Is Iron Maiden the biggest metal band in the world right now?

WildRanger said:
do famous Metallica songs from the 80's appeal more to non-metal listeners than famous 80's Maiden tunes?
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IMO, that's a big, resounding "no". Maiden's sound is somewhat lighter than Metallica's, and the mainstream is much less interested in thrash and heavier songs in general today than they once were.

I think people are likely to know more Metallica songs than Maiden ones, but the latter's would come across nowadays as more appealing.
 
WildRanger said:
What you think: do famous Metallica songs from the 80's appeal more to non-metal listeners than famous 80's Maiden tunes? For example, is "One" more appealing than "The Trooper"?
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Not that it means much, but "One" was a very popular song among any kind of rock fans at my school. On the last day of my penultimate school year I tried to play "The Trooper" over the PA and it got vetoed within about a minute. :(
 
The truth is, Metallica became a trend back then. Most people listened to them purely because they were "cool" at the time, it had nothing to do with the genre itself. I doubt many of those would listen to any other metal act.

Now, today, it has died down. They're still popular as fuck, but they're hardly making new fans in the same amount Maiden are.
 
Number 6 said:
Now, today, it has died down. They're still popular as fuck, but they're hardly making new fans in the same amount Maiden are.
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Reminded me of a speech of Bruce in Gothenburg, back in 2003.

"Now i've got to tell you. Under normal circumstances, personally i don't give a flying fuck about mtv, they could sit on my [...] We never needed them before and we certainly don't need them now, but the reason that mtv have decided not to play Rainmaker is nothing to do with the music, it's nothing to do with the video... it's to do with, they say, the Iron Maiden audience: that's you, the iron maiden audience is too old!! I can accept if they say that i was fucking old, cause i've been an antique, but you guys down here are about fifteen years old right, so.... So i don't know... maybe mtv is going, for the first time in history, it's going for the new born baby market, that's what they're after. They're making rock music for two week old people."

:)
 
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MTV’s whole thing is trying to appear hip and trendy to the high school and college crowd. That means focusing on things that are “new” and would appeal to that age group. Anything that might also appeal to their target audience’s parents is at an automatic disadvantage.

All of that said, does MTV even play music anymore...?
 
Jer said:
Anything that might also appeal to their target audience’s parents is at an automatic disadvantage.
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Which, from both a commercial and logical standpoint, makes literally zero sense. In a pathetic attempt to remain relevant, they did the exact opposite.
 
WildRanger said:
What you think: do famous Metallica songs from the 80's appeal more to non-metal listeners than famous 80's Maiden tunes? For example, is "One" more appealing than "The Trooper"?
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Metallica got the attention of mainstream with the black album. No one was interested in one. People like metallica because of two songs which were relevant 28 years ago. Enter sandman and the unforgiven. Both of those songs are known to most 45 year olds today. Even those who were never into metal. Most 45 year olds have never heard of the trooper or number of the beast or hallowed be they name
 
Why exactly are you bringing up 45-year-olds? I thought the discussion was about Maiden's popularity among non-metal fans in general.
 
Number 6 said:
Why exactly are you bringing up 45-year-olds? I thought the discussion was about Maiden's popularity among non-metal fans in general.
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Because metallica hit the mainstream 28 years ago. People that are 45 now were 17 back then. Which is the target market. People that are 30 today were only 2 back then so didn't get caught into the hype of the black album. Maiden have never had an album gain mainstream success.

Metallica ongoing popularity in mainstream is due to the black album. Although load and reload got main stream radio play when they came out, they are long forgotten albums with no songs that are remembered by non metallica fans or non metal fans.
 
Number 6 said:
Let me make it clearer for you: I don't really care about any other metal bands except for Maiden. I don't listen to Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, or anything in the genre, except for Maiden. I'm a pop fan, and all other of my favorite artists are pop artists.
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you are comparing maiden to thrash metal. Heavy metal is much broader than just American thrash. If you like maiden to such a degree that they are your favorite then at least in my opinion you like metal. That is not to say that you like all metal, I don't like all metal but I get your point. If maiden is the only metal band you like.
 
Don't get it twisted. I never said I didn't like metal. I said I wasn't a fan of metal. Now, I don't mind the genre itself; I wouldn't mind listening to a metal song if it came up somewhere. I just won't go out looking for metal bands I can listen to. I grew up with Maiden, and that's probably why they turned out to be my favorite band, but it is what it is. Maiden fan, not a metal fan.
 
MindlessPieces said:
Metallica got the attention of mainstream with the black album. No one was interested in one. People like metallica because of two songs which were relevant 28 years ago. Enter sandman and the unforgiven. Both of those songs are known to most 45 year olds today. Even those who were never into metal. Most 45 year olds have never heard of the trooper or number of the beast or hallowed be they name
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This is a pretty questionable read. Metallica already sold platinum with AJFA in the US and went on a headlining arena world tour in 88-89. They made an incredibly well-received music video out of One, got nominated for a Grammy for the album and got to perform One live at the Grammy awards ceremony. They were interviewed for news channels all over the country and featured in various specialty programs. To say they weren't already receiving mainstream attention at that point would just be wrong. The Black Album wasn't a success built on nothing, they had a massive fanbase already.
 
To me, the hype around Metallica today owes something to the marketing, not only the music, past or present. It's the band with the cool logo and shirts, the catchy name, and some sort of kudos gained from expressing a closet liking for a 'big' old school band that's part of that rawk culture of yesteryear.
 
Ruflux said:
This is a pretty questionable read. Metallica already sold platinum with AJFA in the US and went on a headlining arena world tour in 88-89. They made an incredibly well-received music video out of One, got nominated for a Grammy for the album and got to perform One live at the Grammy awards ceremony. They were interviewed for news channels all over the country and featured in various specialty programs. To say they weren't already receiving mainstream attention at that point would just be wrong. The Black Album wasn't a success built on nothing, they had a massive fanbase already.
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It's very surprising that AJFA has sold such a huge amount of albums in America - over 8 million copies. In fact it's the second best-selling metal album in the USA (behind The Black Album) and it outsold the entire 80's Maiden catalog.
I've always supposed that Maiden albums as Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave and Somewhere in Time are much more accessible material to a wider audience of people than Metallica's AJFA, that is a very aggressive, raw, heavy, chuga chuga thrash metal album with weak production, but the sales show otherwise.
 
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