Obsession
Obsession
Obsession
Right in the title of his book, Daniel J. Levitin refers to music as to a “human
obsession”, and I personally tend to agree it is indeed one. Music has been around
for over fifty thousand years, and more than that, wherever there is a social
gathering, music is always present: in cafes, bars, at parties.
But what is actually music? Throughout history many different answers were given
for this question. Plato himself said that: “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the
universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life
and to everything.” From a less abstract point of view, the composer Edgard Varèse
famously defined music as “organized sound”. From a scientific point of view,
music is thought to be the activity that prepared human and proto-human beings for
speech.
Why metal?
In the last eight years, since when I began listening to music willfully, I listened to
many different genres, yet what seemed to interest me the most out of it all wasn’t
necessarily a genre itself but a subgenre of rock music: heavy metal. As soon as I
first listened to it I began obsessed with it, and stood so for the rest of my life until
this point. As it is the case with many heavy metal fans, music became the most
prominent of my interests. Thus when I was given the chance to pick myself the
subject for my research paper, I couldn’t help but pick heavy metal.
As a heavy metal fan, I was often asked one question, and more precisely: “What
do you like about metal?” I was often asked this question, by children, teenagers
about my age and older people alike. Most of them would only see heavy metal as
noise, rather than music. At the beginning of the very first episode of the
documentary series “Metal Evolution”, the same question was asked to a few
prominent heavy metal musicians. The
guitarist Kirk Hammet from Metallica
for instance replied that heavy metal
helped him a lot as a teenager, when he
couldn’t express himself or he was just
frustrated, he would listen to it and feel
instantly relieved. Sebastian Bach from
Skid Row replied that heavy metal
pushes the intensity of life to the
maximum. Indeed that is what draws people to heavy metal. As explained by Bruce
Dickinson (Vocalist of Iron Maiden) “the aggression is there, but it is contained,
and it’s focused”. It was explained that the distortion and strength of the sound in
heavy metal tends to turn off inhibitions. Thus the affirmation in Deena Weinstein’s
book “Heavy metal's
loudness is not deafening, irritating, or painful (at least to the fan, but
empowering” makes sense.
Metal is not just a genre of music, but a community. The same Bruce Dickinson
affirmed that “Metal is like celebration of community, and friendship for people
who simply have the genetic or emotional pre-disposition to gravitate towards that
kind of music, that kind of aggression.” Heavy metal represents thus a community
for people that don’t belong to the rather mainstream typologies, attracting rather
extreme personalities. Dave Mustaine himself said that he began playing metal
because he required a sense of belonging that the metal community offered him.
Being given its complexity, heavy metal is hard to define. That had eventually lead
to misconceptions and misinterpretations, of such matter that even the first heavy
metal band is debatable. While most American people tend to favor Led Zeppelin
for this, most British people would rather say that Black Sabbath was the first
metal band ever. Other experts or fans even consider various pre-metal bands, such
as Iron Butterfly or Blue Cheer to be the real founders of heavy metal.
Perhaps the most important element in the sound heavy metal is the power. As
Deena Weinstein points out:” Loudness is meant to overwhelm, to sweep the
listener into the sound, and then to lend the listener the sense of power that the
sound provides.” Even during concerts, the stage is full of stacks of amplifiers so
that the decibel level can be raised as much as it is physically possible.
Another important part of the musical code of heavy metal is the complexity, most
often and most notably of the guitar work. As opposed to the general critics it is not
just a wall of noise but rather an extremely complex melody played loudly.
The guitarist and the vocalist are usually the most prominent members of any band,
although in metal as opposed to other genres the voice is viewed as an equal to
other instruments rather than a privileged one, it tends to be the one instrument that
challenges the prominence of the guitar. The relationship between guitar and voice
is rather tense, actively competing for prominence, without ever letting the conflict
result in the defeat of either vocalist or guitarist. Deena Weinstein affirmed that
“More concerned with the total impact of the sound than with their individual
success, the guitarist and vocalist are in an affectionate rivalry with each other”
The term “heavy metal” was initially only used in scientific communities. It is
believed that the term was used for the first time outside them in “The Soft
Machine” and “Nova Express” by William Burroughs, when he introduced
Uranium Willy as “the heavy metal kid”. In this context it referred to drug
addiction.
More people pretend to have come up with the term. For instance the American
journalist Sandy Pearlman, pretends he invented it on a review of The Byrds’ song
“Artificial Energy” song. Lester Bangs also says he coined it.
The term was also used in Steppenwolf’s rock ‘n roll song, but it was not a
reference to music, and, according to the songwriter it was used to express “the
experience of driving a car or motorcycle on the desert highway of California.”
The song “Born to Be Wild” was later
featured in a successful movie and
became a bikers’ anthem.
Surf music that was quite heavy for its time proved to be another influence that
would later lead to founding metal.
Later on, the garage rock movement created fertile ground for the bands to
experiment with heavy sounds during middle 60s. By the end of the 60s rock music
was getting increasingly aggressive and heavy. The guitarist of MC5, Wayne
Kramer explained that at that point, in the late 60s, his generation was opposing to
the disastrous way things were going, in politics and not only. Eventually they
decided the only way to fix anything about it was by saying something about it, as
loud as possible. Detroit became around that period an epicenter of heavy music as
well as cars building. The guitarist of The Stooges admits that in his view, the
heavy music was influenced by the new industry too. In an interview he eventually
mentions that around the end of the 60s people would be either “working on cars,
or selling cars, or thinking about cars” and eventually finished his affirmation with
a humorous joke “or stealing cars”.
Ultimately, there are 3 bands considered by both, fans and experts to be the
founders of heavy metal: Deep Purple, Led
Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
← Deep Purple
← Black Sabbath
Stereotypes and prejudice about metal:
At its inception, heavy metal music was not even seen as music at all. Rock music
critics tended to criticize heavy metal. Robert Duncan for instance described it as
“pimply, prole, putrid, unchic, unsophisticated, anti-intellectual (but impossibly
pretentious)”. Another rock critic in the early 70s described Black Sabbath which
is often referred to as the first heavy metal band as having the “sophistication of
four Cro-Magnon hunters who've stumbled upon a rock band's equipment”.
As a matter of fact, there was only one noted rock critic that had something
relatively favorable to say about heavy metal at its inceptions. Lester Bangs wrote
that “As its detractors have always claimed, heavy-metal rock is nothing more than
a bunch of noise; it is not music, it is distortion- and that is precisely why its
adherents find it appealing (…) Heavy metal orchestrates technological nihilism”.
Not only metal but even certain other sub-genres of rock music are often exposed
to prejudice and stereotypes. It’s supposed that they began in the 70s when rumors
about the band’s name: “KISS” was a shortened form of “Knights In Satan’s
Service”.
Iron Maiden, who were from the beginning labeled as devil worshipping Satanists
eventually grew tired of being labeled as that by the time they recorded their
“Piece of Mind” album that was released in 1983. Thus they added a “hidden
message” in their “Still Life” track that could only be understood by playing the
song backwards. The message consisted in McBrain mimicking an actor
pronouncing the phrase: “What ho said the t'ing with the three 'bonce', do not
meddle with things you don't understand..."
Eventually at a later time, adepts of the Black Metal sub-genre of metal that
actually used satanic references, and members of certain bands candidly affirmed
they were actually satanists of different kind (there are 3 types). Even so, there was
never any direct link between satanic references in metal music and antisocial
behavior.
Ozzy Osbourne, singer in the band Black Sabbath contributed to the stereotypical
view of heavy metal through his incidents consisting of biting off the head of a
living bat and a living dove.
Nowadays in heavy metal community, heavy metal, as a main genre is more often
just referred to as “metal” whereas “heavy metal” is used to describe the classical
heavy metal, the first to appear. Most often a band would not just be referred to as
a metal band, but rather tagged with the exact sub-genre. As an example, bands
such as Judas Priest and Black Sabbath are referred to as “heavy metal bands”
whereas, Metallica or Megadeth are referred to as “thrash metal bands”.
To heavy metal fans the sub-genres are extremely important. Although heavy metal
fans are extremely enthusiastic about their music, some would criticize certain sub-
genres due to various reasons. Not only are there metalheads who dislike certain
sub-genres, there are also some devoted to one of them, for instance black metal
fans, who, even if they listen to black metal, would rather see other sub-genres as
“mainstream”.
In the 70s, the punk explosion was the main underground musical movement.
Although it was rather short lived. As explained by the drummer of the punk band
“The Damned” punk died as soon as it went mainstream. To the next generation of
heavy metal musicians who were to find the new wave of British heavy metal, the
aggression in punk music was an important influence. The New Wave of British
Heavy Metal basically combines the sound of the classical heavy metal with the
aggression of punk music.
Even with elements of punk and heavy metal being mixed, heavy metal fans and
punk fans were most likely not going along at the time, as opposed to nowadays,
when even metal fans would actually listen to punk once upon a time and the other
way around.
The influential band “Iron Maiden”, that was already viewed as the leaders of the
NWOBHM eventually popularized the movement in 1980 when they released their
first album “Iron Maiden”.
Eventually even older hard rock or heavy metal British bands got inspired by the
New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and created some of the most memorable music
in their careers, and actually, instead of being wiped away by the new heavy metal
became bigger than ever before.
Eventually in the early 80s, as MTV appeared, a whole new genre of metal music
emerged from America. Glam metal, also known as hair metal invaded the United
Kingdom and by the mid80s most New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands didn’t
survive.
Glam metal:
Glam metal was most likely inspired by the Los Angeles based band Van Halen as
well as early Aerosmith.
Motley Crue →
Def Leppard at the time a heavy metal band, eventually didn’t enjoy being tagged
as part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. According to their singer Joe
Elliot they desperately tried not to be part of it, since the media saw it as rather
stupid. Eventually they left United Kingdom and went to the United States where
they became a more glam metal oriented band.
After Quiet Riot gained success, bands flocked to LA to become part of the glam
metal scene. MTV later embraced the glam movement and offered the bands a
perfect show case for their sound and image. Professor Deena Weinstein from
DePaul University explained that if there was no MTV, most people would have
likely never heard of glam metal, because on television, the image was
exceptionally important, as opposed to radios, where you could not see the band,
but only hear them. Even established hard rock bands such as Whitesnake began
adopting some of the image of glam metal, in order to achieve bigger success.
By the late 80s, Guns N’ Roses appeared, and changed the musical directions.
Eventually grunge became the new big thing, taking over the glam metal scene.
The image became less and less important, make up was less used and the spandex
clothing that were typical to glam metal were no longer used. Most glam metal
musicians were then forced to get other jobs. Many glam metal musicians later got
involved in television and reality shows. Glam metal didn’t ever “recruit” a
younger generation into it, and so, most people who enjoy glam metal nowadays
are the same people that were there in the 80s when it all started.
Thrash metal:
Thrash metal is a sped up version of heavy metal. The whole idea of thrash metal
was combining the heaviness of hardcore punk with the musical proficiency of
heavy metal musicians.
Thrash metal started in the early 80s as an underground movement, while glam
metal was the most popular kind of music out there in LA. Thrash metal was at the
time it appeared the heaviest kind of metal music to ever exist by that time. Its
lyrical themes were also more aggressive and more explicit, containing lyrics about
warfare, human sufferance, social injustice and so on. This tradition was eventually
kept by later thrash metal bands. The fan base was built simply through record
trading, which meant you basically sent records to people, without asking for
money or expecting anything in exchange and others would do the same. In 1983
Metallica, Raven and Anthrax played in the Roseland ballroom getting out of the
underground and eventually noticed by record labels. Metallica and Raven soon
signed contracts with major labels, and in a couple of months Anthrax did too.
Thrash metal musicians typically disliked glam metal ones whom they felt were
too feminine and soft. Kerry King, member of the band Slayer said that it felt like
these guys were doing all they could to be more feminine.
By the mid80’s
more thrash bands
have signed with
major recording
labels. They began
touring the world
and created the
most bold and
heaviest genre of
music ever. Thrash
metal began the
fastest growing
sub-genre of metal,
and its fans became
soon an established society. Slayer↑
During the 90s Metallica, one of the few bands that created thrash metal released
their album by the name of “Metallica” also referred to as “the black album” that
was rather radio friendly. Many thrash metal fans at that point said they felt
betrayed, when Metallica decided to attract a couple of “fans” that had no idea
what metal was all about.
EXTREME METAL:
Extreme metal is a genre of metal that pushes the main characteristics of metal to
such a level that it begins to defy what music in general is. Although a
controversial subject among both, fans and specialists, most would agree that
extreme metal takes two forms: death metal and black metal.
Death Metal:
In the early 80s, death metal began to develop from thrash metal. While death
metal keeps most of the complexity of thrash metal, it also adds much quicker and
more aggressive drum blasts, in the form of drum riffs. Lyrically, death metal
takes a much more morbid form, featuring themes such as torture, violence, sexual
abuse, slaughter of innocence, degradation and so on.
Napalm Death was formed and, taking the influences from early thrash metal, they
brought the level of aggression and the speed of playing even further, basically
creating the genre of death metal. Most notably, the drumming speed was
dramatically increased, till the point it reached double the speed of thrash metal
drumming.
As a band, Napalm Death was not taken seriously, until they began gaining success
in John Peel’s independent radio show.
Possessed were eventually among the first to use the term “death metal” in their
demo, itself titled “Death Metal”.
Later Carcass, brought the death metal to a whole new level, by the use of
grotesque imagery. The members of the band mentioned that they wanted the
cartoonish depictions in metal music to seem rather real.
The genre later reached its peak with the relative success of Morbid and Cannibal
Corpse. At some point, the success of Cannibal Corpse was that huge, as an
underground
band, that
senators of the
US began
actually talking
about them,
viewing them as
a threat for the
development of
the young
children of
America, and
potential
criminals.
Cannibal Corpse
Black Metal:
Black metal is one of the two main forms of extreme metal. Just like death metal, it
developed from thrash metal in the 80s.
Venom, which will be later mentioned in the shock rock chapter were regarded as
the first black metal band ever. While death metal is focused on being as heavy and
complex as possible, black metal focuses more on the way the message is sent to
the audience, in a deep, nearly artistic way, the second wave of black metal being
anchored in the classical music theory.
Black metal was highly associated with the use of satanic imagery and satanic
lyrics, with band members of
some of the black metal bands
saying themselves that they are
Satanists.
Nu Metal:
As well as glam metal, nu metal was less appreciated by metal fans, although it got
a massive commercial success in the 90s. Nu metal was basically combining metal
music with groove melodic lines and hip hop like vocals. Deftones eventually
introduced the turntable in rock music.
Korn got the credit (or, to some heavy
metal fans the blame) for creating the nu
metal style. They eventually achieved
commercial success. Later, the members
of the band Korn discovered Fred Durst,
at the time a tattoo artist which was to
become the vocalist of the successful nu
metal band Limp Bizkit.
Korn →
A few years later, in the late 90s, Limp Bizkit along with Korn were headliners of
the first nu metal festival “Family Values”. They eventually became more
commercial than Korn. At the same time, they were soon regarded by old time
metal fans as the epitome of what was wrong with the metal of that time, which
disliked it because it sacrificed elements of metal music in favor of groove and hip
hop elements. In 1999 in Woodstock, without intending to, Fred Durst started a
riot. The people began destroying propriety and setting stuff on fire right after his
ending song “Break Stuff”. Eventually the nu metal movement began to fade in the
2000s.
Later a new wave of nu metal appeared, with a sound softer, including not only rap
vocals but also pop like sang vocals, and out of all, Linking Park became the
biggest band at the time, achieving amazing commercial success in the 2000s.
Shock Rock:
Even before being used in music, shocking the audience as a form of entertainment
was widely known in circuses. According to Donny Vomit who was himself a freak
show performer, the usage of shock as a form of entertainment began with P.T
Barnum in the 1840s.
Shock Rock is a sub-genre hard to define due to its dependence on the visual part
of the show, as opposed to most sub-genres of rock and metal music which are
mainly about the sound of the band. Shocking the audience was used in music
since late 50s and the beginning of the 60s, by early rock ‘n roll musicians and not
only to catch the attention of the public. A well known example is the American
singer Screamin’ Jay Hawkins which was singing about voodoo and often wearing
outlandish clothing. A decade later, Arthur Brown popularized shocking as a part of
music in the United Kingdom. Bruce Dickinson affirmed that Arthur Brown
through his visual presentation influenced “everybody” from Kiss, Alice Cooper
and other popular rock musicians. Bruce himself also said that about 50% of his
vocal style is inspired by Arthur Brown.
In the 80s, metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Venom began exploiting the
darkest entity they could think of: Satan. The Venom drummer, known by the
nickname “Abaddon” which was in fact the name of a demon, affirmed that he
never saw his band as musicians, but more as entertainers. He also mentioned that,
as opposed to Iron Maiden that used their hidden “satanic” message, Venom were
meant to be as “straight to your face” as possible. Mercyful Fate also used explicit
satanic imagery and lyrics.
During the 80s, systematic protest and objections were made against satanic
imagery and explicit content in music. In the end “explicit” labels were put on
many metal albums.
During the 90s, Marilyn Manson appeared.
Marilyn brought a more intellectual vibe to
shock rock. Daisy Berkowitz who played
with Marilyn Manson as well as Marilyn
Manson himself agreed that they didn’t mean
to be shocking, but artistic. Despite the
controverssion regarding his music and
performance, Marilyn Manson sold over 20
million records by the late 90s.
Alice Cooper, affirmed that nowadays, due to the high availability of everything
that was in the past considered shocking, to shock an audience you’d have to “ cut
off your arm and eat it” on the stage, and thus, shock rock is no longer relevant in
today’s society.
Power Metal:
The vocals style of power metal is that important to it that if that kind of vocals is
not included, the music is rarely considered power metal. The vocal approach to
power metal is inspired by the early heavy metal singer Rob Halford, the leader of
the Judas Priest band, who was initially trained for classical music.
Power metal bands also tend to have two guitar players instead of one so that
during a guitar solo, the sound could include rhythmic guitar too. Also, by having
two guitars play the same riff with a very small difference of time between it, the
bands acquire more power.
Through musicians like Ynwie Malmsteen and later Tarja Turunen of Nightwish,
power metal got much more classical music like sound. Power metal is one of the
most popular metal sub-genres nowadays.
Progressive Metal:
Rush was the first band to combine progressive rock and heavy metal, which at the
time didn’t even have a name. The members of Rush all agreed that while they
loved the new style of rock at that time (heavy metal) they also loved progressive
stuff, and by combining them they created a more dramatic sound. By the early
80s, Rush gave up on their iconic more heavy sound, so as to not be repetitive.
Dream Theatre was later formed by a few students at the Berklee College of
Music. Dream Theatre added an even heavier sound than Queensryche, as well as
more complex, virtuous, guitar solos.
While Dream Theatre was very virtuosity based as a band, Tool appeared which
had given the over drama of progressive metal in a darker direction.
Contemporary progressive
metal band Opeth →