Metal means... (Pt1)

I spent last Saturday walking around Leeds city centre with a friend who I had known for about 4 years. I can’t remember what we were talking about, but all of a sudden she told me that at the age of 17 she used to listen to Metal, wear ripped tights and loads of Mascara; that kind of thing. I had no idea that she had ever been into ‘The Word’ but she replied; “Oh yeah; my mum used to hate it!”

While I was sad that my friend had long left the ranks of believers, I did take a lot of heart from the fact that it was to Metal that she had turned when she felt the need to protest against the incumbent power structure in her life.

When I think about why I got into Metal, I can now articulate what I couldn’t have at the time; Metal appealed to my innate sense of independence and disobedience. It was the idea that the world was not full of people with the same attitudes and modes of existence, it reflected the heterogeneity of society; that which is vital in society, and of course that which cannot be allowed to flourish in a society with as much potential freedom as ours.

Also Metal did not just spring up out of nowhere, it was developed and made into something which nowadays cannot be recognized from people at the different ends of the Metal spectrum. I remember a Def Leppard versus Metallica argument that went on, literally, for months, within this art-form itself then, we see this idea of heterogeny.

While as Metal-beasts and beastesses we can bare witness that Metal is for life not just for puberty, we can also, I think admit that Metal does indeed have strong associations to ideas of youth and rebellion… at the same time I think that it is often implicit in these associations that both youth and rebellion are equally childish, transient and idealistic.

My old man even says to my face that it is embarrassing to be seen with me in my leather jacket… (for full disclosure – I am 28).

But the point is that in my youth I believed certain things, not because I was taught them explicitly, but because I felt they were right – and they were my right; things like freedom of expression, the right to challenge authority, the right to use my own wits to solve problems (and so on) and the education system was there to make sure that these rights were smothered, belittled and eventually abandoned.

And my education would indeed have succeeded in cutting me loose from my innate sense of me, but was thwarted by Metal. This, to me, proves that Music is MORE than “just entertainment folks”[1], more than just dancing and having a good time.

Democracynow.org, on Monday May 4th had a special programme dedicated to Pete Seger’s 90th (!) birthday. Turns out, this is a man who has used his form of music to fight power for, well, all his life, by the sounds of things. He wrote once on his banjo “THIS MACHINE SURROUNDS HATE AND FORCES IT TO SURRENDER!”, you can’t call him childish or idealistic; he hates power with all his heart.

I mean, How Metal can you get!?

Now it’s your turn, use the Metal that has been bestowed upon you.

Peace,

BING!x - http://www.bing-em-all.blogspot.com/

[1] Dev Townsend, “Earth Day” Terria, 2001