Home News Interviews Reviews Photos New Releases
|
Home News Interviews Reviews Photos New Releases
|
|
Home
|
The
Headbangers Ball: Sterilization of
a Metal Nation. The
Headbangers Ball was conceived in the mid 80’s and has gone through several
incarnations and after a brief hiatus returned to the airwaves to astounding
fanfare. Now if the show could only
live up the hype that was surrounding its return. In 1985 the show was born as Heavy Metal Mania with Dee
Snider hosting with it going into the now named Headbangers Ball.
The show went through a few hosts until it rested with Riki Rachtman
until its demise in 1995. The show had a very loyal audience, I was one of them,
although tit pandered to whatever was popular at the time. “I was never allowed to pick the videos” stated Riki
during a phone interview with EI. “At
shows people would come up to me and complain about what we played or did not
play and blamed me for it, blame the messenger so to speak.”
I
asked Riki what does he think the show might be missing as it seems so staged
and stagnant and he replied that “The show is missing the fun aspect.
I was and still am a goofball and I did not care what people thought
about me” “I was not afraid to
go through the dressing rooms and put a booger on Dave Mustaine’s guitar strap
just to play a prank”. I
asked if he thinks Jamey Jasta, front man for Hatebreed, has anything to do with
the fun not being there. “I Love
Jamey and I think Hatebreed is a great band but he is the front man for
Hatebreed and he has a role to play” Riki related.
“It seems that he thinks that he cannot break character and be a
goofball like I was”. That
sentiment is echoed along with the legions that watch the show, that it is
staged and the element of good time
is not there. I asked what is the
main difference between the show now and the show then as it indeed seems so
different. “The show is much
darker which is what it should be in a way but it is not what I would be doing
with it..“ Again,
as it was in the past, the show is pandering to whatever is selling the most,
not breaking free and creating the scene, it is succumbing to the scene.
My personal sentiments are that they
have an opportunity to break the bigger acts in Europe that are so hugely
popular there and not making a dent in the American market at all.
Instead we get a few hours every Saturday night of hardcore bands that
are getting stagnant and maybe a bone getting thrown at us with an Evergrey clip
or maybe something from Blind Guardian. I
am not saying that what they are doing is a bad thing, I am sure from the
perspective of the militant few that MTV sells to, that being the hardcore fan,
that they are a dream come true. I
mean where else can you see your favorite Hatebreed video or something from Full
Blown Chaos? Going back to
the old show, I asked Riki why did
they incorporate videos from acts such as Blind Melon into the rotation to which
he replied ”The Headbangers Ball was getting
to the point that was not playing exclusive content anymore, they were
playing what was popular throughout the channel which helped the show to lose
it’s identity.” “Take Nirvana, when the Ball started playing Nirvana,
nobody else was but when the record blew up everybody was but we still were”
admitted Riki. When
the Headbangers Ball returned Riki
was notified that they were bringing the Headbangers Ball back but seemingly he
was not to be included. I asked him
if he would do it again and he resoundingly said yes.
“I would love to do the Headbangers Ball again” related Riki.
“ The anger I was feeling after getting ousted has diminished and I do
not hold a grudge against them.”
In my opinion, it does not matter who they allow to host the show, when
it came back Metallica were the guest hosts and it was still a bomb in my
opinion. They could put Lemmy in front of the camera but if they are still
controlling the lousy content it does not matter.
MTV needs to wake up and realize just how much power they have to create
and control a scene. There are so
many metal bands out there that have the potential to be huge, all they need is
an outlet to allow them to break out and The Headbangers Ball is that outlet
that could do it. They have the
possibility to garner millions of viewers with the right content but at the moment they have zero street credibility with the
true fans of metal which is what that show is supposed to be playing to in the
first place. I know that the charts
control what is being played as that has always been the case to an extent but
they need to research and come up with a better formula as to what the people
really want. You the viewer
controls MTV, if you do not watch it, they have no ratings and therefore do not
survive so in my opinion you have the right to voice your opinion for a better
Headbangers Ball. Until you do, it
will still be the official Hardcore Ball and nothing will change. Jeffrey
Easton
|
Contact
|
|
Copyright 2007 JBohatch Designs Contact jbohatchdesigns@gmail.com for any questions or comments on site issues.
|
