I've been having some THOUGHTS about heavy metal as a slow genre, that I'm gonna share in their undeveloped form. You'll have to make your own joke about slow doom here because I cba.

I see people complain about a lack of diversity in metal - both in terms of the gender and skin colour of the people playing it, and in terms of showcasing new artists appropriately. The sluggish pace of progress is maddening but when you put it all into the context of metal as>

<a slow genre it starts to make more sense.

*I am not defending the lack of diversity, just to be clear.*

https://www.nme.com/news/music/various-artists-1126-1212162

When this report first came out the metal scene were like YEAHHHH! But another way of reading 'most loyal' is that they move slow - slow to adopt new genres, new artists, new ways of consuming, new ways of marketing even.

Metal is also a slow genre to create. It doesn't have the same investment as pop music (obvs) or faster moving genres (like hip hop). The music is often slow to develop and be written, recording is often expensive and time consuming and involves multiple musicians.

I am trying to think now (I know there *are* examples) of bands that truly make a dent with their debut albums, and stick around. More often, bands develop over years and years, they hone their craft on (expensive) tours, and over multiple albums.

We don't embrace singles, EPs>

<and mixtapes in the same way that other genres do. We are way more wedded to the album format which is... you guessed it, slower to produce.

Metal - broadly speaking - rejects many of the marketing techniques that are successful in other genres (and industries) - such as influencers. No doubt influencers do exist in heavy metal, but they don't operate in the same way. My theory on this is that to be a true influencer>

<in metal you have to posses an abundance of authenticity and demonstrate your lifer status. Again this high threshold is a blessing and a curse (mostly a curse if you're on the receiving end of a "what's your favourite album of theirs then?" guy), but it does squish the idea of>

<being able to pay someone to promote your product/album/whatever as they do in other genres. I also think a lot of metal fans don't like the idea of being advertised to AT ALL - like we're all born with a radar to know what's going on where & when and what's cool.

Anyway, in terms of diversity, let's go back to that article about loyal metal fans. The bands metal fans go back to are listed as:
Metallica
Slayer
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
Sepultura
Pantera
Cradle Of Filth
Anthrax.

Not a *wildly* diverse bunch, let's be honest.

And if those are the bands that people return to time and time again, then it kinda makes sense that those are the bands that are booked to headline the festivals you go to because THOSE ARE THE BANDS YOU LIKE.

Given that Iron Maiden have been around for FORTY FIVE YEARS, Judas Priest have been around for FIFTY ONE YEARS & Metallica have been around for THIRTY NINE years... and that they are still the bands people go to when they want metal, well, I dunno guys, you do it to yourselves.

I haven't got a conclusion - I told you at the beginning that this was undeveloped. You could also make a joke about speed metal if you want.

Oh wait! I do have a semi conclusion - I believe that all kinds of obscure and weird music and genres have the potential to get big, and achieve deserved recognition. No doubt that there was a time when people thought there was a ceiling to Iron Maiden's success (THERE IS NOT!).

Heavy metal may be slow to move sometimes... well, okay... often, but when it does open up to new things it can be truly wonderful. It would just be nice if it went a bit faster sometimes.