Is heavy metal the heart and soul of today's music?
By quadj130
@quadj130 (25)
United States
May 18, 2011 4:03am CST
I believe anger and aggressiveness are the new heart and souls of today's music. It may sound harsh, but this is coming from someone who didn't grow up listening to heavy music. In fact, I still listen to many 70's bands like "Yes" who take no part in a 'heavy' sound whatsoever. Rap has also been known to have a very aggressive nature and seems to be even more popular so I think I'm really on to something here. Is it possible that the music of the 70's and 80's was inspired in a way that represent the time the artist was living in? Even though I'm not the biggest fan of a Teenager voice screaming though a microphone, I can still acknowledge the true feeling's of today's life and time we are all living in.
4 responses
@ra1787 (501)
• Italy
18 May 11
Definig metal as aggressive and violent is at least reductive, it can be surely true for some subgenres, but not for the metal genre as a whole.
Progressive metal or symphonic metal usually don't have all that aggressiveness you are referencing.
I am more worried about mainstream pop/rap/hip pop, that often doesn't express anything beside nothingness. It is an expression of soulless greedy commercial exploitation and nothing more.
Most of mainstream music nowadays is not inspired by violence or hatred or anything else, it is inspired only by the greed of the producers. It has no soul in it.
@quadj130 (25)
• United States
18 May 11
This is very true which makes me sad that I have to learn all sub-genres to really describe the type of music I'm referring too. Fact is, there are so many sub-genres these days that you could write an entire thesis on the similarities and difference between the 1,000 or so sub-genres (and that just applies for metal).
@picjim (3002)
• India
18 May 11
Heavy metal was there even in the seventies and eighties.There were groups like van halen,rainbow,ted nugent and several others.Only it was probably not as popular as today.There was pop,reggae,soft rock and hard rock.It may be jarring to some of us but people of that time as well as more of the present generation liked such music.
@quadj130 (25)
• United States
18 May 11
Many bands I listen too cite their main influence as "Black Sabbath". Ozzy doesn't write with such high levels of anger and aggression in the lyrics or vocals themselves, but the musical chords have been known to be "evil". I think most of what came though in the 70's and 80's as metal had some sort of evil sound to it.
@HansonFan (1653)
• United States
18 May 11
I don't agree. I see where you are coming from, but I really see it as a musical season. I found the depressive and angry songs are around winter. Summer comes and all of the sudden songs are happier and more fun. Today's life is tough, but not everyone is angry about it. Some of us are hopeful for a better future and working towards it. It is getting better where I am from and I am looking forward to this year more than any before. My music reflects that and is hopeful, happy, and generally in a good mood.
@quadj130 (25)
• United States
18 May 11
I feel the same way, but not always with change of seasons. Depending on how things are going for me at any given time, that can surely dictate exactly what type of music I'm listening to at that given moment. It's definitely not 100% that I do this, but I have enough in my music library to become a jukebox type deal.
@polaris77 (2040)
• Bacau, Romania
18 May 11
Heavy metal is a very complex and extended phenomenon which can't be reduced to the word'anger',this would be a very incomplete and superficial view of this fascinating type of music.In fact,heavy metal has so many subgenres that it can express the whole range of human emotions,from melancholy to anger,from joy to depression,and some types of metal,such as progressive and symphonic metal,add an intellectual side to this genre of music which is much more interesting than the meaningless mainstream music played everyday on music channels.One thing is sure:heavy metal may not be the most popular music in the world,but it has survived for many decades and it will keep on existing and reinventing itself as long as there are people whose views of life are at least a little different from the ones of the majority of people.
