ABSTRACT
Germany has been home to a vibrant heavy metal scene since the mid-1980s. Yet despite the huge popularity of metal music, German metal is widely ignored by national media and rarely present in music charts. This chapter analyzes the challenges German power metal bands faced to get acknowledged by their home scene and abroad. Metal music made in Germany has been a phenomenon since the mid-1980s. Although West Germany had been an important market for international rock music since the 1960s, German rock evolved slowly. For much of the twentieth century, the four most important metal markets were the USA, Germany, Great Britain and Japan. In the eighties and nineties, the second largest metal market was Germany: seemingly ideal conditions for German metal bands, yet they were struggling to become established in their home market due to an abundance of metal records.
