What is with the Mastodon Bandwagon effect?

Why are so many Pop fans jumping on the Mastodon bandwagon? To me, the phenomena seems even stranger than the influx of Tool fans during the second half of the 90's. Mastodon is even heavier, noisier and a tad more progressive overall than Tool is. Yet, I see so many Pop fans mention the new Mastodon album when citing all their favourite recordings of 2009.

I know they're all Pop fans for two reasons. Their other picks are always things like U2, The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Bob Dylan, Grizzly Bear, etc. And, when you mention to them other things within Mastodon's sub-genre, they have absolutely no interest. It's like, the band must already be super- popular first before any of them can let themselves like it. But, how the heck does a band as good as Mastodon crossover in the first place?

Good management, good word of mouth, playing some high profile gigs, and having a record label that is willing to put their money were their mouth is.

Also having magazines as diverse as Rolling Stone and Spin, magazines that treat heavy metal like the plague giving critical cudos, pulls in the fans that may not be inclined to purchase metal, but may purchase this cd because a granola eating, pot smoking, make viagra not war aging hippie told them that it was cool.

Because Mastodon is pop music.

Critique Oblique wrote:

It's like, the band must already be super- popular first before any of them can let themselves like it.

That's a common mentality even in the metal scene.

Lurideath wrote:

Because Mastodon is pop music.

Except pop music has quality to it.

I'd rather listen to Kajagoogoo than Mastodon.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I'd rather listen to Kajagoogoo than Mastodon.

ToB is being too shy shy hush hush eye to eye.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Lurideath wrote:

Because Mastodon is pop music.

Except pop music has quality to it.

I'd rather listen to Kajagoogoo than Mastodon.

I would have to disagree - the new Mastadon is one of my favorite releases so far this year - very proggy, parts of it remind me of galactic cowboys.

never could get into this band. their fans tend to be annoying too. with exception to joker anyway.

thejokeriv wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

Except pop music has quality to it.

I'd rather listen to Kajagoogoo than Mastodon.

I would have to disagree - the new Mastadon is one of my favorite releases so far this year - very proggy, parts of it remind me of galactic cowboys.

Mastadon is okay, but Kajagoogoo rules.

Actually, even given the most liberal perspectiv on this matter, there's nothing Pop about Mastodon. That's what's so perplexing. With a band like Slipknot, no matter how heavy the verse parts are, when the chorus kicks in, you're left with all the elements of a Pop song. Not the case with Mastodon.

Even if you have a bias against this group, pull out things like Intronaut and Bison B.C. and think about what might have a mainstream appeal about those outfits. Could those bands make the same type of crossover as Mastodon? Because, they're essentially in the same sub-genre as them. Real rough around the edges, sludgy progressive music with no commercial aspirations...and, I would assume...no commercial appeal.

Whomever above stated that it was a matter of getting into the right publications at the right time was probably right. The band got a marketing push in the right direction at the right time...Johnny told Mikey and Mikey told Robbie, and so on and so forth. And, now you have U2 fans buying Mastodon albums, and going down on each others' pipes in the parking lot of their after-school Tap and Dance Classes.

I'm a U2 fan and I bought Blood Mountain last year. It's okay. Not great. I don't get the appeal either.

Another factor might be that Mastodon often namedrop bands like Yes and early Genesis as influences as often as they do metal bands, which gives mainstream listeners another hook for appreciating them. "See? The reason they're good is because they listen to real music! It makes them DEEP!"

I like Mastodon, and I do agree that they have alot more in common with prog bands than more traditional metal bands. I think they are great band that have grown from album to album.

They're not that prog and besides their drummer I don't think they can play very well. I don't think they could perform a Yes song to save their lives.

The new album is very progressive and has 0% commercial appeal. Unless the definition of "pop music" just changed overnight, there is no way in hell I'd classify Mastodon as pop.

I like them, I don't "love" them, but the direction the new album leads in is intriguing. The guitar playing on this album is top notch, so it's not just the drummer who has chops.

No thank you for this band. Couple years from now they will be history!

Wargod50

Temple of Blood wrote:

They're not that prog and besides their drummer I don't think they can play very well. I don't think they could perform a Yes song to save their lives.

I think both their guitarists are excellent they have a very interesting feel to their playing.
I'm pretty sure they could throw down a Yes song or two pretty well.
As much as I like some of Yes's material I've seen them live several times and was bored at a good many points in the shows. I've seen Mastodon quite a few times and they've never once bored me.

mc666 wrote:

never could get into this band. their fans tend to be annoying too. with exception to joker anyway.

Nice words from mc666! I just got blood mountain, I don;t like it as much as crack the skye, but it was good - I guess I will go backwards in picking up their back catalogue. THe new one just grabbed my attention big time and I am loving it - every time I listen to it, I pick up something new.

detuned wrote:

The new album is very progressive and has 0% commercial appeal. Unless the definition of "pop music" just changed overnight, there is no way in hell I'd classify Mastodon as pop.

I like them, I don't "love" them, but the direction the new album leads in is intriguing. The guitar playing on this album is top notch, so it's not just the drummer who has chops.

I like your way of thinking, friend. It's youthful, intelligent, logical, whimsical, with just enough vim and vigor to stave off the crazies, a faint scent of sandlewood, and just a hint of Madagascan vanilla. Nice.

I think that Mastodon's cross-over appeal has to do with everything mentioned thus far, plus, I'd like to know who this band was paired up with on the first three tours. That's some very important information right there in understanding this whole freakish anomaly,

But, detuned is correct in stating basically that Mastodon have made no concessions or compromises to the mainstream, Pop-culture musical paradigm, or, in other words, the modern musical success formula. They haven't, in any way, moved closer to it...

Au, contraire!...the mainstream music fans have somehow choosen to embrace just this one band, and have moved much closer to them. They've embraced this one band at the exclusion of every other great unit within the same, small sub-genre. Why not Intronaut, Bison B.C., Baroness, Giant Squid with this type of acclaim?

Just like all these other quality efforts, there's absolutely nothing Pop about this recording. Some type of huge 'bandwagon effect' happened here, partially unexplainable, and Mastodon has sat back and capitalized on all of it. But, it's not like its undue. They totally came up strong with 'Crack The Skye'. The album is near brilliant. And, this is simply a case of justice being doled out to the right guy.

Something else just came to mind. Mastodon's image and interviews were all over the music magazines, but didn't they also win a couple of key 'Best of 2006/7' type magazine awards? Which mags?

I'm in the minority here. I picked up Mastodon's first album when it came out in 2003, and as different as it was from the rest of my collection, I've enjoyed them and continue to do so. So what if somebody didn't know about them a few years ago and is praising them today because they are more popular and it's trendy to listen to them? Let them get more exposure, power to them.

Some people may remember back in 1986 there was a little album that came out called "Master Of Puppets". All of a sudden the mainstream rock press (Rolling Stone, Circus, etc) started raving about how brilliant it was, groundbreaking, etc. The album went on to sell 3 million copies despite almost no radio airplay and no videos released on MTV.

I'm not comparing Mastodon to Metallica...just saying that this isn't the first time that the mainstream moved closer to a band instead of the other way around.

I shouldn't say anything about Mastodon because I've only heard samples of Crack The Skye (not sold at this point) and I don't own anything by them since Leviathan, which didn't strike me as "progressive" at the time. I haven't listened to it in quite a while.
But as far as the mainstream embracing "progressive" music, I think that's a good thing. While many of the people who are buying this will turn out to just be curious dabblers or bandwagon jumpers, there will be a few who get hooked and be prog rockers for life. Every generation needs their Pink Floyd's; and it's bands like Yes, Alan Parsons, Kansas and Radiohead that turns the occasional mainstream fan into a true believer who keep the prog flame alive. I think if it wasn't for the occasional crossover success prog might turn into an inaccessible for-geeks-only quagmire.

Critique Oblique wrote:

I think that Mastodon's cross-over appeal has to do with everything mentioned thus far, plus, I'd like to know who this band was paired up with on the first three tours. That's some very important information right there in understanding this whole freakish anomaly

I know they've toured with Metallica and Slayer. In fact they might be opening for Metallica over in Europe right now. I guess those are their most high-profile touring partners?

Quote :

Au, contraire!...the mainstream music fans have somehow choosen to embrace just this one band, and have moved much closer to them. They've embraced this one band at the exclusion of every other great unit within the same, small sub-genre. Why not Intronaut, Bison B.C., Baroness, Giant Squid with this type of acclaim?

Maybe Mastodon are perceived as the originators of that particular sound? I also think the jury's still out on some of the other bands. I think if they play things right, Baroness and Bison could get a rub from Mastodon's success, maybe not to being as big but they could pick up some fans looking for "bands like Mastodon".

I have some friends that primarily listen to jazz, but they also love 70's era progressive rock. Surprisingly I've found that quite a few of them are really digging Mastodon and Opeth. They discovered Opeth via the connection with Porcupine Tree...and then I turned a few of them onto Mastodon. None of these guys ever listened to metal, so I guess these bands do have crossover appeal to the right audience.