Welcome one and all to my "Ode to Metal's Sellout Bands" compilation.

This page has been in the coming since 1992ish. With the advent of Alternative, the inundation of metal by so many bands, the constant fight over what I call the "fragmentation" of metal (i.e. everyone arguing about who was "glam, death, industrial, etc., etc....), and most importantly the "headliners" breaking up from 1989 to 1994, metal has declined to an all time low. Perhaps most influential of these "headliners" were Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Poison, Dokken, Ratt, and Cinderella.

While most people consider KISS and Ozzy to be metal, they are really rock-n-roll bands. Since they have been around since the late sixties and early seventies, they really didn't have to worry about losing their fan base from the changes in music over the past twenty some years. The same is not true for "metal" bands from the eighties. With their fan support being mostly from the teenage female fan base, the power ballad was a way in which many metal bands could gain airplay. For those of us males, if the power ballad had a good groove you could bet that the other six tracks on a 10 track album would have some killer tunes on it.

This "dual" fan base created a considerable market for metal in the mid to late eighties and there was a glutton of "hair" bands at the peak of metal, which I consider to be 1989. This glutton of metal bands, the growing "Generation Next" Alternative scene, and more importantly, the stronger metal bands suffering from internal differences and breaking up, had a great hand in the decline of heavy metal.

Meanwhile, primarily European bands which had success in the States during the eighties (most notably the Scorpions) have had little or no States sales and support lately, but still continue to make money and produce good albums. Their European and Asian market still has a fan base, and they have not abandoned their fans. Whereas, those of us who were teenagers, and are now in their mid-to-late twenties with a wife and kids, no longer have bands that cater to our musical whims.

With the "Seattle" and "Rap" generation firmly in control of MTV and the radio airways, all we can do is listen to our albumn collections and think about how much fun we used to have in the old days. As I have said on many chats and bulletin boards, many of the bands I used to think would never bow to MTV, and become followers instead of leaders, have since one by one been felled by the hatchet of commercial radio.

For instance, Dokken, which is still my favorite band (as long as its previous to "Shadowlife") behind Ozzy, broke up and then released their comeback reunion album "Dysfunctional". I had waited for this since 1989, and was impressed with them retaining their musical integrity. They had not bowed to the commercialism which had went on to claim other bands like Skid Row, Warrant, and Def Leppard. Now with that in mind, one would have thought that Dokken's second "comeback" albumn would be as good, if not better than "Dysfunctional".

On the week that "Shadowlife" was released, my wife and I searched high and low for it. When I finally found and purchased it, I could only shake my head in disbelief. Nowhere in the album could I find the catchy riffs and leads that Lynch was known for.

"Shadowlife" is probably the biggest let down album I have ever heard. The entire album was sub-par. In my opinion, in an effort to increase album sales, and under pressure (this is a rumor I have heard) from CMC International to "change sound for sellability" Dokken went the route of trying to add on an entirely different fan base. The band hoped that some of the older fans would stay along waiting for them to eventually put out another "Back for the Attack".

I think that is why KISS is still such a great band. They have never really sold out their sound to gain a new fan base. They just keep adding to their old fan base. I never thought I would see the day when I would have to start previewing albums by bands that I thought would never sell out.

Another example, Metallica and Motley Crue. Both were definite leaders of the metal scene in the eighties. With the eviction of Vince Neil, the disappointing release of the Crue with Corabi (what a flop that was) should have been evidence enough that the real and true "Crue Heads" did not want music that just wasn't Motley Crue. I have heard that Motley's new album "Generation Swine" has sold around eighty-some thousand copies so far. This would have to account for the old school Crue fans who thought for some odd reason that they would get another treat of "Shout", "Girls", or "Feelgood". After wasting about $18.00 on what I call "Generation Sux", (compounded with the $18.00 I wasted on "Shadowlife") I was in for a rude awakening. As with Dokken, gone were the foot pounding guitar riffs and drums. Another question, why in the hell is Nikki Sixx singing on some of the songs? I thought that was why they got rid of Corabi in the first place. I thought that they learned the lesson of "Motley Crue" and got Vince back to sing the songs.

An addendum to this, I saw Motley's tour back in October '97 and the new music was much better live, but still not as good as their previous efforts. Now with some good newer news, the album "New Tattoo" released by the Crue in 2000 kicks ass. I have to give credit where credit is due. Other albums released here lately that get my thumbs up are Poison's "Hollywierd", L.A. Guns, W.A.S.P.'s "Helldorado", "Unholy Terror", "Dying for the World", and Jackyl's "Relentless". One great band that esacpes my ire because of their consistency is Tesla, even now in 2008 they are still putting out great material!

Thank God MTV played Metallica though, so I could see first hand that there was no way in hell I would ever buy "Load" and further this bastardization of Metal. I will still say, to this day, that Metallica put on the best show I ever saw. Ozzy was a close second. But gone are the days when I will buy an album without listening to it in its entirety. When these bands learn from the lost sales of their commercialism, (no fan of Bush, Beck, NIN, or Nirvana will ever convert to the Crue just because they sound like them, and fans of rap and alternative already have enough core bands) only then will they realize that a fan will not accept any performance that is not as good or better than previous efforts.

We look back to the time when we were young and having fun without a care in the world. Metal defined having a good time. The metal of today has lost sight of what the fans really want. As Twisted Sister once said, "I wanna ROCK!!!" Well, I know there are a bunch of you out there who are like me and still want to rock. Maybe our bands will pull their heads out of the ground and hear our shout. I hope so.

Anyone who would like to have their rants (positive or negative alike, opinions are like assholes...everyone has one) included just e-mail it and I will be happy to include it on this page. God knows I have the disk space. Last but not least, FLAME ON!!!

suicidesolutn@oocities.com

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