This was one thing that I loved about metal that I always felt was missing from "pop" music - the community, and the sense of having grown organically from litt

This was one thing that I loved about metal that I always felt was missing from "pop" music - the community, and the sense of having grown organically from little roots. Guys and girls putting in the work, paying their dues, because they loved the music. And guys and girls showing up to support them, in shitty clubs and local festivals, buying the shitty merch and the shitty self-produced demo tapes. You went because you supported the community, and you were all in it together, us long-haired weirdos. Sure, some of the bands were terrible. But you went, all the same, and you cheered for them because they were doing their best to get this turkey off the ground. And some of them were NOT terrible, and excellent times were had, and experiences were experienced, and memories were made, and by god look at this thing we did! These guys fucking rocked! And I always felt like something was missing, when I heard pop songs on the radio. Where did Tiffany or Oingo Boingo come from? Where did they put in their dues? Did they put in their dues, at all? Who went to see them, and where? Did they all just sing in church and then went to some cattle call audition? Where was the not-quite-national pop scene, the local club acts for these kinds of music? It seemed like it arose explicitly from the board room and the accounting department, instead of growing organically like the hip hops kids and the rappers and metalheads and punks.