Really interesting reading some of Kerry King’s comments about the current Mayhem tour (now in the news section) which features Slayer and King Diamond as headliners. The owner of the festival had made some comments about how difficult it is to keep viable metal acts that draw on a bill while also keeping costs down. He also made some comments about metal and the fans saying some of the artists have gotten “fat and bald and scared off girls” (not like girls were ever the driving force in this genre of metal!). Kerry is one of the most unfiltered people I have ever known in this business. He simply speaks his mind and always did. The tour is clearly struggling to draw and Kerry’s latest comments were basically saying it was not booked correctly. Was really interesting to see the leader of the headlining band on a Summer package tour being this honest. This all speaks to a bigger disturbing trend I can’t quite figure out. MANY bands at all levels being booked in venues they shouldn’t be in. I don’t know if it’s a by product of too many venues, too many bands on the road, or just too many bands over touring (a huge issue I think and a by product of no money from record sales), but every day I am scratching my head about concert bills I am hearing about at all levels in venues they should not be in. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out Slayer (now half original) and King wouldn’t be a big amphitheater draw. It’s not a knock on any act, it’s just common sense. But promoters are in a tough spot. They need these festivals and branded tours to go out, but they also can’t got to the next level of talent booking because it would destroy the tickets being affordable. I get that. What I don’t get is club acts in theaters, theater acts in arenas, etc. I would much rather see a band in a setting with a vibe and packed house full of energy than an arena curtained in half or half empty. Or a show that is “papered”, the industry term for giving away a ton of tickets just to make money on beer sales and get bodies in the room. You have no idea how many shows I am asked to help “paper” all the time because they are stiffing. It’s not the artists fault for the most part. It really falls on the agents and promoters to know what they are buying and know if people will care. There is no amount of marketing anyone can do if people don’t want to see a band or have seen them too often. And although a largely papered show may give the appearance of people in the building, it is also easy to feel in the room since most are indifferent because they got in for free. It’s a catch 22 in some ways. Bands need to tour because tickets and merch are pretty much their primary income, but too many tour too much and as a result their draw has been shot. You’re seeing it at the festival level as well. There are a ton of them now, many with very similar bills. Something the organizers of Download in the UK (a huge yearly event) recently discussed as an emerging issue in the business. The idea of a festival was to be a special destination gig. Now they are everywhere. A rock themed cruise used to be unique, now there are many of all genres. It’s just massive over saturation and will impact the little guys more, because the big super acts will for the most part always be able to sell.
Which leads to the next question; what happens when the super acts are done? AC/DC, likely the last tour I would think. As it is there was no real tour, more special scattered stadium dates. Brian is 68? Aerosmith? Tyler as great as he is is 68 and now looking toward country. Sabbath, likely done as far as touring but maybe another run? Van Halen? Anything can happen and it was surprising to read in a recent Billboard article the current tour has been a bit soft in some places selling tickets (apparently ticket prices an issue here as well). Rush? Pretty much done touring. Kiss? Believe what you want but they haven’t been a headline arena act in the US since 2000. Which is why they have co-headlined sheds (and a huge difference between sheds and arenas by the way) for the most part here. Regardless they are likely near the end for what’s left of the original band. Motley? Done in a few months. And they got a huge pop playing the Farewell card and wisely had a name legend opening all the dates. Priest? Said they were done, pulled a reverse, and are hanging in a bit more. But they have not been a full arena headline in a long time here. Maiden? Maybe the biggest global metal act along with Metallica. New album coming and dates in 2016, but these guys are not getting younger and Bruce already had a major health scare and we don’t know yet how he will recover from it. Bon Jovi? Like them or not a massive global stadium act even with just 3 original members. How much more does Jon want to work in his early 50s and with other interests? Where are the next true headliners?
Metallica is erratic as far as how much they play and making new music. But that actually may work to their favor since they far from over tour. You have to hope bands like A7X, FFDP, etc, continue to grow. Foo Fighters are clearly the biggest rock act out there right now and cross over to many genres appealing to rock and metal fans. But outside of Foos, and what Metallica has left in the tank, we really need to hope some of these emerging guys warming up in the bullpen can graduate to the big big leagues. Which leads to an even bigger question. Is that even possible now the way the music is and the way it’s consumed? For a while it was trying to sell downloads. Now that seems to be abandon in favor of just hoping people LISTEN to the music. That’s what streaming is. Don’t even own it, give us nothing, just listen to it! So music has become so devalued today that I wonder if that translates and stagnates an artists potential to even become huge again? This is all just out loud thinking and I welcome your comments and thoughts here. But one thing that does bother me (besides the lack of regard for physical ownership of music) is seeing artists booked in venues they have no business being in, and people saying; “look, I told you rock was dead”. Nobody’s rooting for this stuff more than me. But we have to hope there is a new generation to carry the flag and people embrace new artists they are hearing that they like so the next generation of rock and metal fans has something to celebrate. We are at the tail end of what’s left of the golden era of rock and metal from the 70’s and the 80’s. As for 90’s guys? Foos rule that pack and Pearl Jam are certainly alive and more than well. Soundgarden still viable, but not that consistent as far as playing. AIC? Same deal. Pumpkins and Manson? Currently co headlining sheds. Foos and Pearl Jam the biggest from that era. So where are we at 10 years from now? I wonder and curious what you guys think? Let’s hope there is a kid in his garage somewhere right now with a guitar that has the answer..
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Kid Rock seems to have a good business model. Charge $20 a ticket. Have a band like Foreigner open. Most people in attendance were casual fans (myself included). He put on a high energy show. Lots of casual fans converted to loyal fans and will probably buy/stream the new Kid Rock CD.
Kid Rock is already an established artist though. How does the newly formed hard rock band find their way to a shed near you?
This is a great article Eddie, and I don’t have answers, but ask myself many of the same questions that are addressed here. Fans are no longer buying into (figuratively and literally) epic albums that they want to purchase and support live like they used to. Remember the Maiden and Priest double bill back in the 80’s! Now THAT was epic. Why aren’t the new bands able to deliver the epic impact that the heavyweights used to give us? I think the songwriting has a lot to do with it.
They could if they were on anyone’s radar. There are relatively new American rock bands headlining and playing stadiums in Europe that are forced to do clubs and small theaters back home. There is no way to mobilize a strong following for hard rock bands here anymore.
I heard Dave from Monster Magnet say that they would play to half empty clubs in the US, and then play to packed houses in Europe and make enough money there to justify the trip. Sad state of affairs for hard rock.
Being European, I am not sure if this is always true. There have always been bands that were more successful in certain parts or countries of the world than in others. The Scorpions, e.g., seem to have been even more successful in the US than in Europe. On the other hand, British rock band Thunder plays theaters of a few thousand in England but only clubs of maybe 500 here in Germany. Ace Frehley I saw this year with about 500 people attending the club, so that was pretty much the same as overseas. Kiss can still fill a 10 to 15,000 seater ont their own, no double bill so far. I am not sure if people over here still either have more money or are willing to spend more and more often on tickets for expensive concerts. At least hwat many international/American say about European audiences is that people here like to listen,t hey will not talk during concerts. There are regions e.g. in Spain, which I know from a friend who lives there, where international bands no longer come just because people are no longer able to afford ticket prices. I rather think that we are going through the same process as you are in the US, the mass media promote the same acts over and over again, the record companies cloning the same act and style over and over again never taking a risk on someone more unique or edgy, we have our own Taylor Swift soft pop mass appeal cutie filling arenas by the dozen when at the same time established rock bands struggle to fill venues of 10,000. Like I said before, local clubs book tribute bands when in the past local bands with original material at least got a chance, so how can you create a following when nobody will see or hear you out there?
Sorry to be the iconoclast here, but I see a lot of the same “myths” circulating, but not a lot of the essense: the whole PROCESS is a cash grab, more than it ever was, and yet the pool of money is only so big.
My first show was Maiden opening for Priest in ’82. $11 ticket; albums (for both bands) were $5.99. T-shirt was $15. Inflation says those numbers should be about 2.5 times higher. Yet there are no $27.50 tickets, albums are over $20 at FYE (not $15), and shirts are over $50 (not $37.50). PLUS, you’ve got the CD/DVD live set from EVERY TOUR (it used to be every four albums or so). So instead of $50 every two years for your favorite band, you’re talking $300 or $400 for the same cycle. And what are we getting for it? The same shirt, the same two hour show, and the same 12-song album. multiply that by every band, plus every side projects (look at Corey Taylor, or Myles Kennedy) and it isn’t about “pirating” or “record sales”, it’s about trying to get blood from a stone. In ’85, there wasn’t “Great White” and “Jack Russell’s Great White”. There was “Great White”. There wasn’t “Queensryche” and “Geoff Tate Plays The Music of Queensryche”, there was “Queensryche”.
As for “sheds” versus “arenas”, the shed near me (Xfinity Theater in Hartford) seats 30,000 including the lawn (about 9,000 without the lawn), and the arena (XL Center) seats about 15,000, so I don’t get how you can lambaste Kiss for co-headlining sheds.
As for Kerry King being “honest”, well, it’s just his opinion. “Speaking your mind” doesn’t make you truthful. I notice he didn’t cop to Slayer not being able to fill the buildings. On their own, they would likely play the Webster in Hartford (1500 seats) like most of the newer metal bands.
As for the future, the future is changing. I think the youth have a passion for music, but what is rebellious about Rock in 2015? I know soccer moms with full sleeves, so Nikki Sixx doesn’t look that dangerous anymore. I remember seeing Gene Simmons in 1977 and being – literally – scared. Watch the ’75 video from Winterland on the Kissology set. It’s ELECTRIC. Watch Sabbath Paris ’70. It’s ELECTRIC. What’s scary about rock in 2015? NOTHING. Kerry King and Slayer are like cartoons at this point. So you see bands like U2 and Muse and Coldplay filling stadia like it was 1985 and kicking ass while doing it (not heard one bad review from the recent U2 tour). Casinos are also creating competition; you can see many bands for free at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut at the Wolf Den. I think what you’ll see is a resurgence of people making music for the love of the game, and it will translate. This is all cyclical, and we went through this in the late 70’s before punk and electronica showed a different way of doing things, in turn spawning the NWOBHM. We’ve just got to stop using old comparisons, and start looking at the world the way it is not as we want it to be.
You’re entire comment can be boiled down the fact that Rock and Metal isn’t dangerous anymore. It was mainstreamed in the 80’s, and never evolved, so you get the same legacy acts and no new artists.
When was the last time you saw a major label promoting a rock or metal band to the extent of what the likes of pop acts such as Katy Perry, Bieber or Taylor Swift receives? I still see the problem mainly with the music industry major labels themselves! Katy, Bieber and Taylor get 100’s of millions of views for their videos on YouTube, tons of press and massive radio play to ensure that their music is force fed to the masses. While rock and metal acts receive little to no promotion whatsoever save for genre websites like this one. It’s only hardcore music fans who seem to learn about new rock and metal acts because they seek new acts out. The rest of the public is clueless. The major labels have a long history of clamoring towards whatever is ‘hot’ and for a nice run back in the 80’s and 90’s rock was ‘hot’. First was glam then glam was dropped like a hot potato for grunge. Today however, rock and metal has been dropped like a hot potato for vapid pop acts for teeny bopper girls. I’m convinced that if a new young hard rock band with 4 cute 19 year old guys who played great music that resonated with fans and Universal Music promoted it as much as Taylor Swift then it would blow up huge. We would have a new arena headlining act within a few years and the labels would create several copycat bands.
Like I said before, be it music (Bieber, Swift, Gaga) or food or televisions series, clothes and so on … all of these are fed to the masses to keep the masses happy and, most importantly, satisfied, calm, and easy to handle for the big players in all businesses that actually rule the world and only have one value or directive: profit maximisation. It is like back in Rome: panem et circenses – give the masses something mediocre but in abundance, someting that is easy to understand, something that even the dumbest can relate to, and they will stop thinking for themselves as it is so easy to just receive and consumate.
I agree with everything said in the report and comments. I’m an avid metal hard rock fan, never been in industry, so I guess this is an outsider view. Number one, I’m 40 I grew up with MTV , introducing me to new music, I live in Buffalo NY, at the time radio was behind on things, so MTV, was where you got introduced to the bands…..where is that now? Seriously think that is one of the biggest issues here, yes digital downloads etc have an effect for sure, but if you don’t know a band exists, how are to you to buy their record, let alone a download. Until MTV, changes or you have a Ted Turner CNN, thing happen with a new music video channel, that will still affect a national audience in finding new bands. Second, while I love my old bands and seeing them live, that hurts the new comers as well. Only so much money to spend, so you gonna spend it on Metallica, or some unknown band you might like? Easy Metallica all day long, so until they ( meaning all older bands) start phasing out, the newer guys can’t get any good traction out there. Again just a fans , outsider view.