New York (AP) – The Alternative Music Community is in mourning after a private jet Hit a foggy line in misty weather early Thursday and crashed in a district of San Diego, killing several people on board.
Among them was the inauguration Musical director Dave ShapiroA pillar of his music scene, and Daniel Williams, a former drummer from the popular group of Ohio Metalcore The Devil Wears Prada. Kendall Fortner, 24, 24, and Emma Huke, 25, both employees of the Sound Talent Group Agency of Shapiro; Celina Marie Rose Kenyon, 36, professional photographer; and Dominic Christopher Damian, 41.
Williams and Shapiro were successful stories for their respective rock music scenes – proof that these subcultural sounds had a real consumer appeal.
The debris covers the ground after a small plane crashed in a district of San Diego, burnting houses and cars on fire and forcing the evacuations early Thursday, May 22, 2025.
The Williams group, who had two outings reaching the Billboard 200 top 10, was a customer of Sound Talent Group. Shapiro co -founded the company in 2018 with its colleagues agents Tim Borror and Matt Andersen, who previously worked on the group of agencies and in United Talent Agency.
The list of Sound Talent Group focused on groups in and through pop-punk, metalcore, post-hardcore and other popular hard rock subgenres-such as Sum 41Pierce the Veil, Parkway Drive, Silverstein, I won-as well as pop acts like the Brother-Boy group of the 90s, Hanson, best known for their song “Mmmbop” and “A Thousand Miles (Interlude)” The singer-interpreter Vanessa Carlton.
The Post-Hardcore group Thursday called Shapiro, 42, an inspiration “which, despite success, has never forgotten the scenes and communities from which they came”.
“It is difficult to say how much this man meant for so many of us,” said Pierce the Veil this week, who has been performing for almost two decades, including a closed countertop concert at the Madison Square Garden in New York, in tribute to the social platform X.
The World Alive, a group signed on the Shapiro label, said that it was among “the most influential and positive forces on our musical scene and beyond. And Dan was one of the most influential and positive forces behind the kit. ”
Shortly after the punk rock entered the cultural zeitgeist in the late 1970s, he inspired musical sub-yields fueled by his “DIY”, ethics with a community spirit: the hardcore punk generates post-hardcore, metalcore, emo, etc. Over the decades, these musical genres have evolved in sound and scope, going from underground popularity during concerts organized in garages and basements to real consumer renown, while refusing to abandon its independent philosophy.
Thomas Gutches, who manages Beardooth and collision archetypes, remembers an era when now popular groups like The Devil Wears Prada have started playing in “DIY shows” in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, in which you could see 10 groups occur for $ 5.
The authorities work on the stage where a small plane crashed in a district of San Diego, setting fire to several houses and forcing the evacuations along several houses of houses early Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP photo / Gregory Bull)
Shapiro alone “developed this next wave of groups that arrive,” said Gutches. “He was able to take these groups, wrap them together and put them on a larger scale. … He took a risk to be like” OK, I will go and bring them to this higher level. “”
These artists reached a sort of summit in the 2000s and 2010s. Formerly obscure groups that had found audiences on the first online social media platforms like Myspace, in Mall Goth Haven Hot Topic, or in the pages of publications on the left like Alternative Press have become MTV staples, celebrities in its own right.
Although many of these acts have played similar but different music – think of Metalcore blast beats and Palm Muted Pop -Punk power chords associated with the Vans Warped Tour – They were united by a shared punk rock spirit. And in recent decades, these united groups have turned out to be the dominant force in Alternative Rock, according to Mike Shea, founder of “Alternative Press”, which has used the word “community” to describe the scene.
Shea said Shapiro was “vital” to bring these punk rock subcultures to the masses.
“In this music industry, there are simply too many people who tear people and use people,” he said. “Dave was not like that. It was a beautiful soul and a beautiful person, a guiding force, just someone who would end up being an inspiration for so many people. And he will continue to be an inspiration.”
And it is not only musicians but also many reservation agents, group managers and tours and promoters who obtained their big breaks because of Shapiro, said Gutches.
The groups represented by Shapiro are several of the most popular of their genre and their scene, such as the sum 41 nominated at the Grammy Awards or the Veil-Sells Pierce the Veil.
This also includes Devil Wears Prada, one of the most famous metalcore groups of the past decades, celebrated for their ability to marry melodic punk rock with a metallic detour. When Williams “was in the group, it was then they broke out,” said Shea.
Gutches said that Williams had captured the public during shows with his drum as much as the leader of a group: “Daniel offered a show of his playing style.”
The tributes will continue for both, said Shea, because more and more artists reveal the impact that Williams and Shapiro have had on their lives.
Example: “There is no person more responsible for my identity as a professional adult than Dave Shapiro,” said bassist Skyler Acord, the Metalcore group bass player, said Via Instagram.
His group invented a sentence they would use when things heated “to remind us of relaxing and trying to understand each other,” he wrote.
“We would say:” Do it for Dave “. “”
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The editors of the Associated Press Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Rio Yamat in the contributors of Las Vegas.
