Gatekeeping in metal has long been a topic of conversation. Architects' vocalist Sam Carter called it out recently, Metallica had to publicly deal with it after "Master Of Puppets" exploded on Stranger Things, and Gwar frontman Blothar The Berserker has discussed its obvious roots in hypocrisy.
Now former Demi Lovato guitarist (and current Alice Cooper shredder) Nita Strauss has weighed in on her time playing pop music, and how gatekeeping didn't quite exist in that realm. Strauss said in an interview with Loudwire that when Lovato changed her sound, fans embraced it rather than freaking out and crying about wanting the old Lovato back.
"It was an amazing experience working with Demi. Obviously I come from the rock/hard rock/metal world and I am so used to fans being up in arms anytime something changes.
"The cool thing that I found is that Demi changed her entire style. She changed her clothing, her musical style and she reworked all her huge hits. She has a song 'Cool for the Summer' that has billions of Spotify plays and she did a full-on rock version with a little Metallica thrown in there for good measure. And the fans loved it. The fans supported her and absolutely screamed their faces off until the end of the show. There was no pushback. There was no, 'This is not what you're supposed to sound like. This isn't what we signed up for. We want the old Demi back…' type gatekeeping that we see in the style of music that we're more used to."
For someone like Metallica, they're never going to escape the "we wish you were still thrash" cloud they've been under since 1991. Hell, we're even celebrating 30 years of Entombed fans being pissed that Wolverine Blues took a turn away from death metal in 1993. Though I'd also imagine if Taylor Swift took a hard left into Discharge-style D-beat on her next effort, pop fans would fire up the ol' gatekeeping torches and come out in droves.
