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There are millions of metalheads on every continent of the globe, but by its own tenets, heavy metal is a subculture that must remain in the shadows, for too much exposure in the sunny mainstream would reduce it to ash.
It battles against the norm in a way that precludes it from joining the commercial ranks of the charts, yet it has often threatened to do so. Back in 2018, TuneCore claimed that it was the fastest-growing genre in the world, and that has often seemed to be the case since it first emerged at the tail end of the 1960s, while still remaining a subculture in the truest sense.
A study by PMC found that in the West, around 7.8% of music fans were heavy metal-leaning, which has been enough to ensure that bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden have sold in excess of 100million records, and events like Wacken garner over 85,000 attendees each year.
However, only three songs from the heavy metal genre have ever risen to number one in the UK charts in the form of the following outliers from the roaring genre: ‘School’s Out’ by Alice Cooper, ‘Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter’ by Iron Maiden, and ‘Killing in the Name’ by Rage Against the Machine, begging the question, which of these held onto the number-one spot longest.
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As it happens, none of this trio held the top spot for very long, considering Bryan Adams clung to it for 16 weeks with ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’, ironically, arguably one of the least metal songs ever written. So, while ‘Killing in the Name’ might have scored the Christmas number-one spot, it only held onto the position for a week, like the Spurs of heavy metal.
Then in second place, ‘Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter’ scored the top spot for two weeks back in February 1991, its sequenced run in the chart being first, first, ninth, 32nd, and finally 68th.
But, it was one of the originators of the genre that holds onto the crown: Alice Cooper caused quite a stir with ‘School’s Out’ back in 1972, attracting a legion of fans to heavy metal with the cross-over shock rock hit, which managed to break into the mainstream and stay at the top of the charts for three solid weeks.
Mostly, its success was derived from making metal relatable; it wasn’t all that thrashy compositionally, and it had plenty of resonance when it came to the frenzy of the end of term. Releasing it in August also proved to be a masterstroke, and while the decrees from the powers that be that it was ‘too rebellious’ in an age hungry for rebellion certainly helped, too.
The US might’ve been too chicken to push it beyond seventh, but its legacy in the UK remains undisputed. That’s not just because it paired metal with a moment that eternally resonates, but the song still gathers mass listens because it dramatises a moment when in time when freedom still felt material, not just a virtual pursuit. The song, fleetingly, felt as though it genuinely changed the figurative weather of the world.
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