After experiencing a surge in popularity in the mid-to-late 1980s, heavy metal music took a hard fall from grace in the early 1990s – and former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider blames one particular MTV series for killing it off.
“I have an incredible aversion to MTV’s Unplugged,” Snider says. “I not only hated Unplugged, but believe it was partially responsible for the demise of metal in the early ‘90s. I mean, when you only put out power ballads and stop playing electric instruments, it’s not metal anymore, is it?”
Snider goes on to say too much importance was placed on Unplugged performances. “It always suggested to me that somehow we weren’t ‘legit’ if we couldn’t play our stuff acoustic,” he says. “My answer to MTV was, ‘When Paul Simon or Tracy Chapman plug into a Marshall stack and ride the lightning, I’ll unplug!'”
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