A very good mate for mine is a director at a media agency. One of his clients is Sony and a few months ago he went to a showcase of all their latest releases. The chap in question has always been a very middle of the road music fan but in the last few years of our friendship he started listening to the likes of Killswitch Engage, 36 Crazyfists and Anthrax, so I was surprised when he told me that 'one of that lot' was featured amongst the Calvin Harris and Mumford & Sons extravaganza.
He was of course talking about Bring Me The Horizon, who's recent signing to the label represents a massive shift in metal (let's not have the 'they're not metal debate for fuck's sake). Due to the backing of a major label, Radio 1 now plays BMTH alongside the likes of Rhianna and various other aural abominations. So, in conclusion, metal is now mainstream.
Metal has always had an advocate on mainstream radio in the shape of scene hero Daniel P Carter, who managed to shoehorn both Slayer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed into the lunchtime show during his takeover a couple of weeks back. However, the rawer sided of music is no longer confined to late nights, although the daytime DJs still find it impossible to play BMTH's Shadow Moses without some hilarious comment about the harsh vocals and down tuned guitars.
To be honest, that's alright with me. Whilst I feel a pang of pride that one of our lot (even though, as previously discussed, I'm not really a fan) is making it in a serious way, I still don't want the whole music-listening public to like it. I like that it confuses DJs and is found generally unpleasant by your average Radio 1 listener, and although BMTH are a million miles from the heaviest band on the planet (Cattle Decapitation, obviously) hearing some electro-tinged post-hardcore chucked into a mix of awful so-called R'n'B and horrific beardy acoustic wank is refreshing.
In conclusion, Radio 1 - well done, keep it up. But not too much.
M
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