still a toyring music scene, but it isnt heavily promoted. used to be you would hear a band/show being plugged on the car radio while driving home from work, it would give you time to decide, buy tickets, ask a date to go etc. I remember looking Yngwie up on a Friday night, I went to his website, saw he pwas playing local with generation Axe that Teusday, I went to the venue saturday morning and got tickets. Point is, there is a scene, but its not the same scene. I feel that, guys like Yngwie will tour as long as they can make a living, if people stop coming out, he will retire. At some point we as fans have to support the artis by buying tickets and going to the shows, or the scene will truly die off.

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One of the things that gave heavy metal such a boost, which no one has mentioned yet, was the power ballad. And this ties directly into some of Acecrusher’s arguments about females in the audience. Sure there are females at Meshuggah shows, just as there are many hardcore female metalheads. But the so-called power ballad is what roped many non-headbanger females into giving bands a listen that they normally wouldn’t pay attention to, and possibly even buying an album and going to a show. And they usually dragged along their boyfriends, whether they cared about the band or not. There are TONS of metal bands back then that sold boatloads of albums based solely on the power ballad(s) on the album. And not just Poison, or Warrant, or Mr. Big…nobody cared about Extreme’s funk-progressive-concept-metal masterpiece “Pornograffitti” until “More Than Words” came out. Many bands back then (for better or worse) had a certain commercial appeal that worked for females who weren’t your average headbanger. A lot of the bands nowadays, with detuned guitars and cookie-monster vocals, don’t have the same crossover appeal to the more casual female listener.
And as far as Trans Siberian Orchestra goes, Paul O’Neill is ignoring a HUGE factor in their success: Christmas music sells. Period. See Gary Hoey.

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I’d love it if Meshuggah came out with a ballad

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