Some media outlets are open about their intentions. They will plainly state they are dedicated to covering the heavy metal scene located in specific locales, a specific subgenre of heavy metal, or a specific period of time in heavy metal. Those specialized media outlets, while having a greater tendency to promote than be critical within their sphere of coverage, are less likely to completely overlook musicians and releases due to political or economic reasons.
General heavy metal media sources, especially glossy 'national' heavy metal magazines, tend to act in a way that reveals prejudices based on anything but musical content.
How many music writers treat material not released on a record company equally with material released on a record company? Equal interview space, equal billing in reviews? A section titled "demo reviews" is a ghetto, make no mistake about it. But there are still those that put any self-released material in that section, no matter how well it is presented. The larger the media source, the less often you'll see the musicians who self-release get their fair credit amongst those musicians that have companies bankrolling them. Those same companies which bankroll the musicians also buy advertising space from the media source, as well as supply the review material and provide interview opportunities. Do you think there's some sort of motivation on the part of the media to cater to those supplying both the vast majority of the content and the vast majority of their financial support? And none of that has a single thing to do with music. The media's stance towards self-released music encourages and all but requires musicians to seek out a record company if they want to be covered.
Even when speaking about signed musicians, how does the treatment of releases not domestically available match up with releases which are domestically available? Often, the importance of a piece of music, as far as coverage is concerned, is determined by that music's distribution status. It exposes that the primary focus of the heavy metal media is not music, but money. After all, how much support is a record company going to give to media based outside of the area its releases are available?
Finally, have you ever noticed that it is always the biggest and most famous heavy metal musicians that get the feature cover spots in magazines? Magazines want circulation and readership, and putting Iron Maiden on the cover is going to catch a lot more eyeballs than putting Cea Serin front and center. The biggest heavy metal musicians got that way through record company investment, constant touring, and not rocking the boat with things like strong contrary opinions on the heavy metal scene. The reality is that people don't look to the heavy metal media to expose new talent, they are looking for more information on musicians they already know. Media outlets dedicated to heavy metal are not interested in the most noteworthy music, but the most fashionable and popular music.
We do have to acknowledge that sometimes, the most remarkable releases do come from record companies, they do come from record companies operating within the media source's territory, and sometimes the most remarkable releases are from the most famous and popular musicians. Yet I do not believe for a minute, and neither should you, that this happens month in and month out as reported in every single heavy metal media outlet in every single country in the world.
General heavy metal media sources, especially glossy 'national' heavy metal magazines, tend to act in a way that reveals prejudices based on anything but musical content.
How many music writers treat material not released on a record company equally with material released on a record company? Equal interview space, equal billing in reviews? A section titled "demo reviews" is a ghetto, make no mistake about it. But there are still those that put any self-released material in that section, no matter how well it is presented. The larger the media source, the less often you'll see the musicians who self-release get their fair credit amongst those musicians that have companies bankrolling them. Those same companies which bankroll the musicians also buy advertising space from the media source, as well as supply the review material and provide interview opportunities. Do you think there's some sort of motivation on the part of the media to cater to those supplying both the vast majority of the content and the vast majority of their financial support? And none of that has a single thing to do with music. The media's stance towards self-released music encourages and all but requires musicians to seek out a record company if they want to be covered.
Even when speaking about signed musicians, how does the treatment of releases not domestically available match up with releases which are domestically available? Often, the importance of a piece of music, as far as coverage is concerned, is determined by that music's distribution status. It exposes that the primary focus of the heavy metal media is not music, but money. After all, how much support is a record company going to give to media based outside of the area its releases are available?
Finally, have you ever noticed that it is always the biggest and most famous heavy metal musicians that get the feature cover spots in magazines? Magazines want circulation and readership, and putting Iron Maiden on the cover is going to catch a lot more eyeballs than putting Cea Serin front and center. The biggest heavy metal musicians got that way through record company investment, constant touring, and not rocking the boat with things like strong contrary opinions on the heavy metal scene. The reality is that people don't look to the heavy metal media to expose new talent, they are looking for more information on musicians they already know. Media outlets dedicated to heavy metal are not interested in the most noteworthy music, but the most fashionable and popular music.
We do have to acknowledge that sometimes, the most remarkable releases do come from record companies, they do come from record companies operating within the media source's territory, and sometimes the most remarkable releases are from the most famous and popular musicians. Yet I do not believe for a minute, and neither should you, that this happens month in and month out as reported in every single heavy metal media outlet in every single country in the world.
