Heavy Metal Bands Get Softer for Mainstream Radio

So wasn't Kittie's former stuff pretty typical mainstream fodder in the first place? They sounded like Babes In Toyland meets The Muffs or something like that.

Yeah! Band sounds like Band meets band! I rule at descriptions! On acid!

Oh well, whenever a metal band goes slightly lighter, it's always assumed it's to get more popular... Just look at Isis, Cave In etc... they've gotten a lot of shit recently. Not to mention Countess and Nargaroth! Honk if you like waffles.

Fule. Distored guitars. Full stop. To paraphrase Frank Zappa slightly,
a wire service article on rock music written by someone who cannot write for people who cannot think.

... it's a big shift for heavy metal, whose rockers have prided themselves on their nonconformist and sometimes antisocial stance.

Fule. Heavy metal is one of the most conformist genres in rock and roll. It's been that way for a couple decades. And I'm saying it as a fan.

The [Kittie] album contains two versions of the song. Both feature fist-pumping guitars and hard-hitting drums, but while one adds the band's trademark aggressive screams to melodic vocals, the one to be released as a single does not...

Fule. The radio version of Focus' "Hocus Pocus" was quite different,
much cleaner, shorter and less full of wild instro than the album version. What was that, 1972 or '73? There are literally thousands of examples.

"That's definitely the lighter side of the band, but if it opens doors for us to get our heavier songs on the radio then why not," said singer/guitarist Morgan Lander ...

And I was so looking forward to seeing her bite the crotch out of an inflatable male doll somewhere on TV.

Metallica, the biggest-selling rock act of 1990s, paved the way for that success with palatable radio hits like "Nothing Else Matters" and "Enter Sandman" that enticed radio stations to also play harder songs from older...

Fule. Metallica was an arena juggernaut well before MTV glommed onto the crap mentioned here.

Hard rockers Flaw from Louisville, who blend sensitive melodies with aggressive guitars and anguished screams, are hoping to break through on radio with "Recognize," a song featuring clean guitars and vocal harmonies from their second album, "Endangered Species."

Wow, you go, Fule! "Beth." Kiss. "Only Women Bleed." AC.

"We look for the (bands) that have a big touring base, a lot of Internet activity and credibility with the audience," said
Bytester Electrosonic, artificially intelligent software p.r. 'bot
for MTV Networks.

Yeah, it's the same as with hiphop: subculturally conformist, musically innovative.

Is there any genre that doesn't get softer for mainstream radio though?
Is it OK that I act as if genres are sentient beings running around changing their nature for the sake of having their mating calls broadcast throughout the world?
Is it OK that this post has no commas whatsoever?

http://www.nplex.co.kr/img/1/business-arcade03.gif

This is a dud Reuters report. Radio is a specialty market only occasionally open to heavy metal bands. When the opportunity arises, there's a struggle to maintain the band's established image within the confines of radio. Some bands succumb to the lure of the payola siren, others are aware of the death knell. But loads of bands, especially right now, are getting harder for rock radio -- see "Flaw" in the article above. After all, Slipknot debuted at #2 last week. As "HARD-CORE FANS" reveals, MTV isn't playing radio cheese, anyway, so who cares.

Bring on the power ballads, spare the lame analysis!

Anyways, I'm all for more metal bands adding some pop elements.
We need another Anacrusis already, dangit!

Oh well, I still think Nevermore's "Dreaming neon black" (the song) could've made a decent hit.

I was hoping Gorgoroth were doing that on Incipit Satan, as it had some great song titles in "Unchain My Heart!!!" and "When Loves Rages Wild in My Heart"

Other snobs who read newspapers and believe a great deal of the material published in them. But it fails at this, too, because it lacks wit, style or even slight idiosyncracy that might tickle the interest of anyone with a keen interest in words.

As an exercise, you ought to track it in the Google news tab and see how many times it is republished in various newspapers. My hunch is that it will do well in reprint because it is the kind of dumb but seemingly hep and inoffensive thing that appeals to editors in charge of filling features holes with wire service copy.

Only snobs read
Only women bleed

Meanwhile in other news: dance music producers add vocals and rappers add choruses for mainstream radio.

Exactly my point, the albums "rocking" songs are so half-assed the ballads stand out against them.

its lucky metal bands dont sell out anymore innit?

Following the success of "Uranium," MTV resurrected its "Headbanger's Ball," a stepping stone to stardom for many a metal band in the 1980s. The show went on the air again in May 2003 on MTV2, reaching 55 million homes.

is it still on?