I don't know that just putting out the sophisticated stuff is the way to go for something like this. Is the selection supposed to impress somebody or is it supposed to reflect your tastes?
Either way, I don't know that the albums to display would be ones I want to listen to.
Fair enough, I was thinking more along the lines of educating the misinformed.
I suppose the idea behind it is to demonstrate where metal is today and whether random people can ever approach it seriously. Here's two examples of where demonstration
might be apt:
1. Someone in the office asks what music you listen to. It's clear that this person doesn't know the first thing about music other than what's playing on the radio in his/her morning drive. You either (a) get out of feeling awkward by saying "hard rock", or (b) claim to like "heavy metal" and await the obvious response of "oh you mean bands like Nickleback and Korn"?
-- scenario 1, otherwise known as the "lost cause" syndrome probably wouldn't need a demonstration haha --
2. Someone who used to listen to metal when it was in the mainstream, and basically didn't chase it into the underground circa 1992. Basically, the last real metal album they might have listened to is some red neck crap like Pantera or Megadeth's "Risk". This person might need some education on how the genre's progressed.
I know LOTS of people who fit into category 2. I was at the Donington Monsters of Rock in 1988 surrounded by 110,000 British metal fans. I would guess that 90% of them didn't even know real metal was still around today.
In that regard, I bring up "coffee table" metal. This is stuff to show that metal doesn't automatically equate to Judas Priest's "Ram it Down", Nightwish, or Hammerfall. Like I said, keep the guilty pleasures out of it.
You see, if Jazz folks get their Miles Davis and John Coltrane, their highbrow audience and their contemporary scholars, and likewise have the subject taught at ivy leagues, alongside the usual supposed high brow classical affecianados, it would be interesting to see whether metal could gain similar respect. I know it wouldn't in reality but I'd at least be intrigued by the results of seeing how people would take to it.
An accomplished jazz pianist once told me that they were amazed when by pure chance, they came across the Hellhammer demo video on youtube. They said they had never seen or heard anything like it. I guess it was just nice to see someone 'non-metal' earn a tad more respect for something that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Now of course, if I was still 19 and a 'thrash metal terrorizer', I wouldn't care about all of this, ha.
