The Change In The Audience At Metal Shows

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There was a time when I would have said that if you like heavy metal you're probably an extrovert. If you play in a heavy metal band and you're not an extrovert, I don't know how you got there. Does it seem the audience has changed to mostly introverts since the classic metal of the 70's and 80s? There used to be plenty of women at the shows, plenty of guys with their girlfriends, but now it seems to be an almost all male crowd of introverts who apparently have no girlfriends.

There aren't many genres of music that women usually seem to hate. Almost every type of music draws a crowd that is a fairly even mix of guys and girls. That's how a band draws a good sized crowd - there are going to be a decent number of guys there so girls want to go. Then the more girls that go to the show, the more guys want to go, etc. This works in practically everything but not in metal these days. So what is keeping the girls away, is it the change in the music or a change in the type of guys who listen to the music - guys that girls don't want to be around?
 
Hmm...interesting. I'll admit, I haven't been to a metal show in awhile, but I'll take your word for it.

Metal has really split into many many sub groups, since the 70's and 80's. Maybe that's a variable? I have no idea, I'm fairly drunk.
 
HelloJapan said:
Hmm...interesting. I'll admit, I haven't been to a metal show in awhile, but I'll take your word for it.

Metal has really split into many many sub groups, since the 70's and 80's. Maybe that's a variable? I have no idea, I'm fairly drunk.
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I think labeling somany sub groups has been a negative thing for the music. There were always differences between the bands. Judas Priest sounded very different from Van Halen but you would always see plenty of guys with their girlfriends in the audience at their shows with people at Priest shows wearing Van Halen t-shirts and people at Van Halen shows wearing Priest t-shirts. Now it's just become so incredibly divisive! Being divisive is almost always a negative trait for anything.
 
It's because metal these days is awful.
 
Outside of the poppy, makeup wearing Glam bands of the 80's, girls have never really dug Metal.

Sure, Priest, Maiden, Metallica, etc have all had their share of groupies over the years, but Metal is predominantly a man's style of music, much like how Katy Perry is predominantly a woman's style.

Metal is a man's genre, plain and simple, don't think it has anything to do with extro or introvert. It just has to do with the aggressive, loud and coarse nature of the music. Women just don't appreciate it, on average, the same way alot of guys do.

That said, growing up, there were always girls at shows. They were the minority, but they were there, they're often just not your average kind of mainstream girl.
 
Crimson Glory said:
Outside of the poppy, makeup wearing Glam bands of the 80's, girls have never really dug Metal.

Sure, Priest, Maiden, Metallica, etc have all had their share of groupies over the years, but Metal is predominantly a man's style of music, much like how Katy Perry is predominantly a woman's style.

Metal is a man's genre, plain and simple, don't think it has anything to do with extro or introvert. It just has to do with the aggressive, loud and coarse nature of the music. Women just don't appreciate it, on average, the same way alot of guys do.

That said, growing up, there were always girls at shows. They were the minority, but they were there, they're often just not your average kind of mainstream girl.
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Regarding the "aggressive, loud and coarse nature of the music" there is a world of difference between abandon like Pantera or Slayer, and bands like Queensryche and even Judas Priest who always had some mellow songs such as Dreamer Deceiver, Here Come The Tears, The Last Rose Of Summer, Beyond The Ralms Of death, Before The Dawn, and Burnin' Up. Quasi -metal bands like KISS also had some very melodic, fairly mellow songs and hard rock bands like Van Halen and Aerosmith even more.
 
In New York, most death /black metal shows seem to have an audience made up entirely of Latinos and Polish dudes.
 
Interesting observation. I go to a lot of metal shows and don't see many girls. I've taken girls to shows like Cannibal Corpse, Animals as Leaders, Weekend Nachos or Between the Buried and Me so maybe you should bring them.

There is an annual few day festival in Detroit called Berserker headlined this year by Gwar and Eyehategod with bands like Negative Approach, Ringworm, Weed Eater, Ghoul, and more hardcore/punk/grind underground bands. The last two years I've been pleasantly surprised with the amount of girls at the shows, maybe almost a 2:1 guy to girl ratio and many aren't there with boyfriends. Met a girl from Chicago who it turns out is a cam girl and who broke her hand in the pit...

Punk and Hardcore shows seem to attract more girls as well. The scene in Grand Rapids has many who are in bands or who go to shows/hang out at house shows and party. Maybe the reason girls don't go to metal shows is the macho attitude of the crowds. If she isn't a "tough girl" then the genre and men who attend the shows aren't very accessible...
 
old school metal was more fun and sexy. now its more dark and gothy.
 
Unfortunately it seems like the better the band, the bigger the sausage fest.
 
My sister is into Goatwhore, Hellhammer, Six Feet Under, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth, and other Black Metal and Death Metal bands. Trying to compare glam metal shit to Metal based on the number of female fans at the shows won't work out to well. That hair metal crap brought in more women due the stupid ass music they made like the Stones bringing in more female fans then Cream.
 
I don't know where you guys live but I see plenty of chicks at the shows I go to. A lot of fat ones and most are wearing combat boots and shit
 
perhaps the women at metal shows are so ugly you mistake them for dudes
 
Not sure why this is a surprise. Metal is heavy and extreme with fat D&D neckbeard nerds screaming and throwing devil horns in the air. It falls into the same category as beer and MMA. Women are soft and more mediocre/herdy/go witht the flow and just like music for the aesthetics mostly and what their friends like and are more into categories of flowers, babies, painting, salads and yoga. Women usually like pop music or any music that isn't too far off what is normal, if they're into metal then it's like metal with visual stuff going or the lead singer is a pretty boy. If you see a girl at a metal concert it's probably because she has daddy issues or is lesbian. What's next? A thread about why there aren't more women at MMA events?

This is straight up Parasitic Ostrich Syndrome lol. Why aren't there more female construction workers? Why aren't more men into flower decorating? Why aren't there more female MMA fighters?
 
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Metal heads to me were always a bunch of mommy's basement-dwelling introverts.
 
Jimmy Jazz said:
old school metal was more fun and sexy. now its more dark and gothy.
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Metal and "Gothy" shouldn't be in the same sentence..so much cringe just like i always cringe when i see a "self proclaimed goth and metalhead"....No just no and i'm not sure how you equate Dark with Gothic something can be Dark without having anything to do with being Gothic.I'd consider Dark Witchery's Lyrical Themes and Imagery to be dark and yet there's not an ounce of "Goth" anywhere it has nothing to do with it.
 
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ArchGoat said:
Either you're ignorant or just biased.

Metal today is better than it's ever been
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Or I have a different opinion and tastes.

Who could have imagined someone thinks differently of metal than you?
 
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