US touring halted?
- Thread starter adaher
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Harvester
The Promoter
dcowboys311
Member
Word.
Plus all this "KIDS NEED TO BUY TICKETS" stuff.....I sure didn't have a whole lot of disposable income when I was in high school, or college for that matter. I only went to a lot of shows because I was fortunate enough to get into a position where I was guestlisted most of the time. Where's that $$$$ supposed to come from? I think it was Warriors of Metal fest who, a few years ago, had an 'age-based' ticket price. That was cool.
zedowns
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My kid is 19. Among his favorite bands/CD collection you will find Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Candlemass, Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Quensryche, Pretty Maids and TNT mixed in with Slipknot, Godsmack, HIM, Disturbed, System Of A Down & Killswitch Engage. He hates (and I mean HATES) bands a lot of kids his age (and a few of his friends) are into from Screamo stuff like Chelsea Grin and Protest The Hero to mainstream crap like Nickelback and Taylor Swift.
He carries such a wide range of musical tastes thanks (I would think) to me who exposed him to Van Halen & Kiss at a very young age while allowing him to develop his own tastes as well.
That said, while he hardly ever comes across kids his age who know who Iced Earth and Candlemass (or Pyramaze or Pretty Maids) are, as soon as he plays these bands for his friends, they end up loving the music.
Like Zod says...it's all about exposure. They can't like it if they don't know it exists.
DuchessOfDork
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Oh, the internet is almost a lost cause. There's WAY too many bands vying for exposure to have that be the only means of finding out about new music you may like.
Word of mouth, person to person, trumps anything else in this day and age.
The people who are satisfied w/ whatever is on the radio won't go looking. And those who go looking get overwhelmed.
DuchessOfDork
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I agree to some degree, but I owe all of my favorite bands and to the internet. For example, if it weren't for someone posting about Powerwolf the other day, I never would have discovered that I have a hole in my heart and it needed cheesy werewolf metal to be filled.
AngraRULES
Member
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
Power Metal, for whatever reason, has never been a particularly popular sub genre of music, even with regard to other Metal sub genres. That said, exposure is exposure. It's a numbers game. It's not like Behemoth is easily accessible. Yet, you play their video, you stick them on Ozzfest, and they sell. Case in point:
- I played Iced Earth for my stock broker buddy (who's 45) and he bought the DVD
- I took my 22 year old niece to see Amon Amarth, she had a blast and spent the whole ride home talking about how it was the best show she ever saw
- I took my other niece (17) and my nephew (18) to see Iced Earth, they bought t-shirts
- I took my friend who's into Trance (33) to see In Flames, he ended up in the pit
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That's word of mouth via the internet...
I'm talking about, for example, heading over to Bandcamp, searching for "Prog Metal", and sifting through the results on your own...that's an exercise in futility, IMO.
AngraRULES
Member
This. I brought two cousins with me to see Kamelot in Florida a few years ago. The younger one was 18, into typical "radio" hard music (Disturbed, Slipknot) and the older was 21 and she was into pop-punk. They both walked away turned into huge Kamelot fans. The same weekend we went to Tampa to see Jon Oliva's Pain. This time they walked away huge "OUR METAL" fans.
Harvester
The Promoter
DuchessOfDork
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Well that's absolutely true, but the internet is where I (very nerdily) made a lot of my friends. I don't think many people search Bandcamp and their ilk, HOWEVER!
Back in the long-ago time of 2006, when I graduated college and discovered my love of power metal, I used to be able to use Google and Yahoo to simply search "power metal MP3". It was through this blind search that I discovered Sonata Arctica, Edguy, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, Helloween, and a bunch of other stuff. Yes, I downloaded their pirated MP3s BUT!! I bought all the albums they came from, and more.
Justin G
Member
You know I'm doing my part. My kid whips out the ipod and starts showing Iron Maiden videos whenever his friends come over. Hearing a six-year old sing "The Number of the Beast" is all kinds of awesome.
I'm taking him to see Widow, Icarus Witch and White Wizzard in a few weeks.
This X 10000. I will give you two examples;
1) I am a Train Dispatcher for NYC Transit, and in my office we have several hookups to play whatever device you have. Last week, as I was playing Gamma Ray's "To The Metal", more than THREE DOZEN workers walked in during a one-hour stretch and asked "Who is that?!?". After I told them, the reactions were along the lines of "Good shit", "Damn!". Understand something, practically every Dispatcher on the road has either Hip-hop/R&B or oldies cranking in the background. Several went so far as to put their smart phones against the speaker to record what was playing! Ph, BTW, do I need to mention that the heavy majority of those on my job are Black and Latino?
2) I walked into a 7-11 around 11PM two Thursdays ago, and saw the two attendants banging to Chelsea Grin. After I ask them who it was, and they told me, I listened, then I asked, "You want to hear some good stuff?" They said ok. Then, I cranked up my Blackberry with Ihsahn's "After". If you saw the look on these two kids eyes, you'd think I was offering the greatest beer in history. Last night, my wife was craving for Coke Zero (at 2 AM, mind you).
Well, I walked into 7-11, and those same two guys were working. What was being played? Ihsahn's "Eremita".
And, of course, there is my legendary story of how I found Nightwish...through a canceled tour!
But, Zod is right: Introduce them, you will find converts. Power Metal is our Christ and we are the Apostles. Spread the faith, and get the converts.
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That's the way to do it. When my kid was 6, he was the only one in his school circle who knew who Van Halen, Pink Cream 69 and Rocky was...
nailz
Member
I'm sorry man, but anecdotal evidence is about as useless as a space heater in the tundra without a powersource. Yes, exposure would be beneficial, but I've tried to introduce these bands to people, and it's either "LOL WHAT IS THIS THIS IS SO STUPID IS THIS ELF METAL WOW DUDE GO LISTEN TO SOME SYSEM OF A DOWN, THEY'RE THE ONES PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF METAL" or it's "Wow, this is cool" and instantly forgotten about.
Yes, someone actually told me once that all metal sounds the same and that SOAD was the only band able to push the boundary of what metal sounds like because everything else has already been done.
