LooseCannon said:
Heavy metal in general has always been a rough sell in the USA.
Not true. Back in Black is the fifth(?)-biggest selling album ever, and Metallica is, um, kind of popular here. I do agree that, historically, American metal has fared better in the U.S. than British metal, but I think that's more because (1) the U.S. just didn't catch on to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal right away, and (2) bands like Van Halen and Motley Crue came along and appealed equally to girls as boys -- something that can't really be said for Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. (The same can be said, however, about Def Leppard, which was enormously popular in the U.S.)
Also, you need heavy radio and MTV rotation in the U.S. to sell. Power ballads and hairspray got you on MTV, but heavy riffs didn't. Take the case of Metallica -- without revamping the "did they sell out?" debate -- the band did not become huge until videos like Enter Sandman, Unforgiven and Nothing Else Matters started getting heavy airplay on MTV. In the past 5-10 years or so, metal has not been that popular here, but it is starting to make a bit of a comeback.
I disagree that the U.S. is biased against British bands generally, however. The U.S. charts have a much greater rap/hip-hop and country/western presence than elsewhere, which is obviously dominated by Americans, but among pop/rock artists, the U.S. has not hesitated to embrace UK artists. Radiohead, U2 and Coldplay are all pretty big here, on a par with, say, Springsteen, Metallica and the Dave Matthews Band.
Since we're talking about charts, and this is a trivia thread, who was Billboard's Artist of the Decade (1990s -- awarded in 1999)?
The first name that jumped to my head was Stanley Kubrick, and I would have guessed about 6/7.