R
Ryan29
Guest
Firstly, I have always liked music that my parents didn’t approve of. When I was in elementary school I owned Motley Crue, Whitesnake, and Guns N’ Roses, but didn’t get into heavier music until I was in middle school I got into heavier music preferably Pantera, Sepultura, and I watched MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball every week. I wasn’t old enough to really internalize the lyrics, but I liked the aggressive image of the cover art and the songs. When I was in high school Pantera spoke to me it was fast, guitar driven, aggressive music that after you played it you felt better. A lot of times it was like , “And I thought I had problems, this singer (Phil) has nothing good for him besides anger, I don’t have it half as bad as him” is what I thought. So it acted as catharsis for me. I stayed into them for my whole high school time, but when I graduated I got into Metallica, Type O Negative, and then it progressively got darker and heavier. I at the time was just mostly living day to day without much happiness to call my own, to coin a phrase taken from a Nine Inch Nails song, “every day is exactly the same” is how things were for me. Yet, my musical style went from heavy metal, to gothic metal, to well Opeth. Which I still love to listen to, but I know that I am feeding my dark side when I venture to play these types of bands.
Yet, is heavy metal inheritantly evil? No, but generally the people that make the music are liberal artists that try to stretch the boundaries for the norm. They are like the Renaissance period of thinkers that thought outside of the confines of society; and if it impacts the youth on rash scales that is how societies are broken up from the inside. On the other hand, people that are liberal or free-thinkers can revolutionize how the society and the system of norms (if it be religion, politics, music genres) and strengthen the people as a call to arms to defend what they believe in, that otherwise wouldn’t have been called to do.
When I saw the metal documentary (now I remembered the name) Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey I learned a lot about the origins of the genre. It cut through in an even keel with a narrator that was very non-threatening and fair minded. This documentary was an eye opener for how different the scenes in America and in Scandinavia. When I got into Therion and Bathory from Sweden, then Tristania from Norway these very diverse bands that stemmed from the bleak cold north, they have/had talent that many American bands hadn’t reached yet. Though the first mentioned bands were Satanic bands when they started, but if you follow European metal, most bands start out doing the popular style to gain reputation and then when they are established they change and play the music they want to. When watching the documentary I was frightened by the way that that some Norwegians viewed religion, especially Christianity. In the metal scene like the band Mayhem played the darkest heaviest music that resulted in a series of church burnings; including burning Fantoft Stave Church built in 1150 to the ground. The bassist for Mayhem, Varg Vikernes was charged with not only one or two of these arsons, and also with the murder of a fellow musician. So rowdy upstart young people can paint the genre with unnecessary violence, but then again one could argue was it the music that influenced them or was it a culture that had turned to individualism and in turn forsaking religion.
The biggest turn off on a social level to heavy metal are the majority of the fans. They are aggressive, they are standoffish or loud, and they look and act very unstable. The biggest problem I have is that the fans want to abuse one another in the crowd instead of just being a collective group and enjoying the music. Stage diving, moshing and other antics are negatives to the image to newcomers and even people that have been into it for years. I am a fan of all the bands I included in this post (except Mayhem), but I disdain that the artists don’t care and encourage the fans to abuse one another in the “sport of the concert”. I have been to many country music concerts and I never feared for my safety there.
In conclusion, there are some negatives to the music, the people and some of the influences of the music, but heavy music is something that isn’t going away, except when we get older and don’t see the luster of this music the same. If you think about it, how many 60 year metal fans do you know? It’s generally temporary music that fills an adolescent need of expression, aggression and/or creativity. If it’s in moderation no music is harmful, just know when you have had enough and you will be alright; anyways as a general rule, if it feels like a sin, it probably is.
(oh sorry for the length of the post, I am used to writing 4 part thesis papers:bounce: )
