Pollstar’s Year End Top 200 North American Tours (even if you don’t live in the U.S. and are reading this, you’ll be aware that tickets sold for a North American tour can make or break an artist more than those sold anywhere else on the planet) listed Metallica, Iron Maiden and the reformed Guns N’ Roses as some of 2017’s top-grossing artists. The chart was topped by rapper Jay-Z, but these three belong to the “hard and heavy” macro-genre.

In spite of the excellent result, none of these bands have released an album of new material in years. They were all quick to jump on the bandwagon of the lucrative set of concerts: Metallica only played 26 dates, and still managed to enter this particular chart. Which brings us to a pression question: it’s obvious to go listen to these bands when they come knocking to your arena door, but what happens at home?

Good stuff, actually: Spotify, through its end-of-the-year charts, detailed how metal is one of the world’s top five most listened-to genres. Possibly because it’s inter-generational and therefore loved by people of many different ages, unlike what happens in the world of pop or hip hop. Plus, there’s no shortage of good bands these days, but you can read all about it in the other sections of this site!

Author frances
Published
Categories Heavy Metal
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