[Stu]

Originally Posted by Alf

Like most things in music, the genre has regressed, it started regressing 9n the 80s.

Like virtually all genres, it's done the complete opposite of regress.

What started out as a handful of subgenres prone to thematic repetition has - again, like all genres - matured into a much more deep, varied ensemble of stuff to get stuck into.

A lot of the post-metal stuff right now is highly experimental and some of the most technically magnificent music on the planet. You only have to look at how some of the older black metal crypt keepers reacted to a band like Deafheaven coming on the scene (Short hair? Clean clothes? No Satan?) to see how much the genre has grown up.

If you mean mainstream popularity then sure. But metal doesn't need the mainstream anymore. My Chemical Romance were probably the last somewhat heavy/alternative band to capture the imagination of entire classrooms full of kids and flog merchandise to them. But the internet has fragmented everything, and made all kinds of everything more readily available. Very little has that much mass appeal anymore.

In terms of popularity I would say it's at the same level it's always enjoyed. That's the weird, cool thing about metal. It genuinely does exist in a bubble, apolitical and parallel to whatever else is in trend.

[Alf]

Originally Posted by Stu

Like virtually all genres, it's done the complete opposite of regress.

What started out as a handful of subgenres prone to thematic repetition has - again, like all genres - matured into a much more deep, varied ensemble of stuff to get stuck into.

A lot of the post-metal stuff right now is highly experimental and some of the most technically magnificent music on the planet. You only have to look at how some of the older black metal crypt keepers reacted to a band like Deafheaven coming on the scene (Short hair? Clean clothes? No Satan?) to see how much the genre has grown up.

If you mean mainstream popularity then sure. But metal doesn't need the mainstream anymore. My Chemical Romance were probably the last somewhat heavy/alternative band to capture the imagination of entire classrooms full of kids and flog merchandise to them. But the internet has fragmented everything, and made all kinds of everything more readily available. Very little has that much mass appeal anymore.

In terms of popularity I would say it's at the same level it's always enjoyed. That's the weird, cool thing about metal. It genuinely does exist in a bubble, apolitical and parallel to whatever else is in trend.

Hair metal in the 80s set the genre on the downhill, the likes of Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and Motley Crue, were well loved but they were crap, mostly. Metallica did a couple of good tunes, but since then it's just turned into a terrible noise with no control.