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.  

Look, I think there's something in the idea that metal continues to gain & lose popularity in a cyclic fashion but I don't think there's any reason to believe that it's a regular cycle of seven years. Personally, I don't think it's a repeatable pattern. It's simply about when the next big commercial metal subgenre or band pops up in my opinion & you can't really put a timeline on that.

As for where all the metalheads have gone, I think it's easy to take a shallow view & say that we don't see as many of the traditional long-haired, black-band-shirt-wearing metalheads in society today but I think there's a reason for that. I've recently discovered that there are quite a few metalheads at my workplace for example but only two of them outwardly show off their musical passion & they are both of a similar ilk to myself. The others all got into metal through nu metal or later & we've seen that fans of post-2000 metal fads no longer feel the need to display their passion through long-hair & black band t-shirts so it's harder to identify them. They do however have a tendency towards tattoos but that's not strictly a metal trait any more with a larger & larger percentage of the population showing off significant amounts of permanent body art. So, what I'm saying is that there may be more metalheads around than people realise because it's not always obvious any more which is a little sad in my opinion.

Whoever the hell Rick Beato is, he clearly is short on content.  I don’t really care how popular metal (or indeed any other music genre) is.  I just listen to what I want and still fundamentally believe that there is far too much metal music out there already.

Fuck Coldplay though,  Plastic wankers.

To be honest, I am not sure what constitutes a "listen" on Spotify. If you listen to one track or even part of a track does that count as a "listen" or must it be something a bit more substantial? As David says, Spotify's own playlists probably generate an awful lot of "listens" for those bands featured on them and I have heard talk of labels actively paying Spotify to push their artists on those playlists, so it is hardly a level playing field. If only more people would listen to the Academy playlists we could boost the profile of metal on the platform!

Anyway, fuck em, as long as there are bands out there playing and releasing metal then they can keep all the fashionistas and trend-followers who jump on any bandwagon that is currently popular. 

Could it be that metal fans don't only listen to metal anymore? With a lot of metal music itself playing around with outside genres, and a few popular genres being more accessible in general, perhaps the average metal fan isn't as "metal or nothing" as they used to be?

I know that I listen to quite a lot of stuff that wouldn't be found on this site. My passion will always be metal, but I have much broader tastes than I once did. This could explain why you don't see as many obvious "metalheads" anymore. We're all just a little bit more cultured.

I also think that podcasts have likely taken over much of the space that used to be reserved for music. I would spend as much time listening to podcases as I do music. Not sure about the rest of you?

Could it be that metal fans don't only listen to metal anymore? With a lot of metal music itself playing around with outside genres, and a few popular genres being more accessible in general, perhaps the average metal fan isn't as "metal or nothing" as they used to be?

I know that I listen to quite a lot of stuff that wouldn't be found on this site. My passion will always be metal, but I have much broader tastes than I once did. This could explain why you don't see as many obvious "metalheads" anymore. We're all just a little bit more cultured.

I also think that podcasts have likely taken over much of the space that used to be reserved for music. I would spend as much time listening to podcases as I do music. Not sure about the rest of you?

I know I am an old man now and as such am becoming less and less relevant in the world (just how it is kids - it will happen to you too), but, speaking for myself, I have been listening to less non-metal music than I used to. With the sheer variety in metal nowadays it is possible to get most of the music fixes I need within the metal world. I also still buy physical media, so not all my listening is tracked by Spotify and, to be honest, if it wasn't for the Academy playlists I probably wouldn't even have an account there - certainly not a subscription.

I never listen to podcasts because most of them are by people whose views are  uninformed, sacrifice complexity and nuance and prioritise clicks over objectivity.

To get back to the original point, though, I don't think the visibility of metalheads was ever cited as the issue, it was based on listening habits. I haven't looked like a metalhead for years - shaved my hair off when hair loss started to make long hair look ridiculous, don't have tattoos (in fact I hate them) and rarely wear band shirts (only gifts), or any logos for that matter, any more - I'm not payiing for the privelege of being someone's fucking billboard! Yet I see many people who look like old-school metalheads with long hair and beards who have never heard a metal album in their lives and listen to shit like the aforementioned Coldplay and go to Glastonbury every year. Certainly here in the UK, I don't think there are really any clearly identifiable music-based "cultures" any more. I grew up a "rocker" and that set you apart from the mods, punks, skins, disco-heads and northern soul fans. But those distinctive and instantly recognisable sub-cultures no longer exist and popular culture feels like it has become very bland, homogenous and corporate.

Sorry - old man shouting at the clouds rant over... (at least until next time).

Look, I think there's something in the idea that metal continues to gain & lose popularity in a cyclic fashion but I don't think there's any reason to believe that it's a regular cycle of seven years. Personally, I don't think it's a repeatable pattern. It's simply about when the next big commercial metal subgenre or band pops up in my opinion & you can't really put a timeline on that.

As for where all the metalheads have gone, I think it's easy to take a shallow view & say that we don't see as many of the traditional long-haired, black-band-shirt-wearing metalheads in society today but I think there's a reason for that. I've recently discovered that there are quite a few metalheads at my workplace for example but only two of them outwardly show off their musical passion & they are both of a similar ilk to myself. The others all got into metal through nu metal or later & we've seen that fans of post-2000 metal fads no longer feel the need to display their passion through long-hair & black band t-shirts so it's harder to identify them. They do however have a tendency towards tattoos but that's not strictly a metal trait any more with a larger & larger percentage of the population showing off significant amounts of permanent body art. So, what I'm saying is that there may be more metalheads around than people realise because it's not always obvious any more which is a little sad in my opinion.

All this.  Hell, the only person I know outside the web who listens to Mayhem was a small teen girl who only boasted earrings.

Combined with the economy and the rise of streaming, there's been less of the need to appear to be a metalhead beyond maybe buying a t-shirt.  Streaming and Covid, paired with collab-rating sites, have done more for King Crimson in the US than the actual albums themselves.  These people have already been made fun of well enough in pop media that to dress like them is basically like wearing a halloween costume.  Can you even afford the fashion these days, anyway, when entertainment companies are charging 80+ for viudeo games and separate prices for the Amiibo's that unlock what you already paid for?  Our right to be entertained and still pay the bills is basically being abused, so YouTube is socially the best thing that can happen to the music community.  Even Letterboxd wants to get into streaming rentable films, which I like.  I'd give my money to Letterboxd.  Never disappointed me (save the time it's taking to filter out concert films from narrative films).

Fashion is basically unnecessary now.  The time of dressing the part is over unless you live in Beverly Hills or some economical equivalent.  All anyone has to do to get into the extreme genres, for example, is get introduced to Born of Osiris and check out someplace like Metal Academy, RYM, last.fm, and these websites will ensure that it's not long before they've at least checked out the song Crystal Mountain from sheer curiosity.  And hopefully so, since that clearer production and voice makes for an excellent gateway into a genre known for being more brutal than that, even by that same band.  But the idea of the visual subculture isn't as normalized unless you're living in one of those high end places with the clubs.  Rock or metal, it don't matter.  The online community is practically ensuring this love of nostalgic exploration.  Hell, the Walmart near work is now boasting a healthy vinyl section with the artsier stuff mingled in with new releases, and even had an entire shelf dedicated to the A24 release of Stop Making Sense.  The fashion of the modern scene is basically just headphones, and not necessarily in public.

Back when I went to see Swans, we had people wearing shirts ranging from Death to Slint.  And even the middle-agers and elders who go to the metal concerts these days are almost exclusively "rock t-shirt," little to no jewelry, and a non-existent third component :P.  The most obscure band tee I've seen in a metal concert is Joy Division.  And at work, I occasionally get a customer coming in with an extreme metal shirt.  Amon Amarth, Blood Incantation, Cannibal Corpse, and whatever the fuck D is because I haven't seen a Death shirt at work yet. There were even some obscure ones I've never heard of, and at one point I got to recommend Claustrophobic Dysentery by Cabinet to a guy who came in with one of the obscure band tees.

I agree with all that. What a combination of internet, Covid and corporate marketing has done is consign the concept of definable sub-cultures to the dustbin of history, the Baggies of the 90s being the last really definitive movement (in the UK that is). That said, anyone who thinks these subcultures were primarily about what you wore, understandably, has no idea what they were about. To those inhabiting those spaces it was more than a fashion choice, it was a way of life that informed everything you did, who you hung around with and provided a sense of community, belonging and especially freedom, particularly within poorer communities. 

It still makes me laugh to see middle-class twats paying £100 for a pair of ripped jeans. I regularly wore ripped jeans back in the day, but only because I couldn't afford new ones. This was back when you used band patches to actually cover holes in denim jackets and  jeans eaten away by battery acid, not merely to profess your fandom. What we would have given for a new pair of Levis back then!I

Today the cult of the individual is king, which is weird because it seems to me like everybody looks the same!