Most Misunderstood Metal Genre? Why?

I guess a lot of people who like such genres more than most are going to jump to the likes of metalcore, deathcore and its variants, or even to nu metal, but I'm going to put forward power metal as the sub-genre that gets misunderstood the most. 

While power metal is perhaps more accepted as a 'main' sub-genre of metal and doesn't have the same kind of 'that's not true metal!' detractors as other sub-genres, the amount of times in my years listening to metal that some random internet stranger has jumped on the opportunity to fire shots at power metal that range from passive-aggressive to unveiled hostility. 

And I really don't get why. Sure, power metal has some extremely melodic bands that can come over as cheesy. There's a definite penchant for themes of fantasy too. Know what else also has that? Traditional heavy metal, where it all started. 

Power metal (either strain of the genre) is at heart a souped up version of traditional metal (via speed metal in the case of the European style). Often faster, harder hitting and yes, more melodic. And it's closest cousin is actually thrash metal, which many seem to consider the best genre of metal. Even outside of the USPM style, there are Euro style bands that are harder hitting, especially those from Germany. But when people diss power metal, they tend to diss all of power metal as if none of those bands ever existed. 

Okay, your turn. 

Nu Metal easily.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen people make blanket statements like "All nu metal bands just ripped off Korn" or "They just all sound like Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park", any variation of it all sounds the same, or thinking it's all rap metal. First off, all those three bands sound nothing alike, which already cancels out all of those statements.

There is not another metal genre where I've heard more experimentation and willingness to utilize a multitude of musical styles inside and outside of metal. Nu metal follows in the footsteps of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle where there essentially aren't any boundaries as to what kind of music you can and can't use. Sure, there's some nu metal bands that sound similar to others, there's no genre where every band is completely unique, but it's rare to not hear at least something new or different in a band or at least a song. If you like mathcore and math rock, there's Candiria and Mudvayne. If you like abstract hip hop, there's Powerman 5000. If you like Latin jazz, there's Puya. If you like post-rock and post-metal, there's Limp Bizkit's first album. If you like Romanian folk music, there's Dirty Shirt. If you like techno, breakbeat, drum and bass and other electronic styles there's basically every Russian nu metal band. If you like reggae, there's Skindred. The list could go on and on.

Most people don't even give it a fair chance or bother trying to understand it by going beyond just a few popular bands they heard once and didn't like. In fact, to anyone who would say they either don't or won't like nu metal at all, I bet I could find at least one song you'd at least find interesting based on your tastes. 

Bosh66 wrote: Trance metal is generally met with a degree of confusion, by me as much as anyone. Maybe its the bands who mix j-pop and thrash which challenge people's view on whether it really is metal. Of course it is. Not my thing, but I'm probably not the target demographic for it.

I don't know if trance metal bands understand trance metal. I've only heard a couple bands labeled such that actually make use of trance music. 

US Power Metal seems to often be misunderstood as well. But that might be more of an RYM thing. 

Maybe Viking Metal as well, but that may be more of an argument for being poorly defined as a genre in the first place. Could say that about a few genre names that get floated around actually. 

People do feel a need to pigeonhole everything to the tiniest specific detail. 

If it were up to me, the entire definition of what counts as every genre would be rewritten. I can almost guarantee what I'd come up with would make a lot more sense than what it's naturally developed as (which is kind of a mess).