Metal: The Genre of Misconception

Music has been a huge part of our life, especially now in the 21st century with the invention of the iPod. Nearly everyone you talk to has one and it’s a rare sight to see teenagers and preteens without headphones in. Music now comes in so many different genres that it’s hard to keep track of the next big hit genre. Many though have negative effects and many are controversial to many parents. To many, the heavier the music, the darker and more terrible it is; but the happier and more upbeat and peppy, the better the music is. This is not true when looking deeper into the music. Today, the talent and morals of mainstream music have declined rapidly and are affecting the youth of today when the metal is tossed and scorned as “devil music” remain a true brand of music and stay positive. It’s a crazy world now when it comes to music.

Growing up, I was into pop and mainstream. I loved the catchy, upbeat tunes that it had to offer to me. But as I got into high school, mainstream just wasn’t cutting it for me; I didn’t feel connected to the lyrics or the music anymore. It was like I was hearing the same beat or story over and over and over again. That’s when I began to branch out and discovered the genre my brother was obsessed with and my mom scorned: metal. After a good amount of time, I’ve become addicted to it, discovering first hand how people’s views are skewed and messed about this genre.

“Evil music”, “violence promoter”, “illiterate”, “nothing but a bunch of idiots yelling into a mic”, “its all about suicide”, “self destruction”, “Satanism”. These are just some of the words that critics give this genre over the years, some given to my face and others found online. Sure, there are some that do promote such things but they are a minority. Critics haven’t done their research to discover the true beauty of metal music and see the talent that it takes to make a song. As a big fan of this genre, I would know for I follow my favorite bands, look up their lyrics, and try to unravel the meaning behind them and when you do that, a whole new door opens.

Let’s take a look at the world of the band Disturbed. Now, many don’t feel that it is “true metal”, even the lead singer, David Draiman, says so himself: “We probably have too much melody going on or we're not quite as turbulent or caustic. While I really love that type of music, it's not what we try to do. If we have to place things in context, we're more hard rock than heavy metal these days.” It still fits well into my argument regardless for people agree its heavy and dark and just the name can give parents shivers (it does to mine) and right off the bat we have a misconception about the band.

What draws me to Disturbed are the depth of their lyrics and the morals and stories they give. Their songs are always a double story, one up front and a different meaning hidden below that is left for you to try and unravel. The two best examples I can give for this are the songs “Down With The Sickness” and “Asylum”. Down With The Sickness was released on their album: The Sickness, released in 2000. The song up front is a violent, dark story of a mother beating a child, as the lyrics printed below show:

“No mommy, don't do it again
Don't do it again
I'll be a good boy
I'll be a good boy, I promise
No mommy don't hit me
Why did you have to hit me like that, mommy?”

The song though, is nothing but a metaphor about today’s society suppressing or “beating” individuals trying to express themselves in a way that society does not like. “Speaks of the eternal struggle of the individual against the mother culture of society that is constantly trying to beat the child struggling for independence and individuality into submission.” That is quoted directly from Draiman again. And all Katy Perry could do was ask if you “ever felt like a plastic bag.”

“Asylum” (one of my favorites) is “about the loss of a love, a great love, driving someone insane. But there’s a dual meaning to the word ‘asylum’…‘asylum’ is classically known to be a madhouse… an insane asylum. But ‘asylum’ also means a safe place, somewhere where somebody can have refuge. It’s meant to outline the duality of the meaning.” This comes directly from Draiman again. What I gather from the song though is that it also speaks of Draiman’s internal struggle of breaking his grandfather’s heart a long time ago and never being able to say sorry.

“Will I never know peace of mind again?
I don't believe it
I can't achieve it
I think it all is just another sign
It never went away completely.”

David Draiman’s grandfather was a Holocaust survivor and it broke him to see his grandson, David, forsake everything he suffered for and it really hurts Draiman today, as is a common theme through most of Disturbed’s stuff: the album “Believe” was dedicated to Dramain’s grandfather, and the songs offered on it have a common theme of believing in yourself and do what you want without hurting those around you and the newest album features “Never Again”, a song about the Holocaust and how it should “never happen again.”

Now let’s take a moment to look into mainstream music. Disturbed sings a song about personal worth and how society will try to beat it away for they don’t appreciate it and how it’s wrong and they cleverly tell it in a story. It takes a lot of time and talent to actually write a song in such a complex fashion. So much for being “illiterate.” In other words, Katy Perry in her song “Firework” speaks of the same thing in “Down With The Sickness” but she isn’t complex or takes the time and talent to really form her lyrics cleverly:

“Do you ever feel like a plastic bag

Drifting through the wind

Wanting to start again?”

That is one verse right there, no depth and doesn’t suck you in. Music should be like a book, starting off in a shocking way to grasp you and make you listen to the story or moral they are about to preach to you.

That’s the beauty of metal, the power it has behind the words. Not only is the force of the singer’s vocals coinciding with the guitar, bass, and drums amazing, but the words forming really get an extra boost with the sound. A good band that people are familiar with fits well with this category is All That Remains. The singer does a lot of grunting and screaming which to many is scary and intimidating but taking a couple of minutes to read the lyrics along with the song, it brings out a whole new feeling inside as it did it with me:

“Dreams are what we are inside
And when we close our eyes
We see our future.”

Where is the self-destruction within that? The Satanism? The evil?

“Oh now we’re jaded
Can we come back to one
And find our way
Without giving up our hearts?”

All the lead singer, Phil Labonte, is trying to say is that you should not live your life the way others want you to, only you know what your dreams are and what you can accomplish; everyone else doesn’t. All That Remains preaches of self worth, confidence, standing up for what you believe in and never backing down. But apparently that is a negative influence and instead radios play more songs like this and it’s all right:

“We're selling our clothes
Sleepin' in cars
Dressin' it down
Hittin' on dudes
Hard

Got that glitter on my eyes
Stockings ripped all up the side
Looking sick and sexy-fied
So let's go uh oh
Let's go”

Believe it or not, music videos actually affect a viewer just as much as the song itself. Today, the music videos that are highly anticipated and shown on TV are most pop and hip hop songs featuring the singer and they’re friends engaging in drinking and partying and nearly half the women in them are pretty much half naked. That really gives a bad reputation to the younger generation who grow up seeing these images. But when you look at music videos by rejected metal bands, you find they’re more powerful and can really get you thinking, like “Another Way To Die” by Disturbed.

I’m pretty sure if everyone saw it the push for alternative energy and the push to get away from oil would increase tenfold. And “My Destiny” by Norwegian symphonic metal band Leaves’ Eyes is a beautiful short movie of a Viking warrior leaving for battle and ultimately destroying the enemies of his home while taking revenge for the loss of his love. Within Temptation is prominently a symphonic metal band but they just released a music video for a new acoustic single called “Utopia” that highlights the declining of morals and increase of violence in today’s society. It’s a beautiful song and story and it’s almost hard to keep in mind the people singing are generally seen head-banging.

Now looking at statistics and studies, it’s even further proven that there is either no link to heavy metal and issues with behavior, drinking, and substance use and also that such actions decrease when listening to metal. Teenagers and stressed college students use this music to get rid of their negative emotions and stress and motivate themselves; as shown in a study in 2007 when a bunch of gifted students were asked about their view of heavy metal. They all said that they didn’t consider themselves “metal heads” but said they used the loud, aggressive and motivational music to purge themselves frustration and anger. Heavy metal has also shown to actually decrease suicide in girls.

A music labeling system has been developed here in the United States that does monitor the content of music, giving warning for CDs that contain sex, violence, substance use, and strong language. The most labeled genre is heavy metal, for media and legislature focus more on them then pop and hip hop for they feel that no matter what is in it, if its metal, its bad. While that’s being monitored, pop and hip music that has a larger audience than heavy metal, is including sex, violence, drug use, and objectionable language in their music and is spread everywhere on radios, TVs, played in stores, and even restaurants thanks to their happy, cheerful beats.

It’s really funny really, because there has been some many studies that prove that listening to heavy metal does not negatively affect and individual and they carry warning labels even when the content isn’t negative and there has been little criticism of other music genres like pop and hip-hop, which carries worse content then metal. This makes adults and parents less likely to monitor what their children listen to on their iPods when little do they know they’re damaging their child more by having them listen to songs that have a negative influence.

Mainstream has shown to raise’s the risks of children getting into smoking and drinking and substance use as they grow up for they constantly hear and see their singers engaging in these activities and think “well if they do it, it’s ok”. It does make a lot of sense when you look at songs like “Bottoms Up” by Trey Songz, “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha, “Ride” by Ciara, “G6” by Far East Movement, and “I’m In Love With A Stripper” by T-Pain.

So as people are gobbling up music such as that while All That Remains, Disturbed and even underground metal bands from Europe such as Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, and Epica are singing about not being that person that goes out and parties all night till they can’t remember a thing, being the center of the spotlight, dressing as sleazy as possible, and sleeping around but being someone full of respect, dignity, smart, treating others with respect, and also singing about issues such as global warming, protecting the planet, and stopping genocide once and for all and being slandered for it and criticized. So stop for a moment before listening to Lil Wayne or Drake and take a moment and listen to one of the bands or songs listed here and you might see something different and maybe you’ll learn to love such a misunderstood genre.