Like all other trends – NWOBHM rode it’s wave of popularity and started to decline as the next big thing came along – for example the 1980’s it was all “hair metal” – Ratt and whatnot.
However, NWOBHM never really went away (though it did go in to hiding for a while) and even came full circle and enjoyed a revival (the new new wave of British heavy metal if you will…..). Indeed – it’s still around today with the survivors still plying their trade, nostalgics (like me) never forgetting and, remarkably, still influencing today’s metal/hard rock scene.
Here’s a quick look at the fall and rise…..
By the mid 1980’s, the popularity of NWOBHM began to decline. Time goes by and styles change. Bands were ignored all together due to their extreme visual and musical styles. Many couldn’t produce another big song and faded into the sunset disappearing from the music scene.
Because the music was not intended to appeal to the mainstream listener, some of the bands decided to modify their music to make it more popular to more people, and perhaps make more money and were therefore no longer strictly qualified as NWOBHM.
Also, because many bands were not main stream enough, they didn’t get picked up by the big recording companies. This added to the decline of the popularity of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal style.
And then it came back……..
On the other hand some of the recordings of some of these bands have become extremely collectable because of their rarity. When something is collectable, it becomes in demand for both musical and financial reasons. This collectability increased the interest in NWOBHM.
In the 1970s and 1980s NWOBHM was somewhat a local British phenomenon, with some of the great performances in pubs in Britain. Recordings did make their way out of the country to the United States and elsewhere to specialized NWOBHM fans.
The onset of the Internet gave people everywhere the ability to listen to an astounding variety of music, both new and old, that they could probably have never listened to before.
Also, people were not limited to listening only to music on the radio. People who never had much of an opportunity to listen to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal music had access to the sounds and excitement for the first time, or had access to their old favorites.
Hands up all those of you who have a massive CD collection comprised mainly of all the reissues from the good old days of vinyl for example?
Also, one of the trends in the late 1990s and at the beginning of the new millennium was to enjoy tribute bands, which brought back musical sounds from days gone by. All sorts of bands and sounds were revived at this time and NWOBHM was no exception.