When I discuss my musical tastes with people who are not into the metal scene at all, I just call metal "hard rock" instead, and they just nod sagely....and get away from me ASAP.
Yeah, Nick and I met a friend of a friend one time and she asked how Nick and I knew the mutual friend. When we mentioned ProgPower, a yearly metal festival that we all go to, her response was a somewhat vacant expression follow by "Metal? Oh, you mean like rock music." :zombie: I thought Nick was going to have an aneurysm, but instead he politely excused himself from the conversation and I just smiled (probably somewhat queasily
) and said "Yeah, like rock music," and then proceeded to change the subject.
Pop = Happy. Rather than having a dark vibe to their music, as most Metal bands do, bands like Sonata Arctica sound upbeat and happy. And happy Metal songs sound as odd and unnatural and a dark, foreboding Ricky Martin song.
Zod, I think I understand the point you are trying to make, except for the fact that a good majority of Sonata's songs, however upbeat of a tempo they might have, are about loss of love or other sorts of depressing/sad issues. In fact, I would go as far to say that if Sonata is deserving of any sort of ridiculous sub-genre classification it would be that of "emo-metal" (which I really just made up) for the intense amount of emotion that comes through in everyone of their songs, particularly in the lyrics and vocals. I think Evergrey could fall into this silly sub-genre as well.
I like various sub-genres/types/variations of metal, including the more "upbeat" metal songs, regardless if that means they have happy/funny themes - Just a Little Sign, Helloween - or they have darker themes - (90% of) Hellfire Club, Edguy. As many have mentioned before, "pop" is short for popular which typically in America means radio play. However much the audiences for these types of bands may have grown, I have yet to hear of anything like Edguy, Helloween, or Sonata Arctica on the radio/MTV or any other sort of "popular" outlet. Although as I mentioned before, I don't really depend on the radio to tell me what's good or what's popular - I just listen to what I like.