The Metal Mainstream

They're more popular than Helloween or Sonata Arctica here for instance. I myself used to listen to Crimson Thunder. God I need to have a shit now.

EDIT: Done. To contribute to the topic furthermore: According to frequency of metal shirts and hoodies in my area (being especially Prague 4) the most famous metal band in the area are CoB and Nightwish. It seems that Hammerfall and CoF era has passed.
 
They´re by far the most well known metal band in Sweden,they´re in gameshows,commercials and everything. Dont know how good a thing that is,i´m a little embarrased sometimes because they represent metal to the regular people and they´re all like "blades of steel and glory to the dragonslayer" all the time.
 
Thus, to a majority of population, metalheads are jerks. That's why I don't dress like a metalhead, even if my knowledge in metal exceeds mental capacity of all Czech long-haired village assholes that dwell mainly outside of Prague.
 
Metal is not very huge in Sweden, crap genres dominate here too. Metal does have a certain mainstream popularity though. Like previously stated, Hammerfall... Are pretty ridiculous, they're in TV shows and everything. In Flames are also really popular, mainly their newer material. I see a fuckton of In Flames shirts at school and I know lots of fans who do not dress accordingly. Although I do like their later stuff to a certain extent, with each In Flames shirt I see I'm feeling less inclined to ever listen to them.
 
Yeah. Funny thing is,i used to listen to them back in 97-98 or so and everyone said they were shit. Now when they´re popular the same people say they´re awesome. Really says something about how some people reason.
 
Actually, the OP wasn't talking about mainstream metal at all. :erk:

We'll, the phrasing you used weather you meant to or not opend this hole mainstream metal bands discussion. i'm aware you were ctually asking if the we'll known bands from each genere are the best of it or just popular for other reasons(such as their acts, Burzum and murder). at ;least i think that's what you meant.

I am pretty sure in Europe Nightiwsh has replaced Cradle of Filth for "goths".
 
WeAreInFlames: Your whole 'observations of north american posters' theory makes no fucking sense mate.
I don't see how. It makes perfect sense to me. I'm wondering if I'm not expressing myself clearly.
Okay, so the commentary in the thread is primarily from North American posters. Right? They make observations based on their experience. They live in North America, and thus interact with the North American mainstream, and so their observations on the mainstream will be based on their experiences with the North American mainstream (most people were saying stuff about people in their area, I think blackmail was the only one with numbers). Everyone is talking about the North American mainstream, thus, although no one says so, we are discussing the north american mainstream. I was not saying "THIS IS AMERICAN ONLY GTFO." Just that Blackmail's point, which was using worldwide numbers to counter a point based on the American mainstream, doesn't quite work.

I'm not trying to be an asshole or piss people off.

Regardless, it's retarded to speak of a global phenomenon in terms of regions given the context of the topic. Mainstream Metal bands should be determined globally. Nightwish is undeniably one of the biggest Metal bands in the world, and frankly, they still are one of the bigger Metal bands in the US as well. The mainstream of Metal is obviously relative to the genre as a whole, so Nightwish's stature as one of the biggest bands within the genre is pretty solid and painfully obvious ground for regarding them as part of the Metal mainstream.

I said before, there's no cohesive metal mainstream. That's like grouping together the fish eating habits of the Portuguese and the Japanese. After all, they both eat fish.
That wasn't the best example.

Basically, each individual scene is it's own phenomenon, yet each scene is entangled in the global metal scene, to the extent where the lines become blurry or nonexistent. However, you can't talk about Nightwish in both Sweden and America like it's the same thing because they're Gods in Sweden and off the radar in America.

Is Hammerfall big in North America?
No.
Sadly.
 
i see a lot of people hate bands simply because they are mainstream
or in other words "too popular"
i like bands because of the sound and music they give not by how popular they are
 
I've never even heard of Hammerfall here :lol: I think I might have heard their name whispered HERE 2-3 times, that's about it. I read up on them & I might check them out soon. I think in order to be a mainstream band in the US I should have at least heard people here talk of them.

Nightwish are decent. Oceanborn is an amazing album, but they never did anything else that was very good. Most of their albums have maybe 2 decent tracks on them. Oceanborn is great though. When I saw them live it was a really fun show.
 
i see a lot of people hate bands simply because they are mainstream
or in other words "too popular"
i like bands because of the sound and music they give not by how popular they are

Use the search function and type in the word 'mainstream'. You'll probably find about fifty posts exactly like yours. In other words...STOP GENERALIZING EVERYONE AS TRYING TO BE SOME CULT ELITIST BY NOT LISTENING TO SHITTY BANDS. Oh, and use proper capitalization and punctuation. You'll sound like less of an idiot. Thank you. :)
 
I've never even heard of Hammerfall here :lol: I think I might have heard their name whispered HERE 2-3 times, that's about it. I read up on them & I might check them out soon. I think in order to be a mainstream band in the US I should have at least heard people here talk of them.

Fuck you and your stupid country. Nah, just kidding. But if you lived in Sweden, you'd definitely find Hammerfall to be mainstream.
 
Bottom line.....
False metal will not stand the test of time.
Even the truest fans of crap like Killswitch Engage will realize someday that they are nothing more than a hardcore band being marketed to the mainstream (Thanks to Ozzfest) as metal.

Also, who really cares anyhow? If you like a band, like them.
Music is entertainment.

The false ones will be gone soon enough.
 
What the hell is a "truest fan of crap like Killswitch Engage?" I like the band, I have a wider variety of musical taste than most people I know, and couldn't give a fuck less what the band is or being marketed as. They write songs I like.