In 2009, heavy metal officially became 40 years old, since Black Sabbath started recording in 1969. They formed their unique sound, based on horror movies, to urinate all over the happy crap that's the same old rock 'n roll gag: be happy, be yourself, ignore reality, be empathic, be peaceful, everything will be fine. That sounds like a slow kid trying to sell Jesus to drug addicts. Who would believe that crap? Well, most of humanity... apparently. But metal takes a different approach:
Despite its distracting academic jargon, Steve Waksman’s This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk (University of California Press) pinpoints an underappreciated truth: While elite critics have championed punk as the vanguard of pop cultural revolution, “the emergence of metal has never been treated as a historically significant event.” Punk struck the intellectuals as properly conceptual and arty; metal just seemed like brutal noise for brutes.
Waksman, who teaches music and American studies at Smith College, retells the history of pop music from 1970 to the present. His topics range from the depth and richness of Motörhead’s pioneering thrash to the genre- (and gender-) bending theatricality of Alice Cooper and David Lee Roth. The two quick-and-noisy musical arts communities, separated by the critics, have mingled and cross-pollinated on their own, helping to create today’s dynamic and delightful world of self-chosen, mix-and-match subcultures and musical identities.—Damon W. Root
Even more, it uses an entirely different rhythm and outlook than rock music:
A reviewer once remarked of Metallica that the only problem with them was they didn’t “rock,” and I know what he meant. Military tempos don’t “rock,” because rock ultimately requires swing, and it’s hard to swing without a feminine element. On the thinking behind the Metallica or Black Album, Hetfield has said they wanted something “really bouncy, really lively – something that just has a lot of groove to it.”
And a philosopher notes its importance:
Every now and then something like that stands out and you can see that people have got no other repertoire and have a very narrow range of expression, but they’ve hit on something where they are saying something which is not just about themselves. Pop music is so concentrated on the self and the performer that it’s very rare that that happens, I think.
Which makes it unsurprising that metal remains the bad boy of the music industry because it doesn't just fall into line and start bleating the same old mindless garbage:
Metal is pushing the limits of musical talent in an industry that has hit a lull. This music is the only comparison that we can dredge up today that is remotely close to Beethoven, Bach, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. Composers and bands that changed the face of music, that altered how we use instruments together, that made us think about what we are hearing, not just listening to a rhythm.
Obvious examples from my childhood such as Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Testament and Ozzy Osbourne were bands that changed the way that I viewed music. They made me pick up a guitar and immediately recognize that there is no possible way that Yngwie J. Malmsteen ISN’T a cyborg. Humans can’t move their fingers that fast! More importantly…humans can’t move their fingers that fast AND make it sound like a symphonic masterpiece.
Whether you agree with it or not, it's clear that heavy metal isn't repeating the same tired dogma that the rest of rock, rap, techno, disco, reggae, blues, hip-hop, crabcore, punk, grunge, stoner, doofus, imbecile, moron and other genres are repeating. It's taking its own path. Whether you disagree with it or not.
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