Do Rock + Metal Audiences Get Worse as a Band Grows More Popular? Reddit Wants to Know

Do concert crowds at modern rock and metal shows get worse as a band grows more popular, thereby attracting a larger audience than they would have before?

Metalcore fans on Reddit pondered the question this week after one concertgoer reported their recent experience at a Bad Omens show.

As you might expect, the responses to the suggestion were many and varied. Several commenters seemed to agree with the general sentiment that a band will have a different crowd at their concerts the closer the group gets to the mainstream.

After all, you would expect more pop-oriented fans in the crowd for a rock or metal band that crossed over to the mainstream, right?

READ MORE: What Is Baddiecore?

"Was on a Bad Omens Show yesterday and it was an absolutely terrible lame crowd," the original poster said on /r/Metalcore. "The show started and gone was the sight to the stage. I literally watched half the show through the iPhones in front of me. There were like two stagedivers and all the people around me (men and women) tried to get away instead of helping to hold the two guys up. The only moshpit I have seen was present for like two songs."

They continued, "I really felt like being at a Taylor Swift gig. The heavier and 'older' stuff that was played didn't get half of the applause/cheering like 'Just Pretend' or more relaxed stuff. Also, the drum solo didn't get like any attention, but goddamn did the crowd get insanely (high in pitch) loud, when [Bad Omens singer] Noah Sebastian got onto the stage after a little break."

Adding that they've never "actually never [experienced] such 'edgy' vibe at a metalcore/hardcore/post-hardcore whatever show," they ended, "I never got this feeling in small venues/at shows of smaller Bands. Or was it just a bad day?"

Here are some of the responses they got.

Do Shows Get Worse as Bands Grow?

"It's the same with Sleep Token," one commenter said. "Saw them a couple months back after they had blown up, and half the audience was fan girls with face paint and shit just screaming at Vessel."

They added, "There was a woman there with her daughter, at the very back of the crowd, that had the audacity to yell at a guy standing in front of them who was taller, giving him shit for blocking her daughter's view."

Another replied, "That’s how I felt when I saw Pierce the Veil. Worst atmosphere I'd ever felt, I felt like I was walking on eggshells the whole time, and even felt like I wanted to leave early. Crazy to think I felt more comfortable during a Knocked Loose set than at a Pierce the Veil one."

Other Thoughts on the Matter

However, some commenters offered a different take entirely. "not true; I was at the same [Bad Omens] concert and there was even a moshpit when they played 'Never Know,'" one said of the specific show the OP mentioned.

"Sorry friend but you went to a pop show, not a metalcore show," another commenter quipped.

Perhaps offering a voice of reason in the conversation, a separate commenter pointed to the flaw in the argument, saying, "Smaller venues do generally have a better vibe, but you went to see a band who now have notoriously poor crowds that are mostly filled with people only there for the poppier material. I wouldn't use that to extrapolate anything about bands who are more well-known generally having bad atmospheres."

What do you think? Read the whole Reddit thread below.

Does being a more known Band kill the Atmosphere at Concerts?
byu/Sad-Surprise-7889 inMetalcore

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