CriedWhenBrucieLeft
Meme Only Account
Try to stay on topic diddies. Too much wiffle waffle & not enough answering the question in hand.
For the record: Cried says no.
For the record: Cried says no.
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Is Iron Maiden the biggest metal band in the world right now?
- Thread starter Where Eagles Dare
- Start date
PieceofMind89
Ancient Mariner
If a festival with the top 5 biggest metal bands took place in the USA, the lineup would look like this:
Black Sabbath(seniority)
Metallica
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Slayer(I think they're a bit more popular than Megadeth. They always went after Megadeth on the Big Four shows).
Black Sabbath(seniority)
Metallica
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Slayer(I think they're a bit more popular than Megadeth. They always went after Megadeth on the Big Four shows).
SixesAlltheway
Ancient Mariner
Slayer has called it quits and I don't think Judas Priest can draw a big crowd in the US. You need a "newer" metal band to draw in the young kids....Metallica will draw in all though.
PieceofMind89
Ancient Mariner
Slayer could play one festival after their farewell tour, money talks. I agree, Priest can't draw a big crowd if they play by themselves, but if Maiden, Metallica and Sabbath are on the same lineup then it would be a sell-out show.
Black Wizard
Pleb Hunter
Do you live in Fantasy Land?
MindlessPieces
Educated Fool
Yeah, surprising to me too. AJFA is very much a metal/thrash album, it has no mainstream appeal. Here in NZ, noone (outside of metal fanbase) would have known who Metallica were until the Black Album gained commercial success and became trendy.
When did AJFA sell it's albums? was this on release of AJFA or after TBA came out?
Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
Master Of Puppets was a really big album in metal and brought a lot of new fans with it, and they're the ones that ended up purchasing AJFA back in the day. Then when TBA got big and people started buying the older stuff, it - already having had a good amount of sales - became the stand-out from the first four with the sales.
I mean... that's just a theory, so take it as you will.
I mean... that's just a theory, so take it as you will.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
The first million or two were definitely upon release. AJFA was big when I was in high school, and the music video for “One” was part of that. The big summer ‘87 tour of the USA with Scorpions, Dokken, and Van Hagar had raised their profile, too. They parlayed that into platinum album sales and a headlining tour in 1988.
ManuelMaiden95
Trooper
Iron Maiden is less mainstream than Metallica but in no ways can be classified as a "niche" band as someone said when it is probably the second most popular Metal band worldwide or close to it.
Even though most fans are metalheads they also have fans inside the Rock fans in general and they are a well known band by the general public at least in name.
A niche band is a band that is only known inside the certain group that follows them, they would have almost no fans inside the general Rock scene and certainly their names wouldn't be well known by the general public.
Even though most fans are metalheads they also have fans inside the Rock fans in general and they are a well known band by the general public at least in name.
A niche band is a band that is only known inside the certain group that follows them, they would have almost no fans inside the general Rock scene and certainly their names wouldn't be well known by the general public.
Number 6
Ancient Mariner
Exactly. And that's not counting fans like me, who aren't even that interested in the rock/metal scene in general.
MindlessPieces
Educated Fool
Depends how you define the term niche.
Apparently Bruce considers the band as niche
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/19/iron-maiden-bruce-dickinson-frank-turner-interview
"BD: Fundamentally, no we don't. To use a farming analogy, we have our field and we've got to plough it and that's it. What's going on in the next field is of no interest to us; we can only plough one field at a time. We are unashamedly a niche band. Admittedly our niche is quite big."
JudasMyGuide
Ancient Mariner
For what it's worth, I think the story of the success of AJFA is plain to see - it followed a rather popular album and it was possibly the catchiest Metallica release at the time. One, Eye of the Beholder, Dyers Eve, even the title track, long as it otherwise is - I'd put forth the controversial opinion that those might be even catchier than most of the Black Album (apart from the main hitters Sandman-Sadbuttrue-Unforgiven-Nothingelse). Throw in the One video and the fact they'd been finally gaining momentum, partly because the fact they have been playing and touring for some time already, partly because the Cliff death gave them some publicity as well.
Number 6
Ancient Mariner
First of all: that interview is from four and a half years ago.
Second of all: Bruce was clearly referring to their view of the band itself, not to how big they are. What he meant is that they aren't interested in purposefully seeking new fans outside of the metal territory, but that doesn't mean they're restricted to metal fans only (spoiler alert: they aren't, and that's why they're not a niche band).
ManuelMaiden95
Trooper
The classic metal sound of the NWOBHM was never really popular in the US.
If you add to that that MTV and other media that aired videoclips were huge in the US in the 80's but Maiden never really paid attention to videoclips unlike Judas Priest or Ozzy Osbourne. And if on top of that you add that the US market has always been its own world and local bands in general tend to be bigger than international bands then you get the answer why Metallica is so much bigger than Maiden in the US.
It is a mix of all of the above.
In the rest of the world Metallica is more popular but Maiden is a competitive band in terms of sales, fans, gigs, etc.
But Metallica sell huge in the US, as I said, half their records (63 million) were sold in the US market.
Iron Maiden sells well in lots of countries around the world but don't have a market in which they sell as much as Metallica in the US and that's the big difference.
Here in Argentina I can tell you that when The Book of Souls was released and when Hardwired was released it didn't feel as if one was much more bigger than the other.
The music stores promoted them more or less the same and the news portal also.
The same thing when Iron Maiden or Metallica comes to play. The media cover them more or less in the same way and they are the cover of magazines in more or less the same way.
You don't realize that one is bigger than the other until you start talking to people and you realize that more people who don't like Metal know a song or two of Metallica and none of Maiden.
But if you don't talk to people about it they appear to have the same amount of popularity around here.
If you add to that that MTV and other media that aired videoclips were huge in the US in the 80's but Maiden never really paid attention to videoclips unlike Judas Priest or Ozzy Osbourne. And if on top of that you add that the US market has always been its own world and local bands in general tend to be bigger than international bands then you get the answer why Metallica is so much bigger than Maiden in the US.
It is a mix of all of the above.
In the rest of the world Metallica is more popular but Maiden is a competitive band in terms of sales, fans, gigs, etc.
But Metallica sell huge in the US, as I said, half their records (63 million) were sold in the US market.
Iron Maiden sells well in lots of countries around the world but don't have a market in which they sell as much as Metallica in the US and that's the big difference.
Here in Argentina I can tell you that when The Book of Souls was released and when Hardwired was released it didn't feel as if one was much more bigger than the other.
The music stores promoted them more or less the same and the news portal also.
The same thing when Iron Maiden or Metallica comes to play. The media cover them more or less in the same way and they are the cover of magazines in more or less the same way.
You don't realize that one is bigger than the other until you start talking to people and you realize that more people who don't like Metal know a song or two of Metallica and none of Maiden.
But if you don't talk to people about it they appear to have the same amount of popularity around here.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
I’m not sure that’s true — from 1980 to 1983 or so there was a lot of attention on some of these bands in the U.S. Judas Priest’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” was an absolutely huge hit here, and “Run To The Hills” was pretty well known at the time. Def Leppard obviously went stratospheric in 1983, though you might argue that they didn’t count as part of the genre anymore.
The “Run To The Hills” and “2 Minutes To Midnight” videos got a pretty good amount of airplay on U.S. MTV, as did “Wasted Years” and “Can I Play With Madness”. “Be Quick Or Be Dead”, too.
MindlessPieces
Educated Fool
Number 6
Ancient Mariner
Bruce is sarcastic by nature. You should take everything he says that's debatable with a pinch of salt.
And, again: it's an interview from nearly five years ago. With an absurdly successful album and two tours coming after it, it's only barely relevant to this discussion.
And, again: it's an interview from nearly five years ago. With an absurdly successful album and two tours coming after it, it's only barely relevant to this discussion.
MindlessPieces
Educated Fool
I've never thought of AJFA as commercial or catchy. It's really thrashy, lots of distortion, lots of palm mutting. Not much melodies.
Songs are long and drawn out. Nothing like most of what was getting on radios and MTV at that time.
TBA is far more accessible to Rock fans, TBA was a huge departure from anything that Metallica did previously. It was their very first non thrash album, AJFA was their very last thrash album.
MindlessPieces
Educated Fool
When you have been a fan of the band for as long as I have, 1 album and 5 years doesn't make all that much difference. Book of Souls isn't a commercial album.