AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman M. Shadows says that he wants heavy metal music "to be taken seriously in our modern culture." As streaming continues to eat away at sales, rock and roll has slipped from its place as the leading genre in the country. While rock is far and away the leader in physical album sales, the genre's portion of audio on-demand streams is dwarfed by hip-hop and R&B. In its annual midyear report, Nielsen Music noted that hip-hop and R&B accounted for eight of the ten most popular artists. Drake and Kendrick Lamar took the top spots. Asked by Kerrang! magazine for his thoughts on music streaming and how numbers in rock and heavy metal are so low, Shadows said: "There is a little bit of tribalism going on within the music industry. We talk to fans all the time that simply want a physical product and don't see the need to move on to more contemporary ways of listening. I respect that more than I did a few years ago. It's not how I see the world, though, and I feel it's one of the reasons rock and metal don't have a spot at the table. But, again, I respect it." The singer, who said that he "cannot see CDs surviving another two years," continued: "As for me, I want rock music to have a voice. I want metal music to be taken seriously in our modern culture, and to do that, you have to show the world that there are rock and metal bands that can make a significant dent. As of now, that's been a problem for the genre as a whole." Next month marks the second anniversary of the release of AVENGED SEVENFOLD's latest album, "The Stage". The surprise release of the disc, which was announced the night it went on sale, earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED SEVENFOLD album in 11 years. It sold 76,000 copies in its first week, 73,000 of which were physical. "The Stage", AVENGED's debut for Capitol, sold less than half as many copies in its first week as the group's two previous efforts, 2010's "Nightmare" and 2013's "Hail To The King". The group made the album available at midnight on October 27, 2016 with almost no promotion beforehand, save for the arrival of a new song one week earlier. AVENGED SEVENFOLD made headlines when it skipped this year's Grammy Awards in apparent protest of the way the organization treats the rock and heavy metal genres. The band was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Rock Song" category for "The Stage".
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