Does one have to be a musician to truly appreciate and understand metal?

[speed]

Does one have to be a musician to truly appreciate the craft and many of the nuances of metal?

 

[stefan86]

i'd say yeah.
Most people who like nu-metal or St Anger or something like that dont know shit about what theyre listening to.

 

[Esteban]

I don't think so, metal can be appreciated at many levels.

 

[no country for old wainds]

I don't think being a musician makes a difference to whether you can appreciate the musical sound. However, it does perhaps give you a better perspective on the technical ability of a band. Personally, technical ability doesn't matter to me, I just care about the sound, but it does matter to some.

 

[Profanity]

Appreciating music is about listening and appreciating sounds.

 

[nergal_S]

In order to under stand whats going you would have to be a musician like i am.

But to enjoy it you could be any one.

 

[Profanity]

In order to under stand whats going you would have to be a musician like i am.

Anyone with a brain and ears can understand music.

 

[Life Sucks]

I don't think you have to be a musician to appreciate metal. You don't have to be a musician to be able to hear that technical metal is hard to play for instance. I do think that on the whole, people who are into metal are probably more musically inclined than those into non-musical music like mainstream hip hop.

 

[Profanity]

Anyway.

I played the piano for 5 years and passed grade 1 and 2.

I played the drums for 2 years.

I have a G.C.S.E in music.

I have been in 2 bands.

 

[nergal_S]

Anyone with a brain and ears can understand music.

How would you under stand what key a song is in, or weather its a major, minor, or - chord or important things like this?

 

[Nocturnal Emperor]

to a certain extent id say yes for the more technical bands but saying that i have a friend who isnt a musically skilled in anyway and has never touched an intstrument yet he likes dream theater alot.

 

[LuminousAether]

I do think it is impossible to completely understand certain musical themes unless you have some base of knowledge to build off of, but this base is NOT only created by playing music.

The musician having a deeper grasp on music argument may hold a little water, but it is not true to the extent that being a musician is necessary for true enjoyment and understanding of music.

Furthermore, to critique music, you do not have to be a musician and to even state this is ludicrous. The nonmusician opinion will actually be more agreeable to more people as musicians are not the majority. To critique a certain level of skill could be helped by the critic being a musician, but not much. For an analogy, does an amateur movie critic need to create a movie in order to criticize this popular form of entertainment? Must one create a video game before realizing that a certain video game is crap? Of course not, and the same level is easily transferred to music.

 

[nergal_S]

ok lets make it simple.
Certian chords have certian feels.

Any one can feel them.

But you would have to under stand music theory as to why they feel like that.

 

[LuminousAether]

But do you have to be a musician to understand music theory? Of course not.

And how the hell does knowing why something feels like it does even matter? Do you need to know the molecular make-up of a towel to critique the cloth that it is made of? If not, you don't know WHY it feels so soft and dries up water better than a sheet.

 

[Timmeth]

But do you have to be a musician to understand music theory? Of course not.

And how the hell does knowing why something feels like it does even matter? Do you need to know the molecular make-up of a towel to critique the cloth that it is made of? If not, you don't know WHY it feels so soft and dries up water better than a sheet.

Hmm, very true. I'm just going to agree with you because you pretty much summed up my feelings for me.

 

[nergal_S]

it matters if you want to creat that style of feal in your music.

 

[opacity]

then you don't apreciate and enjoy it but you use it (as inspiration). that's "working" with songs not enjoying the nuances and little details that make a song brilliant

 

[Jondur]

Anyway.

I played the piano for 5 years and passed grade 1 and 2.

I played the drums for 2 years.

I have a G.C.S.E in music.

I have been in 2 bands.

A monkey could pass grade II piano. And an amoeba could pass GCSE music.

I guess a musician and a non musician will get different things from the music they hear. I personally listen to Cynic in a different way than I would Autopsy.

 

[genocide roach]

yes
~gR~

 

[no country for old wainds]

I've played piano for just over a year, and I'm doing Grade 5, but I still know absolutely fuck all when it comes to the theory side of things.