Metal Elitism - Elitism Of The Genre Over Others
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Original post
Posted by Zealot644, 25.08.2011 - 02:22
Nowadays I'll listen to almost any subgenre of metal with my favorite's being Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, and Djent if you consider it a subgenre ^^ and then my earlier years favorite of Metalcore now sitting along the bottom because it has been 'mainstreamed' through the overabundance of scene bands nowadays. Either way I'll listen and appreciate prettymuch every subgenre of metal (even though subgenres are kinda silly...it helps you find what you want in the very expansive styles of Metal ^^)
I try and keep myself as open minded as possible and I try and consider many different facts about various things in life. Dont get me started on religion, space, history, psychology, or any other in depth topic that has many explanations of points of view... I love those. Anyways, I have tried to get myself to like so much music over the years from many different genres (Prettymuch heard it all) but I just cant seem to find the reasons that anyone would like 99% of music outside of metal even when I try my hardest to appreciate the talent and work behind it. I know I just stated I like to stay open minded but with music I find this impossible. Every time I hear a song on the radio (Gotta love mom's and sisters who eat that garbage up) I cringe at how awful it is because every single song is about love/drugs/money/girls/cheating/etc and nothing ever changes. It's always the same typical lyrics and style with a CHART TOPPING HIT that lasts about a week before the next big thing rolls in. I mean do NONE of the listeners of mainstream music ever think for themselves and realize "Wow, this sounds like the chart topper last week. I swear they have the same everything" ... *NEW HIT SINGLE FEAT. INSERT GENERIC RAP ARTIST HERE*. Ugh. I hate mainstream the most because it hasnt been original since 20+ years ago (Huge thanks to MTV and the likes for putting it in the state it is in) because music has degenerated from Musical Talent > to > Stage Presence And Appeal. Do you look good and have zero original talent? Get rich with making another autotuned single.
It's the same story with Rap. Or Indie music (Alternative as they like to call their awful hipster crud). Country. Electronic. Whatever other genres really...
None of them work towards coming up with something new and original. Filled with hollow and dry lyrics. Metal isnt entirely free of songs that are pointless...some of those are the best, but I think that when your entire 'genre' is composed of emptiness there is something wrong. It loses the thing that makes it music. Music is hard to define really but I feel some of the agreed definitions are about how it is an expression (Of the soul even) and a representation of a persons talent with their voice or instruments. I find 99% of music past Metal to require next to nothing in terms of these skills. While there are many people in other genres who are talented at either or both it doesnt compare anywhere close to Metal.
Anyways...I figure because music is such a personal thing that it is the reason behind me feeling Metal>All but I cannot find any reasons why other music could be considered better in any way. The only exception to this is various ambient music (Sort of like http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2011/08/11/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-scream-but-they-sure-as-hell-can-hear-you-rock/) that I see pop up from time to time on metal websites. Metal just has the largest variety of sounds and individual talent than any of the other genres combined. The only 100% of the time true exception to this would be true Classical music.
As much as I hate to be ignorant and beat my chest yelling "MY MUSIC IS THE BEST" can you really disagree with me that Metal....is?
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by [user id=101272] on 28.11.2011 at 23:27 rap fans are just as loyal to their fav genre same applies for jazz fans and classical music fans. Amaricana fans are just as loyal and blues fans I think are even more loyal.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Written by [user id=101272] on 28.11.2011 at 23:27 Metalheads aren't really that loyal. Most fans abandon metal when they "grow up". People like Marcel are loyal to metal. I think you qualify as loyal once you pass the decade mark and still listen and love it the way you did in your teens when you're 30+ years old.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 28.11.2011 at 23:30 Tell me about all the metal fans from back in the day that abandoned metal because they "grew up"> People like me, Pim from Officium Triste, rich Walker of Solstice are a minority.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 28.11.2011 at 23:32 Exactly. You guys have stuck with it and continue to maintain your sense of loyalty. A lot of teenagers and young adults get into metal but usually that passion dies out after a few more years. I mean I'm in the same boat, I'm all "I'll love metal forever" and whatnot but only time will tell. Who knows, in 5 years I could decide to drop metal altogether and listen to pop or classic rock or anything else for that matter.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by [user id=115824] on 29.11.2011 at 00:03 I understand where you're coming from, but at the same time you're judging a genre based on the external view - what you see in the mainstream, what's on MTV, on the radio, etc. If people judged metal based on all the popular bands, how would that look? They'd see old-man bands like Sabbath and Metallica, hair metal bands like GNR and Whitesnake, cheesy power metal bands like Sonata Arctica and Dragonforce, female-fronted bands made popular as a result of marketing tactics like Arch Enemy and Nightwish. All in all that doesn't represent the underground too well now does it.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| M C Vice ex-polydactyl Posts: 3408  |
Written by Zombie94 on 27.08.2011 at 13:30 Back in the early/mid 50s that's what some folks said about rock n roll. Give it time.
---- "I'm here to nunchuck and not wear helmets. And I'm all out of helmets." "I'll fight you on one condition. That you lower your nipples." " 'Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!"
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| JCJen7 Posts: 423  |
I would just like to say that I play guitar in a metal band. we're relatively crappy, but i fancy myself an alright guitarrist. However, for a school project, me and my friends made a history rap about the evolution of diverse cultures in America. And I can say without a doubt, I was the worst rapper in my 7 person group. I just couldn't understand what 'off-beat' meant in terms of a rap song (apparently, off-beat was a land I spent much of my recording time occupying). I had a tough time making my voice sync with the beat, and become more of a percussion instrument. I would drag on syllables awkwards, and hurry through others. My lyrics usually had about 3 syllables too few to fit in well with the music, so I had to drag out the last syllable, which is quite common in a lot of rap I hear, but I had to do it so often it began to sound silly. My point is, rap absolutely takes talent, even from just a delivery point of view. Sure, I have spent several hundred hours playing guitar, as opposed to maybe 3 hours trying to rap, but most of my friends rap and record themselves quite often, and it was obvious that practice helped them to improve. They don't listen to the music for image for the most part, and they don't care about what the top-charting pop song feat, some mainstream rapper is. You value differant things in your music. Yeah, guitar in metal is harder than guitar in rap. I mean, that is nearly a positive fact. However, rapping in rap, is much, much more difficult than rapping in metal. Whose to say that the most badass shredder is any better at guitar than the best rapper is at rapping? Same can be said for just about any genre. Differant points are stressed. Even something like pop-punk. I mean, once again, every single qualitiy we look for in music points towards metal as being better. However, a lot of people out there look for something absolutely differant. They couldn't care less about technical guitar-playing, double bass, and least of all, how demonic and evil the vocals sound. So absolutely, for me, there is nearly no competition. I like a lot of other music. But metal is clearly better. But nearly everyone in the world disagress with me, along with disagreeing with eachother. I think the chorus of this baby makes a good point (ignoring that line about "If you do just how I say"  )
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718  |
JCJen brings up a good point. Furthering that, it seems a lot of people are trying to compare metal to rap by the same standards. Well no shit rappers won't measure up to metal artists by the same qualities. It's like complaining about your strawberry ice cream because it's not as juicy as that steak you had last week. Do the same but flip it around; try and measure metal artists by the qualities of what makes (good) rap decent. They won't measure up.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Fuck off Doc, now I want a steak. D: How is this topic supposed to work anyway? Should we link to more Metal-Archives reviewers?
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Edmund Fogg Posts: 1752  |
Pfff. All Y'all sayin Metal ain't the best kind of music you ain't openminded metalheads and should all be banned. Radio suck. Metal Rocks and Cradle is fucking brootal. Seriously, why is that discuscion still opened. I know its a place for newcommers to share their thoughts on Metal, but tey're arlready tons of useless topics like this already. This subject will never lead to interesting discussion.
---- You cannot sedate all the things you hate - MM The Observer is the source of reality - Bloom God damn it!! What did Diddy didn't do? - Satan
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| Zombie94 Posts: 458  |
Written by M C Vice on 29.11.2011 at 07:00 I'll be first to admit that I'm nothing short of a cynic when it comes to modern day society and culture but I can't see a band like Meshuggah ever being on the same billboard chart as the likes of Rihanna or Lady Gaga. Coldplay however (which I think qualifies as a rock band) has been there before. As well as The Killers, Snow Patrol etc. So if metal was to ever become accepted by the mainstream it would be a bad thing imo because it would have to lose all of the elements that make it metal and awesome and why most people love it in the 1st place. I'd rather hear commercialised crap from every genre OTHER than metal on the radio than crappy metal.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Zombie94 on 30.11.2011 at 17:05 Well there's already a lot of heavy metal that gets radio play like Dio and Maiden.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Zombie94 Posts: 458 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 30.11.2011 at 17:25 That's not my point (although I've never heard either on the radio). My point is that it's infuriating to hear poor metal getting airplay when you know that the genre has far more to offer than the screamo bands. That's what people would begin associating metal with if it were to become fully mainstream. I'd say that many hardcore rap/hip-hop fans feel the same about what metal heads think about rap because of successful mainstream rappers like Lil' Wayne and such. I just believe that to be successful in the mainstream (and I mean THE maintream, not just being played on radio, but I mean topping the charts worldwide, selling millions of albums and going platinum etc) you USUALLY have to water down the product. Because not everyone is a music nut and the average non-music orientated joe just wants to listen to something that has an easy hook and you can sing along to in the car on the way to work. They don't want to have to listen to a full album 3 or 4 or 5 times to get a feel for atmosphere or technicality.
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| moe5512 Posts: 502  |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by moe5512 on 02.12.2011 at 17:09 Oh sorry, I meant the grim and frostbitten Sonata Arctica. 
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| moe5512 Posts: 502 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 02.12.2011 at 19:29 That's more like it
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603  |
Written by moe5512 on 03.12.2011 at 01:16 There's a whole gray area between cheesy and grimfrostbitten. It's kinda sad how SA are seen as poster boys for cheesy when they abandoned that shit several years ago  Well obviously, I know Troy isn't Frostie, but I felt like making a point. 
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 28.11.2011 at 23:30 Agreed. People who stick to metal over 35 year-old are a very small minority (to which I belong). For most people, metal is only a passing phase and they abandon it completely after a while.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Milena on 27.12.2011 at 02:07 That should go to show you the ignorance of those who still judge them as such, myself included. 
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.12.2011 at 01:35 Well, at least their first two Strato-worship albums didn't go unnoticed
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| gav1230 Posts: 73  |
I'm surprised no one has mentioned it but remember, people could have said the same thing about metal in the 80's because of the hair metal topping the charts.
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| Aristarchos Posts: 817 |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Aristarchos on 01.01.2012 at 14:42 I believe Mastodon have made it up there as well.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Aristarchos Posts: 817 |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Aristarchos on 01.01.2012 at 21:08 Nice; good for them. I know it apparently goes against some rule of being a metalhead, but I honestly like when metal bands get more exposure. And not all the same metalcore/deathcore for the Hot Topic kids.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Aristarchos Posts: 817 |
