Metal as Anti-Establishment?

[Lies and Perfidy]

Goddamnit, Demiurge, now I want nonpareils.

The sad thing is, this was actually a pretty good idea for a thread before the idiots weighed in. Lemme try and scrape something together to add to the intelligent discussion that's survived. My opinion is that like most revolutionary ideas, metal started out as anti-establishment, both against current musical trends and expressing distate for many societal ones. Then it formed its own establishment, turned in upon itself, and split into factions concurrently rebelling against and supporting the codes its set down for itself.

Thrash has always been an anti-establishment genre in the sense of rebelling against political and religious structures, but at the same time the codes it defines for itself are particularly rigid. (Witness my signature. PH34R T3H GU1LL0T1N3!) That's my particular area of expertise there, if anyone else would like to weigh in on other genres...

Maybe we should discuss metal culture/society and what it reflects sometime. This board as a microcosm of it is pretty interesting.

Now for some tasty nonpareils.

 

[Nyrlathotep]

If we didn't have democracy we would have fascism or some other form of totalatarionist government. There will always be those who try to take control, and democracy helps to regulate the amount of control and power these figures have. This way at least those in power are held in check.

 

[King Fear]

Nope, metal ist not "anti-establishment"; to the contrary, it is - or, has become - itself an establishment with very strict and fixed rules, the non-observance of which will lead to your exclusion from the "scene". Interestingly, this always seems to be the case with once-revolutionary youth movements.

 

[EternalEnemy]

Well, i do think that metal does support being free of wrong kind of control. Maybe not all-out-against-society, and less like that than punk. I dont think its against democracy or society and i dont think that the "idea" is to go back to the stone age into complete chaos. I think metal is just against the abuse of byrocracy.
I also think that metal is more about the aggression and strictness on the unbendable attitude. I mean if you think what is the "heavy metal ideology", i would not dare to say im wise enough to tell you, but my idea is that you refuse any oppression and fiercly strike back.

At least thats how i would like to think.

 

[EternalEnemy]

Oh and the christian moral values would usually be seen as one enemy of individuality.

 

[ProjectedBlack]

If we didn't have democracy we would have fascism or some other form of totalatarionist government. There will always be those who try to take control, and democracy helps to regulate the amount of control and power these figures have. This way at least those in power are held in check.

Held in check? How so? What people fail to understand is that this system we have, "democracy" as we call it is far from freedom. Maybe our governments don't control us through direct brute force but they have many other methods. The American (and other Western systems) give us few options of who to vote for and makes it extremely hard for candidates outside of the two main parties to run an effective campaign. In the most basic sense, you have to be an elitist member of society to ever hold any significant office.

While many claim themselves as Republicans or Democrats they don't really see the bigger picture. The methods are different but the goal is the same, to get them and their leaders money and power. That is why neither party ever picks good candidates to run for President or Congress, it's all a political game, with no real beliefs or idealogy.

 

[infoterror]

To what extent do you agree that metal is anti-establishment music?

Which establishment? Liberal democracy - yes, it is.

 

[Nightendday]

This is an inappropriately unintelligent thread.

Anti-establishment is too vague a term to describe a genre. It is infact paradoxical if not limited by time.