The demise of hard rock/heavy metal

When the 1990's turned the calendar page, what do you all think was the reason(s) for the demise of hard rock/heavy metal. I have spent a few sleepless nights in my lifetime trying to solve this puzzle and some of the reasons I have come up with are:
1.) The loss of the "popular dollar". This is a term I learned from a college professor when I was in Business School. It refers to the fact that people aged 12-21 have the most disposable income so when those kids turn their attention elsewhere and spend their money on that, then that becomes the popular trend/genre.
2.) The rise of "grunge" (other than some Soundgarden, the rest doesn't exist imho)
3.) Cookie-cutter approach to signing bands that had more sizzle than steak and subsequently faded from the spotlight.
4.) People getting burned out a bit on glam metal. No disrespect to any fans of glam metal cuz I am too (except for Poison), but it got a little ridiculous after a while.
5.) Some of the bands themselves burning out a bit after 8-12 years of touring and cranking out albums and subsequently releasing some poor stuff.
Well, these are just a few possibilities. Let me know what you all think. Peace.

there was never a demise, except in a commercial sense. it was more a push back underground. once the money was eliminated from the equation, all of the cookie cutter bands died out or moved on to more profitable genres. that many bands disappearing or changing at one time only makes one think the scene died.

however i imagine that a combination of the things you listed was the cause of it's commercial appeal fading.

Rap became the rebellious form of music for suburban teens and took a lot of potential metal fans from it.

I don't really see it as a demise, hard rock/metal changed or evolved from the more 80's oriented stuff. Their was a new generation coming through at the dawn of the 90's who rejected 80's hard rock/metal for newer hard rock/metal bands. As with all generations of younger music fans who reject the music before them, wanting something they can call their own. The big 4 Seattle bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains are all bands that to me fall under the hard rock/metal genre. But while you had that scene going on Metallica, Megadeth, Skid Row, Guns N' Roses etc. were all selling big numbers between 1991-1992. I mean Motley Crue's back catalogue sold more albums than Pearl Jam did in the 90's. Thats just talking about sales, but also the quality and diversity of bands and albums was thriving and probably the best it had been in hard rock/metal ever in the early to mid 90's. Brilliant world class albums by Trouble, King's X, Saigon Kick, Love/Hate, Galactic Cowboys, Metal Church, Last Crack, Enuff Z'Nuff, The Nymphs, Warrior Soul etc were being released left right and center. The rise of the Seattle scene was not the death of hair/glam bands it was more of a slap in the face kinda like a wake up call to stop being so predictable and formulaic, and they did wake up Warrant, Bulletboys, Lillian Axe, Skid Row, Kik Tracee, Extreme etc all releasing what is undoubtly their best albums from a period of 1991 onward. To me looking back as i was very young and not aware the 90's and particuarly the early to mid section of the decade was a very exciting time for hard rock/metal so demise I don't think so more like a changing of the guard from the old to the new in the hard rock/metal world.

Some of my fave albums came out in those bad days (1993-1996) but yes, it was not popular to be into real metal/hard rock back then. I just went on with my elastic trousers, my metal-t-shirts, my long hair, buying lps and cds like if it was 1989 or 2007 for exemple. For me our music(heavy metal) is timeless and its not something you can stop listening when its not popular anymore.

krokus wrote:

For me our music(heavy metal) is timeless and its not something you can stop listening when its not popular anymore.

yeah, but them elastic trousers ain't timeless.

mc666 wrote:

krokus wrote:

For me our music(heavy metal) is timeless and its not something you can stop listening when its not popular anymore.

yeah, but them elastic trousers ain't timeless.

To me they are mc666, of course new ones each year or so I started walking with them when i was 13 (after watching a IRON MAIDEN poster) till nowadays. I have problems with my balls but thats okay

ensiferum2k wrote:

Rap became the rebellious form of music for suburban teens and took a lot of potential metal fans from it.

THAT, is an excellent point. And while I don't thing rock/metal ever crashed completely, there most certainly was a paradigm shift in our culture to hip/hop and rap within our youth. And unlike metal/rock it wasn't just on the radio, it was tv, movies, MTV. Places that metal and rock never "really" went with success. Boyz in The Hood, New Jack City, suddenly movies and TV shows were all about that music style and the life of it. And it really hasn't stopped. Every year there are a dozen gangster movies or movies having to do with pop/rap culture. I would certainly call it a "demise" because still, rock is really more of a cult following even today. I mean look at us.......we're all FREAKS!

Glam Metal
Grunge
Alcohol
Drugs
All the same

5 reasons.

You know what I don't get? People who have all this Emo, Alternative, Nu Metal and Rap in their Music Preferences, but also list Metallica and AC/DC.

To me it really never left it just shifted overseas to Europe, Japan, Australia, South America. Each decade has had it's decline in certain genres of music and eventually died out but hard rock/metal is still lurking underground is us very few who know that.
To the commercial music world they are/were clueless to that fact. But I think with the internet we tend to bring back to life. I for one found alot of metal bands in the 90's just have to search is all. And most came from overseas.

You can't blame rap, grunge, record companies or whatever I think it was a number a factors for it's decline but you know what it is coming back!

Wargod48

NP: Heart Of Sun - Heart Of Sun

Chairman_Smith wrote:

You know what I don't get? People who have all this Emo, Alternative, Nu Metal and Rap in their Music Preferences, but also list Metallica and AC/DC.

what is wrong with liking multiple genres? my wife listens to anything from Metal, to pop, R&B, Country, Rap, Jazz...

she isn't what anyone would call a metalhead, but there is nothing wrong with liking different types of music.

mc666 wrote:

Chairman_Smith wrote:

You know what I don't get? People who have all this Emo, Alternative, Nu Metal and Rap in their Music Preferences, but also list Metallica and AC/DC.

what is wrong with liking multiple genres? my wife listens to anything from Metal, to pop, R&B, Country, Rap, Jazz...

she isn't what anyone would call a metalhead, but there is nothing wrong with liking different types of music.

No, but I'm not talking about jack of all trade people. They'd usually like more then Metallica and AC/DC in that case. I'm talking about people that will list like several bands from the same genere and throw in AC/DC for some reason... because they liked Back In Black and thats it.

One summer I interned for BMG Distribution in their marketing department and got a sense of how the industry works. When we had the new Motorhead and Corrosion of Comformity come out, there was almost no promotion tied with it. But when the new Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, and Outkast albums were out, we were sending stuff out like crazy. It all goes back to every type of factor listed by various people here, but mainly for the all-mighty dollar. These guys were selling a boatload of albums in their heyday that Motorhead and COC weren't. Most people who spend money on albums are young adults, and the industry follows their tastes, but sometimes dictates their tastes as well by feeding them a steady diet of bands or styles until it gets burnt out like the teen pop era or the rap-metal era, which have mercifully died out for the most part. Look at all the emo/goth/hot topic kids of today. It's all a cycle, but real metal will always be around, whether it sells or not.

Thanks to all who have replied in a thoughtful and intelligent manner. Now, I do want to clarify that I don't think it crashed completely, but went, as someone said, back underground. It's unfortunate that it became somewhat "uncool" to like metal and keep crankin' Whitesnake, Priest, Krokus, AC/DC, Def Leppard and others (even though we all still did). I knew alot of kids from junior high who were huge into Ratt, Keel, Lillian Axe, Maiden and the aforementioned bands who not even a year later had donated all of their metal shirts to charity and were listening to Run Dmc and Public Enemy on their headsets. It reminds me alot of my other hobby of sportscard collecting (1950's era football) where the "speculators" (posers) left, it crashed commercially and that's what I think bothers me the most.

GrandNational wrote:

One summer I interned for BMG Distribution in their marketing department and got a sense of how the industry works. When we had the new Motorhead and Corrosion of Comformity come out, there was almost no promotion tied with it. But when the new Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, and Outkast albums were out, we were sending stuff out like crazy. It all goes back to every type of factor listed by various people here, but mainly for the all-mighty dollar. These guys were selling a boatload of albums in their heyday that Motorhead and COC weren't. Most people who spend money on albums are young adults, and the industry follows their tastes, but sometimes dictates their tastes as well by feeding them a steady diet of bands or styles until it gets burnt out like the teen pop era or the rap-metal era, which have mercifully died out for the most part. Look at all the emo/goth/hot topic kids of today. It's all a cycle, but real metal will always be around, whether it sells or not.

Excellent point, man. It is the almighty dollar! That's why I put that first when I started the thread. I will also be man enough to admit that I am guilty of the 1st in the respect that in 1989 when I got into collecting baseball and football cards at age 15, my money went towards the cards (and the occasional date and stop at BK, Wendy's, or Mickey D's) and the purchasing of albums, cassettes, and cd's went on the backburner. In fact, I have only recently began buying music on a weekly basis again since I took a hiatus from collecting cards. I have probably increased my collection from about 300 cd's to well over 500 in the last year or so. I know, it's still paltry compared to some of you guys collections but I'm tryin. It doesn't help that football started up again recently and I have the Patriots on in the background as I type this and I am jonesin' to go and buy a few cards!!! I loke your last swentence the best, GrandNational, that real metal will always be around whether it sells or not

Chairman_Smith wrote:

You know what I don't get? People who have all this Emo, Alternative, Nu Metal and Rap in their Music Preferences, but also list Metallica and AC/DC.

How is that hard to get? My collection has all that and more!

the sentinel wrote:

GrandNational wrote:

One summer I interned for BMG Distribution in their marketing department and got a sense of how the industry works. When we had the new Motorhead and Corrosion of Comformity come out, there was almost no promotion tied with it. But when the new Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, and Outkast albums were out, we were sending stuff out like crazy. It all goes back to every type of factor listed by various people here, but mainly for the all-mighty dollar. These guys were selling a boatload of albums in their heyday that Motorhead and COC weren't. Most people who spend money on albums are young adults, and the industry follows their tastes, but sometimes dictates their tastes as well by feeding them a steady diet of bands or styles until it gets burnt out like the teen pop era or the rap-metal era, which have mercifully died out for the most part. Look at all the emo/goth/hot topic kids of today. It's all a cycle, but real metal will always be around, whether it sells or not.

Excellent point, man. It is the almighty dollar! That's why I put that first when I started the thread. I will also be man enough to admit that I am guilty of the 1st in the respect that in 1989 when I got into collecting baseball and football cards at age 15, my money went towards the cards (and the occasional date and stop at BK, Wendy's, or Mickey D's) and the purchasing of albums, cassettes, and cd's went on the backburner. In fact, I have only recently began buying music on a weekly basis again since I took a hiatus from collecting cards. I have probably increased my collection from about 300 cd's to well over 500 in the last year or so. I know, it's still paltry compared to some of you guys collections but I'm tryin. It doesn't help that football started up again recently and I have the Patriots on in the background as I type this and I am jonesin' to go and buy a few cards!!! I loke your last swentence the best, GrandNational, that real metal will always be around whether it sells or not

Thanks Sentinel. I think just about everyone on this board shares that sentiment about real metal staying around.

I'm actually reading a book right now titled "The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal" by David Konow.

ultmetal wrote:

I'm actually reading a book right now titled "The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal" by David Konow.

Any wisdom to impart on us?

ultmetal wrote:

I'm actually reading a book right now titled "The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal" by David Konow.

Any good?

It has lots of interesting fact about the more mainstream bands. A few tidbits I didn't know. A few 'rumors' listed as if they were fact, such as Gene Simmons claim that they originally were gonna call the band "F**K" but decided on the next best thing "KISS" since that name would have hindered getting a contract. That's just a b.s. story that Gene made up, but the book has it listed as fact. Otherwise, I'm halfway through the book now and they he's getting into facts about the 80's bands. A fun read.

ult

That is an okay book ult, it looks more at the bigger mainstream bands. In essence it should be called the 'Rise And Fall Of Glam Metal'. I just got Martin Popoff's Collectors Guide To Metal In The 90's and Mick Wall's unauthorised biography on Axl Rose today. I'll give a book review for both when i've read them. Both books will deal at times with this very topic we are discussing.

Lamentations of the flame princess articles seem to have a ton of interesting information about the "demise" of metal.

Here's their forum

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/lotfp-99/

rattpoison wrote:

That is an okay book ult, it looks more at the bigger mainstream bands. In essence it should be called the 'Rise And Fall Of Glam Metal'. I just got Martin Popoff's Collectors Guide To Metal In The 90's and Mick Wall's unauthorised biography on Axl Rose today. I'll give a book review for both when i've read them. Both books will deal at times with this very topic we are discussing.

In the forward of Popoff's 90's book; he says this will be the last decade he's gonna cover...because there is so much good metal out there now that he can't keep up with it anymore. I can relate; and I agree that metal has never been healthier than it is now in some ways.
I think what Konow is actually writing about is more the fall of mass shared pop culture in the wake of the internet, satelite media, etc. Metal is just one of many genres that seems less ubiquitous culturally than it once was (by this I mean popular metallic mega hits like "Jump" or "Sweet Clild O' Mine", etc.). There is still metal in the top 40, to be sure; but the top 40 has gotten progressively less and less influential over the years; as niche markets and media (such as this board) become more influential. That's my two cents anyway.