I would swear that the definition of “metal” has changed. There was a point in time Bon Jovi and Def Leppard were considered metal. Nowadays it seems that “metal” music is required to sound like your head is submerged in the oil sump of a diesel engine.
And you know what? I like metal heads, they tend to be cool folk who…appreciate their senses differently than I do somehow.
I agree. I remember when I discovered Ghost. They quickly became one of my favorites. I let my dad listen to it and he loved it too. He said it sounded like “old-school metal”. When I asked what he meant he said “this is what metal used to sound like. When death metal became popular around the 90’s everything got harder. And death metal became metal and old metal became hard rock.”
In the late 70s Def Leppard was considered part of the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” along with Iron Maiden. I have trouble imagining it myself, but in a world before 10,000 sub-genres, the bar for heavy was way lower.
My oldest source for that is Supernatural. I don’t remember the exact episode, but in one of the early seasons the two brothers were in the car listening to music and Dean plays some Bon Jovi and Sam is like “Bon Jovi?! Seriously?!” And the reply goes something like “Bon Jovi rocks… On occasion”
Obviously not a serious source and obviously they don’t say Bon Jovi isn’t metal, just more of an amusing anecdote that I still remember almost 15 years later, for some reason.
But more seriously, Wikipedia lists genres there even if a band doesn’t belong in a genre. Simply because they have some elements of that genre. And in Bon Jovi’s case that was only on the early albums. You can go to the wiki page of their first 2 albums, for example and you’ll see that the genr e listed are “glam metal / hard rock”. Which means that even early on they weren’t really metal. More like metal adjacent. Obviously beyond that they went more and more towards rock.
But I do agree that the definition of metal has changed a bit. But mostly when talking about the early days, not anytime recently. For example bowling for soup has a line in one of their songs that goes something like “when did motley crue become classic rock?!” So you might be onto something.
Beyond that… There’s always gonna be silly purists that will try to gatekeep stuff. And metal has plenty of those. You can see it easily when there’s talk about the more commercial or experimental bands like sleep token or whatever.
I would swear that the definition of “metal” has changed. There was a point in time Bon Jovi and Def Leppard were considered metal. Nowadays it seems that “metal” music is required to sound like your head is submerged in the oil sump of a diesel engine.
And you know what? I like metal heads, they tend to be cool folk who…appreciate their senses differently than I do somehow.
I agree. I remember when I discovered Ghost. They quickly became one of my favorites. I let my dad listen to it and he loved it too. He said it sounded like “old-school metal”. When I asked what he meant he said “this is what metal used to sound like. When death metal became popular around the 90’s everything got harder. And death metal became metal and old metal became hard rock.”
The big 4 of the 80s thrash metal scene,(Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax), brought us some amazing music but inspired a helluva lot more.
Credit to Ozzy and the Sex Pistols of course, but thrash metal really took it to a new level…of confidence.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
Neither of those bands were ever considered metal. Hard rock. Yes. metal, no
In the late 70s Def Leppard was considered part of the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” along with Iron Maiden. I have trouble imagining it myself, but in a world before 10,000 sub-genres, the bar for heavy was way lower.
“Glam Rock” is the genre ffs. Imagine thinking “Unskinny Bop” is a metal song…
Hmm.
Oh yes, Facebook. Solid source.
Well here’s Wikipedia. Beyond this I’m going to assert you find a source that says “Bon Jovi was never considered metal.”
My oldest source for that is Supernatural. I don’t remember the exact episode, but in one of the early seasons the two brothers were in the car listening to music and Dean plays some Bon Jovi and Sam is like “Bon Jovi?! Seriously?!” And the reply goes something like “Bon Jovi rocks… On occasion”
Obviously not a serious source and obviously they don’t say Bon Jovi isn’t metal, just more of an amusing anecdote that I still remember almost 15 years later, for some reason.
But more seriously, Wikipedia lists genres there even if a band doesn’t belong in a genre. Simply because they have some elements of that genre. And in Bon Jovi’s case that was only on the early albums. You can go to the wiki page of their first 2 albums, for example and you’ll see that the genr e listed are “glam metal / hard rock”. Which means that even early on they weren’t really metal. More like metal adjacent. Obviously beyond that they went more and more towards rock.
But I do agree that the definition of metal has changed a bit. But mostly when talking about the early days, not anytime recently. For example bowling for soup has a line in one of their songs that goes something like “when did motley crue become classic rock?!” So you might be onto something.
Beyond that… There’s always gonna be silly purists that will try to gatekeep stuff. And metal has plenty of those. You can see it easily when there’s talk about the more commercial or experimental bands like sleep token or whatever.
Hair metal, but they were light lightest and off even hair metal.