The internet has done an amazing thing in that people can come together and express their opinions and a much wider scale than has ever been available in the past. However, instead of the internet being used as resource to further expand the consciousness of the civilization that established it, an invention that would give a single person the ability to express their opinion to a wide audience, has instead made that one person the first in line at the complaint department.
This is especially prevalent in the Metal community, especially on the internet. All we do is trash each other's opinion on a regular basis. This somehow makes us feel better about ourselves, as if we feel that by insulting one another it converts them to our way of thinking. We are not open anymore. What used to be a progressive and interesting genre of music with possibilities that seemed endless, has become a boring and redundant genre of music that is looked down upon because its "fans" refuse to let their favourite bands develop beyond the sound of their first album. What exactly are we demanding? No experimentation. No room for personal growth. No need to try something original. We want bands, that we don't even belong to, to produce what we want. We have developed an ideology that the bands work for us and that what we dictate is what they should follow. We want our bands to produce the same product over and over and over again because we are selfish. We do not want our bands to be successful commercially, although we want to be. We want to get the best job and make the most money, but we do not want the bands that we are the bosses of to accomplish that same goal. Some of us feel that way.
Others feel differently. Others want their favourite band to be successful, to be big, to be huge. We want our music to be in the conciousness of every day life. We want our music included on MTV. We want some attention also, and we want appreciation. However, when that happens, when a band does attain that position that they are recognized in the music industry as a force, we turn on them. Immediately. We are fairweather fans. We don't hang on to the music we have enjoyed all our life, instead we choose to live in the past. We want success, but we don't want success. We want approval, but we don't want approval. Honestly, we have no idea what we want.
Why do we behave like this? Why do we complain so vehemently when a snare drum makes a "pang" instead of a "snap"? Whoever said a snare drum was supposed to always go "snap" to begin with?
When did we develop rules that bands had to follow? When did we start labelling bands "black", "death", "nu", "speed", "thrash" etc? Labels do not promote growth, label's do nothing but constrict and restrain. Labels do nothing but segregate us, us metal fans. We listen and enjoy the same type of music, but because one person likes "thrash" and another likes "nu", childish name calling must automatically be strewn about by both parties. Such comments as "you hang around at the mall" or "you live in your parents basement" are exchanged consistently yet change nothing. Do we not stand on common ground any longer?
Metal will never flourish until we start taking our music and each other seriously, not selfishly. Metal will not expand until we learn to let our bands, our friends, grow and allow ourselves to grow with them.
By posting this will it change anything? No. Many people who read this will either have not made it this far. The ones who have will probably disregard and continue to behave the way that continues negatively. But hopefully someone reads this who agrees, and hopefully it does make one person consider something differently. A lot of us miss out on so much because we choose to remain with memories instead of creating new ones.
This is especially prevalent in the Metal community, especially on the internet. All we do is trash each other's opinion on a regular basis. This somehow makes us feel better about ourselves, as if we feel that by insulting one another it converts them to our way of thinking. We are not open anymore. What used to be a progressive and interesting genre of music with possibilities that seemed endless, has become a boring and redundant genre of music that is looked down upon because its "fans" refuse to let their favourite bands develop beyond the sound of their first album. What exactly are we demanding? No experimentation. No room for personal growth. No need to try something original. We want bands, that we don't even belong to, to produce what we want. We have developed an ideology that the bands work for us and that what we dictate is what they should follow. We want our bands to produce the same product over and over and over again because we are selfish. We do not want our bands to be successful commercially, although we want to be. We want to get the best job and make the most money, but we do not want the bands that we are the bosses of to accomplish that same goal. Some of us feel that way.
Others feel differently. Others want their favourite band to be successful, to be big, to be huge. We want our music to be in the conciousness of every day life. We want our music included on MTV. We want some attention also, and we want appreciation. However, when that happens, when a band does attain that position that they are recognized in the music industry as a force, we turn on them. Immediately. We are fairweather fans. We don't hang on to the music we have enjoyed all our life, instead we choose to live in the past. We want success, but we don't want success. We want approval, but we don't want approval. Honestly, we have no idea what we want.
Why do we behave like this? Why do we complain so vehemently when a snare drum makes a "pang" instead of a "snap"? Whoever said a snare drum was supposed to always go "snap" to begin with?
When did we develop rules that bands had to follow? When did we start labelling bands "black", "death", "nu", "speed", "thrash" etc? Labels do not promote growth, label's do nothing but constrict and restrain. Labels do nothing but segregate us, us metal fans. We listen and enjoy the same type of music, but because one person likes "thrash" and another likes "nu", childish name calling must automatically be strewn about by both parties. Such comments as "you hang around at the mall" or "you live in your parents basement" are exchanged consistently yet change nothing. Do we not stand on common ground any longer?
Metal will never flourish until we start taking our music and each other seriously, not selfishly. Metal will not expand until we learn to let our bands, our friends, grow and allow ourselves to grow with them.
By posting this will it change anything? No. Many people who read this will either have not made it this far. The ones who have will probably disregard and continue to behave the way that continues negatively. But hopefully someone reads this who agrees, and hopefully it does make one person consider something differently. A lot of us miss out on so much because we choose to remain with memories instead of creating new ones.
