Metal and accessibility

[Barking Pumpkin]

Much of the underground scene simply produces better music than the mainstream stuff. This can be extended to many other aspects of world affairs (as you point out)--economics, philosophy, religion, government, etc. Most people are ignorant towards the real truth of a given subject matter precisely because of its lack of accessibility, and they opt to believe something that better suits their fraudulent views.

Thus, I think the question of making extreme metal more accessible is backwards. Of course it shouldn't be made more accessible, since that necessitates the lowering of its quality; dumbing it down for the masses, if you will. I'd suggest that we strive to elevate people's thinking to the point where they're able to access extreme ideas. Instead of fixing the music, fix the people, since the problem lies within the latter and not the former. On a broader, global scale, this line of thinking deserves much attention, IMO.

That was very well said. Exactly what I think. You just can't force music on people (believe me, I've tried). But apparently, nowadays, to make something accessible, you must lower the quality. Just think about all of the things, not just music, but Government, Television shows, in some cases, even books. Just look at the reality shows on television. Or in campaigns for government office. A good chunk of the ads are attack/slinging mud type ads. In a more intelligient society, political ads would be focused on what the advertised candidate has to offer, not what the opposing candidate doesn't have to offer! I sometimes wish we could do away with all the record labels and commercialization of music, and just let music be music, but in today's society, it is a necessity, even for non-money making oriented bands that focus on quality instead of what's popular, they have to have distribution, touring, and other things.

For some people, music isn't important to them. A lot of these people are the people who listen to MTV type music. They just want music that is fun or that you can dance to, etc. I don't think they can be changed, it's just not important to them how talented an artist is or what else is outside of the spectrum of music they listen to.

Some people I think, music is important to them, but they just haven't had any exposure to good music, not just metal, but the only exposure they've had to music is through radio, television, etc. For these kinds of people especially it is important that they be able to be exposed to good music. This is why I think it is important to have a strong focus on music in schools, all kinds of music.

And some people, music is their life. I am one of these people. Most of my time is spent on the computer talking about and listening to music, finding new music, expanding my tastes. I spend most of my money on music. And if I'm not listening, I'm practicing guitar or piano (soon to be saxophone also). I know sometimes I seem monotonous to people because I talk about music a lot, because that's what I know. So I agree with the phoenix. The bigger issue is that society as a whole is just not intelligient enough. This has also been seen throughout history. But I don't think society will get smarter...

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Hmm...my now playing didn't get posted.

NP: G3 Jam - Rockin' In The Free World

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Well, if I was at all ambiguous in my other post, I want to make my stance absolutely firm now. This is after attending the Slayer concert in Myrtle Beach last night(actually, Slayer didn't play, which really pissed me off, but that's another topic entirely).

But some of the people I saw at the Slayer concert were the most redneck people I've ever seen. One of the people that was standing behind me in the line made Ozzy look like Einstein, and this guy looked like he was about that same age.

I guess this has been going on for longer than I realize, but this is the first time I've been to a show where there was really a hardcore/nu-metal audience there. I was just really disgusted with the nu-metal band that opened and Hatebreed, although I've been neutral towards Hatebreed before, seeing them live made me really not like them.

I've seen the whole angsty group of teenagers that listen to nu-metal trend at the shows, but this was new. This is like normal guys trying to be angsty, I didn't even get it. They were like "INNOCENT CHILDREN ARE BEING MOLESTED, LET'S MOSH."

In the case of Slayer, they have taken a smart music turn talking just from a business perspective, not a musical one. They have changed their music enough so that it attracts the group of nu-metal people, adding in non-intelligient lyrics, some groovy breakdowns and verse guitar segments. But they've kept enough of the elements of the old thrash so that they're still decent to some of their old fans. Kept the solos, a lot of the speed, and such. This is just based on hearing the five or so songs I got from their newer albums to be familiar with in their setlist. Of course since they didn't play, it didn't really matter.

So most of the Slayer fans at the show were relatively young and more of the Slayer/hardcore fans who were mostly wearing tour shirts from Slayer's tours for their most recent albums. I'd like to compare this with the show I saw back in October where Kreator was playing with some other bands. If I remember correctly, the Kreator fans their were mostly the type of people that were in their late thirties and had grown up with Kreator. Going to the Slayer show, I only saw one person that complimented me on my Kreator, 'Pleasure To Kill' shirt, and he fit the description of the classic thrash fan I mentioned above.

The other thing that annoyed me were the completely drunk people at the show, stumbling around, acting stupid, bumping into people. It's obvious the music isn't really mindblowing when a lot of the people at a show are to drunk to recognize anything but Hatebreed breakdowns.

So I'm all for musical evolution, but metal absolutely SHOULD NOT be changed so that it will be accessible to more people. After seeing the show(well, part of it) I have seen what it takes, and it is not good.