Mike,Craig and Guitarhacker you guys crack me up lol. I needed a good laugh.
I totally agree there Rain on your comment about smiling also being fake at times especially while having a pic taken. Both can be a form of fake. I guess I singled out the metal guys because those are the images in my head of outright scowls and plain mean looking looks. In hindsight I see similar looks from other artists on other types of music cover photos.To me it wasn't so much how they dressed as it was how they came across. I know Metallica is an example of serious metal to a lot of people as is Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. Time seems to make things progress into more extreme territories. When it comes to metal. These bands are now the fun lighthearted boys from yesterday. Any attempt at sincerity of art has been over shadowed by showmanship IMO. I don't necessarily look at them as any more than good musicians using a gimmicks to promote. In reality maybe the more recent deathcore metal bands are taking the same gimmickery to a whole new level. Metallica have had their fair share of arguments and tension, still if they were always wound as tight as some of those pictures seem to portray they wouldn't have lasted a year on the road.
I think some bands originally set out to take on a persona and might have toyed with the wrong things which may have caused them to become the persona without realizing it was happening until it was too late. To find the underlying story you need to look at the whole picture. I can't say it is or was always fun and games in the background and be totally comfortable making that statement.One thing famous rock musicians on the road aren't noted for is stability.
I try to go back to the most basic common denominator and work up from that and this causes me to ask a lot of questions I probably can't answer. Why is it important to portray certain music within a context of hate,hurt, violence and dare I say it evil? Even if it's all light hearted behind the scenes why is it important to make the portrayal and why does that captivate people and sell records? What does that say about some of humanity in general? If these people ruled the world what would the world be like? Does the listener associate with the hurt in the music and feel like a brother with the musician because of the perceived shared experience? Is this a way some people vent? I really don't know and it probably isn't a cut and dried answer.
In the case of Nirvana I believe a lot of the popularity was because of a shared experience with the youth at that time. I'm mad, I'm hurt, I've been neglected . I'm blaming whatever the popular thing is to blame at the time. Along came Kurt and they had their messiah. Only one small example.This hasn't stopped as far as I can tell.
An association personally with the art is what attaches the listener to it. Would you agree with that ? Maybe a catchy tune or hook got you into it and it was simply fun to listen to it as music. This was how I enjoyed music when I heard it on the radio and didn't recognize the lyrics. Musically associated at first then maybe drawn into another level on a closer listen. Or maybe the opposite was true, a closer listen made me like a song less.I liked the tune but the message didn't sit well. The cover art made me curious at first, then I felt some kind of a conveyance through the music emotionally or maybe that happened first before I even seen the album cover. I seldom seem to like everything about anything. Sometimes the less I know about something the more I like it :)
And to think this all started from looking at scowls on album art.