Come hang out on Twitch! www.twitch.tv/finnmckenty

As a rock and metal fan, I appreciate you pointing a mirror to the fans, and making them face reality. I find it absolutely hilarious that a good portion of the fans wanna live in a fantasy land, where a band can be both mainstream but also not mainstream at the same time. It’s bonkers.

Finn, thank you for fighting for me.

My ex gf refused to believe that Limp Bizkit were selling almost as many albums as Britney Spears in the early 2000s. So I looked up the sales numbers and she was shocked. Rock has come a long way, and by that, I mean it fell so far.

I never understood the anti-mainstream people. I was always stoked when a band I loved got huge.

20 years ago you could talk to anyone, no matter what kind of music they liked they could name a dozen rock bands and name a current song they liked because it was impossible to avoid. Today I can’t name 10 songs that came out this year and I go out of my way to find stuff.

Unless our moms know who sleep token, bmth, polyphia ect are, they’re not mainstream lmao. If I asked my mom who fall out boy, blink, Metallica are she would know

"Djent killed metal. No songs, just riffs" really does sum up exactly how I've felt about metal for the last decade. Metal subgenres already have too big of a problem with what I call dynamics collapse, where the following acts are too busy emulating what the foundational acts were doing to allow the subgenre to grow and remain interesting and creative. They start themselves in a box and dogmatically refuse to even move the walls, let alone step outside of it. But djent started off a single riff from a single song from a single album from 2008, and then after the fact people realized bands other than Meshuggah were playing down tuned, high-gain, rhythmically complex metal, too. It didn't start in a box, it started on a line. You don't get the other two dimensions.

12:41 Yes. Literally. Turnstile, Lorna Shore, Knocked Loose, Loathe, Ghost, and Code Orange are what comes to mind. Idk why this is a trend in metal now but after like 3 or 4 albums are released, the band JUST STARTS getting recognization outside of metal now. By the time the band starts reaching it’s peak, all the members now are already in their mid 30s

You couldn’t go anywhere 20 years ago without hearing Blink 182. Now, I couldn’t even tell you what sleep token sounds like. But I can hear an MGK song and tell you who sings it.

Honestly twitter people hating you is an accomplishment. Also thank you great Finn for fighting for us true Rockers/Headbangers!

Rock and metal fans: “why isn’t my band huge?!” while also “omg this band is huge why did they sell out?!”

The truth hurts but that's the reality we're in. The rock community willingly holds itself back.

In my opinion rock today has gone more into indie/alternative than "rock". No wonder Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impala are "mainstream". Even "critically acclaimed" albums are either from indie rock or alternative rock these days.

I find it strange how metal heads seem to hate it when bands experiment or blend genres when that’s how the genre came into existence in the first place. It happened because people were experimenting with distortion and blending the sound of blues, acid rock, rock n’ roll, and surf rock. Experimenting and mixing is how genres were created.

Korn, Limp Bizkit, and POD were constantly topping TRL for years and years in the late 90's. Metal/Nu Metal was the main stream in the late 90's. It was a great time to be alive! Also its worth mentioning that the way music is consumed now is vastly different than it used to be. To even be heard and or taken seriously bands are forced into digital, because everyone is streaming and the streaming services aren't really paying bands well. Its hard to pump money back into the craft when that specific source of revenue is now essentially gone. There are Merch and ticket sales, yes, but its not enough. There are other creative ways to make money too, sure, there just isn't a formula anymore. Its just not like it was, where revenue generation was controlled through actual physical medias. I think rock music is dying for that reason. A band is 3-5 people on average, splitting tiny profits 5 ways is just unappealing, so artists are pumping out songs way too fast, half-assing it to keep their heads above water.. Napster, iTunes, and Pandora flipped the industry upside down. Spotify and YouTuble, though late to the party, are dominating and throttling the revenue paid back to artists. It could be argued that it is way harder to make money as a musician than it ever has been. Society is also really different, we now consume content as fast as possible, spit it right out, and forget it tomorrow. Constantly looking for the next short-term trend to claim and gossip about. I think that's a consequence digital adverts and social media.

I completely agree with all of this. After reading a comment on someone's tiktok video I think I learned the problem when this person asked "what can I do for my band to get fans without being cringe?". That comment right there I think has become the mindset of too many people because the word cringe has become very popular in recent years. And it's stupid to worry about it because it will only hold people back. Is a lot of stuff cringe, yes but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. If you think about it everything is cringe based on the person's mindset. The dull band you showed in this video that looked like a bunch of waiters, to me that's cringe as fuck, those guys seriously need some style. Boring 8 minute djent songs that are just a riff salad are cringe in my eyes. To other people, let's say a black metal band in corpse paint playing in a park would be cringe. But you know what, people would rather watch that than a waiter playing an 8 minute riff salad. Whether it would be fans of the genre or someone who stumbled across it by accident and has no idea what black metal is, they would watch it because that would surely freak them out. The bands trying to not be cringe I think are the problem, if you try that you will just be dull and boring and who wants to see that?

Gatekeeping is killing Rock. Metalheads became the close minded people they used to mock and then wonder why fewer young people likes the genre year after year. And then they blame it on younger people feeding the problem even more.

It’s a conscious decision by record companies to not produce, promote and distribute rock music. We live in a corporate controlled musical landscape, and to these conglomerates rock is not a "sound investment." Rock bands are too unpredictable, often volatile and seen as "ungrateful" by the music labels. Too concerned with artistic integrity rather than bling and cars. Labels used to outsource the creative aspects of music to the artists, now they want to keep it in-house to maximize profits. Hire songwriters and performers and underpay them, while keeping a majority of the profits. Also, rock songs are harder to write, and it takes more skill to play musical instruments than it does to just program beats and samples. Rock fans are seen as too capricious and discerning, and tend to be older. Labels would rather spoon feed the impressionable youth what they want to sell them. For all these reasons, the industry wants to promote the notion that "rock is dead," under the pretense that they’re "giving the people what they want," when the reality is that they’re doing their best to kill rock while giving the people what *they*, the record companies, want

Problem is the mainstream media gives ZERO promotion to rock bands. Not just metal but all forms of rock

To support your point, back then Rock and Rockstars were so big that even in Costa Rica and the rest of Central America they were popular and easy to recognize, nowadays nobody knows a single new rock band

Twitter hates something? Shocker

Every 2000's teen movie/show/video game featured some variety of rock tunes. WWE tunes, Tony Hawk, American Pie, Dawsons Creek, EA music from EA Sports/Games menu music. Let alone TRL/Top of the Pops. Rock was mainstream, not just on radio, it was EVERYWHERE in pop culture.

accurate. rock/metal fans don’t make any easier for bands to grow and possibly become mainstream tbh. they create an environment in which artists are too scared to write songs that actually say something and would actually connect with an audience outside of their fanbase for fear of part of their fanbase that wants disclaimers for everything. bmth’s own fans tried to start a little cancellation after hear the words “stupid medicine not doing anything” in their new song lost. talking about how meds have saved their lives and that the line is somehow “promoting dangerous habits” LOL. it’s as if singers can’t speak from their own experiences and have nuanced takes on topics or just want to write a catchy fucking line.

Rock is 100% missing personalities. Everyone wants to blend into the pages of an American apparel catalog. It’s running on the fumes of bands past as of now. Imo there needs to be more genre crossover collabs, maybe that would put it back on the map for a lot of listeners that have faded away from the sound. Everyone’s chasing safe trends.

Metallica and Limp both had songs written specifically for Mission Impossible 2 in 2000. Tom Cruise didn’t reach out to Bring Me The Horizon for Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning.

I've always been a Rock/Metal guy. But I started listening to other genres. Because I wanted some variety. And second because I realized there's good music in other genres too. Just being honest.

"I heard people on Twitter were dragging me. I dont give a f*ck because Twitters not a real place" - Dave Chapelle

You have to be larger-than-life in one way or another to be a big mainstream star, there's no other way around it. Like thousands of other kids who picked up guitar, I dreamt of playing in a band as big as blink-182 or nirvana were, I can play well but I realised I wasn't much of a performer and am better suited to other things. I'm sure there are plenty of great sounding rock bands now who are aware that they'll have a niche audience for their whole career and are fine with that - but a lot of them don't appear to grow out of that 14 year-old idealised mindset and blame the world for not giving them the attention and praise they think they deserve.

Rock may currently be dying in the mainstream, but I think a revival is coming. The recent post-punk revival in the UK, titled the Windmill Scene, has proved that fresh new ideas are still being welcome and can still be in the mainstream. Bands like Black Midi, Squid, and especially Black Country, New Road are proving that rock doesn't have to stay in the past to be popular. Now, all three of these bands aren't grammy level mainstream, but just the fact that they are being featured in award shows (specifically the Hyundai Mercury Prize) and have played at big festivals (BC,NR at Glastonbury) proves to me that rock is coming back in a new, fresh way. I don't think any of these bands are going to be the ones to break into the truly mainstream space, but the bands and/or artists they inspire will take the new ideas they brought forth and give it a more mainstream appeal. This is because of the eternal cycle of innovative or experimental music. It is rarely popular in the time it was released, but other artists will find this music and push it into the mainstream. The best example of this is The Velvet Underground. Many subgenres of rock can be traced back to VU's first three albums, especially punk. They were not popular at the time of their existence, but they would influence bands such as The Stooges and Television, who would go on to influence bands like the Ramones and Wire, and they would end up influencing the BIG mainstream bands such as the Sex Pistols and Joy Division (not to say that the Ramones weren't popular, but when it comes to punk rock the Sex Pistols were the true mainstream break through).

Glenn fricker made the point that the decline of the genera tracks with the decline of actual singing. Screaming is like blast beats; you can only take so much of.

Spot on Finn. Rock bands lost it when they started taking themselves too seriously. Soooooo boring

My thought is, who even thinks it’s worth it to be famous? I think a lot of musicians I know are so disillusioned by the music industry that we don’t think the cost is worth it. That’s how I sorta feel.

I think there are a lot of reasons rock/heavy music is hurting itself. Bands don’t support each other for one. Tour packages not allowing locals or support which helps every scene having their bands grow. After the legacy bands are gone there’s nobody to replace them. There isn’t a metal band out there even close to the size of Metallica, Iron Maiden and those type bands. I also feel that all of us that were teenagers in the 90’s/00’s liked a huge variety of genres because we all watched MTV and there were excitement with Artist breaking new ground. These days everyone uses the same plug ins and write the same recycled songs.

Something else I noticed about how mainstream rock was in the 2000s was that rock bands like Green Day, Blink-182, Linkin Park, and Nickelback would have some of their songs covered by Kidz Bop. Nowadays, this wouldn’t be the case with rock. You know you are mainstream artist if Kidz Bop of all things covers your music.

Growing up, the whole reason I got into the punk/hardcore scene was that to me, rock was all about pushing boundries, and at the time, those scenes seemed to me the most enjoyable and in line with my personal worldview. But I'm hard pressed to think of any current mainstream rock acts that haven't been "me too'ed" into behaving themselves. And please don't take that wrong, it is a good thing that (hopefully) because of the whole "me too" thing, the aberrant behavior of deviant individuals has hopefully been curbed in some meaningful way, though I assume that those people will simply find a more closeted way to practice their disgusting behavior. But in an age where a 9 year old tweat can end your career and ruin your life overnight, is it really surprising that artists aren't eagar to do anything that "pushes the envelope "?

Sydney and finn crossover?! Woah, we definitely live in the matrix.

Metal is an sad state of affairs. In one hand out of touch people who only cares about 30yr + old bands and in the other hand you have newer bands who only thinks metal is a technical exercise and are oblivious to what made past artists be successful

The rock music genre needs superstars that people love to hate to be interesting and thrive.

I used to play with Ronnie Radke, I used to have Ben Anderson drummer of Nothing More in my project Night Prism. I am now a computer programmer, everything your saying is 100 percent correct Finn. My hats off to you for your dedication to keeping it a hundred as the kids say nowadays. Keep doing Gods work brother

I actually heard bad omens and BMTH being played on Q101 in Chicago. I was actually really shocked considering they play the same 25 songs over and over

Looking back it feels like Bat Country was the last time metal was truly mainstream. Along with Avenged winning best new artist at the mtv awards

People would rather be comforted by lies than deal with uncomfortable truths. Rock is boring, you have to go to the underground to find decent bands now it seems. Keep up the good fight Finn!

Rock is not missing personalities. They’re just not being promoted.

It’s as if people forget that Van Halen found success from having great songs that attracted a mainstream audience.

Rock's difficulties are part and parcel of the slump that popular culture in general is in right now. Google the phrase "Old music is kicking new music's ass", and note all the articles that crop up regarding Gaga's song from '11 topping the charts, Taylor Swift recycling her hits from the 2000s and early 10s, and TikTok being consumed mostly be folks remixing music from decades past. We're having to rediscover what life was like, prior to they hyper-censorious age we live in now

I agree a lot of the stuff that comes out now sounds way to generic to go mainstream (if something like a mainstream still exists). Djent has run its course and it was too niche and nerdy to really carry anyway. I guess some things might have contributed to all of this that Finn has not mentioned. As nice as it is have the ability produce your stuff potential in the best quality in your bed room can have some adverse consequence. The whole songwriting is now with one person and a lot times this is guitar player and guitar players don't think like normal music consumers (we all know, that it is impossible for them to not see the guitar as center piece of all of music). That let in past in insufferable guitar solos (where they were not necessary) and in the nearer past to riff salad at the expense of song writing. The internet eliminated distance as distinction factor, that in past brought out different local scenes. Something like Grunge suddenly popping into mainstream seemingly of nowhere could not happen anymore. The grunge scene was well established in Seattle before Nirvana breakthrough, s.t. other bands could instantly fullfill the demand, while the rest of the world was barely aware of this distinct style of rock. Today such a distinct scene could hardly come by as everything out there is on the internet, local influence have to compete with the entire rest of music from around the world. And this also leads to some homogenety as of course there is also some kind of rock/metal mainstream (the stuff that everbody is listening too or talking about). Ronnie and Oli are apart from the undeniable star factor are also really great vocalist, that offer quite a verity colours to their singing and screaming. Unfortunately this is very rare in rock and metal today (and might be the reason they stand out). As cool as harsh vocals are I cannot listen to only harsh vocals for a whole evening, it get boring pretty fast and very few vocalists in the male are good at clean vocals these days.

For me as an rap fan, modern hip hop did what rock needs to do, change from jaming to song creation even if creates conflit with established tradicions For me Malxolm Brixhouse from unlocking the truth is an exempl of rock should be from now on.

I have listened to Invent Animate for years and have loved it, but no fucking way they're any sort of stadium tour name, now or in 10 years. They've been going at it for a decade making music I enjoy but the problem with a musical circle jerk, its a circle. No room for others to join the fun.

In the near future papa finn will have fred on the podcast, and the internet will collapse. Mark my words.

But if you look at maybe the biggest rock band in "modern history" Nirvana, didn't look like stars, didn't want to be stars. But they did something new, something that teenagers could relate to. Rock needs something new. MGK sounds like a bad early 2000s pop-punk rip off.

I think there’s a lot of truth in this video. To be fair though I do feel like rock and metal is in a much better place and much healthier now than it’s been in a very long time. I do think there’s been more of an emphasis on good songs lately. I don’t think you have to be completely original to connect with people, so I’m not so worried about a new sound so much as I am about stand out songs and personalities. I also feel like it’s become less acceptable to be a fickle gatekeeper lately. You’re right these things are a problem, no doubt but, glass half full I genuinely think things are better atm and trending in a positive direction, hopefully we can get some breakthrough acts soon. Even if I hate it I still want it to happen, because it’s good for everyone.

It doesn't matter who hates you the more, remember what Fred did with limp Bizkit back in the day. No negative publicity is bad publicity. Keep on standing for us Finn, we need more people like you, with your vision. You are 10000% right with your speech and it is going to hurt metalheads and rocker's feelings. If they don't wanna understand it, who cares. Rock is boring and that's a fact. It's good, don't get me wrong. There's plenty of good music out there and there's plenty of amazing current Rock and metal bands. This is a good moment for rock and metal, but one thing is one thing and another thing is another thing. Current bands are not mainstream at all. They all look flat and boring. Who would want to pay attention to some random dudes in their 30s all dressed in black? Thank you Finn, please keep on spreading the word.

Sometimes I think that there are way more bands around than in the 90s. Every band wants a slice of the cake, but the cake is much smaller now. We should choose quality over quantity

I mainly only listen to black/death/grind/hardcore now, but you know what I was listening to first? Fuckin' Slipknot on Guitar Hero III, Senses Fail covering Institutionalized on Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and hearing kids at school talking about System of A Down and Korn and Avenged Sevenfold and BMTH. I do not care to listen to MGK or even like BMTH or any of that type of stuff now, but even as someone who doesn't care for the more mainstream, normie-friendly-type shit of today I will freely admit that if it weren't for that exact type of stuff existing back when I was a kid I probably would not have worked my way down to Darkthrone and Gorguts and beyond, so why wouldn't I want those bands to be that for someone else? TLDR: Today's posers are tomorrow's gatekeepers babey lol the kid listening to Emo Girl today will be ordering slam cassettes on Bandcamp in 10 years

Yes i think it all comes down to songwriting. Theres just.. no more anthems anymore we use to hear decades ago. Like you pointed out it just seems like everyone is trying to hard to be 'different' and the misses the mark as far as catchiness and memorableness goes.

Seeing this video just reminded me of a question a friend of mine asked me in class we were sitting there, and we were talking about the different kinds of music i listened to and I listen to Rap, Rock, Country, Southern Rock, Nu Metal, Hip Hop pretty much everything and my friend asked if Rock and Metal is dead or if it's still around and I told him that Rock and Metal is still around but the problem was that it's being push aside in favors of boy bands and pop singers covered in glitter and singing about the same stuff that Rock and Metal did in a new form of music that has been done before at the time and now since I'm put of high school and starting to see that Rock and Metal are coming back slowly I'm starting to think that it's gonna be a fresh Nu start for the genre (see what I did there lol) I I like to see more kids picking up a guitar or a drum set and getting some hours put into those instruments and see what they can come up with

I've never heard Finn mention King Gizzard.. I think underground popular is where rock music is headed.

I wouldn't say rock is dying. Its not as mainstream as rap or pop but that doesn't mean there isn't an audience for it. The last shows I was at had thousands of younger people in attendance and I'm only 34.

Finn you are the cold glass of water in the face and the b-slap that follows when talking about why rock is dying. Thank you and please don't stop. Two quick additional thoughts on why rock is dying and fading from "the mainstream", if It exists at all anymore. First, I got all excited when I found out the band Blur has a new release available today. Blur/ Damon Albarn and company have been releasing music since the late 80's/ early 90's. Blur is a 30+ year old band fronted by a guy in his mid 50's to early 60's. A new Blur should be overshadowed by tons of fresh new bands. I don't know if it will be the rock is now. Second, when I talk to my 18 year old nephew about music, we rarely ever talk about rock music. Mostly we talk about rap and the beats. We've gone to several shows, and they're all rap and hip hop. He loves the beats and the message. He gets visibly excited while he is experiencing the music. Rock just doesn't seem to have that level of pull with modern culture anymore. It needs to find another Elvis or something like that to cut through the clutter or rock is going to go the way of jazz or blues or other previously popular genres- good niche music that will eventually gatekeep itself into irrelevance.

speak the truth. we NEED another Fred.

I'm so thankful that you keep on with fighting the good fight and telling the truth - much needed words of wisdom and logic here! So don't ever let haters and closed-minded or b*tt-hurt people bring you down. Big up ❤

What I think it comes down to is a lot of what people consider or want to be main stream rock just is not interesting to young people, specifically teenage girls. You have said this before and I think it’s totally accurate. That demographic is really what launches music or bands into the main stream. I doubt there are many 16-25 year old girls that know who Invent Animate are or would enjoy that type of djenty bland style of rock music. I actually was introduced to Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park by a teenage girl friend of mine in 2001. 00’s Nu-metal and pop punk was huge with teenage girls when I was in high school.

Doing a fear factory run down and the members other projects would be a sick video

You gotta understand, image matters. What is Paramore known for? Hayley’s hair, Korn? Jonathan Davis in the Kilts and dreads. Limp Bizkit? Fred Durst. Slipknot? The masks. Like you have to stand out if you want to mainstream success. That’s just the truth. You can try and deny all you want but in order for Metal to thrive it’s needs more personality because right now it’s boring af.

The 90s and 2000s really did bring out successful and mainstream bands like SOAD, A7X, Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Skillet, and Nickelback. I don’t think you’re ever gonna see this level of success for rock for a while.

swing was also realy popular genre!

"American Badass" by Metallica is the greatest Rock song ever. It's been statistically proven.

Invent Animate’s matching beige outfits has got to be one of the most bland aesthetics for a band. Good at playing their instruments and all but you’re spot on. People like Noah Sebastian, Courtney LaPlante, Will Ramos and Alex Terrible are stars within the metal scene but still haven’t had that moment to breakout of the heavy rock world. The scene definitely needs more stars.

Maybe I just got old, but nothing is really relevant anymore. Things come and go so fast, and most people only see what the algorithms want us to see that we're all in our own personal bubbles. Short of a handful of TV/Movie stars there has been little to no new things added to the pop culture zeitgeist since the early to mid 2000's. I don't think this is exclusive to rock.

I agree with you, Finn. We are definitely lacking stars in the genres, and lot of bands aren't taking enough risks. I always see people hyping up bands that they think are amazing and can break through, but when i check them out, they obviously don't have what it takes, yet. People like to bring up Courtney, Will, and Sleep Token and I don't get the hype and that stuff isn't really access able or appealing to the mainstream. Like you said, Ronnie and Oli are a notch or two away from getting to the mainstream. A few notches down we have people like Sueco and Yungblud who might have what it takes. Personally i think Bad Omens and I Prevail have what it takes sonically to hit the mainstream, but need to up their star power.

Name a single thing in the universe that twitter isn’t angry at… it’s why I left.

i really hope they don't get to you and you're doing well, i think youre an awesome dude also an observation that i made (also with live shows) is that most generic bands don't have their own identity , they copy the aesthetics, sound and stage moves, ethics from the "top tier" bands and don't have anything original going for themselves , bands like linking park, limp bizkit,slayer,slipknot,bring me the horizon(even kiss and ACDC) and the list goes on all have their own thing going, their own identity, and i think this is crucial for wanting the "fans" to resonate with you

Any plans on doing another video including UnderØath? Their latest album is so fucking good! Every record they release is better than the last. They also did a really cool album release, streaming a live performance with all songs. Not sure how though, seems a little too good to be live. Anyway, thanks for great content! Love from Sweden!

I think rock music is finding its way back into the mainstream, but not in the way rock fans think… Right now, the most obvious trend of popular music is the sampling and covering of older music. A great deal of big hits we’ve gotten over the past year have been covers and remixes and sleeper hits that were already hits by already established artists. Probably the reason this is happening is because infinite music streaming is causing people not to care about new music anymore. Basically, old music is the new, new music. So when you say “tik tok hits n’ stuff don’t count as mainstream”, I disagree. Tik tok hits ARE the mainstream. If rock gets popular again, it won’t be by newer bands and newer songs. It’ll be pop-punk covers and metal versions of pop songs and stuff like that. And I think that counts because that ideology is popular.

Im a guitarist for a local band in Michigan. I can say from first hand experience that the rock INSTRUMENTALIST community is why rock is dead. If you go to any bar or local festival, I promise you will hear Seek N Destroy (or any starter metallica song), The trooper/run to the hills by iron maiden, or any of the beginner guitar songs like Do I wanna know or seven nation army. Seriously, keep your eyes open and youll see it everytime. If you don't "Shred" enough you wont appeal to the old metal fans (who are rapidly aging and do not attain new music theyd rather compare every new artist to what was), if you do 12 bar blues you wont appeal to blues fans, if you play pop progressions you wont apppeal to pop fans. So what is it? I 100% wager the next generation of rock guitarists will gravitate to the "Soundcloud Rapper" style. Every guitarist/bass player/drummer scoffs at the idea of doing anything close to a trap beat. Clubs are poppin but rock bars are full of white hair follicles. People want to dance, and tell me how you dance to Guns N Roses or even Bring the Horizon. You literally cant. Greta Van Fleet you can a little bit, but theres a reason theyre popular as hell. Trap beats are simple and incredibly easy to replicate on any instrument if you have a modicum of music knowledge. I get the idea that people want to make their magnum opus bohemian rhapsody every time they make music, but stripped down 3-4 note songs are killing it. Look at yeat, dude sounds like hes overdosing in half of his songs and hes pulling in more collective views than the entirety of metal atm. Shred fests arent popular either anymore, at least in the form they were. Name a hip hop song with a crazy solo in the past 5 years, I can really only think that post malone ozzy collab that you never hear anymore. No 16 year old is throwing on any modern rock band unless they are alt. Its just a fact and people got to wake up, eddie van halen is dead.

BMTH have been a band for 20 years so we can pretty much put them in the same category with Fall out, Slipknot and all those other big rock bands. It just took them a little longer to get the recognition, when non of the newer bands are able to get that same type of hype. So I understand what you mean.

Finn, Finn, Finn...you sound a lot like a very great friend of my who is a huge rock/metal/heavy fan such as myself. He is always throwing shade at the current metal scene saying a lot of the same things you say on your platform. I more often than not disagree with you on a lot of your critiques on the scene and you seem to have a lot of praise for the absolutely horrible hip hop/rap scene. My great friend does the exact thing always sending me lil uzi and what ever other crappy rapper out there and constantly dissing the metal scene...anyway appreciate your work because your doing a lot for metal by filling in the gaps where magazines like Metal Hammer and Revolver. Now as far as metal being mainstream again I don't think so because rock and metal is becoming more of a working man's music. No matter what technology that is out there you still have to grab your instrument learn it and work your ass off to make something people want to hear. I have a whole lot more to say but....until next time.

I think the closest rock/punk has to mainstream has these days are MGK and Travis Barker. They are larger than life characters dating or married to other celebrities. I completely agree with your summation of BMTH who got propelled to the cusp of mainstream because of Ed Sheeran. Rock is dying simply because it’s so difficult to create original music after 50-60 years of the scene. I honestly think rap will see a similar issue over the next few years as newer artists begin to all sound the same. I’m buzzed that I’ve live through the development of so many different genres but that’s simply how life has become, it’s so easy for bands to jump on the next big thing and saturate the market overnight. I listen to a lot of new music but it is very same old same. I hope to be proven wrong but right now I doubt it’s going to happen

Laughing hysterically after just the 1st minute here, godspeed to you Finn and thank you for being a voice for many who agree with you

Makes me wonder how many rock and metal artists said no to being in a magazine.

In the MTV days, you basically had a captive audience if you're into music. You might have girls watching MTV back in the late 80's/early 90's who didn't necessarily like heavy music or even rock in general. But the had to endure seeing a metal song or rock video once in a while as they watched to see their favorite videos. That's perfect opportunity to expose people to new stuff who might otherwise not be interested. She might "hate" metal, but then see a Ugly Kid Joe video and be like "ooh, he's cute!" and watch the video, then grow to actually like the song and find herself into the genre. Now, people just go to something else or aren't even exposed to it in the first place...and what they do see is some tatted up, sweaty, mean looking dude in cargo shorts and flannel with a ginormous beard in a nasty warehouse playing ugly, angry sounding music. Why would she stick around to give that a chance when Machinegun Kelly or Drake is right there looking like the hot boys she's seeing at the mall?

Even if you go to a rock festival (at least in Europe) most members of the bands who play there are over 40 at least. In fact this are bands who where mainstream in the past but because no new mainstream rockbands appear even at rock festivals there are no new bands as frontliners.

Guitar thirst traps ...hehe. So true. Can I quote this as some lyrics please?

I feel like it's the entire musical culture that has shifted. With the explosion of KZfaq, tiktok, and the streaming services, we're seeing more bands "give it their best shot" resulting in fewer superstars across all of music, but more bands total all taking a smaller piece of the pie

Look at Arctic Monkeys, they can sh1t awful boring music for the rest of their life and they will fill every stadium there is (last album was copy of the one before, but they still drop some good songs tho). That is star power, because if it was just the music, maybe they wouldn't be as big, but Alex Turner is a star. Hate him or love him (most of us choose the former prob), he is a rockstar and it makes total sense that AM are as big as they are.

Another thing is it seems like rock fans genuinely live under a rock. You see on twitter or other social media all the time metal fans like "this Uzi guy tried to cover System of a Down" as if it isn't one of the biggest stars in the planet, and then they will swear to god BMTH is the most mainstream thing out there when the average normie has absolutely no clue who they are and *maybe* knows the gigachad song

Along with everything you said, I think a large part of it too it that bands nowadays take themselves so serious and try to give some deep meaning to their music for some broken person. That’s fine but niche. I love rock and metal but I’m not broken, so a lot of the lyrics and styles just don’t resonate anymore with me like. As with the majority of people. Lyrics like that are fine when the music is fun but no new metal/ rock is fun, just dull and depressing

I think one of the biggest problems for why rock music is in the state it’s in is the modern rock station. The stations are not playing anything really creative or different. The new music and new bands that they hype up our basically post grunge/alt metal bands like Shinedown, Godsmack, Tim Montana, Sleep Theory, and Mammoth WVH(Wolfie is very talented don’t get me wrong, good God his band just sounds like every other modern rock band which is extremely disappointing because he can do better and he’s not). They also really do not want to be playing anything nu metal either, save for the occasional Korn or Linkin Park song.

Thank you for saying the truth Finn. Rock has become a traditionalist genre stuck in the past and we the fans are too insular and boring to embrace the current reality.

I think the pendulum swung from rockstars with big egos who don’t appreciate their fans to fans who don’t appreciate the artist. I’d rather see a healthy balance between artist and fanbase. I think of Paramore, everyone loves Hayley, and she seems appreciative of her fans. I’d rather see that become the norm than see the reappearance of rock artists on the front of gossip magazines.

Maybe you should try doing a deep dive into some of the weird corners of bandcamp microlabels for a while? I've been subbed for a couple years now and I think your issue may just be that you're focused on the bigger artists in heavy music. It might not be truly mainstream, but metal is still a big industry and there are some caveats that come with following big corporate labels. On one hand you get to analyze what made some big bands great, and how they blew up organically and got picked up by tge big labels, but the other edge of that sword is that you're also seeing the product of big players in the industry, who are focused on marketability, manufacturing new acts that feel half assed or dumbed down for a broader audience.

wow i just saw a lady in walmart wearing a Nothingmore t-shirt about 5 hours ago... had no idea who the band was, and then i watch this video. trippy!

Now that rock and metal is no longer fully mainstream the metal fans revert to type like the before times when Metallica was accused to selling out for making a slow song with acoustic guitars on Ride the Lightning with Fade to Black.

Commercial success and fame is secondary to art. I hope all the rockers out there make some beautiful music instead of chasing to be validated.

Totally agree, Finn . Speaking of taking risks, I just saw a Kim Dracula video and thought this is like a purple and gold Beamer pulled up into a parking lot full of black Honda Civics with cheap upgrades (ie all the metalcore bands I love)

Justin Bonitz from Tallah is an incredible frontman. He's an exceptional vocalist and has a really fun personality. Its just a shame not too many people even know about them. Easily my new favourite band.

It's interesting that Finn never mentions Måneskin they have 22 Million listeners on Spotify, maybe because they are only big in Europe, but the numbers speak for Themselves, even if there Sound might Not be revoultionary.

Bring back hair metal.

So, Ghost is not mentioned? When it comes to bands that could really take it back to the mainstream that's the one that comes to my mind right away. Also, they are definitely informed by vintage Rock music in terms of sound and songwriting approach. A sense of melody and structure, enigmatic image and a lore.