ags_rule

STONE HENGE! Just kidding ;) I'd have loved to seen the original Guns N' Roses when they were still playing tiny, intimate venues. I've seen a GNR tribute act in a tiny bar and let me tell you, that is where hard-rock music like that kicks the most ass. There's something perfect about it in that sort of setting.

At the same time though, music has changed. Just like no pop act will ever sell as many albums as Thriller, I don't believe we will ever see a new rock/metal act that sells as many albums as Metallica, Iron Maiden and AC/DC have. Music just doesn't sell like that anymore. But I do truly believe in the years to come that we will see Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine making huge progress in terms of popularity. Slipknot as well.

I was never a fan of BFMV until Fever, but that's probably because I'm not a big metalcore fan and Fever was more like classic metal than metalcore. This may be a controversial opinion but IMO Nightmare was Avenged's strongest album yet, just pipping City Of Evil. I felt that the songwriting was better; not as progressive as CoE but it had plenty of heaviness and technicality, with the poppy hooks of self-titled. Other than that there were some great rock/metal albums this year from Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Alter Bridge, Tarja, Slash, Ghost, Mastodon, Stone Sour, Apocalyptica...

This is a very narrow angle to take as it's UK only. Iron Maiden's newest album debuted at No. 1 in 30 countries worldwide and shifted 800,00 copies in one week alone. Avenged Sevenfold debuted top of the Billboard 200 and Bullet For My Valentine hit No. 3 on both sides of the Atlantic. The problem is that rock goes through so many trends, at the moment the main one being indie. But only one sub-genre has rode the wave of every other one and came out on top, and that's heavy-metal. It's perhaps the only genre that can claim to have a truly worldwide fanbase.

Top 5 highest grossing tours of 2010: 1) Bon Jovi 2) AC/DC 3) U2 4) Lady Gaga 5) Metallica Spot the odd one out...yes, rock might not be big in the charts anymore, but it's kicking the $h!t out of everything else on the live scene.

Party Hard is SUCH a good song. I think I was about 12 when it came out and it was the *bleep*ing heaviest thing I'd ever heard, it definitely played a part in my love of rock and metal music.

Is this thread just referring to 2 million+ in the UK? Because if it's worldwide I'm sure there's a fair few bands who have managed that! :blink:

Same :( Corey's track is pretty funny and I want it to be played on the chart show so people will have to say "OK, that guy from the angry, shouty metal band Slipknot can actually sing" :P If he doesn't make the Top 40 though it'll be because he left it so late to promote his track. I think he only released the track for preview/the video about 3 days before the Christmas chart week?!

Corey at #39, perilous position but I hope he can stay in, he deserves it! Also I think I may be going mad, but I watched all of the Royal Variety show and I swear Kylie wasn't in it. I'm not even joking! I can't remember her being in it at all, what did she sing?!

Favourite three bands and songs: Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle, Paradise City, Estranged, Back Off Bitch, You Could Be Mine, Prostitute, Used To Love Her, Sweet Child O'Mine, Out Ta Get Me Iron Maiden - All their classic tracks (eg. Run To The Hills, The Trooper etc.) also The Prisoner, To Tame A Land, Revelations, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, When The Wild Wind Blows, loads more Metallica - Enter Sandman, Creeping Death, Master Of Puppets, All Nightmare Long, Wherever I May Roam, Whiplash, Seek and Destroy, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), One

It's been a great year, one of the best I can remember! Here's my (probably unique on Buzzjack :P) Top 10, not necessarily in any order: 1) Iron Maiden - When The Wild Wind Blows 2) Avenged Sevenfold - Natural Born Killer 3) Apocalyptica - Not Strong Enough 4) Gogol Bordello - Sun Is On My Side 5) Tarja - Still Of The Night 6) Bullet For My Valentine - Pleasure and Pain 7) Slash feat. Fergie - Beautiful Dangerous 8) The Pretty Reckless - Goin' Down 9) Ozzy Osbourne - Life Won't Wait 10) Hans Zimmer - Time (Inception OST) Honourable mentions: Love The Way You Lie, The Flood, Fireflies, Make Me Wanna Die, Ghost (Slash feat. Izzy Stradlin)

Damn, Corey out of the Top 40 for the first time this week :( Hoping his higher sales on other download sites (No. 14 on Amazon) will ensure a Top 40 placing come Sunday!

Surprised to see Motorhead's acoustic version of Ace Of Spades just outside the Top 100, seeing as it was available as a free download not too long ago.

Of course they're happy about the contract, these are people who had to enter a karaoke contest because they couldn't make it in the business on their own merit. Simon Cowell could offer them six magic beans and they'd still sign a contract with him, because it guarantees huge public exposure (in the UK at least) and a chance to sing for a career, which is ultimately what they wanted. If they were in it for the money they'd be better off with a new contract, but very few of them go down that route as ultimately they know their success is related to Simon.

The Big Four?! Awesome! I think it's only a matter of time before the Big Four do a worldwide tour, tbh. Slayer are due to call it quits within the next couple of albums, Megadeth and Anthrax could really use expanding their fanbases which have been dwindling since their glory days, and Metallica are a huge draw no matter where they play and people would pay to see them alone. Seeing all four at the same time is a metal fans wet dream.

Looking good for Corey Taylor, I think he'll make the Top 40! Still hanging in the Top 40 in iTunes and is No. 14 on Amazon at £0.49. All that with practically zero promotion!

Stats regarding some artists earning taken from the below picture (warning: very big file): EDIT: Can't get it to appear in full size for some reason, even when I tried spoiler tags! Foo Fighters average cost to hire for show - $200k - Cut of $18.7k Katy Perry - $100-150k - $11.7k Snow Patrol - $40-50k - $4.2k Global live revenue has increased from $16.6 billion in 2006 to $22.2 billion in 2010. Breakdown of average royalities (for single and album sales): Distributor - 63% Record Label - 24% Band - 13%

Artists earn a MUCH larger cut from gigs and merchandise than from album and single sales. You need to be selling millions of albums to see any sort of sizeable profit for the artist, which is why a lot of acts (who aren't signed to Syco :P) tour extensively. AC/DC have only released two albums in ten years but are one of the top earning acts of the decade due to the massive success of their latest tour.

You can't compare a classic-rock song with pop influences like "Don't Stop Believing" (performed on X-Factor as well), or an artist like Adele, to a rap-metal song with hugely explicit lyrics. Ultimately RATM are never going to appeal to as many people as those artists in the singles charts, so the fact that they only dropped to No. 2 the next week says a lot about the strength of the song. There's a myth that perpetuates, particularly in the UK, that metal music is only liked by this small, strange minority. That's a ludicrous notion, as evidenced by the massive live gigs and album sales of metal acts. Iron Maiden's latest album went to No. 1 in 30 countries - and from what I can tell, Rihanna's latest album went to No. 1 in 2 countries. Metal and harder rock music has a massive, loyal following, and that following - in no small part - were the ones who got RATM to No. 1 last year.

Not half a bad chart run for an 18 year old song. The fact it only dropped to No. 2 the next week says a lot about how many people legitimately enjoyed the track as well as the campaign.

Good to see Corey Taylor holding up, hopefully he can get a Top 40 placing! If it gets played on the chart show would prove to people he can actually sing as well as shout, a criticism that is always levelled at Slipknot!

I wonder how much Amazon, Play etc. will count for? Surfin Bird' is No. 1 on both of them...

Good to see Corey Taylor still holding up well, hopefully he can get into the Top 40 chart. Great to see the Biffy original so high as well, much better than Matt Cardle's sycofied version. Surfin Bird' won't get to No. 1.

What are you talking about? Amazon is cheaper than iTunes and the download system is essentially identical as it syncs automatically with your iTunes or WMP library. People are just brainwashed into using Apple's vastly inferior download service. Anyways... The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird Corey Taylor - Xm@$

I think Surfin' Bird will climb higher once Amazon lower the price to £0.29, like they did with RATM last year. And once we find out what the winner's single is, as if it's as balls as last year plenty of people will want to download the protest tune. I have to say though, I don't think the protest song will work this year - a lot of people downloaded RATM because they actually enjoyed the song, but Surfin' Bird has only ever been a novelty song.