 Original logo of The Ball. Headbangers Ball is a television show about heavy metal music that began in the 1980s, airing music videos late at night in stark contrast to Top 40 music shown during the day. "The Ball," as it is commonly called, replaced Heavy Metal Mania, helmed by Dee Snider of Twisted Sister fame, expanding the format and adding more live interviews with the bands. At its premiere it was hosted briefly by Kevin Seal, then by VJ Adam Curry, before ultimately settling on Rikki Rachtman, who became the most identifiable in the role as host for the show. Image File history File links Hballv1. ...
Image File history File links Hballv1. ...
Heavy metal is a form of rock music characterized by aggressive, driving rhythms and highly amplified distorted guitars, generally with grandiose lyrics and virtuosic instrumentation. ...
// Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...
A music video (also video clip, promo) is a short film or video meant to present a visual representation of a popular music song. ...
Top 40 is a radio format based on frequent repetition of songs from a constantly-updated list of the forty best-selling singles. ...
Dee Snider (on right) Dee Snider (born David Daniel Snider, on March 15, 1955 in Massapequa, New York, USA) is the heavily made-up frontman for the U.S. band Twisted Sister. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
VJ or veejay (from Video Jockey, by analogy with disc jockey or DJ or deejay) is a term coined in the early 1980s to describe the fresh faced youth who introduced the music videos on MTV. The word VJ is also used to represent video performance artists who create live...
Adam Curry (born September 3, 1964) is a broadcasting and Internet personality best known for his stint from 1987 to 1994 as a video jockey on the premier music video channel MTV. In the mid-1990s, Curry was a World Wide Web entrepreneur and one of the first celebrities to...
Former Co-Owner of the famed Cathouse Club (with Taime Down of Faster Pussycat fame). ...
Headbangers Ball was one of the most popular music shows ever to air on MTV and for a time, was one of the network's flagship shows. Its influence was made widespread with the rise of heavy metal in the 1980s and early 1990s. While the show primarily showed videos from the mainstream friendly "hair metal" genre, it gave an equal amount of time to the more hardcore heavy metal music scene that was present in the late 80s/early 90s. When the "hair metal" genre faded from the limelight, the show expanded to include coverage of such alternative rock bands like Alice in Chains and Nirvana while continuing to focus on less mainstream forms of heavy metal.
Bands would visit the set for interviews, and in some instances, the show would follow bands on trips to assorted locations across the country. Such memorable road trip episodes include Alice in Chains's trip to a water park and Van Halen's adventure at Cabo Wabo. Alice in Chains was an influental grunge rock group initially formed by lead singer Layne Staley (1967-2002) in the mid-1980s as Alice N Chains before changing the spelling. ...
2004 promotional photo for the band Van Halen, from left to right: Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen Van Halen is an American rock band formed in the early-1970s and discovered by KISS bassist and co-founder Gene Simmons. ...
Cabo Wabo is a nightclub and restaurant in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, owned by Sammy Hagar of Van Halen fame. ...
Death of The Ball The show remained on the airwaves until 1994, when MTV cancelled the show without warning to viewers, Rikki Rachtman, and the production staff. No official reason was given for the show's cancellation, and due to its abrupt nature, no final episode was ever made to draw the show to a conclusion. Given the popularity of The Ball, many MTV fans were outraged by the way that the network cancelled the show. The backlash was so great, that the cancellation of Headbangers Ball became one of the most widely recognized moments by critics of MTV as the moment in which the network "jumped the shark." Jumping the shark is a slang term used by television critics since the 1990s. ...
MTV has attempted over the years to fill the void left by the cancellation of Headbangers Ball with other rock-themed block programs like Super-Rock, but all have failed for reasons that include MTV seeking to make said replacements more mainstream friendly with Top 40 and alternative rock videos being shown in these shows.
Rebirth: Headbangers Ball redux
 Headbangers Ball volume 2 logo. After nearly a decade of the show being off the air, MTV revived the series in 2003 on MTV2, now hosted by Hatebreed vocalist Jamey Jasta, Saturdays at 10 pm. While the revived Headbangers Ball features the same sort of "mainstream and non-mainstream" playlist format as its previous incarnation, as well as informative interviews with heavy metal artists old and new, many older fans have criticized the revived Headbangers Ball as being too rehearsed and glossy. They cite its lack of spontaneous excitement that the original show was lauded for as their main concern. Others have criticized MTV's decision to commercialize the Headbangers Ball with a spate of merchandise, including a tablature book and two dual disc CD sets featuring artists such as Chimaira, Sevendust, Atreyu, Shadows Fall, Children of Bodom, Lamb of God, Cradle of Filth and Godsmack. Image File history File links Hballv2. ...
Image File history File links Hballv2. ...
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to basic cable lineups across the nation. ...
Hatebreed is a New England hardcore/metalcore band from New Haven, Connecticut, the best-known proponent of that genre. ...
Jamey Jasta, (born in 1978), is vocalist for Metalcore band Hatebreed Jasta appeared on the Napalm Death album The Code Is Red. ...
Chimaira is a six-membered alternative metal/heavy metal band, originating in Cleveland, Ohio. ...
Sevendust are an alternative metal band or groove metal from Atlanta, Georgia. ...
Atreyu is, from left to right: Marc McKnight, Travis Miguel, Dan Jacobs, Brandon Saller and Alex Varkatzas. ...
Shadows Fall Shadows Fall is an American melodic death metal band, influenced by thrash metal and semi-metalcore. ...
The band Children of Bodom, from left to right: Alexander, Jaska, Janne, Henkka and Alexi Children of Bodom is a Finnish band from the town of Espoo, which plays a hybrid of speed metal and melodic death metal, incorporating rough vocals and blastbeats into their style, as well as keyboard...
The title Lamb of God may refer to: Lamb of God (religious), one of the titles given to Jesus in Christianity. ...
Cradle of Filth, formed in 1991, are a Melodic Black Metal band with Gothic influences from England, although their music has been somewhat difficult to classify, and as such is highly subject to opinion. ...
Godsmack is an alternative metal band from Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The name Godsmack did not come from an Alice in Chains song, though popular rumor deems it so. ...
More information on Headbangers Ball is covered in Ian Christe's Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. The book includes reminiscences from a variety of bands, as well as material from an interview with Rikki Rachtman. Another informative resource is David Konow's Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal. interview An interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked to obtain information about the interviewee. ...
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