you're completely missing the point. I wasn't challenging the premise that metal is popular today (though clearly not that popular looking at album sales and what stations are listened to across the Western world). I was challenging the statement of the poster who said that it's 'the most popular music genre in the world'!
I never made that statement, I said "arugably, not definitively.
As for me being UK centric... it was me who made the point about the rest of the world. You think metal is popular in Africa and Asia...ie where most people in the world live? I now expect the comeback 'but metal bands come from Brazil and Russia'... which proves nothing, certainly not that metal is the most loved type of music on the planet. Metal fans seem to think their own little bubble is the real world. It isn't.
However album sales are only part of the story as has already been pointed out.
I suggest you watch Flight 666, Iron Maiden's tour documentary about the first leg of their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour and look at some of the numbers.
Iron Maiden sell out football stadia and arenas all over the world, including Asia. 50,000+ in Mumbai, for example.
If metal wasn't popular globally, why are there metal bands in virtually every country on the planet?
I'm not in my own bubble at all, look how many Metal festivals there are around the world, dozens just in Europe, three main ones in the UK, all very successful and attract large number.
Danny Baker makes exactly the same point in his autobiography. He was in at the beginning of punk so should know. He goes to great lengths there to stress that punk was not a reaction against prog rock.
Punk was more a reaction to the music in the charts at the time.
However a journalist at the NME declared that punk had "killed" prog and a lot of the attitude to Prog in this country ever since has been defined by that statement.
Even today some old punks will perpetuate the myth and claim punk "killed" prog.
I knew someone would come back with 'but metal gigs/festivals are packed out'. So what? Record sales and listening to a style of music are clearly the biggest indicators of popularity. And the poster claimed as a fact that heavy metal 'is the most popular music genre in the world' which is quite frankly laughable. It's a very niche market.
They aren't at all in these days of illegal downloading.
Some acquaintences of mine are in a band called Winter In Eden. They sell enough tickets, CDs, and merchandise to pay for making music, they make no money from it, and yet their CDs have been illegally streamed over 30,000 times!
The popularity of metal has always been in the live performance, whether that is a tour or a festival. A number of quite high profile festivals have folded over the last few years and yet metal festivals thrive around the world.
If you've ever heard him say that he was being sarcastic. He absolutely detests them Funnily enough though, he genuinely did like Van der Graaf Generator.
Can anybody spot any similarity between this Peter Hammill song and one or two numbers off Never Mind The Bollocks? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKoP19WHcFA
Simply not true.
He did a short series of shows for 6 Music before Christmas and one one of them he said something along the lines of....
"It has often been said that I (John Lydon) hate the Pink Floyd. That simply isn't true as I love all their music, especiasll the Syd Barratt era. It started when Malcolm organised a publicity photo-shoot in the early days of the Pistols. I was wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt and Malcolm wanted to "spice up" our image so I wrote the word "Hate" across the t-shirt. This has been misinterpreted by people to mean "I hate Pink Floyd" and that is simply not true".
What I've put isn't word for word accurate but is close. He then played a Barratt-era track, it was something like Bike or Jugband Blues, I forget which.
From what he said, and the way he said it, he was far from being sarcastic.
I didn't hear that, so I bow to your more recent knowledge. I certainly saw a filmed interview in the past where he ridiculed both Pink Floyd and Rick Wakeman.
In answer to another poster, I was around at the beginning of punk and as far as I was aware, its prime motivation was a desire to clear out all the hippies and old farts of the music business, along with the overblown excesses of prog rock.
I didn't hear that, so I bow to your more recent knowledge. I certainly saw a filmed interview in the past where he ridiculed both Pink Floyd and Rick Wakeman.
In answer to another poster, I was around at the beginning of punk and as far as I was aware, its prime motivation was a desire to clear out all the hippies and old farts of the music business, along with the overblown excesses of prog rock.
I think you have to seperate the music from the live performances.
From what he said on 6 Music it seemed to me he loved their music but as you say he has ridiculed much of the self-indulgent, over-blown, pomposity, of many of the live shows.
One of the problems with programmes like this, is that you are trying to sum up 10 years worth of music in 60 minutes. So of course some bands/styles are overlooked
For the record I am an old fart music wise and still listen regulary to old 70's rock bands, Purple, Black Sabbath, and prog bands. So for me I thoroughly enjoyed th programme, especially the 70 's stuff and do like Danny bakers style of presenting
Rock music may not be the most successful style of music in the world but certainly in Europe, America and Japan it almost arguably is. Of all the best selling albums of all time the majority are rock albums(of various styles) and generally the bands that sell the most concert tickets consisently are rock artist ( I know there are exceptions)
Punk was more a reaction to the music in the charts at the time.
However a journalist at the NME declared that punk had "killed" prog and a lot of the attitude to Prog in this country ever since has been defined by that statement.
Even today some old punks will perpetuate the myth and claim punk "killed" prog.
The point Danny Baker makes in his book is that it wasn't a reaction to anything as such. Punk musicians could get together and make records without bothering with the music industry and big record labels. If it was a rebellion at all it was against the music industry itself.
Prog was becoming very pretentious in the late seventies and maybe punk did kill it, indirectly. Though more likely it was actually post-punk and new wave that stole its audience.
If you go out these days to the few of those bars that remain, they're all full of chavvy teenagers dancing to manufactured pop crap such as Beyonce or The Saturdays. Original music on a local level is dead. Even the few teenage bands that remain are so witless that they can only play Green Day covers,
Where there were once five or more local bands playing their own material there are now none at all. Music died in the 1990s.
I think I stopped being interested in the current music scene in about 1996.
There are still a few pubs around here that have live bands (the current licensing laws have a lot to answer for) but as you say they tend to be just doing covers. I suppose people want to bop away to tunes that they know rather than some unknown dirge. You really have to go out of your way to find anyone doing their own material (and the ones who do are often horrendous folk outfits)
The point Danny Baker makes in his book is that it wasn't a reaction to anything as such. Punk musicians could get together and make records without bothering with the music industry and big record labels. If it was a rebellion at all it was against the music industry itself.
Prog was becoming very pretentious in the late seventies and maybe punk did kill it, indirectly. Though more likely it was actually post-punk and new wave that stole its audience.
You think so? I would disagree completely.
Look at the huge commercial success bands like Pink Floyd, who had the Christmas Number 1 in 1979, and Genesis had in the 1980s.
All bands have a "lifespan" and for most bands it is probably @ 10 years, so for those bands who formed in the late '60s, they were probably reaching the end of their time by the end of the 1970s/early 80s anyway.
Look at the huge commercial success bands like Pink Floyd, who had the Christmas Number 1 in 1979, and Genesis had in the 1980s.
All bands have a "lifespan" and for most bands it is probably @ 10 years, so for those bands who formed in the late '60s, they were probably reaching the end of their time by the end of the 1970s/early 80s anyway.
I agree. Prog Rock never 'died', it just went into hiding for a couple of years during the punk era due to bad publicity. I'm off to see Yes at the Royal Albert Hall in May and they're still progging along nicely after 40 odd years.
Comments
I never made that statement, I said "arugably, not definitively.
However album sales are only part of the story as has already been pointed out.
I suggest you watch Flight 666, Iron Maiden's tour documentary about the first leg of their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour and look at some of the numbers.
Iron Maiden sell out football stadia and arenas all over the world, including Asia. 50,000+ in Mumbai, for example.
If metal wasn't popular globally, why are there metal bands in virtually every country on the planet?
I'm not in my own bubble at all, look how many Metal festivals there are around the world, dozens just in Europe, three main ones in the UK, all very successful and attract large number.
Punk was more a reaction to the music in the charts at the time.
However a journalist at the NME declared that punk had "killed" prog and a lot of the attitude to Prog in this country ever since has been defined by that statement.
Even today some old punks will perpetuate the myth and claim punk "killed" prog.
They aren't at all in these days of illegal downloading.
Some acquaintences of mine are in a band called Winter In Eden. They sell enough tickets, CDs, and merchandise to pay for making music, they make no money from it, and yet their CDs have been illegally streamed over 30,000 times!
The popularity of metal has always been in the live performance, whether that is a tour or a festival. A number of quite high profile festivals have folded over the last few years and yet metal festivals thrive around the world.
Simply not true.
He did a short series of shows for 6 Music before Christmas and one one of them he said something along the lines of....
"It has often been said that I (John Lydon) hate the Pink Floyd. That simply isn't true as I love all their music, especiasll the Syd Barratt era. It started when Malcolm organised a publicity photo-shoot in the early days of the Pistols. I was wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt and Malcolm wanted to "spice up" our image so I wrote the word "Hate" across the t-shirt. This has been misinterpreted by people to mean "I hate Pink Floyd" and that is simply not true".
What I've put isn't word for word accurate but is close. He then played a Barratt-era track, it was something like Bike or Jugband Blues, I forget which.
From what he said, and the way he said it, he was far from being sarcastic.
In answer to another poster, I was around at the beginning of punk and as far as I was aware, its prime motivation was a desire to clear out all the hippies and old farts of the music business, along with the overblown excesses of prog rock.
I think you have to seperate the music from the live performances.
From what he said on 6 Music it seemed to me he loved their music but as you say he has ridiculed much of the self-indulgent, over-blown, pomposity, of many of the live shows.
For the record I am an old fart music wise and still listen regulary to old 70's rock bands, Purple, Black Sabbath, and prog bands. So for me I thoroughly enjoyed th programme, especially the 70 's stuff and do like Danny bakers style of presenting
Rock music may not be the most successful style of music in the world but certainly in Europe, America and Japan it almost arguably is. Of all the best selling albums of all time the majority are rock albums(of various styles) and generally the bands that sell the most concert tickets consisently are rock artist ( I know there are exceptions)
Prog was becoming very pretentious in the late seventies and maybe punk did kill it, indirectly. Though more likely it was actually post-punk and new wave that stole its audience.
I think I stopped being interested in the current music scene in about 1996.
There are still a few pubs around here that have live bands (the current licensing laws have a lot to answer for) but as you say they tend to be just doing covers. I suppose people want to bop away to tunes that they know rather than some unknown dirge. You really have to go out of your way to find anyone doing their own material (and the ones who do are often horrendous folk outfits)
You think so? I would disagree completely.
Look at the huge commercial success bands like Pink Floyd, who had the Christmas Number 1 in 1979, and Genesis had in the 1980s.
All bands have a "lifespan" and for most bands it is probably @ 10 years, so for those bands who formed in the late '60s, they were probably reaching the end of their time by the end of the 1970s/early 80s anyway.
I agree. Prog Rock never 'died', it just went into hiding for a couple of years during the punk era due to bad publicity. I'm off to see Yes at the Royal Albert Hall in May and they're still progging along nicely after 40 odd years.