Gen Z Can't Handle Metal

[Todesritter]

Slipknot isn't even proper metal, these kids need to hear Bathory, Mayhem and Bolt Thrower

That being said - I'm not Gen Z proper, I was still born in the 20th century - metal, especially extreme metal was never the status quo. There was only a couple kids in my school across all years that genuinely liked metal, to the point I was known as 'the blackmetaller' for having long hair and wearing belt chains. Rock, at most softer nu-metal, pop, indie was the 'normal'.

I rarely see kids of high school age wearing black and death metal tshirts outside nowadays though, the numbers seem to be dwindling more. It's usually the 20+, even 30+ crowd.

[Östsvensk]

Slipknot isn't even proper metal, these kids need to hear Bathory, Mayhem and Bolt Thrower

That being said - I'm not Gen Z proper, I was still born in the 20th century - metal, especially extreme metal was never the status quo. There was only a couple kids in my school across all years that genuinely liked metal, to the point I was known as 'the blackmetaller' for having long hair and wearing belt chains. Rock, at most softer nu-metal, pop, indie was the 'normal'.

I rarely see kids of high school age wearing black and death metal tshirts outside nowadays though, the numbers seem to be dwindling more. It's usually the 20+, even 30+ crowd.

I suspect that we're similar in age and when I was in high school, there was some rivalry between the different genres of metal. The guys who liked death and black in general hated power metal (a popular Swedish power metal band is Sabaton), and I remember that those who liked power also could attack the death/black metal people. Hammerfall was the only acceptable power band to the death/black people.

Bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica were those that were acceptable to everyone.

[retfala]

It's not about liking it, but handling it. I have friends who never liked metal, they listened to some other sorts of aggressive music (among all).
Modern day popular artists sound like castrates, Vienna Boy's Choir has more power in their voices than an average male singer from Billboard Top 100 Chart, you can't even recognize who is who.
And auto-tune is the biggest shit that happened to music industry in the past century.

this made me giggle so hard. The Vienna Boy's Choir is known in my country, we call them *Bečki dječaci*

[retfala]

@Barba
I thought about this and I agree with you.
except for some commercial bands like Metallica, I didn't listen to metal much (many of my friends did, they even had a band), but that's why there was old school hip-hop (modern day hip-hop is garbage), underground techno, Prodigy, and the likes, and my entire neighbourhood was like that with very few exceptions.

one of the exceptions I am aware of became a priest.

not to mention how much time we spent outside playing or doing sports and not on tiktok and other crap.

my father's generation preferred more serene music, but they had a lot of street fights, which they even organised for fun.
If you strolled around with bruises, you were cool. They all spent two years in the army, and so on.

it is true that testosterone levels are dropping. zoomers on avarage have softer faces than us, so that's evident.

[Barba]

...

Yeah! Here is one study and there are tons of other articles online.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32081788/

High T levels wont allow you to sit on your ass for 24/7 behind keyboard, that's against biology. We need to compete, play, do sports, listen to something aggressive, do something about it.
Most men become calmer, more rational and less impulsive in their 30's for reason.

[coolfrenchguy]

It's not about liking it, but handling it. I have friends who never liked metal, they listened to some other sorts of aggressive music (among all).

Modern day popular artists sound like castrates, Vienna Boy's Choir has more power in their voices than an average male singer from Billboard Top 100 Chart, you can't even recognize who is who.
And auto-tune is the biggest shit that happened to music industry in the past century.

it's not ready to get better with all the androgine k-pop male singers who looks like fucking gays

the extremely very good french metalcore ASHEN band from Paris don't look like daddies,more like early twentys,even metalcore is far from what i'am listen they kicking everything in they own genre

[Todesritter]

I suspect that we're similar in age and when I was in high school, there was some rivalry between the different genres of metal. The guys who liked death and black in general hated power metal (a popular Swedish power metal band is Sabaton), and I remember that those who liked power also could attack the death/black metal people. Hammerfall was the only acceptable power band to the death/black people.

Bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica were those that were acceptable to everyone.

I and one chick from another class were the only ones who listened to black metal in my school, I remember there was a guy some 3 or 4 years above me who listened to black metal sometimes too, that was about it for extreme metal as far as my Gymnasium went. Nu-metal and rock were generally handled easier, but this rivalry between black and power metal was never experienced by me, I actually saw a kind of 'power metal to black metal' pipeline - people who liked the less corny power metal like Blind Guardian and earlier Sabaton becoming amenable to black metal if not outright liking it, especially the kinds with more folk elements like Myrkur or Ulver, or atmospheric black metal. But if someone likes Gloryhammer trying to make them like Burzum is usually a lost cause.

[Pascoal]

I call it bullshit, Metal is still a very popular genre, even 80s Metal is still pretty popular among young people.

[Pascoal]

Bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica were those that were acceptable to everyone.

It didn't changed that much, even pop and rap fans listen to these bands, they often have some songs from these bands and sometimes a bit of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Megadeth, System of a Down, Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold, power metal bands like Helloween or Stratovarius are also surprisingly very popular in Latin America.

[Rædwald]

I know a bunch of Gen Z kids people in their early 20s , and they all are super into Early 2000s Nu-Metal it's super strange to me. I never thought I would see that genre in particular come back into fashion. Metal people still exist, they've always been the minority though.