IRON MAIDEN recently issued the following update:

"A while back EMI Records approached us regarding the very worthy sounding Why Music Matters campaign - an initiative to try and bring awareness to the value of music. The short animation film that they commissioned with our approval has now been released and can be seen (below)."

Chile-based magazine, Blitzkrieg, has since checked in with BW&BK;, commenting that "as a Chilean magazine, we felt that the Why Music Matters video regarding Iron Maiden was, quite simply, full of lies." They have posted a full reaction online, an excerpt is available below:

"Let me give you a summary of the (above) video: Iron Maiden is a great band, they’ve inspired millions. In 1992 they wanted to play in Chile, but the Government banned them because they would be a bad influence for the youth; it wasn’t until 2004 that Iron Maiden managed to play in Chile, giving the poor and oppressed Chileans a taste of freedom of expression, “a means of escape” and, perhaps, maybe even a little hope that things can change.

To say that they took a few artistic liberties doesn’t really cut it.

In 1992 Iron Maiden was not banned in Chile. It’s true, Christian organizations complained about them and denounced them as satanic, which eventually meant that no venue wanted to host the show, but the government didn’t have anything to do with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending (not by a long shot) the bunch of idiots that claimed that Iron Maiden was a satanic band, nor am I trying to say that having venues drop the whole show is good. But it is different from saying that they were banned by the government, since this simply didn’t happen.

Also, Chilean fans didn’t need to wait until 2004 to see the band. Iron Maiden visited Chile in 1996… then in 2001, then in 2004, then in 2008, then in 2009 and then in 2011. And, believe me, they haven’t exactly played in small underground venues. For their last concert they played in the biggest venue available in the country, the National Football Stadium in Santiago. The idea that Iron Maiden shows up and gives us “a means of escape”, in a political sense, is just bullshit. In terms of political freedom, Chile is no different from any other western nation.

So, why the BS? Well, teenagers have the attention span of a goldfish. You need to hook them somehow. A short animated feature can do the trick, as long as you tell them a compelling story. Sure, we could try to talk about how metal inspired bands in Iraq under Hussein and how they struggled to keep their music alive even after the US invasion of 2003… but that would be too complex."

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