Metal’s surprising path to prosperity during the 1980s and ’90s owes something to these college radio tastemakers—a genre that attracted its fair share of Metal bands onto a playlist traditionally focused on indie, alternative, and experimental music. The following is an account of the Metal bands who helped create the sound of college rock radio during this time.
The Rise of College Radio
By the 1980s, college radio stations were garnering bigger and more culturally important audiences, especially among young, sophisticated arbiters of musical taste. At a time when commercial radio formats had grown increasingly homogenous and overly focused on singles from mainstream pop-rock artists, the micro-signals of college radio were the most innovative way to discover new music under the radar.
These stations tended to be more freeform, often playing punk, new wave, indie, and experimental music. If students want to learn more about how these college radio stations work or other topics, they can always send ‘do my essay cheap’ requests to experts at AffordablePapers. The eclecticism and the willingness of many college radio stations to dabble in more experimental music that sometimes appealed to fewer listeners led many music fans to consider college radio a destination where they could find a more culturally diverse soundtrack.
Crossing Over to College Rock
Though there was more alternative and indie music played on college radio than Metal, many bands crossed over to these stations due in part to their stations and the genres they played being less rigid in defining their accepted ranges of sound. Many Metal fans would listen to these stations, especially since the music—certainly the content—sometimes crossed over fully into what many considered ‘the mainstream,’ as many of the subgenres of Metal were becoming increasingly progressive and avant-garde, bridging gaps between what was seen as pure Heavy Metal, hard rock and the more experimental sensibilities of college rock.
This is not to say that Metal bands are suddenly known for their political awareness and radicalism—only that certain strains began to incorporate more lyrics that were socially and politically informed. As such, it provided an example of the wind that buffeted the tent of Metal its entire history.
Metallica and the College Rock Connection
Among Metal’s major attractions was its aptitude for sonic subtlety, evidenced by frequent guitar shredding, diverse tempos, and time signatures. With Kill ‘Em All, Metallica became a key Metal act to break through to college radio. College DJs were attracted to the band’s technical rigor, socially aware lyrics, and propensity for musical risk-taking and excitedly embraced their thrashy fury.
On subsequent albums, such as the thrashier Ride the Lightning (1984) and the atmospheric Master of Puppets (1986), Metallica’s complex, ever-weirder Metal appealed to college rock’s ever-increasing willingness to consider Metal as a serious genre worthy of college campus airwaves and coverage by the alternative press, broadening Metal’s apparent legitimacy as a serious, artistically valuable mode of music. Metallica’s crossover success helped to break open Metal’s perceived subcultural significance.
Other Metal Bands on College Radio
Other Metal bands began to make inroads onto college radio, adding mightily to Metal’s presence on the college rock map during these years. On-campus speed Metal enthusiasts latched onto thrash bands like Slayer and Anthrax, while other Metal fans on college campuses became fans of the more aggressively political, socially conscious songs associated with ‘thrash kings’ Megadeth. Candlemass, the doom Metal band from the late 1980s, also crossed over to college radio with their masterful atmospheric and introspective sound. Finally, thrashers Pantera cut through the Metal fog and also hit college radio hard with groove Metal, fat-bottomed, drop-D technique that moved Metal to a new level.
The Influence of College Radio on Metal
The exchange between Metal and college radio cut two ways. In casting a critical lifeline to so many Metal bands, college stations helped bring them to the attention of a wider audience—often to people who would have little or no knowledge of the genre—but the Metal acts proved equally significant in changing the sound and look of college rock radio.
By welcoming bands from across a broad and eclectic array of Metal subgenres, college stations helped legitimize and blend the genre with that of college rock as a whole. In doing so, they helped to expand the audience for Metal while also aiding the development of college rock, as stations began to play more Heavy and avant-garde sounds that were more closely aligned with the extremes found in Metal.
Now You Know How Metal Bands Became Such a Hit
The musical era of Metal convergence with college radio in the US during the 1980s and ’90s was a historically significant moment for both Metal and college rock. College radio’s embrace of Metal-head diversity helped to create a broader fan base for the genre and finally addressed the question of where Metal should sit amongst the musical spectrum. It opened up college Metal’s audience and eventually helped dissolve the boundaries between rock and Metal.
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Metal Bands That Shaped College Rock Radio Stations first appeared on
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