Jose Mesta from Laguna Band has spoken out about the marginalization of hard rock music. He described how the genre is overlooked by both mainstream festivals and major labels in a recent interview with The Metal Gods Meltdown.
Mesta’s comments addressed the challenges facing hard rock bands in today’s music industry landscape. He explained how the genre finds itself caught between different musical categories. This makes it difficult to gain recognition.
“The rock — and especially this hard rock that is in between rock and metal — it’s kind of a genre that’s very forgotten by people and all the big labels and places,” Mesta said. “They don’t consider them because, like I say, they are either very metal festivals or very pop festivals. So we are in between.”
The frontman elaborated on the persistent nature of this challenge and its impact on the music scene.
“And it’s been like that forever, and it’s difficult because there’s always people that like this music, but the scene is very poor,” he continued. “So we hope we can give a little spark to people because well, metalheads and more rocker heads like this music as well, but there are not a lot of bands in this genre because of the same.”
Despite these obstacles, Mesta expressed optimism about inspiring change within the hard rock community.
“But we hope we can motivate our guys to start and make a better scene — a rock scene,” he said. “And well, it’s difficult, but we are giving everything.”
Mesta’s observations reflect broader challenges facing the hard rock genre in today’s evolving music landscape. Industry trends and festival programming continue to shape which genres receive mainstream attention.
SD Metal reported that 2025 has been marked by a surge of genre fusion and underground innovation. Independent bands bypass traditional labels to self-release music and build grassroots followings. This trend has created new opportunities for artists willing to experiment with boundary-pushing sounds. It also highlights the ongoing struggle for traditional hard rock acts to find their place in an increasingly fragmented market.
The festival circuit has indeed become more polarized in recent years. Mesta specifically mentioned this as problematic for hard rock bands. Consequence noted that while legacy acts like Black Sabbath prepare for their final performances, newer bands like Ghost and Sleep Token are breaking into mainstream charts and headlining arenas with their broad genre appeal. These success stories demonstrate that heavy music can still achieve commercial breakthrough. However, it often requires a more theatrical or genre-blending approach that traditional hard rock may resist.
The industry’s current state presents both challenges and opportunities for hard rock artists. Westwood Horizon found that the metal music industry’s confining nature often limits creativity. It forces bands to conform to specific subgenre expectations rather than exploring the middle ground that hard rock naturally occupies. This institutional pressure reinforces the “in-between” status that Mesta described. Hard rock bands struggle to fit into predetermined festival categories or label rosters.
However, the rise of independent music distribution and social media platforms has created new pathways for hard rock bands to reach audiences directly. This shift toward artist independence may offer the “spark” that Mesta hopes to provide. It allows hard rock acts to build dedicated fanbases without relying on traditional industry gatekeepers who have historically overlooked the genre.
