Ever since the first coining of the term back in the late 60's, used to describe heavier blues bands like Humble Pie, the definitions of heavy metal and it's sub-genres have kept changing and gotten seemingly more complex over time. I thought this would be an interesting topic to strike up some conversation. 

Bands like AC/DC, Van Halen, and Rush were referred to as heavy metal bands back in the 70's and 80's, while now we usually just call them hard rock. Another example is how power metal, thrash metal, and speed metal were all used interchangeably back in the 80's by metal magazines, with Metallica sometimes being categorized as power metal while at the same time Helloween were sometimes known to be a thrash metal band.

Back when Bathory was the only band around that we still classify as black metal today, Venom, Celtic Frost, and even Slayer and Mercyful Fate were sometimes known to be black metal bands from looking at metal magazines from the early-mid 80's. Then of course, there's the infamous nu-metal of the late 90's and early 00's where many bands got thrown under that category for sometimes stupid reasons.

In a world where it seems like a new music genre is made up every day, what do you think about the evolution of the definitions of heavy metal and it's genres? What definitions do you use yourself, and how do you think the definitions of past decades compares with today's? Discuss.

The definition of any large genre is, in itself, infinite. On PA we are always trying to define prog, and nobody ever wins in any argument. It is very subjective, destructive, but in general, very interesting.

To me, both prog and metal are very generally defined.

Most metal, to me, is really anything that reaches past its hard rock roots. Other compound metal genres, such as alternative metal, are slightly more extreme or exaggerated versions of their partner genre. Prog metal would, again, be more extreme or exaggerated progressive work. It is hard to describe it, but when it sounds metal, well it's metal. And it sounds metal if it's more than or parallel to rock - but not in the blues and jazzy directions, in the alternative and metal-type directions. Honestly, how do you put it into words, right?

Define heavy. It is simple to our ears but homicide to our brains.

I think it's perfectly fine to have your own barriers, but there is fact in music and that lies in the majority of quality listeners and musicians. They determine the influence and the goal of the music, in accordance with the band, and they're the closest most would get to defining an album, song, artist, composition... Yet everybody is their own judge, so if they are into music, they should make their own decisions based solely on their ears and the meaning that they retrieve from the music.

I regard most of The Mar's Volta's and Coheed and Cambria's work as metal - yet neither has been accepted onto the database and I'm fine with that.

Other bands that I know are just plain-out ridiculous to suggest as metal, yet totally metal to me. Some big bands that fit that category are Lunatic Soul, King Crimson, Guns N Roses, and Green Day. 

Mind blown.

I agree that it's up to the bands and listeners to define what the music is, and it will almost always end up being subjective. What's interesting is how it shapes over time, and what makes the definitions different as time passes. Did the development of increasingly extreme metal genres such as death metal and black metal have an effect on bands once known to be metal, now known as hard rock? Or was it something else?

On the site, but they are not metal, nor should they be for anyone but me... 

I mean I could see your thinking but was there any discussion towards this? I'd like at least a discussion because I do like Coheed and they are a pretty diverse group.

No, they should be alt metal, I think. Definitely not hard rock.

Can I move them back?

BTW i keep wanting to call you Sharon! wassup with that?

That's a good point, and mainstream exposure also effects the fans' perception of the genre. The pop-punk of the 90's that you mention is a perfect example, as many more old-school punk fans seem to refuse to accept those kinds of bands as punk. The same with nu-metal, as I'm sure some metalheads thought along similar lines. (Which you yourself probably relate to. )