AHC: Heavy Metal dies?

Yeah, as a metal fan this would be a horrible timeline, but lets consider it anyway. With a POD no later than 1985, how could heavy metal as a form of music fade away or at least go the way of genres like disco?
 
Not really there are still plenty of good new metal bands out there, many old bands are still producing new albums, and Metal has a steady, solid, if not that large, base.

Have to agree with Clibanarius. There will always be people listening to metal, but it went from being mainstream in the 80s to being kind of niche genre right now.
 
Have to agree with Clibanarius. There will always be people listening to metal, but it went from being mainstream in the 80s to being kind of niche genre right now.

Thirded. I have one friend who's a big metal head like me, the rest listen to mainstream rock, pop, and rap bullshit.
 
Death and being a niche genre are two different things. There are still millions of fans of the genre all over the world, and as I said, there is still a steady output of metal music. I see its future as a small but relatively thriving genre.
 
Death and being a niche genre are two different things. There are still millions of fans of the genre all over the world, and as I said, there is still a steady output of metal music. I see its future as a small but relatively thriving genre.

Well, I don't think that music genre could die - there'll always be people listening to all kinds of stuff (especially in internet era). Disco supposedly died, for example, but in the late 90s French house producers like Daft Punk, Bob Sinclar or Cassius brought it back to mainstream.
 
And what they did sounds nothing like anything the 70's called "disco." Not unless you're willing to call the more hardcore synth-based New Wave stuff like Depeche Mode, Ultravox, or Television "disco."

To kill off metal, I see two possibilities:

1 Suicidal Tendencies' major breakout album and single Institutionalized gets a the mainstream contract that OTL went to Guns and Roses for Appetite for Destruction, and then, unlike Gn'R, they and their fellow Hardcore Punks actually follow it through with subsequent albums just as loud and driven as before. With the 3:00+ guitar solo suddenly passé again, there's no room for the likes of Metallica and Pantera to break out into the mainstream. Music in the mainstream is that much harder than OTL, but Metal has for all intents and purposes been squeezed out.

2. In 1991, Slint's "Good Morning. Captain," from their album Spiderland, becomes "The Song That Killed Metal." Slint stays together another three or four years, and as none of their members died from self-destructive behaviors, they (along with the rest of the Math Rock Scene) continue to evolve Math Rock into Post-Rock. To someone from the late-70's, popular mainstream music is that much more alien and unfathomable.
 
And what they did sounds nothing like anything the 70's called "disco." Not unless you're willing to call the more hardcore synth-based New Wave stuff like Depeche Mode, Ultravox, or Television "disco."

French house sounds a lot like 70s disco, since like 90% of such songs are resampled versions of 70s/80s disco stuff. (like here, here or here)
 
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