5/20/2011

This week’s topic was highly interesting to talk to about regarding metal around the world.  I found it particularly interesting to look at metal in places such as Brazil (I am, after all, a Spanish major) where there has been a history of political and cultural prosecution and struggle within the nation. In nations such as these, where self-expression was highly repressed, metal became a new, magical, and highly cherished thing. It was quite a sight to see the number of people in concerts in Brazil.

            It is also interesting to see the differences between metal bands in different nations. I am speaking to Indonesian metal bands here, where their gods and beliefs are very different than in western society where Christianity rules.  It was very different to hear about their versions of the devil and evil versus our own, and it is certainly something that I would love to research more.

            Furthermore, there are the Norwegian bands that seem to exist in a very calm and safe community where the genre of music seems to be quite exiled. This is probably due to the church burnings and extreme cases of violence that are in the short history of Norwegian metal.

            Yet the most important and interesting fact of all of this comes in the comparison of all these cultures to come to a more generalized concept. In Extreme Metal by Kahn-Harris he says the following:

"While the scene has a high degree of autonomy and the total stock of capital within the scene is limited, global inequalities in the possession of capital can lead to inequalities in capital within the scene.”

In other words, the poorer people have far less access to capital (money, good instruments, resources) as other, richer countries. This gap causes some countries to possibly fall behind in the growth of metal, coming into the scene far later than other nations. It is almost common sense, as you can only buy what you can afford. 

Women and Metal

            This week’s topics in metal are rather interesting to me because it covers a topic that I am generally very passionate about: gender and sexuality. As Kahn-Harris states in his Extreme Metal, “Openly gay scene members are extremely rare.” It is well-known now that the metal scene is dominantly a masculine thing, being entirely surrounded in the toughness and violence and the sexual activities of the straight, male culture. This was very evident in the media we watched for class this week, especially in the glam metal videos. While this is surprising to some, the glam metal scene was certainly a mockery of the woman gender and the homosexual crowd. It is clearly a statement of “I’m so secure in my straightness that I can cross-dress and dress like women, and even though I do this, I screw tons of women.” In my personal opinion, however, I find this whole thing to be rather immature and is quite an insult to what it means to be a woman. This insult certainly comes from the men in this metal scene that think this way, but also from all of the women in the scene too. In fact, I find the women in this scene more angering than anything. They let themselves be seen entirely as sex toys and provide for these men knowing all too well that they are being used. It is just stupidity!

            On the same topic of women in metal, I think that it is important to look at the position of a woman in the position of being a metal band member as well. This is a tough scene for women; it almost puts them in the situation of prosecution against their gender. It is absolutely ridiculous that a woman is required to be sexy and slutty to be considered a “successful” member in the metal scene. I am totally with those women from the media that we watched in class this past week that pretty much say “fuck what a woman is supposed to be; let’s do what we want!” In modern society, it is common to focus on the outer beauty of a woman and the sexiness of her. In this sense, I believe that metal is just as disenchanted as the rest of the world. They are simply going with the flow of what the general population says a woman should be. From what I could see, the “metal” woman members of bands were not part of the true metal scene with their clean cut image because they are forced to be something else entirely from the stereotypes of modern society. 

05/06/2011: Experiencing the Metal Scene

As one who doesn’t really listen to metal music nor attend many concerts of any sort, one of the most interesting parts of the whole concept of heavy metal is the scene from a fan’s perspective. I am a “people- watcher;” observing the way people act and react to any situation is particularly interesting to me, thus this week’s reading was super interesting.

“Talking about music is an important practice in the scene, carried out in fanzines, magazines, websites, e-groups as well as in face-face contexts such as gigs…Indeed, scene members often talk of music as an essential part of life,” (Kahn-Harris, 51).  This quote was interesting to me because obviously it is true that a music lover would talk about music; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to decide that a metal heads would love talking about metal music because it is their passion. Yet, it seems that they don’t simply talk about it, do they? Many extreme fans (and  not-so extreme fans) dress and act a certain way in their daily lives to experience the scene of metal as well. It is all part of living metal, not just talking about it, or at least with the true metal fans.  In fact, Kahn-Harris states soon after the last quote that :Such experiences don’t exist solely in performance but in the full range of settings….where musical life is carried out...” (Extreme Metal, 54). Truly experiencing the metal scene is to experience is all aspects of life, not just in one part or another, then.

            This concept is interesting because I believe there is certainly a line to be drawn between experiencing the scene and taking it too far. Not that I consider ICP a metal band or concept at all, but the documentary videos that we watched in class this past week were quite shocking. I certainly think that at the carnival, people are going over-board in trying to experience their musical scene. It was comical and sad all in the same moment as I watched what goes on there because I found activities like “backyard wrestling” quite ridiculous. Concerts just seemed like a screwed up idea of those “Girls Gone Wild Videos.” Taking things overboard in such a case makes it quite difficult to take the scene seriously and it certainly makes experiencing it much less desirable. 

Week Five Blog: 05/02/11

            Extreme Metal is quite the interesting book. It’s a nice change in voice and tone from what we have been reading, too.  I always love the readings and videos in this class because I know little to nothing about heavy metal, or at least I never did before the beginning of the quarter.

            I kind of find it funny, or ironic in the least, that heavy metal sort of begs for nonconformity and rebellion against the disenchanting routine of society, yet those who follow this rebellion and heavy metal scene are conforming to their own image and stereotype. It seems that there is really no way to escape some sort of disenchantment and routine in the world, even in fighting against it. 

            However, metal was and is still seen as a controversial and dangerous thing to many, especially pointed out by Mr. Kahn-Harris in this book. Apparently many find it “a dangerous influence on the nation’s youth.” This goes along well with the idea that people think that metal can cause suicidal and violent actions in youth. Wasn’t that what many people accused the shooters of Columbine High School of?

            These accusations of metal music and culture are absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion.  People are seriously mentally troubled if they are going to act out upon a metal song, pop song, or any other sort of music in a violent well. I can almost guarantee that there is something else to blame in every case where people are using music and video games as an excuse of someone’s violence. This is something that truly makes me angry; people refuse to see the truth in a situation and try putting the blame on whatever is controversial or rebellious of the times. 

THRASH AND GLAM 04/24/2011

                I really enjoyed this week’s readings because it was speaking to something that I actually have some experience with. I grew up with a father who listened to thrash metal religiously, while my mother was totally into glam rock. I have seen the debates that go on between the two, so this was quite interesting to read about.

                Metallica is quite the interesting band because they were both speed players but highly accurate and highly talented.  I still find them fun to listen to, even if I think that their original guitar player was a narcissistic ass.

                The idea of thrash metal is highly appealing to me because it clearly over exaggerates the reality of pain and masculinity. It was an experimentation of something that hadn’t been seen before with “Fast and Slow tempos routinely mixed, and often gained power through contrast,” (Steve Waksman, 274). It is clear that thrash metal was highly revolved around those severely fast tempos that brought a sense of chaos and uncertainty to the music.

                Even more interesting to me, is the imagery that became associated with thrash metal, especially because I am a Christian. It is very interesting to see that the idea of satin and mocking religious values became the role of much of thrash metal. This was certainly something I never knew before, and has given me some new stuff to think about when listening to the lyrics of bands like Megadeath. 

Week Four Blog

The reading this week was very interesting because I never really considered that there was any overlay between punk and heavy metal. While I listen to punk music, I never really listened to heavy metal, thus I never really considered any relation between the two. Yet, after this past week’s readings, the two are almost the same, aren’t they? I don’t think that I would agree.

While there remains the obvious similarities between the two: the style of playing loud, rough, and almost crappy sounding, it seems that the topics that each genre speaks to are very different.  Heavy metal stands as something that is strongly masculine and tough in my mind, while this is not necessarily true for punk. It is easier for me to see the femininity of punk rock singers than in metal bands. Also, it seems that both genres are for the rebellion against main stream society, metal seems to be more infatuated with the concept of death and such.

Yet, in the brilliance of Motorhead, we certainly get to see the crossover of the two genres in quite the interesting way. In their own unique way, they called out to both the punks and the metal heads in their style and music. For this very reason, they were one of the greatest bands of the 70’s. 

Week Three: The Brilliance of Mr. Kim Fowley

                By far the most interesting topic from this week was the image of women in heavy metal and rock and roll.  It is a safe assumption that metal is generally a masculine type of music, with men being the most prevalent image representing it.  It is a genre that is generally hard and aggressive in nature, something that we don’t usually associate with women, but with young males. Thus, bands like the Runaways are extremely interesting to study because they take that image upon themselves, yet they are all young females.

            In the 70’s, we can certainly credit Mr. Kim Fowley as the first person to gift the world with the idea of women in rock and roll. Not only do we see that Waksman credits Fowley with this idea that “Girls who can bring hysteria, magic, beauty, and teen authority to the stage,” (Waksman 31), but in the film “The Runaways” we certainly see the same idea.  Whilst it is a story that is totally blown up and skewed by Hollywood, it is quite promising in developing the relationship between Fowley and the band, as well as developing the ideas and values that The Runaways possessed. For instance, it is clear that Fowley felt that putting teenage girls up on stage in lingerie, as is quite true with the young Cherie Curry, would be a big publicity stunt as well as adding “beauty” as an element to rock and roll. This idea blows my mind as to how it worked because when I think rock and roll, I don’t typically think beauty and sexiness as standing as an overwhelming criterion.  Yet, the band still remains as one of my favorites to listen to today, however it is safe to say that I like them for their sound, and not so much their looks.

            Fowley was certainly on to something with the idea of giving power to teenagers on stage at that time though, because the music genre is certainly for the young and not the old. The older generations are people whom accept their fate and their disenchanted society by following the flow and the rules of every day. The youth is far more likely to rebel and look for their own individualism than the older, thus Fowley knew exactly what he was doing in helping create an all teenage band in that sense. It was a brilliant idea in my opinion.