I was just getting into punk in the mid 80s. A few former punk bands who went for a completely different audience/sound (Beastie Boys) found success, just as a few former punk acts had discovered in the late 70s with new wave and even disco (such as Blondie).
Crossing over to metal AND trying to keep your old audience was regarded with suspicion. Metal had a bad rap thanks to the factors mentioned in the article, and if you did the hair metal/glam thing it seemed very pretentious. If you just played standard metal without the attitude, it was merely regarded as irrelevant. I remember going to see the Straw Dogs -- which included former members of the classic Boston punk band The F.U.s -- and it was boring. No one was throwing stuff at them, though.
Metal bands that played faster and harder than standard three-chord punk rock could cultivate an audience in the punk/underground scene. This included thrash-metal bands like Slayer and emerging hardcore bands with a metal edge like Agnostic Front.
Playing other genres at that time risked alienating their existing audiences. I saw 7 Seconds in the late 80s when they were recording more radio friendly stuff, which no one liked at the time (that would change with the rise of pop-punk in the 90s with Green Day, All, Blink 182, etc.). And Bad Brains (mentioned in the article) incorporated more and more reggae into their live shows as time went on, which people put up with as long as they played harder stuff, too.
Looking back now, that was one of the drawbacks of the 80s punk/hardcore music scene: People were way too sensitive about appearances and different styles of music, and were unable to appreciate that some bands just wanted to evolve and do something different. It all seems kind of silly now.
It’s weird there’s a real gray area. If you started as Metal many later punk bands had reverence for you if say you happened to be Ozzy or Lemmy. Then, just as the article suggests, many of the Metal bands claimed Punk as an influence. I’ve even heard a punk band angrily do a bunch of Slayer covers back to back because me and my friends weren’t into them enough. Needless to say there is some competitiveness between purist DIY aggression and hedonism taken to another level.
Funny you should mention Ozzy and Lemmy. Motorhead was grouped in the thrash metal camp and got lots of respect for never selling out; mid-80s Ozzy on the other hand was seen as pop metal has-been pandering to the hair metal masses. That may have changed as people rediscovered early Black Sabbath and gained a grudging respect for Ozzy's work with Randy Rhoads.
Another interesting case is Glen Danzig after he left The Misfits. I saw Danzig perform in 1988 and was warned it would be "metal" but it was really heavy and slow, more like Black Sabbath and played by guys who looked like snarling barbarians. Even though all these kids had on their Misfit T shirts the crowd was really into it, because it was so good.
Fucking fantastic article! Just really great writing: hooks you immediately, and can't stop until the end.
I find that as I get older I generally have to stop reading about music: because the writing makes things sound so intriguing and inventive and crazy - and then I end up listening to it and go "oh, ok - it's just that." That's the problem with good music writers!
I remember they got heckled pretty bad down here at Fender's in Long Beach Ca. I didn't go to that show, but knew people who did. They certainly tried something different.
Crossing over to metal AND trying to keep your old audience was regarded with suspicion. Metal had a bad rap thanks to the factors mentioned in the article, and if you did the hair metal/glam thing it seemed very pretentious. If you just played standard metal without the attitude, it was merely regarded as irrelevant. I remember going to see the Straw Dogs -- which included former members of the classic Boston punk band The F.U.s -- and it was boring. No one was throwing stuff at them, though.
Metal bands that played faster and harder than standard three-chord punk rock could cultivate an audience in the punk/underground scene. This included thrash-metal bands like Slayer and emerging hardcore bands with a metal edge like Agnostic Front.
Playing other genres at that time risked alienating their existing audiences. I saw 7 Seconds in the late 80s when they were recording more radio friendly stuff, which no one liked at the time (that would change with the rise of pop-punk in the 90s with Green Day, All, Blink 182, etc.). And Bad Brains (mentioned in the article) incorporated more and more reggae into their live shows as time went on, which people put up with as long as they played harder stuff, too.
Looking back now, that was one of the drawbacks of the 80s punk/hardcore music scene: People were way too sensitive about appearances and different styles of music, and were unable to appreciate that some bands just wanted to evolve and do something different. It all seems kind of silly now.