Sometimes when I hear stuff like Whitesnake or Van Halen (as opposed to my more typical metal fare these days) I start thinking about the difference between metal and hard rock. After a while, I developed a sort of personification of the two that may or not may be accurate, but will hopefully provide some fodder for discussion. So, here goes:

Hard Rock is like your social, popular buddy in college/high school. He's a hell of a lotta fun to be around at parties. He'll try to drink anyone under the table, chatting/yelling good-naturedly all the while. He scores lots of chicks, he's got lots of friends, and he's generally well-liked. He's easy to talk to, has a pretty good sense of humor, and is not scary at all. He dresses casually/normally, and pretty much fits in wherever he goes, except among very uptight people. All in all a fun dude, though some might say behind his back that he's a bit shallow. (They might just be jealous.)

Metal is more like Hard Rock's older, cooler (?) brother. He's not nearly as sociable. He might go to parties sometimes, but not all the time. When he does go, he might not drink at all, or he might drink so much that people worry he's gonna end up in the hospital (though he never does). He'll sometimes just stand in a corner, drinking by himself. He tends to wear (duh) all black. People get the impression that he could score chicks all the time, but he doesn't have that many girlfriends (just now and again) - he's got other things to do. He has a few tight friends, but tends to keep more to himself. He's often quite serious, maybe kind of melancholic at times. Sometimes he seems a little scary. (Or maybe more than a little if he's on a binge.) He doesn't really seem to quite fit in most of the time, though he's not generally disliked. A complex character, Metal.

So there's my personification of hard rock and metal. Comments/additions/disagreements? I'd be curious to hear.

I disagree...metal personified is sociable...I go to a lot of "heavy metal parties" where we all drink and listen to heavy metal...I do have metalhead friends that can't hold their liquor and act like douchebags...people think I'm scary yeah...a lot of metal personalities are complex and dark and unsociable yes...but not all of them...

Still a good job though at personifying both...

Your description of the Metal Dude, is this Dude at a "hard rock"party, put him in his own element and it will be a different story, just as if Hard Rock guy was at a trOO metal show, he would be the outsider there.
The two (Hard rock and metal) do have the same parents, and have some common ground, but are unique individuals still.
An interesting perspective on it tho.

Written by I_Die_Often on 04.04.2010 at 06:01

The two (Hard rock and metal) do have the same parents, and have some common ground, but are unique individuals still.
An interesting perspective on it tho.

yeah, metal is something like hard rock's younger, more disturbed brother. he is far more serious than hard-rock most of the time, but when he starts drinking he gets cheesy and fun. he also dislikes his cousin, punk, but hard rock loves him and parties with him whenever he gets the chance.

Written by Valentin B on 05.04.2010 at 11:26

yeah, metal is something like hard rock's younger, more disturbed brother. he is far more serious than hard-rock most of the time, but when he starts drinking he gets cheesy and fun. he also dislikes his cousin, punk, but hard rock loves him and parties with him whenever he gets the chance.

He gets cheesy and fun...lol, yeah, especially if the dude in question is power metal or folk metal. [Don't get me wrong, I love some of both genres.] I like the bit about his punk cousin too.