E.U. METAL CULTURE VS. U.S. METAL CULTURE
Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 12:00pm by Vince NeilsteinCosmo Lee of Invisible Oranges has written up a thought-provoking editorial (inspired by Metal As Fuck) that takes a look at the differences between metal culture in the U.S. and in Europe. We’ve touched on this topic before here, but never really delved into it.
Take a look at Sammy O’Hagar’s recent review of Skyfire, Satan Rosenbloom’s interview with Kellhaul drummer Will Scharf (in which Scharf laments, “I don’t know if it’s a cultural difference or there’s less Clear Channel over there so people actually have to seek out shit for themselves, but it seems like Europe embraces weird bands like us more than the States.”) or my writeup of unsigned band Dynahead (from Brazil, but the point stands); there is a tangible difference between metal culture in U.S. and the rest of the world. When Axl and I went to Download Festival in 2006 is was readily apparent; any local metalhead we talked to was likely to be a big fan of both Korn and Opeth and think nothing of it.
Here’s a sample from Cosmo Lee’s breakdown of the differences:
Epicness/tolerance for cheese
Bands like Sonata Arctica and Hammerfall don’t come from the States. Being a secondhand culture, US metal is too self-conscious to engage in the unabashed frilly shirt-ery that pegs bands as “European, probably on Nuclear Blast.” American bands like Pharaoh and Symphony X that have a European sound are usually more serious. This doesn’t just apply to happy power metal. Even a “death metal” band like Arch Enemy has blatant “billowing hair/wind machine on 11″ moments that are patently European. Americans are too busy grinding on one note and cursing their lack of health care.
Classical vs. blues influence
This ties into epicness and tolerance for cheese. Europeans have hung onto metal’s classical influences much more strongly than Americans have. This makes sense, since they invented classical music. But it’s not a foregone conclusion. Metal came from UK rockers (Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin) borrowing/stealing American blues music. For whatever reason, bluesiness largely disappeared from European metal, only to be resurrected by Americans via Southern sludge metal.
I’d add to Cosmo’s piece that Europeans seem to be a whole lot less concerned about genre-labeling and scenes. It comes down to whether or not someone enjoy the band, and it ends there — no concern with being labeled “trendy,” “scene,” or looking a certain way.
Read the rest of Cosmo’s article, then come back and tell us what you think.
-VN
So just to be clear, in the U.S. you can’t like Korn and Opeth at the same time? you really are a bunch of weirdos…
Dude you are way off, you are not even allowed to like Korn and call yourself a metal fan much less enjoy Korn and Opeth at the same time, that would cause some sort of time warp paradox over here with most “metalheads”. If you can even call what we have these days true metal fans.
I own every album both bands have ever done
i like both bands too
The thing is you admit it and you are the exception to the rule….You know as well as i do how many people were into the first couple of Korn records but will now talk shit on Korn and trash anything that has to do with that type of music and try and claim they have never ever liked anything like that even if they still dig those tunes and listen to them at home.I am the same as you, i have no problem with it,Saturday night while drinking beer with my buddies and digging through the IPOD i played the first Korn album all the way through,the last couple of nights Morbid Angel has come blasting out of my Ipod. i have no problem liking different things either. Some people just cant seem to wrap their minds around it though.
I used to like Korn, but my musical tastes have changed greatly since then. I certainly don’t listen to Korn any more, but I think I could still halfway enjoy some of their older stuff. And their newer stuff, in all honesty, pretty much sucks.
I like the Korn albums I have always liked. If their new albums were up to par with those then I would like those as well, but….there not.
Sorry to hear that!
Nicely put.
I don’t like either band!
I was a somewhat big Korn fan when I was a sophomore in high school. Then as I grew musically into more complex music (metal) it’s just not appealing anymore. At this point their first album is the only one that holds up for me.
wow,what a concept. Liking music just because it sounds good to you. God forbid the genre obsessed idiots over here ever give that a try. Half of the so called metal fans over here dont even know what some of the bands they trash sound like because they have written them off as some “scene” crap or whatever before they even get a chance to hear them. What a concept,being able to be a fan of more than one style of metal,some of the people on here would have heads that would explode at even thinking about this possibility.
I generally like to listen to a band at least a little bit before I decide if they suck. Otherwise, I run the risk of missing out on a band like Between The Buried And Me because they have a emo-core sounding name. (Yes, I did for a while. I’ve rectified that since then.) I try to keep an open mind about metal in general.
I remember when i gave BTBAM a chance… Saw them with Bodom and i couldnt stand them.
I thinks thats pretty spot on, as regards Europeans not being overly concerned with genre or a certain ’scene’. Coming from Ireland and a regular gig goer (Faith no More tonight!) I see a lot of the same people at a variety of gigs, who don’t care about anything except the music. Talking of Opeth and Korn, I was at Opeth a few months ago and saw several Korn/Slipknot tshirts there, as well as Led Zeppelin, Porcupine Tree and God is an Astronaut attire. I don’t think we are as aware of the trends that tend to spawn in the states; I know I certainly wasn’t until I came across this site – You like what you like, regardless of the level of trendiness atttached to it. If I told someone over here they were trendy for wearing a Mastodon shirt you would be laughed out of the room
I agreed to go see Wilco tonight with some mates long before FNM announced tonight’s gig. I’ll be the sad man in Vicar Street tonight.
Ouch – you missed a great gig man
And talking about liking bands within the metal genre that are polar opposites – I’m a huge Opeth fan, have been for 10 years; and Korn’s first record was a huge influence on me when it came out – Remember, I come from a small town in Ireland – We weren’t exposed to all the underground bands that folks in the states might have been – While Korn’s musical output after this record was pretty dire, it doesn’t dilute the affection I still have for that first record.
“nick nack paddy whack, give a dog a bone” thought provoking lyrics there. Great band….. fucking whiggers.
there are lots of “tr00″ metal bands with shitty lyrics.
“It comes down to whether or not someone enjoy the band, and it ends there — no concern with being labeled “trendy,” “scene,” or looking a certain way.”
Fucking amen to that.
We Americans are definitely micro-genre obsessed. I don’t mind using words like “deathcore” or “power metal” or “grind” but these should really be descriptive rather than categorical.
If you tell me a band sounds “nu-metal” I can say that it’s probable I won’t like them, as they bear similarities to other bands described as such, and generally I’m not a fan of those bands. That shouldn’t mean I couldn’t possibly like them because they fall into a category of music I’ve already written off. It’s just oversimplification in order to provide easy, cut-and-dry, multiple-choice opinions, and it’s fucking retarded.
That was quite a fun article. And I’ve often thought about and lamented the demise of English metal.
Good article. People in the US are too quick to shove things into a genre so they can hate on it. Just look at the majority of the posts on this site.
Ive always found it interesting that early English metal (mainly Sabbath) were mainly influenced by southern blues and rock and roll. I live in the southern U.S. I was exposed to southern rock and country before anything and became a Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, CCR fan early on. Yeah, Im also death and black metal fan now. But, maybe thats something im more prone to be a blues oriented fan, than a European metal fan. Just a thought. It would make sense to me that a kid growin up in Europe would be exposed to extreme metal earlier than say someone in my region
Me too, from the South. Son House, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf. These are the emotional roots of Black Metal. In my stack of records Slayer, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Carl Perkins live in harmony with Ray Wylie Hubbard and Satyricon. I thought I was the only one.
Robert Johnson and Howlin’ Wolf, awesome shout outs.
Interesting that you mention Download, Korn and Opeth. This year the two bands’ sets overlapped at Download, leaving one of the most common complaints among fans to be that they couldn’t see all of both. There’s not much genre tribalism over here – people tend to be into bands rather than genres. That said we do all hate the emos and their straightened hair!
Now, I live in Denmark, and therefore also in Europe, and I can pretty much back up the points about europeans made in the article. No, in Europe we aren’t that concerned about listening to one genre only and pretty much flame everything else. I listen to thrash, crossover, death, viking and a lot of other stuff. I don’t know the genre of many of the metal bands I listen to, because frankly, I don’t care.
I’ve never been in the US so I have no idea about what your metal culture is like, but from what I’ve read on this site so far it seems that a lot of american metalheads find one genre that they like and then embraces that genre like HELL!
Also it seems that if a band is selling alot of records, then you are not “metal” if you listen to the music anymore, unless of course you’ve been with the band from the very fucking beginning.
I can imagine some kid suddenly starting to listen to Metallica or Slayer and all of a sudden all of his much more “metal” friends start mocking him.
In Denmark, that would never happen. I started listening to metal about 3 years ago, I’ve never owned a band-shirt and I don’t even own a physical copy of Slayer’s “Reign In Blood”, yet I am way more metal than the average danish metalhead.
In Denmark we don’t care about looking the part. We just listen to the music, and if the band is playing then we just might attend the show.
Being “metal” in Denmark (and Europe) is a state of mind. You don’t have to go all “fanboy” on everybody who doesn’t like your taste’s asses. It’s not a competetion.
Again, I’ve never been to the states, so I don’t know if that’s the way US metalheads are. I’m only basing this on what I’ve learned from reading on this, and other, metal-websites.
Also I’ve noticed that (and this is not just on this site, but also Youtube) that once americans disagree about something they pretty much threaten to murder each and every member of the other persons family, whilst forcing the opposing youth to suck his own genitals.
Are americans really that aggressive or do they just become assholes once entering a public forum?
Seriously, I’m not kidding, some of the stuff you guys write to each other is pretty nasty…
You are correct, in America, anyhting too popular is no longer “metal” or “scene” (just ask ziltoid), and yes, there are alot of angry, agressive idiots.
USA! USA! USA!
Ziltoid actually has good taste, that’s what you children don’t understand. We don’t call it ‘trendy’ just because it sells a lot of albums. Its trendy because these bands, and their fans wont be around in 5 years. That’s what makes it a trend. Its a fleeting fad, latched onto by youth who don’t know how to, or are too lazy to dig into the underground and find the bands that aren’t sold at the mall and major retailers. It’s the youth of America’s general laziness.
Maybe Zilty has good taste. I don’t know, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to anything on his list. The whole point is that he is one of these guys who likes a bunch of bands and completely despises everything else because of its lack of tr00-ness.
Luckily he appears to be an intellectual metalhead, and therefore won’t lower himself to violence when discussing bands, like I think a LOT of americans would.
To a certain extent, I must respectfully disagree with you regarding your position on ‘trends’ and ‘being trendy’. I’m the same age as you (27….yeah, I went back to Eyal’s blog from a while back, mostly because you use the term “children” and I was curious as to your age) and the first “heavy” album I ever purchased was NIN “Pretty Hate Machine” when I was 12 and soon after “Opiate” and “Undertow” by Tool; I was also big into the Seattle grunge scene – Nirvana, Soundgarden, STP, Alice In Chains, etc. – and eventually, around the age of 14, I purchased Korn’s self-titled album after a friend suggested it to me. Suffice it to say, Korn became a favorite of mine and thus I became a product of the nu-metal generation, which, as everyone here knows, is now considered a trend that lasted from the mid-nineties to about 2002. Nu-metal has a terrible reputation and to an extent I can understand why (admittedly, I LOVED “Three Dollar Bill Y’All when it first dropped, but come LB’s second album I quickly realized how stupid and meaningless their music is), but I still firmly stand by my belief that nu-metal spawned a lot of amazing bands, bands who I still enjoy to this day. Korn, System of a Down, Deftones, Slipknot, Chimaira, and old Incubus (first couple of albums) to name a few. I couldn’t care less what people think of these bands, as their music sounds good to me and that’s all that should really matter.
I went a bit off topic there; my point is, during the nu-metal era, I listened to a lot of other nu-metal bands who I now consider kind of shitty. I had heard of stuff like Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Slayer, the list goes on, but when I listened to some of it, I didn’t like it. Eventually, around the turn of the century, my tastes started to evolve and I got really into Slayer and Megadeth and other thrash bands from the 80s. Slowly but surely my tastes have continued to change and evolve and I listen to pretty much every type of metal nowadays except for power metal (I just can’t get into it, but that doesn’t mean I never will). I love the brutal, crazy, extreme shit, but I also like the melodic, mellower, doom type stuff. So, even though my teens were driven by a so-called trend doesn’t mean that I disappeared with the trend, as you assert in your post when you say, “…these bands and their fans won’t be around in 5 years.” Not true; I’m a product of industrial and nu-metal and even though those two genres are mostly dead, I am a bigger metalhead now than I ever have been. Just because a form of music is popular and momentary doesn’t take away from its significance. And, if anyone honestly thinks a band like Korn were not innovative for their time, you should consider their influence upon metal as a whole. Korn and the nu-metal movement brought the entire genre of heavy metal back into popularity, into the public consciousness, after it had receeded to greatly during the late 80s and the glam/hair metal movements. For better or for worse, metal went through a resurgence because of bands like Korn. If you’re a person who wants the genre to stay underground and “tr00″ or whatever people say around here, that’s just fine. But I think it’s great to have metal bands like Slipknot sell millions of records; if nothing more, they help to spawn a whole new generation of metalheads who might at first follow what is considered a trend, but eventually their tastes will change and they’ll discover the underground stuff, too.
that was fucking long! fuck EURO AND US METAL.. AUSSIE METAL REIGNS SUPREME
Ah come ON Zilty listens to Disturbed we all know that…
That means 90% of bands are trendy, as few last more than a few years
Everyone has their own taste. You are just saying it is good probably because it is similar to your own. Im pretty sure the majority of people here would consider metalcore a trend, and yet one of the most popular metalcore bands, Underoath, has been at it for 10 years now. Your logic is extremely flawed. Just because Nu-Metal was the prime example of a trend and lasted for a short while DOES NOT mean all the microgenres you don’t like are trends and will die out in a few years.
I think it might be just a forum thing sometimes. I live in America and I’ve never seen someone rage at somebody in a Metallica shirt.
My point is that if you’re new to metal and live in America, you won’t earn any metal-”cred” by beginning to explain how awesome Slayer is. You have to listen to something completely obscure, “rare”, and seriously evil if you want to be considered tr00 “metal” by your fellow metalheads…
Kasper, the biggest problem is the anonimity that the internet provides on forums like this one. That’s where that unwarranted aggressiveness and internet-toughguy posturing comes from. If you’ll notice, the majority of people who participate in this kind of thing almost always use a internet handle. And because there is no fear of repercussions, they feel free to throw hateful or disparaging remarks around. I have no doubt that most of these people would be more apt to hold their tongue in a face-to-face situation…or at least find a more diplomatic way to express their disagreement.
Well, yeah, that explains HOW they dare write the shit they write, but not WHY. Just because you’re invincible on the internet doesn’t mean you have to be a complete douchebag just because you CAN.
Being untouchable doesn’t make people mad.
Therefore I can be completely dumbfounded when somebody responds to something I’ve written with insane-ish hostility. Why are they that angry?
That’s a good question, and I wish I had the answer. If I was to take a stab at it, I might suggest that in the states metal, punk, hardcore, et al was something championed by outsiders. I don’t think this is quite as true now as it was when I was a teenager (almost 20 years ago), but back then riding a skateboard and listening to aggressive music was pretty much begging for somebody to fuck with you. Eventually you started to see your persecutors wearing Metallica shirts and such as their popularity spread to the mainstream. This was obviously pretty infuriating for kids that only a year or two before were seen as social pariah for being into that type of music.
The long-winded point that I’m trying to make is that we didn’t have a lot of the outlets that kids do now. For god’s sake, there a fucking Hot Topic (if you don’t have these in your country, google it) in every shopping mall in America. And we definitely didn’t have the internet to spew vitriol at unsuspecting comment-board patrons that we felt crossed our boundaries of what we had deemed “cool”. Instead we just vandalized shit….and that’s what message board trolling has become. Easily ignored, easily removable graffiti.
“Also I’ve noticed that (and this is not just on this site, but also Youtube) that once americans disagree about something they pretty much threaten to murder each and every member of the other persons family, whilst forcing the opposing youth to suck his own genitals.
Are americans really that aggressive …”
Yes, they are. Its a result of the Hyper-Nationalism indoctrinated into the youth of this country. Any one who disagrees with us will not be diplomatically engaged…we attack with full force, pre-emptive force as well ! Our foreign policy tactics are evidence of this, and it permeates much of the American public.
I’ve literally seen a guy beaten with beer bottles and kicked in the head with boots because he said he didn’t like Pantera and explained why to some Pantera fans.
Stay, far, far away from this cess-pool of hatred.
That’s exactly what I mean. I’d really really like to go to the states some day and experience the metal-culture when attending a gig, though. But I hear what you’re saying. If I am going to an american concert and not wearing a band-shirt then I’ll get beaten the fuck up when trying to explain why or say anything misinterpretive about the band.
You won’t get beaten up for not wearing a band shirt…. just don’t bad mouth Pantera ( I HATE that band) and you will be fine !! Their fans are usually mouth-breathing neanderthals.
There really isn’t much of a metal culture here, you guys have it MUCH better in Europe.
@Kasper Maigaard – definitely not true; lots of people wear non-metal attire at metal shows, I’ve never heard anyone get shit about it (not to say it doesn’t ever happen, but I’ve been to well over 500 shows in my life and I have yet to witness it). It’s also a vast and erroneous generalization that all American metalheads are mean spirited, aggressive, and want to fight people. Fights certainly break out occasionally, but I think Bill’s example of a person getting badly beaten up over saying something negative about a band is rare – at least, around here it is.
In general, my experiences have been positive. I’ve never gotten into a fight at a show and I’m one who does A LOT of moshing. I’ll knock people down in the pit pretty hard sometimes, though I’ll immediately help them up. I always go out of my way to help someone in a pit if they need it and the people around me look to do the same. Yeah, there’s always the drunken, metalhead frat boy who listens to hardcore and wants to pick fights; just don’t play into those people’s games, as they’ll most likely get kicked out by security pretty quick anyway. If you can ever make it out to this side of the ocean, do it! Experience a show like The New England Hardcore and Metal Festival, it’s an amazing time. Nothing like what you guys have over there (I went to Wacken ‘09 this past July, it was pretty much the best experience I’ve ever had!), but fun regardless.
@Biff Tannen – where are you from? I’m in Philadelphia and there is actually a pretty good culture of metal here. There are a lot of underground shows and essentially every major and minor tour that happens makes its way here, with a few exceptions of course. I go to at least 3 shows a month (sometimes many more) and I see tons of the same people at different shows. We’ve got a couple of bars here that can be considered “metal” (though also “punk”) and people always seem to have a great time and are in good spirits. Maybe it’s not like that everywhere; I guess that’s the problem in America, the country is just too damn big and the distances too long to have a singular “metal culture” like in Europe. Europeans have it a lot better in that regard; whereas it takes me nearly 400 miles to cross my own state, in Europe 400 miles can sometimes get you across 4 different countries!
I know I’m generalizing here, as I actually don’t know shit about it.
But it seems that the moshpit-etiquette is pretty much the same on both sides of the Atlantic. You go crazy, but you help people up again. And you stay away from the hardcore-fans who does that stupid run amok-windmill armswinging thing. They are just looking for a fight, but ends up all alone in the middle of the crowd.
Man, you got it exactly right with your assessment. Go to a metal show in the US and 95% of the people there will be wearing black t-shirts with a band logo and jeans or cut-off fatigues. it’s like a uniform.
Iin America a dissenting opinion may or will probably be met with threats of violence. People really are that aggressively conformist. And they don’t even know it most of the time.
Seriously? Where are all of you guys from?? Haha….I really haven’t experienced or seen any of this negativity you speak of. Worst case scenario, if someone expresses a dissenting opinion, the other person will say, “fuck off” and walk away. Or, if I like band X and someone else doesn’t, I might get a, “that band fucking BLOWS!” but nothing more extreme than that. I’ve been to hundreds upon hundreds of shows and the only time I see problems at when you get a bunch of hardcore, slam dancing kids mixed with a bunch of old-school metalheads who tend to hate that shit (I know I do). Still, I haven’t seen many major intentional injuries.
That’s because of Philly. We’re used to dealing with every kind of fuckhead imaginable that it doesn’t really matter what the fuck you listen to.
I love southern/blues influenced metal. Sometimes going back to the classics is good. II agree with the article how people in the US take genres way too seriously though. I hate how people can only like one type of music here or they’re not metal enough. It’s ridiculous.
I do love me some cheesy European power metal though.
Wow, this thread does really demonstrate us metal heads aren’t idiots at all. What eloquence in each post! Points well developed and substantiated! Great… Props to Fink particularly.
I’m in agreement with the differences… It’s interesting to point them out in a bit more detail and get peoples’ thoughts on them.
It’d be interesting to get something about the South American metal scene in there too… Actually, being Chilean (but living in London), the South Americans really appreciate brutality. The Slayer / Megadeth / Death Metal t-shirts ratio in Chile compared to less classical bands is really impressive. Although there’s loads of bands that are seriously Priest influenced. Fun contrasts I guess. Great Chilean band by the way is Criminal, and the now defunct Dogma…
Anyhow, enough of that… Time to fack sheet ap!!
I wish I was European. I wouldn’t have to spend half my time watching the pit (to avoid it). I prefer headbanging. As far as the genre thing goes, I am guilty of automatically not liking a band based on a tag. like deathcore or Sumeriancore etc. But I still listen to it and give them a fair shot. Usually still don’t like them, but I try.
Still, Europe is better.
That’s your reason for wanting to be European? I don’t go into pits and I have a great time at shows. I guess I’m not really sure what your point is.
Wow too many fucking comments on here, I have my opinion on this, will go on the Insider later.
Grr. Arg.
“Europeans seem to be a whole lot less concerned about genre-labeling and scenes. It comes down to whether or not someone enjoy the band, and it ends there — no concern with being labeled “trendy,” “scene,” or looking a certain way.”
imagine if ziltoid was European…
I don’t think it’s particularly helpful for everyone to get bogged down on the Korn versus Opeth analogy. That was used merely as an example.
Until I started visiting this site and reading the comments, I had no idea that my personal metal proclivities (in sum, do what thou wilt and dig what you dig) were unusual for the American metal listening public. That being the case, I would be keenly interested to read more from you guys about how or why you think we got so bogged down in sub-sub-sub-micro-cross-genre/”tr00”/”kvlt”/”what the Hell are you turkeys talking about, anyway?” classifications and iron-clad loyalties. Biff kicked it off, but who else wants to step up?
For my purposes, I find it helpful to break down the U.S. portion of the comparison to E.U. metal down to region (as the original author saw fit to do for the E.U.), because that’s what I know. Homogeneity in metal tastes applies as little to the U.S. as it does to Europe, but I understand the author was making generalizations in the interest of brevity. For our part and as was mentioned before, Southerners TEND to lean towards the blues-y, sludge-y bent of metal. Just like the rest of the world, though, once we grab onto it we tend to make it our own. (Case in point: Mastodon’s “Divinations,” which my homeslice, Brent Hinds, opened with bluegrass-style banjo picking. Do you know why? Because bluegrass RULES.)
It’s been long established that modern metal owes an unequivocal debt to the blues (among other things), so it never ceases to amaze me how many people fail to appreciate the correlation. Metal having been directly influenced by the blues, and the blues having been directly influenced by gospel, it follows that metal has been also – if only passively. When you live in the South, you don’t have to grow up singing in church or hanging at the local bars to still be heavily influenced by the sensibilities of both genres. They’re integral parts of the regional culture. We have to go looking for metal, because metal doesn’t NORMALLY find us. For me, personally, I had to go looking for classical, too.
(And country fits in there somewhere with the baseline of influences for our regional culture, but it interests me too little to tie it in appropriately. It’s lazy and wrong of me, but so what? Come and get me.)
will you marry me?
You pretty much hit the nail on the head of what i said. Glad you see where im coming from
@ goolash: Crap. I meant to thread my response to yours and Chip Northcutt’s, and that’s exactly why.
@ jason: Why get married when we can just shack up?
Wow, you just totally proved my point.
I am by no means an expert on metal, but I am kind of an expert on being a lady, and I can say that if I went to a show and there was a sisters-in-arms headbanging session I’d be ecstatic. But like he says, it wouldn’t happen here.
The waning of misogyny in U.S. culture (some might argue it’s not waning at all) is slow. But I think girls who are growing up today are gonna find it easier going in metal (or probably any rock scene) than ever. I hope that’s true anyways.
“…if I went to a show and there was a sisters-in-arms headbanging session I’d be ecstatic. But like he says, it wouldn’t happen here. ”
Why don’t we just do our own? Tell me when and where, sister, and we’ll get it done.
Shinaain, check out my blog, those are the shows I’m planning to go to this fall so far… Sonata Arctica being the one I’m most excited about… I sure as hell hope you’re in the DC area. :)
I find it hilarious that they are the poster child for earnest cheese in metal!
I also agree with the Clear Channel comment.
I would like to say that the reason why I don’t like a lot of the metal bands that are on Mtv and the radio is because a lot of their sound feels very manufactured and contrived. You know, shoved out there for the masses. It’s like these record companies want to MAKE a band. This band must have everything that genre they are replicating can offer in one band. Then, they lay it on the lazy people who listen and watch. That’s what it comes down to, laziness and disinterest. I’ve always considered people who listen to “Clear Channel” type bands to not really be all that interested in music. They eat what they are handed and that is it. They don’t try any other types of food and don’t care to, so to speak.
Couldn’t agree more on the Clear Channel comment. As a highly isolated metalhead, I’m constantly floored by how little effort the people around me put into seeking out music. And that’s not just top-40 stuff. Classic rock stations feature some exceptional non-metal bands, but it’s the same few tracks on repeat. And everywhere, there are highly intelligent people who believe the only songs worth listening to are singles.
Music just seems like candy in the U.S. Stick a bowl of it in an open area, and people scoop it up, pretty much no matter what it is. I mean, B.Y.O.B. was a hit–but I doubt many who downloaded that one became LOG fans, too.
Oops, I meant to put my post from above under this post.
Didn’t download it, I bought the album (along with all their others), and now I’ve got 3/5ths of LoG’s discography and looking for the other 2.
people need to stop calling symphony/orchestra music “classical music”. just because a piece is played by an orchestra does not mean it’s necessarily classical music. it could be from the baroque, impressionist, romantic, medieval, gregorian(most likely not) eras. for example, anything by vivaldi would be baroque music due to the fact it was composed around 1700. anything by ravel would be impressionist because it was composed around 1900. mozart would be an example of classical music(about 1800). therefore, you should just simply call it “symphony music”.
No offence to you because you are obviously passionate about this type of music, but isn’t a metal website a strange place for you to argue this issue?
I always knew I was a more “European” metal fan (and yes, I realize how much that comment makes me sound like a hipster douchebag), and not just because a third of my music library is Swedish.
Now, granted, I’m not sure why, as I’ve lived in the States all my life, and frequently do curse my lack of health care.
Interesting thoughts.
I honestly don’t know much about the US metal culture aside from what I see on this site. I don’t go to a lot of concerts and I don’t know anyone that listens to the music I do.
I like Death Metal (my uncle used to hang with Glenn Benton back in Tampa in the early90’s/late80’s) and I listen to country. I also have a 4 yr old little girl and I decided that I didnt want her listening to stuff that talks about raping and killing people. Dont get me wrong though, I love cannibal Corpse, but I dont think kids should be exposed to music with lyrical content that extreme early in their lives. I get alot of shit from my friends for liking George Strait, Zac Brown, George Jones and stuff of the sort, but I really could care less. People need to get over themselves and realize that alot of people could give a fuck less about their opinions (especially when that opinion criticizes them) and keep it to themselves. If I want your opinion, I’ll ask. Until then, you can keep thinking that people cant like other types of music if they like metal but keep that thought in your tiny little brain
USA is a bit weird, that is all.
FUCK EM BOTH. AUSTRALIAN METAL IS THE SILENT ACHIEVER, THE UNDERDOG, AND WILL RISE IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS.
“Europeans seem to be a whole lot less concerned about genre-labeling and scenes.”
That pretty much sums it up. For instance, take a look at the stuff Thrash Hits feature. It varies a lot. Hardcore, punk, thrash, death, hard rock etc. I’ve never been a big fan of labels, they just help when you’re trying to explain what so-and-so are like to another person.
As far as I’m concerned, listening to alternative or extreme styles of music really allows you to dabble in stuff you’re not used to and really give it a chance. Fuck, I’ll admit to being a Korn fan. I’m admit to being a Black Dahlia Murder fan. I don’t give a shit what anybody thinks about that. If someone does then they need to get their priorities straight.
Music is just like any other form of entertainment; you like, you listen to it. I don’t see this sort of hostility with movie fanatics. I like trashy films and I like smart films, depends what mood I’m in. Same goes for music.
Euro-metal seems to be more preoccupied with blasphemy. Ameri-metal is more political.
Well not to get into politics or economics but if you look at the difference between most of europe’s economic structure (socialist) and America’s (free-market) their whole lifestyles tend to be dramatically different. America being based on competition and Europe more so on strength of government and common things like health care being provided. So getting back to metal it seems like most Americans and it’s especially angsty youth everyone is competing and can very often oversee the quality of things and buy into them based on the qualities that are percieved by others, which is rediculous because music is a completely individual and by liking music based on tr00-ness you kind of forfeit some of your individual opinion which is so not metal. So sorry I’m kind of on a rant but I think it’s the competitive nature of Americans causes them to be much more hostile and leads them to try and find a niche with the tr00-est genres, which is also part of American culture, sticking as close to sucessful people as possible. In terms of economics though competition is awesome and creates extremely creative shit unlike a lot of American music. Why the fuck am I talking about this anyway sorry for the rant guys I am probably wrong and often am but I thought I’d give my 2 cents. Oh and I’m proud to be an American, everything has its pros and cons.
Oh and in terms of Aussie metal parkway drive is amazing, throws a kick ass show, and has an extremely introspective lifestyle that only a fool would not respect but I wouldn’t go as far to say fuck us and eu metal this nationalism shit is crazy.
I’m vaguely offended by some of that article, though not enough to bitch about it…