Holerbot6000

The 80's started out pretty strong with the tail end of that new music explosion that started in the mid-70's but it got co-opted and petered out pretty quickly. The 90's was definitely the nadir for me. I didn't like hair metal, I didn't like grunge and I especially didn't like any of that adult contemporary Dave Matthews Counting Crows Hootie stuff that all my co-workers were into. I recall listening to a lot of Ministry, Japanese Garage bands and Tzadik releases in those days. God bless John Zorn...

Eyrothath

There was PLENTY of good metal and rock bands that were not grunge or hair metal (Aka: Glam Metal) and they never made it big, it was getting really large in Europe when metal was at its all time low here and the European festival culture is still keeping it alive today and I don't mean the nu-metal/alternative metal stuff, I am talking traditional, even rock... Hell, they are here in the U.S. but it just isn't growing..

One of the things I loved about the Cult



They existed at a time where they should not have been popular, they weren't grunge or hair metal or all glam with a pretty bass player, they were mature for their time and appealed towards a wider and more mature audience and just played kick ass rock music and it worked well for them.. It's the same with other bands like Collective Soul, Dada and Brother Cane, Stone Roses, all bands that should have done much better, but didn't due to the exploding grunge scene and all the rap metal stuff (Korn, Limp Bizkit, etc..) that followed but their music is going to go down in history..

There was even stuff at the time that never made it on the radio at all that I consider to be some of the greatest music of all time.. Again, it was out of the ordinary, which is why it never made it big, Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a prime example.. They are not very mainstream, probably too fringe for some people, they mix classical music and holiday and give their music a very progressive/symphonic metal sound, their concerts are huge, they sell tons of tickets and you rarely ever hear about them, but they will indeed go down in history, most of the fans know the band members as Savatage, who existed at around the same time that Metallica did and went on to make even better music in the 90's (imo) but shifted into TSO, they were very much similar in a lot of ways and only their fan base usually knows who they are..

Imagine how that is today with the great tool that is the internet and people downloading music through torrents.. It is much different today, if it is out of the ordinary by any means, then you won't get any recognition for your work whatsoever, not that people will hear about it, they will and you will certainly grow, Nightwish is an example of this and I could name 100's of other metal and rock bands, it's almost as if they are a indie-mainstream band because they are so huge, yet you will never hear a single one of their songs on the radio (why?) because it is out of the ordinary, you make it by selling merchandise and touring as much as you can and putting out your music as much as you can..

Although grranted Nightwish makes it to the charts in their own country but don't even come close in the United States.. It is currently the same with most metal bands in Europe..

I present power metal bands! (the flag wavers of Metal) here is Blind Guardian, a late 80's band and Kamelot, a mid 90's band and Freedom Call (a 00's band).. Neither band is mainstream..

All three bands are still popping out albums every other year and growing as they do..







Anyways, I better end this rant, I just wanted to get a point across..

Holerbot6000

Yeah I don't think I would've been much for Power Metal back in the 90's either. BUT THAT'S JUST ME! My 90's experience was all about traveling, playing Quake and collecting Merzbow cd's.

Mad props to my Metal brothers though - you guys are always SERIOUS music fans who really know your stuff. I really respect that.

Eyrothath

I myself am a huge fan of blues rock and not just power metal, I am into folk music and everything else old or new, but growing up I am more into the modern stuff, the stuff I want to succeed and that I want to see playing live.. I can't seem to enjoy music out of someone who has been dead for 20 years, I like the music from back then, but I want to support today's bands.. I am into anything classical as well, not just the same renditions of opera music either..

One of the best hard rock, blue influenced bands would have to be The Answer.. Their music video only has 100,000 views while the newest Justin Beaver has 81 million already (and it just came out.) This is proof that the music world is indeed broken..



The best folk rock band of our time I say would have to be Blackmore's Night..



And if you want a brand new band that resembles a CLASSIC rock band, Black Spiders does a good job mixing it up..



NAVEL is a Swiss GRUNGE band, they resemble Nirvana heavily.. So if you're into 90's grunge music, this is who you should support..



Wait.. You like Arena rock? We got that in today's world as well..



I mean, the old stuff is fine, I have respect for it, but newer bands will never, ever grow if that is all we decide to like and pretend that there is nothing new out there that resembles that decade of music, just like Navel, who is clearly a grunge band (are they on the radio?) Nope, that is because that decade has passed, the old stuff is still played while the newer bands are shot down...

Mainstream rock music is currently in an Alternative Metal phase, I call it mall metal since that is pretty much Five Finger Death Punch is, one of the newer more known alternative metal bands, they are good, but not enough melody or classical influence for me and the lyrics I just cannot relate to in anyway, which is why I love Power Metal, lots of classical influence in the more symphonic metal bands.. Symohonic metal and rock music sadly, is the only genre that currently features classical music besides classical music itself, which is not very well known today.. Heather Dale and Celtic Woman are good examples of celtic music that doesn't feature any rock or metal..

Just like Folk music is becoming big in Folk Metal.. It's growing huge in Russia.. Some bands will put out acoustic folk albums on occasion, Eluveitie, Elvenking and Folkodia have all done it, I can honestly say I like their acoustic albums more than their metal tracks, but it is not as popular as metal has a far more wide range of audience than anything else.. If you're going to play folk music, you might as well play folk metal, if you're going to be classic music, you might as well play neo-classical metal, that is where your audience is..

Where else are you going to get to see a live band featuring flutes and bagpipes? They came all the way to Arizona from Russia and put on an amazing show..



For classical music, a lot of people (you don't even have to like metal.) Are really into Trans-Siberian Orchestra and you see a wide variety of people at their shows..



Really, people need to stop being so damn picky.. There is SOMETHING for everyone in today's world of music..

Hullabaloo_Rosie

I agree - there's definitely a lot more variety out there than people think. It's a shame though that people like Justin Bieber and Rhianna seem to be dominating the music world, particularly in young people, when there's so much talent out there and so many great new bands who should be getting played on the radio! Has anyone heard of [my shitty band]? They're a really new band and they're so good! They have strings and no drumkit so it's a really different sound.

Janszoon

Hi musik-chik. How's things?

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90'sMusicKid

I actually saw Blind Guardian and Holy Grail live in Albuquerque last december. Werent too bad. Not my type of music though.

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