Written by:	omne metallum
Published:	October 11, 2020

Now that the summer festival season that wasn't has rescinded into the rear view mirror, and with no winter tour packages that would otherwise punctuate the shorter days and nights that traditionally see the year out unlikely to occur, I've been in a nostalgic mood. Looking back on the prior decade that has passed, I wonder what trends and sounds have come to define the last ten years of the music?

Each decade always comes to be defined and remembered by a few standout genres that rise and come to the fore in particular decades. If you say 1980's then glam rock is likely to follow in quick order, with the 2000's seeing the tail end of nu metal, and the rise of metalcore and the brief flirtation with djent. These genres came to typify much in metal and pulled bands into their orbit, either forcing them to switch up their sound or adapt elements of their aesthetic (how many '70's rock bands revamped themselves as glam acts in the 80's?? and Celtic Frost).

So when it comes to evaluating this past decade, I struggle to think of a convincing answer, coming up with some genres that glowed bright but never caught fire and seared their name into the collective consciousness in a manner that was history-defining. Several genres have bubbled under the surface and threatened to boil over, several genres have threatened to take the world by storm but only to bang their drums loud whilst marching nowhere. Whether it is because my tastes in music have become so underground that any breakout hit in the mainstream is but a dull thud to me, or that there was no international breakout but several national or regional sounds that I'm not privy too, I'm not entirely sure.

Could it be that as the first decade where the democratization of music was a fully-fledged reality rather than a nascent ascending idea, whereby tastemakers were less influential and no longer monopolized opinions, this meant that no genre was able to able to take hold of metal fans at large? With easy access to music that you can control and have several programs catering to your tastes, those members of the audience can decide to drop out and participate in areas where they are now catered for more than ever before, with the rise of niche festivals and concerts alongside these platforms that enable fans to pick what they want to spend their attention on rather than having to pick sides in prior binary worlds. Does this render genre hegemony something that is unlikely to occur again?

This need not be a bad thing in and of itself, detaching music from the prior 'one size fits all' approach, as said approach herded many a music fan into one of a few select lanes, particularly those who lacked access to records that were not pushed upon them or the information necessary to find bands who were a better fit for their tastes. Moving forward, could this spawn a greater diversity within music, with musicians being able to access a wider range of inspirations than they would otherwise be able to find? Where many a person decries that "Rock Is Dead", perhaps the inverse is true; it is soon to look more alive and well than ever before.

The flip side to this is that it does render the ability of a movement/genre to merge into a wrecking ball and use the collective momentum and power to crash through boundary limits more impotent. Since the decline of nu metal in the early 2000's, no trend in metal has emerged on a scale similar to those before; within the metal community some have risen to a position of notoriety but never all-conquering. In tandem with the decline of guitar-based music and rock no longer being the biggest genre in music as a whole, is this inability to get the wider audience to coalesce into a wider movement actually detrimental to metal?

Do you think that metal needs a continuous ebb and flow of trends in order to remain healthy? Do you think the ability to cater for yourself and to tune out from other genres will be of benefit to the wider metal scene??