Metallica’s Lars Ulrich thinks hard Rock is back to being a subculture

“It doesn’t feel like we’re as much a part of the mainstream conversation as it has been in the past.”

Given that almost every album Metallica has issued since 1989 has reached the top of the charts, Rolling Stone recently asked drummer Lars Ulrich of Metallica whether he believes the general public understands heavy music any more today than it did in 1989.

In an unexpectedly open response, Lars said, “When asked, it definitely feels like what we’re doing in hard rock in general is connecting with a lot of people.

I don’t know if I have as much knowledge of what’s going on around me as I did 20, 30 years ago, and I don’t know if I’m interested in being as much a part of that conversation as I was.

However, we don’t feel like we’re as much a part of the popular discourse as we once were in terms of the zeitgeist and general mainstream culture.”

Based just on the quantity of tickets sold across our dates in Europe and America, this summer has likely been the best one ever.

Considering that we have been on this journey for 42 years, it is obviously a total mindfuck. Hard rock seems less popular and more like a subculture now than it has in the past, he said.

“When I go back to the 1980s, with MTV and AOR radio, as well as publications like Rolling Stone and Kerrang, I get the impression that hard rock was a lot more of a popular topic than it is now. Therefore, even though these numbers are insаne—and I know that a lot of other bands, like Gu𝚗s N’ Roses, Slipknot, Ghоst, and Disturbed, are doing insаne numbers—hard rock seems to be more of a subculture and somewhat outside of the mainstream once again, much like it was when we founded Metallica.” Lars came to an end.