Why is metal still ignored by the mainstream?
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David McNamee of UK newspaper The Guardian wrote a recent article entitled, "Why is metal still ignored by the mainstream?" Seemingly a tautological question, but McNamee is merely wondering why, if metal is getting more mainstream press coverage now, it isn't making it into year-end lists. Perhaps a valid inquiry, but my opinion is that lists are bollocks, and so are those who rely on them.
However, if you have several minutes to spare, wade through the article's comments. They illuminate still-benighted popular attitudes about metal (shades of Deena Weinstein's sociology book Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture). I've excerpted some of the comments and arranged them below by theme. I will let them speak for themselves, with only these rejoinders: (1) the equation of artistic aggression with emotional angst is a specious argument; (2) so is the stereotyping of metal as masculine.
I would argue that black metal is metal's feminine side (more so than goth metal, which is often just another venue for female objectification), and that it was a subconscious response to the hypermasculinity of the previous dominant paradigm, death metal. The first time I heard black metal, I thought I was hearing witches. Perhaps there's some gender play at work, too, what with all the makeup and anorexic physiques (e.g., corn-fed Texas death metallers vs. malnourished black metal misanthropes).
Metal is unique among musical genres in having no redeeming features whatsoever. Taken from a strictly musicological point of view, it exhibits a total lack of creativity, inspiration and intelligence. There's no such thing as a good Metal album. - richardrj
I am no snob, just not impressed by angry men in massive jeans. - JEFFWISDOM
What charts is the poppy end of the scale, tunes with melodies, easily recognisable and simplistic, repetitive melodies, lyrics and concepts which your average, not particularly fussed, music fan can understand. The last time metal had these features was in the 80s with Cock Rock, and I personally thought Cinderella, Warrant, Poison and the like were awful. - MetalMalcolm
[I]t's perverse to expect mainstream popularity for a genre which prides itself on not moving even an inch in the direction of mainstream popularity. I am a big fan of Steve Reich and Gyorgy Ligeti, but I don't whinge when they fail to make the Classic FM Top Fifty *again*. - DanielDavies
Ever talked to your average metal fan, ie, generally a male between the ages of 14-24? He doesn't WANT you to like metal. He doesn't want YOU to be part of his exclusive club. If you did recognise metal and embrace it, he would move onto something else, like Finnish Choir singers or something. - Pumpkinsboy
You do realise that you can replace the word metal with indie, with punk, with dance - and there'd be a lot of people that'd recognise this type of person. - TerminalDecline, responding to Pumpkinsboy
I've always found, the more extreme the music, the more blinkered the fan. - Owlyross
Some of Alice Cooper's early songs were great but I heard a recent live album of his and it was ruined by metal treatment with endless 'shredding' metal guitar wankery by guest guitarists. I was puzzled by Peel playing death metal too. Can anyone's church be that broad? - sooterkin
I think that the problem metal has is that most of its critics focus on a rather cartoony version of it, or at the least a somewhat outdated idea of what constitutes metal. As others have pointed out, metal is rather a broad church and encompasses many different variants - someone who likes, say, Jesu may utterly despise Poison but critics seem to lump them all together. - pizzadeliveryninja
The fact is this: amongst certain music journalists (I'm thinking a lot of the broadsheet/mainstream writers) the visceral power of metal doesn't appeal. Not to be ageist, but a lot of middle aged people just don't like that sort of aural punishment, and prefer something lighter. - cowpat
I'm not particularly bemoaning the absence of metal in these lists, [like] some have commented, I'm just curious firstly as to why mainstream media interest in metal really flared up this year, and secondly why this supernova interest was not made 'official' in the end of year reviews. - davidmcnamee
Could it just be that people who get jobs as music critics just don't like metal? - jforbes
Every review I read in mainstream music press focuses at some point on the lyrics. It's one of the key reasons everyone like the Arctic Monkeys for example. Metal often isn't about lyrics as such. I don't know the words to many of my favourite metal songs and I don't much care as it's not what I like about them. The focus for me is on the music itself. You'll find that a lot of metal fans are musicians themselves and hence have more of an ear for what's going on underneath the lyrics. - liquidcow
liquidcow...Your point about lyrics is well made. When I was listening to metal earlier this year, the lyrics were a real stumbling block. I made the mistake of looking at the lyric book to Blood Mountain. And, oh dear. - MHann
Who would look to the Guardian to discover new music? Or the NME? The "*insert genre here* has no musical merit" comments are the usual refrain of bigots. Also, too much emphasis is placed on the lyrics; music should move you at a subconcious level. - RevAl
There are SSSOOOOOO many examples of brilliant songs across ALL genres with completely nonsensical/irrelevant/childishly-simple lyrics, that I can't believe this was even dragged in again. - DarceysDad
Because it's a load of old macho, cock waving, meaningless sub teenage pathetic cobblers, by any chance? I grew out of 'metal' in my 20's. It was nice as a teenager to have an outlet for all my anger and angst. Frankly it could have been The Smiths and now I wish it was. At least that had some wit instead of sheer stupid, directionless male anger. In fact I know what got me out of it, the rave scene. Thank god. 'Metal' is the beast that refuses to die, mainly because some middle American male cock wavers can't accept a female side to their psyche. - mancmike
Aaah, mancmike, you pretty much nail it. I never understood how any one over 16 would bother with the lyrical drivel, "music" that can best be be described as athletic, wrapped up in a "look-ma-how-ugly-I-can-be" pseudo-rebel stance. It's no wonder the whole scene, musicians and sudience, is so male-centric; it all becomes a larf when one discovers...er, gurls. - crawk
@ mancmike - Oh dear. Telling people to "grow up" out of metal, like you did . . . into rave?!?!?!?! - DarceysDad
Metal is listened to by teenagers and the early 20s. You tend to grow out of it by 25. - leftboy
Another reason why it rarely attracts acclaim is the fact that the vast majority of its proponents are people you'd struggle to take seriously on any matter. Few women seem to like metal. Indeed, few women appear to like men who like metal. All the metalheadz I've known, apart from being able to master the three chords necessary to produce any metal "tune", were identifiable by: i) being a physics or chemistry student, ii) never having a girlfriend, ever. And iii) Self medicating with alcohol to mitigate poor social skills. - succulenttruculence
as a man into metal who's neither a teenager, a chemistry student, without a girlfriend, long-haired, tattooed, pierced or unwashed, i find a lot of comments about what metal is and who should like it to be a bit childish to be honest, and clearly opinion rather than fact. get yourself to any metal club and not only are they safe but also full of women who can't get enough of the stuff. - cannibaldave
I am a 26-year old female in a full-time, 'serious' job, and I am currently listening to a German funeral doom concept album (The Call of the Wretched Sea by Ahab). I am not wearing a single item of black clothing apart from my work shoes. Metal gets me through the day and I only wish I'd found it earlier. Still, better late than never. - jonana
11 Comments:
Wow, incredible post. I'm definitely becoming a regular reader.
I like your point here where you say
"The first time I heard black metal, I thought I was hearing witches. Perhaps there's some gender play at work, too, what with all the makeup and anorexic physiques (e.g., corn-fed Texas death metallers vs. malnourished black metal misanthropes"
But couldn't that difference also be looked at through the prism of ethnic or nationalistic stereotypes as well? Perhaps black metal was a reaction to the Americanization of metal? Some bands/writings seem to take this attitude. I know that's not mutually exclusive of feminization either, but it seems to me to be more salient.
I think it's time to head back to the well and revisit the Lamentations of the Flame Princess's impassioned and recondite analysis of false metal and impure metal (or read them for the first time, if you haven't). I don't agree with all of its conclusions, but it does an admirable job of limning the necessity of metal's oppositional stance, and how quasi-mainstream outlets like Decibel do violence to metal in the service of "popularizing" (or maybe just marketing) it. In particular, I think their analysis of how and why Black Sabbath became popular is apt.
It's not so much that metal is ignored by the mainstream, or that metalheads get surly about mainstream interest (although both of those things happen), it's that metal is a genre that, more than most, is owned by its fans. I mean, look at the give and take between reviewers and readers at Metal Review. There's a degree of give and take there that I don't see at places, like, say Drowned in Sound, which also has a thriving community.
By the way, I do have a new blog (check the critics list ;). It's new, and it's not predominantly focused on metal (it is, in fact, focused on whatever my iPod happens to cough up), but you might find some stuff of interest there. I'm still figuring out what it's going to be when it grows up, and suggestions and comments are more than welcome.
Oh yeah, I was so focused on pimping myself that I forgot my whole point: metal fans don't necessarily believe that critics are experts, metal is perceived as a marginal genre, and some of the most knowledgeable metalheads I know have no interest in pimping something they see as their very own special thing to the world at large (you'd best believe people like Wrest and Malefic are walking metal encyclopedias, even if they don't share their knowledge much – or look at the list of records recommended by Nocturno Culto and Fenris in the liner notes for the most recent Darkthrone).
Also, the gap between popular "metal" and critically acclaimed metal is pretty vast, and year-end lists tend to, in reality, concentrate on the intersection between the popular and the acclaimed. I have a hard time mustering up much enthusiasm for Killswitch Engage and Atreyu, and I doubt the average Blabbermouth reader is all that hot and bothered over the latest Urfaust or Xasthur. And as you pointed out, the last Machine Head album was pants. So it goes.
Shit, I can't even get the URL for my own blog right. I fail at internet today!
Excellent "find" and post! To be as succinct as possible, fuck the mainstream rock press (yep, I'm surly and a physics geek, guess I fit the profile). I couldn't care less about their opinions, or lack thereof, on metal.
Forrest is correct; metal is owned by the fans, not the major labels, MTV, etc. and other big media outlets (that's why Metallica lost their metal audience).
As always Cosmo, great stuff!
Johnny,
I think that's a great point, though the Brits and Swedes were developing death metal at the same time as the Americans. Americans probably took the "bigger, faster, stronger" ethic to its most extreme, though. And my argument isn't airtight, either. The roots of black metal, Venom and Bathory, are pretty masculine and flow from what came before. So, perhaps a confluence of factors...
Forrest,
You put me in company in which I do not belong, but I am flattered. I have many, many disagreements with those LOTFP pieces. I believe they raise good, interesting points, but they're blinded by a paranoid sense of being threatened by the mainstream. The mainstream does not threaten the underground, and vice versa. Sure, some bands change their sound for money, but other bands step up to take their place. (And it's not like the mainstream siphons away the underground's fans. Usually it goes the other way, actually. You get a gateway into metal through more well-known bands, then get deeper into the music and discover the quality stuff underground. *This* is how metal is owned by its fans - for its quality, not its popularity) During the time when big thrash bands were softening up, underground ones were still flying the flag. What Century Media and Roadrunner do has little to do with, say, Moribund or Norma Evangelium Diaboli. They operate in separate spheres.
Dave,
I must credit Adrien Begrand (http://abegrand.pitas.com) for the find. And, you're case in point for what I've said. The metal underground could give a toss about what the mainstream thinks - and that's what's kept it vital through the years, despite perceived invasions of "falseness" or "impurity."
Some of those attitudes about metal make me laugh, that its all about teenage angst and anger etc etc. What drivel. I come across these attitudes all the time, my three flatmates believe every single metal song is just death death, kill my friends, suicide etc, which is a perfect example of the narrow mindedness of the general public towards metal. I'm just glad that I've found myself music that I can relate to, appreciate and support. And i also disagree with the statement that 'no metal fan wants you to listen to their music'. I'd love to have more people to enjoy metal, for me it wouldn't degrade the 'trueness' of it, or create sellouts etc, thats surely an old argument now. Great article find!
Sandy, I completely agree. I, too, want to spread the metal disease as virulently as possible. In an alternate universe, Rob Halford hosts TRL.
In my alternate universe, there is no TRL, and people find music through their friends and impassioned record store staff and critics who give the music they love the attention and respect it deserves, instead of being prey to marketing and publicity operations and the fifty billion forms of payola that hedge us all in. That's where I want to live!
I agree that LOTFP is needlessly paranoid; I agree that most of us start with Def Leppard or Lamb of God before we get to Make A Change... Kill Yourself; and I agree that Decibel is not going to suddenly make the trve kvlt disappear in a flash from Avenged Sevenfold's stage pots. I still think he / they make many acute observations about the relationship between metal's margins and the musical mainstream, and that the relationship is, and in some ways needs to be, antagonistic. He defends the borders between "us" and "them", and that kind of policing, as annoying as it can sometimes be, is part of what preserves metal's energy.
You and I both came up through the e-music underground, so we've been through the situation where that tension collapsed, more or less, and it left a vacuum that sucked most of the good music in behind it. It's not that the mainstream coöpted the margins, it's that the margins sort of shrugged or ran out of energy, and with the exception of tiny pockets in Rotterdam and Ljubljana and east London, the renegade spirit that animated the early rave / techno / jungle scene is almost totally dead.
At the same time, I agree with Sandy: I want people to like this stuff, because I love it and I enjoy it when my friends enjoy stuff that I love. That's why I write about music. If it weren't for the inclusiveness of the metal community (to sound totally corny for a moment), I wouldn't even be here. In large part it's the unfeigned enthusiasm of metalheads (in the pit, shivering in long lines waiting to be let into The Pound) that sucked me back into heshing after a long chunk of my life mostly ignoring it.
Metal fans own metal because they control the terms of the debate and have deep convictions about what they like and don't like, and what they will and won't accept as "true metal". Just look at the LOTFP. They can be dogmatic and dictatorial, but also incredibly enthusiastic. Just look at the the wave of American one-man black metal bands (Xasthur, Leviathan and Krieg being the ones with which I'm most familiar – pity about the Twilight album): all those guys are a pain in the ass to work with (or so I hear), and prickly to the point of sociopathy, but they are clearly motivated by deep (if inscrutable) passions. And for all their accomplishments as musicians, I think they're fans first and foremost. That's the beauty of metal, or any other marginal art: there is no line between fan, performer or critic. We all have a stake (and the fans and performers get more votes than the critics, which is absolutely how it ought to be).
As far as the company you're in on my little sidebar, I can only say that you pass my most important test, which is that you think clearly and write well about music, and you take your job seriously. That's what I look for in critics. I think you hold your own.
I think people confuse Decibel with Revolver. Its coverage now is quite diverse, ranging from Century Media on down to the kvltest of black metal. Sure, it isn't Oaken Throne; it has to sell, hence its cover choices. But it has something for everyone. I have no qualms about its "trueness".
I agree that metal needs to be antagonistic with the mainstream, but perhaps not in the same way. It needs more invasion, more testing, more turbulence to disrupt its isolationism. Isolationism leads to stagnation. If the mainstream actually grappled with metal, they'd discover that much, too much, of it is quite safe.
And, to digress for a bit, many factors led to the collapse of electronic music's renegade spirit - political forces, the Internet, and so on. People never stop making music. Their energy just shifts directions. Arguably dubstep picks up where drum 'n' bass left off. It's limited, but it's also scavenging, which is a good quality. When art gets self-contained, it gets smug and fat.
I only mention Decibel because LOTFP does; I have no particular beef with them myself, having not read any metal magazines regularly since Nick Terry stopped editing Terrorizer.
To follow your digression down further, I find it interesting that the dubstep heads who have the most juice in the scene came to dubstep via 2-bar grime and 2-step garage; when people like Tech Itch started jumping into dubstep last year, lots of old-school fans started rolling their eyes and talking about all the "bangers" coming on the scene. They have a point. Unfortunately.
People never do stop making music, which is awesome. That's how I get more Cardiacs records! Those guys definitely aren't doing it to get rich...
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