Metal Anarchy

As previously reported, Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) recently made headlines after claiming that rock music was “purposely dialed down in the culture” in the late ’90s. Now, during an interview with Hot Metal, Charlie Benante (Anthrax, Pantera, etc.) responded to those comments, saying he agrees.

Benante said the following:

“That’s something I’ve been saying for the longest time. He just said it in a more eloquent way but these f*cking gatekeepers who still prevent our type of music from the masses (accessing it) … they just kind of chain us and they don’t give us the chances that we deserve that they give other music.

Country music, man? I mean, I’m not in it, I don’t dig it, I appreciate what they do. But that music is so … it’s saturated. You know, the whole pop … they open the gates for this type of stuff. I mean rock music still has a voice, there’s a movement, you know? People need to recognise it again, what it is.

There was a coup.

I think who did it … I want to say Clear Channel, all of a sudden they started buying up radio stations and replacing … I’ll give you a perfect example. In LA, there was this radio station called KNAC. That station was one of the greatest stations because it gave rock fans a place to go, a dial. Turn your dial, here’s KNAC.

When they removed KNAC [Libernman Broadcasting bought KNAC, not Clear Channel,] that market over there dropped so much. It changed and then it spread around the country. MTV too, remember? MTV one day said ‘we’re done playing this type of stuff’. It hurt the music business. Look what happened. Nobody came to rescue us.”