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.