Alternative Music Gaining More
Teenage Fans, Metal Not Far Behind
Ever since I can remember, I have loved everything about the heavy metal scene. Not just the music, but the atmosphere, message, concerts, and the people I have met at the many metal shows I have attended. There has always been a somewhat equal balance in adults and teenagers in attendance at heavy metal concerts, but lately the latter has seemed to have taken over.I went to two different music festivals this past summer– Warped Tour and Mayhem Festival. The first concert, Warped Tour, featured alternative, punk, and pop-rock groups such as All Time Low, 3OH!3, Escape the Fate, Anti-Flag, and Jeffree Star. The entire crowd was made up almost entirely of teenagers, the oldest attendants in the early and mid-twenties. I saw maybe just a handful of people that appeared to be in their thirties or older, most of which were accompanying their teenage sons or daughters. I had always noticed that the indie, pop-rock, and alternative scene was loved by the majority of students at my high school, but I did not expect to see a crowd made up of just teenagers, especially since Warped is on its fifteenth year of existence.
The next concert I attended was Mayhem Festival, a heavy metal show featuring Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Job For A Cowboy and Goth-rock group Marilyn Manson. There was a significant increase in adults, with there being about as many as teenagers, if not more. I knew there would be many adults in attendance, but I was pleasantly surprised in the number of teenagers who showed up. There is a limited number of people around my age who are big fans of heavy metal, and I did not expect to see such an increase in fans at metal concerts.
Indie/alternative/pop-rock music has become a fierce competitor on the charts, music video channels, and radio against popular music genres such as rap and pop. Could metal become the next big outbreak?
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