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Headbangers Ball is a television show about heavy metal music airing on MTV2. The show began on MTV on Saturday, April 18, 1987, playing heavy metal and hard rock music videos late at night, from both well-known and more obscure artists, offering an often stark contrast to Top 40 music videos shown during the day.
"The Ball", as it is commonly called, replaced Heavy Metal Mania (which begain airing monthly in 1985), 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 Riki Rachtman, who became the most identifiable in the role as host for the show.
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 often more aggressive-sounding heavy metal music scene active in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 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, skydiving with Megadeth, Oktoberfest in Munich with Danzig, and Van Halen's adventure at Cabo Wabo.
Death of The Ball
The show remained on the airwaves until January 1995, when MTV cancelled the show without warning to viewers, Riki Rachtman, and the production staff. The European version, hosted by Vanessa Warwick, was on the air until 1996 and axed to half an hour (from three hours in past years). 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."
MTV had attempted over the years to fill the void left by the cancellation of Headbangers Ball with other rock-themed block programs like the Jackie Farry hosted Superock, 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
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 p.m. 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 three DualDisc CD sets featuring artists such as Hatebreed, DevilDriver, Chimaira, Sevendust, Atreyu, Shadows Fall, Children of Bodom, Lamb of God, Cradle of Filth, and Godsmack.
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 Riki Rachtman. Another informative resource is David Konow's Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal.
Discography
External links
- MTV2.com's official Headbangers Ball site
- Official site for albums spawned from Headbangers Ball
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- Jump The Shark - Headbangers Ball
MTV television series | Heavy metal | 1980s TV shows in the United States | 1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States
"Headbangers Ball"