Rick Beato asks "Where Have All the Metalheads gone?"

An interesting short video from Rick Beato asking why are there so few meal fans anymore. The 7-year cycle theory is an interesting point of view that I am not sure I agree with, but which I hope is true as it means that metal will be due a resurgence soon. 

I had a look at the streaming figures for the top 10 acts on the Metal Academy charts and their figures are pretty paltry when you see a bland and colourless act like Coldplay receives 90 million+ streams a month:

Metallica - 31, 487, 283

Black Sabbath - 17, 188, 205

Iron Maiden - 8, 435, 540

Judas Priest - 4, 252, 276

Slayer - 3, 203, 605

Death - 896, 338

Candlemass - 204, 058

Immolation - 44, 217

Neurosis - 34, 828

Wolves In the Throne Room - 27, 591

Total - 65, 773, 941

That is nearly 26 million streams per month less than fucking Coldplay for ten of the biggest bands in metal combined.

No one knows better than I that metal has always been an outsider style, but after the early 2000s it seemed to have gained a degree of acceptability which seems to have once again evaporated. Do any of you see a way back for metal or are we always doomed to living in the shadows of lesser genres. And, in fact, would you really ever want it any other way or is the outsider tag part of the charm?

I'm not sure at all. There is a lot more metal to listen to with lots of different sub-genres - so the top listens may not give the full picture. I did a quick copilot analysis of the monthly listens. And it came up with hip hop (probably unsurprisingly at the top, with pop next, then latin and then metal. So not to unhealthy when you look at is as a whole. 

Data used (in millions):

Hip Hop / Rap: 1,000M

Other Pop: 748.52M

(Coldplay: 91.48M)

Latin: 520M

Metal: 400M

Electronic / Dance: 400M

R&B / Soul: 280M

Punk: 200M

Indie Rock: 150M

Jazz: 100M

Classical: 60M

Of course spotify produced and promoted playlists will certainly increase the listens of some genres, I'm not sure it would have the same impact on metal. So in all, I'm not sure there are so few metal fans around these days in comparison to the past. 

I am not sure why Coldplay has such a big share on its own and the fact that it seems pretty consistent.