Nita Strauss says pop shows are free of the "gatekeeping" that afflicts rock and metal

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By ( Classic Rock ) published

Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss has been on the road with Demi Lovato – and there's at least one thing she prefers about pop audiences

A picture of Nita Strauss and Demi Lovato performing on stage
(Image credit: Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)

Nita Strauss says she appreciated the open-minded approach of the fans on her recent tour with Demi Lovato – adding that pop music has less "gatekeeping" than the world of rock and metal.

Strauss toured with pop icon Lovato after taking a break from her role with Alice Cooper. Now that her work with Lovato has come to an end, Strauss is back with Cooper and will tour with him this year.

Strauss describes her experience with Lovato – whom she says is a "huge rock and metal fan" – as wholly positive. And one thing that stands out about the pop audience, she says, is their willingness to accept change.

She tells Full Metal Jackie (via Loudwire): "It was an amazing experience working with Demi. Obviously I come from the rock, hard rock, metal world and I am so used to fans being up in arms anytime something changes.

"The cool thing that I found is that Demi changed her entire style. She changed her clothing, her musical style and she reworked all her huge hits. She has a song Cool For The Summer that has billions of Spotify plays and she did a full-on rock version with a little Metallica thrown in there for good measure.

"And the fans loved it. The fans supported her and absolutely screamed their faces off until the end of the show.

"There was no pushback. There was no, 'this is not what you're supposed to sound like. This isn't what we signed up for. We want the old Demi back' type gatekeeping that we see in the style of music that we're more used to."

Strauss will release her second solo album later this year.

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.