Flowchart: How to tell what Subgenre of Metal you are Listening To.

Looks hilarious, but my 39 year old "metal listening" eyeballs had a very hard time reading half of the boxes with that "metal" font... too bad the image isn't bigger or in an easier to read font...

  
 Excellent \m/
  
 
 


  
  
  
  
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
 

Before I get anybodies feathers ruffled...understand that I grew up rockin...and hard.

Last night I caught some music on the tube, rock hall of fame or something.

Crosby and Nash were singing is what caught my attention while walking by so I sat down for awhile.
Very cool...Stevie Wonder, Jeff Beck, Paul Simon and the Art joined in....fantastic...Bonny Rait...(not in order) just some great music, but I had stuff to do....came back and...

Metallica...they brought out Ozzie and a couple of others....all of it sounded like metal pre-school to me. The music went from...well, music to trash. So I can say I'm not into Trash Metal at all. I remember my first rock group...I wouldn't have felt bad at all going on after them. We did Iron Man back then....better. I'm not really sure what the kids are listening to today but I have a feeling they missed the good stuff.

Metal music hasn't gone downhill as much as it has simply stagnated. The problem is that it is fundamentally - and intentionally - derivative.

Why do all those sub-genres even exist? Or, for that matter, all the sub-genres of electronica? It's because both purveyors and consumers of those styles demand that each product be pigeon-holed into a categorical bin so that potential buyers will know in advance exactly what they're buying (or stealing).

Ever get frustrated by movie ads that give away every plot point and surprise? Market research tells us that consumers want to know exactly what they're buying ahead of time. Narrowly-defined musical genres serve the same purpose. "If you liked XXXX, you'll like our album, because it sounds exactly the same!".

Anyone see the recent article in (IIRC) Recording Magazine about recording death metal (or maybe it was black metal, I don't remember)? There was a paragraph on drums, another on vocals, another on guitars. Under the heading "keyboards", just one sentence: "there are no keyboards in death metal". That prompted a bunch of letters to the editor and an argument about whether or not you could have keyboards and still be called death (or black or whatever) metal.

I just kept thinking - what kind of mental straightjacket have these guys put themselves into? This is not the spirit of rock music, which is supposed to be breaking down barriers, not fabricating them.

Jonbouy

bapu

get a little anxious about missing the last bus home

At 56, I still have that feeling at a Yani/Anreas Volleweider concert.

It's OK Ed on them kind of buses they do a head count and check everyone is accounted for before heading back to the Day Centre.

Whew! That's a relief.
 
Next week we get to see a Wayne Newton tribute singer with a Lawrence Welk revival orchestra. My cronies and I get a little wild on these outings.
 

ed97643


"I'm not really sure what the kids are listening to today but I have a feeling they missed the good stuff."

Every generation thinks this about the younger generation.

This is how you can tell I'm a rebel.
 
I think this about my generation.

ed97643


"I'm not really sure what the kids are listening to today but I have a feeling they missed the good stuff."

Every generation thinks this about the younger generation.

I would agree with that. I'm glad my folks were "aware" as dad really enjoyed The Beatles and mom thought Steppenwolf was tops...she gave me Steppenwolf The Second so I could learn Tighten Up Your Wig. LOL - But yes they were special.

I've always wondered about the pigeon holing myself and why can't people just be satisfied with "I think it sounds good?" Some of the most ridiculous and useless disputes in the world, I think, are in the Metal community over what is and isn't  considered _______Metal or whatever. That's why I found that chart so funny. 

I myself gravitate toward the intelligible lyrics and away from the dragons.

But I have Miles Davis on the shelf with Danzig and Dio, Mozart beside Metallica and Megadeth, Beethoven and J.S. Bach along with The Beatles, and even some Stravinsky and Shostakovich in there along with the Scorpions.

Hopefully we like what ours ears like.

SteveStrummerUK


 
I'm convinced that music in all genres is often pigeonholed to fit any available 'chart' it may thereby figure in.

How do you explain those roustabouts The CHB, them Sir StramsAlot?