Post
by Pancio » Mon Dec 02, 2019 10:23 pm
It's time for some historical notions and sociological theories as well.
First of all, Power Metal came from Germany as a "melodic" evolution of Speed Metal, then spread across Europe during mid ''80s.
Early Blind Guardian and Helloween are a good example of that.
Stratovarius wasn't really a thing at the time but they were active in Finland since '84, as a sort of "doom rock" band (Black Sabbath, to be more precise) but Helloween were pretty famous with tons of booked festival.
Meanwhile, in the US, Thrash Metal became a standard as a good mix between Punk music and British Metal, two of the most famous "underground" genres and a lot of metalheads, in search of something new, found something "extreme".
We could say that Americans like it raw.
Anyway, in the 80's was really difficult to import band like Helloween due to lack of internet and lack of interest by music labels interested pretty much in Pop Music or, at best, Hair Metal.
These are the main causes of Power Metal as a main european Heavy Metal sub-genre.
Then the 90's came and music tastes changed a lot. Pop music still was the main genre but Hip-Hop, Grunge and Rap gained a lot of attention worldwide and, especially, in US.
Once again radio stations and music labels were interested in promoting only music with big sales.
But within mid '90s something changed and lack of musical skills, in Metal, led people to Progressive Metal (Dream Theater) with increasing level of virtuosity (well, Shrapnel Records pushed a lot guitar skills during 80's, Malmsteen became famous in the States thanks to Mike Varney).
Meanwhile, in Europe, Metal developed in an antithetical way with Black Metal gaining a lot of fame and Power Metal evolved in something more orchestral and even more melodic and cheesy thanks to the massive use of keyboard.
Here Stratovarius started with their fastest ride ever: from an unknown band to a multicultural band with really big guests in a couple of years.
Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, Helloween and so on started touring a lot outside their country and even outside Europe: Japan and South America turned out to be great countries for Power Metal and their fame grown a lot and Power Metal spread worldwide and american bands like Iced Heart changed from Thrash to Power and, in a certain way, helped the circulation of Power Metal music a little.
Then the new millenium came and Power Metal was at his peak, Stratovarius were headlining major Metalfests in Europe and South America, along with other bands like Sonata Arctica, Rhapsody and so on, and they were able to fill big venues, here in Europe, with a lot of sold-out shows but it was too late for US, Power Metal was unfashioned, there, and bands with 20 years of history were almost unknown since nobody really cared.
Then piracy started out as a big plague and music industry changed until now, where financial crisis and lack of budget buried a lot of income making a new records almost unprofitable if not supported by a lot of touring.
And, since Power Metal never made it to the States, this created an infinite loop where bands like Stratovarius (although big) couldn't afford a loss of profit in touring since album sales cannot cover it at all.
Here's why Power Metal is not a big thing there: geographically far away from US and uneconomic since US musical tastes are different from european ones and since fashion is the main engine in every artistic business.
Here's my two cents about the actual situation: music streaming is a double sided sword since you need to turn it into a source of revenue, pushing fans to buy your records so that you can return your expenses and allow your label to trust you in producing your album while handling all the logistical stuff.
Then relying on touring to give yourself an income. And this is really difficult, how can you sell your products if anyone can have it for (almost) nothing?
Spotify is a really good way to promote your music but a big drawback in income and, if not used well, can lead to a collapse of music industry, at least for little to mid artists.
Sorry for the long post but I find it interesting. I would like to know also Strato album sales from the beginning until now and well:
How many copies of Polaris have they sold? Of Elysium? Of Nemesis? Of Eternal? How is the trend? The last data available on Wikipedia is kind of smoky with 2,5 millions sales (but it's from Tolkki's era) never updated in years.
).
Anyway, I’m not innocent myself and have pirated my entire life and try to stream as much as my favorite bands as I can so they can get a few pennies. You can also buy albums from Amazon for example and have the mp3s. Not in the highest quality I might add. Cheeki Breeki.
