A study from Spotify has indicated that of all the genres in music, metal fans are the "most loyal" to their genre of choice.
"Whether it's wearing a 'battle jacket' full of sewn-on patches of their favorite bands, buying every vinyl colour and edition of their favourite album, tattooing their favourite band mascot on their arm or traveling exceptionally long distances to concerts and festivals, metalheads are extremely diehard and dedicated to their favourite bands and the genre as a whole," said Bob Lugowe, director of promotions at Relapse Records, a label specializing in the form.
Looking at the methodology used by Spotify to come to the conclusion, your correspondent (a metalhead himself) can see how it's actually a poor reflection on the scene.
The study didn't actually look at the genres that a listener preferred per se, but rather drew a group of "core artists" from each genre studied and examined how often listeners return to each. This suggests that metalheads don't necessarily spread themselves across the huge number of indie metal acts available on Spotify but instead listen to the biggest acts (used in the study)—Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Sepultura, Judas Priest, Cradle of Filth and Anthrax—more exclusively than, say, a country fan listens to the most popular acts in their genre of choice.
A possible conclusion that we can take from that finding? Metal fans are relatively close-minded when it comes to music. Indeed, the average "pop" fan probably also listens to some degree of EDM, hip-hop and R&B as well, as all of those genres cross style lines to create Top 40 songs. Even country has shown an interesting willingness to incorporate genres such as hip-hop into its music.
It seems like a long shot for your correspondent to talk some Lamb of God fans into checking out Arcade Fire, but the least we can do improve the scene is check out smaller bands away from the main stage. Some suggestions from 2015: Crypt Sermon's Out of The Garden and Cloud Rat's Qliphoth have been among the best so far this year.
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