Can someone explain why Metallica is popular?

I know among Heavy metal fans they are popular, but how come people who don't like Metal, love them. I have a mate who doesn't like the genre, but he has their CD's, he swears by this band, and they seem to have been around for decades, at the school I went to kids loved them, they couldn't believe me, I would rather listen to Billy Joel, than rock out to them.

I didn't think much about the band during high school, but in the early 90's, James Hetfield said to a reporter "WHATS A GARTH BROOKS?" in response to the reporting saying Metallica had been knocked out of the number one album spot on the Billboard top 200 by Garth Brooks.

That quote was used by Garth for the next couple of years, in interviews on tv, also on the print and radio media, and well the rest is history, so in some little way, Metallica has to take credit for the success of Garth.

That is my limit of knowledge of Metallica, so my question still remains, why are they popular?

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