Beato came out with a video the other day and I have thoughts
One of his conclusions is that metal is falling on hard times in part because kids are not playing instruments and are no longer drawn to the genre. And the demographic is 20-25 year old males. Okay. Let’s run with that a second.
This is exactly why Poppy and Babymetal are so important to the genre. They are bringing in new demographics, play well in tik toks, and as they don’t play instruments, they are fresh.
I take Beato with a grain of salt however, because when listing the top metal bands by Spotify listens, he left out Poppy and Babymetal, both of whom are over 4 million a month. He also left out Electric Callboy (3.5m/month). Did he leave them out because they undercut his point? What else did he exclude?
My thoughts are that a changing of the guard is going on, and that groups like Babymetal, Poppy, Electric Callboy and Hanabie are forging new metal, and will be headliners at festivals in the next few years. Cause Beato is right on one thing, the bands at the top are all long in the tooth. I think metal is moving in the right direction, and establishment people like Beato should get on board. Babymetal coined a term for this - they call it the Metal Resistance.i I think the future is going to be okay.
Yeah I saw that video too. I agree with you that so many insanely popular bands get overlooked because they don’t fit the “metal” box of 25 years ago. And I think that’s great! Personally bands like Green Lung, Bloodywood, Spiritbox, Gojira, and Igorrr are bands that got me back into metal after a 15 year absence.
I have a friend who’s that stereotype of a dour metalhead who I gently needled after he expressed similar “metal is dead” by saying he just didn’t like it when metal bands are fun. And that’s fine! Not everyone is looking for that vibe all the time. Sometimes we just want something heavy, sometimes we want Electric Callboy.
FWIW I recommend Steve OG’s reaction channel just cuz he’s so enthusiastic about music in general.
currently typing this wearing a Sleep Token hoodie who made me want to become a drummer
Like, there’s whole thriving new labels of outstanding metal bands cranking out tons of music that’s way more interesting than what Beato thinks metal is
My next project bass will have a finish I am yet to develop but I will name the Beato Burst- it will be high contrast, old fashioned and hide quilted maple.
I don’t like him, no matter how popular he is. His clickbait thing overshadows the good stuff he does for me anyway. I see tons of metal being posted in this forum, a suprising amount (at least to me), and locally here in Rochester, NY there are metal shows constantly. Anywhere I travel to I go record shopping, and I notice any town of any size and any city almost always has a metal focused record shop, and they all do well as far as I can see.
Scanning his videos…
Metal is dead
Top 10 songs are generally crap (mutiple times)
Yacht rock sucks
The Grammys are disappointing
Guitarists are clueless
Why you are wrong about your favorite artist
Why music is getting worse (in general)
Boo Taylor Swift
Today’s lyrics are terrible
What sucks about YouTube
…but he does have a top 10 sitar tunes of all time, so that’s something.
Beato seems like a nice guy and his interviews are decent; he lets the person talk without interrupting them. But I’ve wondered WTF is up with all the ridiculous gear decorations in the background…
First, it’s always about the US of A with those videos. Luckily, there’s more to it. Secondly, Beato should get out of his studio and off S****fy and hit some live shows.
There’s ever only been a few metal bands going big. Most work their asses off at small venues, doing what they love above all… playing their music in front of their fans.
Let’s think this through: next stage will be replacing the singer with some AI tool. Fresh!
Then we’ll just replace whovever writes melodies and lyrics with AI. Fresher!
In the end let’s built a personalised AI-driven song machine, based on individual taste and mood, possibly advertisement driven. The freshest!
And why go to festival, when some AI can generate a your own virtual band on your mobile phone, anytime, anywhere?
The future is the opposite of what Lemmy stood for
