North From Here wrote:
Thanks for the link Zad. I think he makes a fair point, but goes too far in trying to be abrasive with his writing style. To me this speaks to the fundamentally inorganic weakness of the American metal scene as compared to the European scene, for at least the past few decades. In many parts of Europe metal was perpetually in the mainstream...no not pop music, but just below that level of popularity. In America metal has wallowed in comparative obscurity, thus fostering the culture where these types of branding machine operations (like the example demonstrated for Deafheaven) were necessary to achieve popularity on the level of say Meshuggah, or even Enslaved.
I think that speaks more to the hipster sensibilities of bands like Deafheaven than to the American scene as whole. It's not like we're seeing Absu selling used trucks in Dallas or Wolves in the Throne Room giving nature walks in rustic Washington. Maybe I'm a bit sheltered from this kind of BS, but I haven't see anything akin to the Ray-Ban fiasco from the more traditional acts (Metallica excluded!).
To be fair, it's not like the Euro bands haven't had their own overtly commercial self-marketing campaigns: Nergal was once a host on the Polish version of The Voice, Maiden's merch catalogue is almost KISS worthy in it's size and diversity of product, Motorhead have their own brand of beer AND box wine (booze rebranding in particular has become popular as a commercial trend) and Immortal have produced Abbath Snow Globes. Snow Globes...for the love of all that's fucking sacred!!
At any rate, as the long as the music doesn't suffer, I really don't have a problem with bands making an extra buck or two on commercial marketing. The Deafheaven guys screwed up by selling a luxury item branded as a really lame attempt at social reinforcement and then playing the victim when they got called out on it.
We've had this very same argument on Europe vs NA a couple years ago so I doubt our opinions moved at all since. Enslaved have won the Norwegian Grammy multiple times, Mayhem won, Emperor were nominated--can you name any sort of post 80s USA equivalent? Maybe it is more a Scandinavian thing, or specifically a Norway thing, but I find it implausible to suggest that real metal is as far from the mainstream there as it is in the US.
Anyway, I agree with your last paragraph, well said.