Tag: metal

Spotify’s New Hardcore Gardening Playlist and Brain Dead Collab Will Rattle Greenhouses Everywhere

May 1, 2024

All around the world, millions of Spotify fans love listening to hardcore punk music—and some science shows that plants love it too. 

Hold up. What?

Yep, you read that right. Horticulturist, author and lecturer Chris Beardshaw says that research shows hardcore music helps plants grow. Stacked against other sonic selections like classical and pop, plants nurtured by hardcore are stimulated into amplified growth.

“Surprisingly, a increasing body of research shows that the frequency of hardcore music helps plants grow,” Chris told For the Record. “The thumping, repetitive, high-decibel noise of hardcore stimulates and energizes plants cells, almost as if they’re bouncing around in a tiny hardcore mosh pit.”

But hardcore music isn’t just helping plants grow faster. The hardcore music scene is growing in recent years, including on Spotify, with a 50% increase in the creation of “hardcore music” playlists by Gen Z listeners.*  

Known for its intensity, attitude, angst, grit, and DIY ethos, hardcore music is a fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled subgenre of punk rock that’s perfect for awakening your senses—and your plants. That’s why Spotify is launching Hardcore Gardening, a playlist full of hardcore music classics and fresh favorites. 

Along with our newest playlist, we’re also teaming up with LA streetwear brand Brain Dead to launch Plant Growth Through Extreme Noise—a limited-edition apparel collection embodying the rebellious spirit of hardcore music.

 

 

Heavy Metal Is Still Making Noise, and Wacken, Germany, Is the Epicenter

July 31, 2019

If you happen to be in Hamburg, Germany, July 31 to August 3, here’s a tip: That’s not an earthquake shaking the ground beneath your feet. It’s the 30th edition of Wacken Open Air, one of the world’s largest Heavy Metal festivals, taking place about 50 miles to the northwest. We jest, but Germany is a driving force of Heavy Metal’s continued global popularity, and the streaming numbers show that this four-day festival is the turbocharged engine. 

Whether it’s an upstart artist playing underground clubs in Berlin’s Friedrichshain or an international metal titan like Sabaton, Slayer, or Demons & Wizards (all among the 2019 headliners), Wacken Open Air is the coveted place to perform. It’s not just because Germany is second only to the U.S. when it comes to overall metal streaming, though. Wacken, normally a sleepy town of 2,000, becomes an 75,000-person headbangers’ ball for the multi-stage festival—and during those few days each year, metal streaming cranks up.

Spotify users who were in the area during last year’s festival increased their metal streams 11% during those few days. More telling, though, is the global boost that occurs specifically during Wacken Open Air.

During the festival dates in 2016, overall metal streaming rose 0.8%; in 2017 it was 2.6%, and last year it was 3.6%. In other words, heavy metal excitement reverberates around the world during Wacken Open Air. The sounds seem to carry far and wide after the festival, too. So far this year ahead of Wacken Open Air, heavy metal streaming is up 3.5% globally.

Long story short, heavy metal is still very much alive and raising devil horns. As prescient Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian said to a reporter ahead of a show at Yankee Stadium in 2011, “Why would heavy metal ever go away?”

Stream Spotify’s official Heavy Metal playlist below.

From a Newspaper Ad to the Birth of Thrash Metal: The Story of Metallica

July 27, 2018

Metallica has been synonymous across the world with furious drumming, lightning fast riffing, mosh pits, and sold-out arenas for the last 30 years. Through virtuoso ensemble playing and its use of extremely accelerated tempos, Metallica took rock music to places it had never been before. It is for that reason that Metallica was honored with the prestigious Polar Music Prize in Stockholm earlier this month.

Metallica’s success story is a story to behold. And at the Polar Music Talks, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich took fans back in time to the early 80’s to tell the full story. His talk is now available in an exclusive podcast on Spotify.

In the podcast, Lars Ulrich tells the story of a band dead-set on making it big with an entirely new sound that combined blazing speed, unconventional song structures, complex time signatures, and in-your-face lyrics. Lars put up an ad: “Drummer looking for other metal musicians to jam with,” and a couple of outsiders answered the call. They started to jam together in an LA suburb garage before eventually moving up to the Bay area. By the end of the 80’s, they had birthed four massively successful albums and a new genre: thrash metal.

“Back then, people thought I was crazy listening to Metallica since it was so rough and filled with anger,” says Renaud Doucet, Senior Editor for Metal at Spotify. “But then the ‘Black Album’ came along and the story changed completely. The stars aligned and Metallica became a household name almost overnight with hits like ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ The band went from being thrash metal pioneers to the one the biggest rock bands around, introducing mainstream audiences to heavy metal and paving the way for more bands in adjacent genres.”

Closing in on their 40th anniversary, the hard-riffing quartet isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. With their Polar Music Prize win, the band joined the ranks of legends like Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Elton John, Emmylou Harris and many more. This year, the band was accompanied by Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Listen to Dr. Sarmast’s full polar talk depicting his brave work bringing traditional music back to Afghanistan.

Metallica is known for constant experimentation that allowed them to come up with new sounds and new ideas, which might be why you receive a different answer every time you ask a fan why they enjoy Metallica’s music. But no matter which of the many albums is your favorite, Metallica fans can all agree that from their first jam sesh to now, Metallica changed the music game.

Check out Metallica biggest hits in This is: Metallica and the complete interview from this year’s Polar ceremony in Stockholm.