In class today Peshe mentioned something, which I never go to expand on, but I find really cool which is the way the Heavy Metal has expanded across the globe. While a lot of subcultural phenomena have remained local to the US heavy metal has spread to Europe as well as South America, Japan, and even some places in the Middle East. In fact, Europe, not America, is often considered the birthplace of heavy metal since it is home to early metal bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and AC/DC. Then you have later British bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motorhead who are considered gods in the metal world.
But enough about history. What I want to really highlight is what I've seen in tour DVDs and interviews about the bands describing their experiences touring South America. Whether it's Megadeth, Iron Maiden, or Black Sabbath, or any other hard rock or metal act these bands have some of the most devoted fans they've ever seen in places like Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela. Megadeth even has an entire DVD devoted to a show they played in Buenos Aires. We can also see international appeal for metal in places like Japan, where Anvil has an enormous following. Heavy metal is also incredibly popular in France and many bands have been featured on what most might consider "mainstream" television programming. Of course one cannot ignore the Wakken Festival. Every year, in Germany, thousands of fans of all styles of heavy metal gather for a multi-day festival of heavy metal music and culture where you might have Exodus, Cannibal Corpse and Children of Bodom playing on the same stage at different times (trust me those are 3 very different bands). Finally there is the famous story of Acrassicauda, an IRAQI heavy metal band which was discovered by an MTV documentary director and has since moved to the states, and is considered a huge success story among metal fans.
Perhaps the reason that I am drawn to heavy metal, and that it continues to survive is that it has such appeal on this global scale.
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