i would rather say its becoming more and more impopular. The only thing ppl seems to listen to all the time is PoP and hiphop...
Also i have a theory i was thingking about.
The ppl who dont like metal says its noise. and my theory is that i wasnt really into metal at let say until i was 15. and i began listen to older metal ,a little slower and not so extreme and so on.
and now im really into fast pace and more advaced metal that i actally thought sounded to like noise earlier.
So the theory is that: Do your taste in music evolve?
for example: a person that is more in to music has easier to listen to metal just because he can apreciate the fast and sometimes advanced style. just because he gets bored of normal music???