MISCONCEPTIONS of heavy metal.

[panz3rr]

I think its abit pointless if you guys let out your frustrations here. Someone should raise this topic in the newspaper...in the news! So that the public will be more aware on what the fuck metal really is. You complain, you educate....but on soft? nah, i dont think it works that way. If you really want to create an impact for the metal scene here, go approach the media. But yea, its for candie's article. One thing that will slap the public on their forehead is the hip hop comparison. Sex, drugs, killing - very strong point. However, this is Singapore, so im not sure if the people will be smart enough to know the purpose of metal. Too dumb for their own good.

Pentacles? (Go watch the davinci code when the proffessor is giving a speech about symbology or read the book)

 

[Cheez]

Sorry Candie - it appears that your project is not getting much help around here! That's how with forums!

OK people. Instead of shooting here and there and accusing people of having a misconception of what metal music is, why don't somebody give a proper definition of metal music. What exactly is it? Answer it clearly - perhaps you can help clear the so called "misconception". That will be a more constructive way to solve it, don't you think? I'm pretty sure metal music has more to do with just dressing. From reading this thread, it seems that the dressing determines the music - I'm sure that's not the case.

Black metal is predominantly active in Norsk countries, like Norway, Sweden, Finland etc during its early stages, inspired by bands like Vemon (with their song, Black Metal), Bathory etc. Let me do some history lesson. During the Roman empire era, Emperor Constantine legalised Christianity in the entire of Europe, overthrowing old pagan/wiccan/norsk gods and religions. The intellectuals who actually read stuff instead of being brainwashed by the society, realised that fact of being overthrowed of their own homeland's cultures, got furious and wanted to express themselves through music.

Er Nemesis, I'm sorry but you have to be a little careful here stating "history". I'm not going to shoot down your argument here, and I'm not blaming you for not knowing the history of ancient Rome. I just need to quickly clarify (since you already stated in this thread) that what you said about Constantine and brainwashing is not history. This thread is not the place to discuss history - so people interested can PM me (to take this off the thread).

OK, back to the discussion topic. Definition, somebody?

 

[subversion]

Black metal is predominantly active in Norsk countries, like Norway, Sweden, Finland etc during its early stages, inspired by bands like Vemon (with their song, Black Metal), Bathory etc. Let me do some history lesson.

The intellectuals who actually read stuff instead of being brainwashed by the society, realised that fact of being overthrowed of their own homeland's cultures, got furious and wanted to express themselves through music.

But that was the basic idea of Black Metal. They apply on corpsepaint and wear spikes and leather to express their 'spiritual' death and their sorrows and pains. It's not being pointlessly angry or angsty. Unlike the current trends of emos.

hi there. thanks for the narrative but i hope to set some things right.

*the countries you listed above are refered to as the Nordic region, not Norsk.

*Vemon- no such band. it's Venom.

*the early perpetrators of black metal were anti-religion, no issues here. they didn't invent the genre solely to counter christianity, they did it out of frustration because a certain belief was forced down their throat.

*spikes & leather have been around way before black metal, this is general accessory, not exclusive to any music genre. corpse paint is also not privy to the black metal proponents, it has its origin during the leprosy period where corpses were painted as physical indication of the presence of such diseases/ in the belief that it'll prevent the disease from spreading upon burial. the black metal musicians paint their faces this way to associate themselves with the marginilazation suffered by the lepers back then. along the way, it got too theatrical & ridiculous.

thank you for reading. :smt069

 

[tomhet]

Why should we raise the issue in newspapers? The media will always be a money making machine and they don't give a fvck what you think. And to gain what? Respect? Popularity? Why should we care? Just listen to metal and enjoy and fvck what others think.

 

[subversion]

Hello people. I'm doing this assignment on how media influences and sometimes fuels the misconceptions of heavy metal in Singapore, so I would really appreciate if you guys list me anything in the local media that actually fuels such misconceptions.

Many thanks!

HI Candie.

i still keep the New Paper article on Mayhem, how it stirred controversy prior to the show. but when the show finally took place, it was perhaps one of the most civilised performances. if you want to make a copy of it, do PM me. 8)

 

[antedeluvian]

black metal is about wearing wizard hats running in the forests breathing fire in the middle of daylight and when there's no wind, kvltly spin your hair to find the wind somewhere. if you dont know what im talking about.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aoSfRZ0KmLQ&search=call of the wintermoon

 

[subversion]

the superficial understanding of black metal may be deemed as such. however, there is a sizeable pool of dedicated musicians who have parted ways with such theatrics to focus on the music. these people are being ignored, the media (primarily) still chooses to document the juvenile aspects, no surprises there as this help$ them live.

 

[Beefy]

Overall, it is a matter of personal preference. "one man's meat is another man's poison". So, it doesn't really matter what music it is! Heavy metal, blues, rock, jazz, opera, classical ... whatever. It would be myopic for any musician to just to accept one form of music.

It is just MUSIC! It is for our enjoyment.

We should not enforce our preference on anyone. All we have to do is to be accomodating. If we are very into a certain type of music, we should share and exchange views with fellow fans of it.

So, let us all enjoy our music!!!

 

[bopakeh]

It is just MUSIC! It is for our enjoyment.

Ignoring history, I think Beef sums it up nicely. Music IS for enjoyment. However to look at music from an aesthetic point of view, the term enjoyment isn't so simple anymore. A song can evoke images of war, disease and suffering etc. A song like that can be beautiful because aesthetically, it conjures up the 'right' images, regardless of one's knowlegdge of history or music.

Such music is rarely heard these days as its largely due to the need for instant gratification. It's about feeling good after you break up, it's about writing senseless lyrics about drugs and violence etc, with little musical content. Anyway, I won't rant further I just found a parody of the song 'You're Beautiful'. I'll leave this thread with this. Hilarious.


http://www.thelostplanet.net/WeirdAl/yourepitiful.mp3

 

[Cheez]

I agree. Everybody has their own preference of music. And so to each their own.

However, back to the main topic of this thread, it is perceived that there are misconceptions about metal music. The question remains: what exactly is it? I think we haven't quite covered that aspect.

This will help to clear misconceptions and misunderstanding of this genre.

 

[Beefy]

Defining black metal is like trying to define the different shades of grey thus the misconceptions.

Misconceptions (which are subjective) will result in confusion. Confusion will result in disagreements, etc. Why not all of us just enjoy it?

My two cents worth of not being non-confrontational....... Cheers all!

 

[Cheez]

This is not being confrontational at all. On the contrary, definition will try to diffuse it. I myself would like to learn more about it. I guess anybody who calls himself/herself a musician will have to be open minded to different types of genre, although he/she doesn't have to like it. Hence I'm trying to understand it.

I guess it is not a matter of whether one likes it or not. Argument goes the other way as well - we can't expect everybody to like classical (for some, it will always remain a treatment for insomnia). But that doesn't mean we can't define what classical music is. Same goes for all kinds of genre.

If we can't define it, we will encounter many problems. People will start labelling other genres as metal or black metal, thereby increasing confusion and perhaps even pass unfair judgment on what it is really meant to be. The lack of understanding is the problem. The solution is to increase understanding. Once properly understood, people may still not like it but at least they will know WHY they don't like it instead of just shooting down metal without understanding. I think that is unfair for metal music lovers and musicians.

 

[bopakeh]

However, back to the main topic of this thread, it is perceived that there are misconceptions about metal music. The question remains: what exactly is it? I think we haven't quite covered that aspect.

I would think, its a little ambitious to understand the topic here and also Heavy metal history itself spans at least 30+ years now. Most of the arguments you've seen so far are at best emotive arguments. If anyone really wants to understand the subject more, go to the library and borrow books on popular culture. There's one book in particular, which is 'Instruments of Desire'. It's a historical and cultural account on electirc guitars and rock music.

www.nlb.gov.sg

Do a search here, you can find it.

 

[Cheez]

OK, to make things easier, I found this:

http://www.anus.com/metal/about/history.html (by the way Candie, this may be a good resource for you!)

I think it gives me some understanding to what is metal music and why it came about. Of course, I don't have to agree with the ideology, but at least it makes things a little clearer.

It is obviously written by a pro-metalist (if there's such a word), so it is fair to metal lovers. Does the metal music lovers agree to what that guy wrote?

 

[bopakeh]

I think it gives me some understanding to what is metal music and why it came about. Of course, I don't have to agree with the ideology, but at least it makes things a little clearer.

Phew, just skimmed through the article and I can't really say I'm convinced by his presentation. He talks about nihilism and its influence. Honestly I don't see the causal link. Did he interview any of the bands? Probably not. The lyrics and music could be incidentally 'nihilistic' without the band's prior knowledge of Niezstche.

Overall I think it was a decent account of heavy metal's history. The academic jargon though detracted from a solid historical account. Does it talk much about media? Not really. Rather he chooses to start his paper talking about philosophy and then historical events i.e The Coldwar which may have lead to the uprising of 'Heavy Metal'.

Know what's the irony? All these terms like 'Heavy Metal' , 'Fusion' , 'New Age' etc. are actually conceived by record companies rather than the bands themselves. So who defines genres at the end? An I being too nihilistic?
:lol:

 

[super_punk]

"black metal" is a venom song.

the term "death metal" i believe was first used by the band possessed.

so there you go, the record company doesn't come up with everything.

 

[panz3rr]

Black Metal - Metal music in relevance to Paganism

Death Metal - Metal music in relevance to Death...

Heavy Metal - Metal music in relevance to Motivation

Power Metal - Metal music in relevance to symphonic shit(fantasy...bla3)

Trash Metal - Metal music incorporated with punk influences


Im sure that is not complete...but just a brief definition of the basic subgenres of metal.

Anyways...yea lets just enjoy the fvcking music. and for those who don't...we shouldnt give a flying fvck..

Candie, gd luck :twisted:

 

[SherT]

and so are the alkaline trio guys. they are satanic too, right? or something. I heard

Matt Skiba is a card-carrying satanist apparently.

 

[bin4christ]

Metal = Noise. Rubbish music. Damage your ears.

if metal is noise,then wat is punk?

 

[bin4christ]

.


Black metal is predominantly active in Norsk countries, like Norway, Sweden, Finland etc during its early stages, inspired by bands like Vemon (with their song, Black Metal), Bathory etc. Let me do some history lesson. During the Roman empire era, Emperor Constantine legalised Christianity in the entire of Europe, overthrowing old pagan/wiccan/norsk gods and religions. The intellectuals who actually read stuff instead of being brainwashed by the society, realised that fact of being overthrowed of their own homeland's cultures, got furious and wanted to express themselves through music.

Christianity - White. So against Christianity equals black metal lor. Yups.

But that was the basic idea of Black Metal. They apply on corpsepaint and wear spikes and leather to express their 'spiritual' death and their sorrows and pains. It's not being pointlessly angry or angsty. Unlike the current trends of emos.

So, the public should shut up and dun look things at the surface, dumb asses.

hmm..juz to clarify certain issues..king constantine didnt overthrow other religions or legalise juz christianity alone..in fact,he allowed every1 to believe in any religion..in other words,he legalised all religions...

n y christianity=white?