Realizing I'm not a tr00 metalhead... and glad about it!

[Metal Overload]

One classic aspect of being a rocker/metalhead is being free to do what you want and that includes listening to what you want.

+1000

 

[TravisW]

I'll admit that there's tons of metal these days that blows right past my ears and...well...I just don't get it. I like plenty of other music, always have, but I'm pretty much likely to go for some sort of hard rock/metal if I need something that I know will work for me. Been a metal fan for 20-some years, but now that I think about it, I'm not sure I'd have ever been classified as "tr00".

 

[Episteme]

I don't think anything pisses me off about the metal scene more so than the actual fans. I've found myself listening to alot more acoustic, classical and jazz now than metal. Harry Hughes is right on the money when referring to people who listen to metal, it's the same way over here in Perth. I don't look like your regular metalhead, and actually half of my band looks completely out of place at a gig if it weren't for us actually playing it.

For me, it's a little different. I don't really enjoy alot of the mainstream music and listen to alot of "elitist metal" but I don't hold it against anyone, I do however appreciate pretty much every form of music and have ever since I was young. So that's not going to change.

 

[Melb_shredder]

Don't get me wrong. I still wear cargo pants most of the time and I have a fair few piercings/ rings I still probably look like one of the typical metalheads, but hey I actually just like wearing that stuff whats changed is my outlook/ general attitude. I just don't feel any desire to be one of THOSE guys who needs to Juno on every forum to flame trivium, or name drop like 20 bands no one has even hears of etc. I just go a out it my own way. And like Ermin said. If you want to succeed in tge music industry so to speak, then you can't really take that elitist attitude on board, that's not how the world works!

 

[Ermz]

Wow this thread would have been completely laughed at 5 years ago. Shows how much this forum has been diluted.

I'd say we're safe. The vast majority of members seem to keep mostly to some form of deathcore.

 

[StefTD]

What pisses me off is, as soon as somebody knows your listening to metal, everybody says your a metalhead,
but most of the guys who say "yeah, I am a metalhead" just suck cocks (almost as gay as Ola!).
That doesn't mean that everybody who listens to metal, has long hair and loves to drink mead from horns while
listening to metal is a dumbass (my brother still is one of these guys most of the time...) but I don't want to be
part of this, I am just a guy who likes music, not a metalhead, I don't wear cargo, I have short hair, I almost
never wear bandshirts (only at shows)...I have a tattoo, but that is related to music and not only metal.
A few of my bestfriends look like the most badass metalheads on earth, but none of them thinks like a "cliche"
metalhead, one of my friends for example, long hair, one of the coolest beards ever, wears bandshirts all the time
(I have never seen him without one!) leather trousers or cargo shorts, boots, has the Destruction skull tattooed
on his arm and so on, but at the same time he plays guitar in a pop rock band, is one of the most humblest persons
in the world, has a little daugther and learns jazz on guitar.

And I still would love to sing in a death metal band again and growl the shit out of my lungs

 

[abt]

Until now I never new there was such a thing as a "metalhead". Well at least not in the way you're describing them. Do those guy really take that shit that seriously? All the metal bands that I've met of hung out with are cool intelligent people. I know you're probably talking about fans and not so much the bands but until now I would have considered myself a metalhead. I love all that goofy fucking macabre crap and I seriously love ragging on commercial music but at the end of the day I don't take any of it too seriously.

Good music is good music. I've never been too interested in what genre it comes from. I grew up listening to the Stone, Queen, and the Beatles. I'm classically trained and write scores for film and television which can be from any genre you can think of. My music collection is just as diverse. I do love a good band shirt and have a pretty nice collection of band autographs from over the years. No long hair for me though, it's starting to fall out!

 

[Erratic]

wow.
The Same happened to me last year (althought I wasn't very narrowed in my musical attractions) I still see what you mean.

Congratulation! Now you can cut your hair and start being attractive lol.

 

[kvoid]

This thread is super fucking stupid. So you don't want to be a "metalhead" anymore? Good for you buddy, on you go to whatever the fuck it is, good luck and godspeed. Do I care? Fuck no.

And yes I listen to "true" metal and for me it is the only metal. As far as Australia goes, there's ten bands I know of that were pretty fucking killer, and I guess no one on this forum gives a reeking shit about (Hobb's Angel of Death, Gospel of the Horns, Sadistik Exekution, Bestial Warlust, Trench Hell, old Spear of Longinus, Vomitor and of course Destroyer 666 but they went to shit in my books as of late) I practically don't give two shits about the last decade or two almost. I do listen to other stuff much more than I do metal lately (becuase there hasn't been any that I cared about recently). Yes I wear leather and have a patch vest. Always will. That's how I wanted to be, I made my decisions. I never wanted to be a corporate dilbert drone dipshit. Did that make me an idiot? I speak 4 languages, went to college, have a job, and don't really fucking care what ANYONE thinks of me. What matters most is how you feel in your own skin. If you don't want to be in any way associated with people like me, want to look different, want to be one of the herd of billions of selfsame people on this planet, it ain't nothing to me and frankly I don't look down upon people regardless of their race, nationality, beliefs, and least of all the way they dress.

And I'm 29 almost, ain't gonna change anytime soon. To the average person I may be OTT ridiculous, but to me they're scary in their sameness.

 

[grywolf627]

I'll step on a lot of toes here, so be it. Just me being a cranky old man I guess (and glad for it) and I'm not taking aim at any one person in particular. Threads like this claim to be one thing, but in actuality...are another. You try to show how open minded you are, or you don't care if you don't fit in with a certain crowd anymore, etc. But really, it's just ego stroking. Basically you're saying: I used to listen to one form of music, because I thought it was uber-cool and I fit in. But now, I'm rebelling against that, because I've "grown up". But all you're really doing is either just moving from one form of acceptance to another....or trying to show you're somehow better than the "unenlightened" or "uncultured" people. Because you now listen to this and this and this (and proceed to give a lot of examples), it somehow makes me a better person than you. Blah blah blah. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music too. There's also a lot of types of music I can't stand. If you've really become enlightened, if you really don't care what others think or to fit in, or if you've really matured...you won't start a thread like this, or go on and on about it, because in the end....it just really, really doesn't matter.

/end gripe

 

[Line666]

This thread is super fucking stupid. So you don't want to be a "metalhead" anymore? Good for you buddy, on you go to whatever the fuck it is, good luck and godspeed. Do I care? Fuck no.

And yes I listen to "true" metal and for me it is the only metal. As far as Australia goes, there's ten bands I know of that were pretty fucking killer, and I guess no one on this forum gives a reeking shit about (Hobb's Angel of Death, Gospel of the Horns, Sadistik Exekution, Bestial Warlust, Trench Hell, old Spear of Longinus, Vomitor and of course Destroyer 666 but they went to shit in my books as of late) I practically don't give two shits about the last decade or two almost. I do listen to other stuff much more than I do metal lately (becuase there hasn't been any that I cared about recently). Yes I wear leather and have a patch vest. Always will. That's how I wanted to be, I made my decisions. I never wanted to be a corporate dilbert drone dipshit. Did that make me an idiot? I speak 4 languages, went to college, have a job, and don't really fucking care what ANYONE thinks of me. What matters most is how you feel in your own skin. If you don't want to be in any way associated with people like me, want to look different, want to be one of the herd of billions of selfsame people on this planet, it ain't nothing to me and frankly I don't look down upon people regardless of their race, nationality, beliefs, and least of all the way they dress.

And I'm 29 almost, ain't gonna change anytime soon. To the average person I may be OTT ridiculous, but to me they're scary in their sameness.

^ Disagree entirely and it makes perfect sense.

OP realises the glaring contradiction that the whole "I'm a non-conformist screw the world I'm gonna wear denim, cargo pants and listen only to unsigned gurgling bands that no ones heard of" is itself an entirely conformist thing to do because you're still obeying someone elses fundamentals for what predefines and anti- or counter culture mentality.

I think fundamentally if you want to be your own man it is difficult to be part of a subculture which in its most base form idealises closed mindedness and still maintains a generic dress code just like every other subculture out there. I have been victim of this too when I was younger and its a liberating feeling being able to drop the pretense and just listen to something with a chorus once in a while because you arent worried about loosing your self inflicted anti-cool badge. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

Sure you as an individual might like having long hair and wearing denim but should you do this purely because you so desperately want to identify with some sort of 'metalhead' tag? That's lame and no less conformist than a bunch of sceneys getting fad haircuts so they feel they can belong to something bigger than them; its that single burning human desire to belong burning holes in common sense. In a way I have more respect for the indie kids because at least they can belong to something without having to sit and shit on everything else like it's some sort of higher calling.

 

[Uros]

...

+1 to what ^^this old man is saying.
Generalizing is so fucking stupid, in any way or form. I play in a band, know people in other bands, and I record bands. A lot of them consist of metalheads. There was maybe 1% of them which act as morons, all others are cool cats, they just happen to have long hair and listen to metal.

-'Open-mindedness' (fake) is gay.

-People which 'overgrow' metal were never metal (meaning free in spirit etc.) anyway, they just used all those things which are a part of metal subculture, and were fulfilling their need to fit somewhere imo. I don't wear your typical metal clothes anymore (maybe sometime), but I am still a metalhead. A lot of other people is the same way too.

 

[grywolf627]

@ Owen: I agree with the basic sentiment of your statement. In fact, we have a lot of common ground. But there's just two issues I have:

1. These "indie kids"...aren't that independent. They're still in their own little subculture.

And 2: The OP may have become "enlightened" and walked away from "fitting in"...I'm not doubting or denying that at all. That's great. But, the need to publicly announce it...that's the whole of my point.

@Uros: Thanks for the support, but I'm afraid you missed my point entirely. Maybe that's what I get for trying to write something during my lunch.

In the end...music is just that....just music. Very subjective, very personal. And I think some (or many) take it way too seriously.

 

[Line666]

grywolf, yeah I feel you man, I didn't write any of that in reply to yourself and don't get me wrong I don't think the indie kids are independent at all I just think there subculture definitions are preferable to some on display in metal because they aren't based around the distaste for other genres.

I think my problem is that since when was metal "free of spirit" - fundamentally it's a music genre and that is the imposed ideology tacked onto it - not the definition or descriptor - metal is a genre of music and should be no more or less than that. I think thats the confusion here.

The problem is the usage of this "metalheads" thing as an identifier - it usually doesn't really mean anything apart from being a sub culture for people that don't like subcultures, which is in itself duly ironic.

Not identifying with a subculture is not the same as not identifying with a specific genre of music. I'm would never refer to myself as a metalhead but I still listen to metal when I feel like it, I feel that's less restrictive than just wholesale buying into some sort of tag because I predominantly prefer one genre of music at any given time.

 

[ratsapprentice]

grywolf, yeah I feel you man, I didn't write any of that in reply to yourself and don't get me wrong I don't think the indie kids are independent at all I just think there subculture definitions are preferable to some on display in metal because they aren't based around the distaste for other genres.

I'd have to disagree based on my own experiences, people taking the piss/talking down to me because of the music I listen to leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I do think the level of posturing is quite ridiculous a lot of the time though.

 

[Ermz]

One of the fundamental problems here is the continual association of music with subcultures. Too much importance is placed on music as some kind of identifier of self. This is not only socially regressive, but also the chief facilitator that the business-oriented have in order to continue prostituting the art. The more you form an image, lifestyle or 'scene' around something, the more you ultimately dilute the purity of the original pursuit.

If one were to simply divide the two... act as one wants to act, and listen to what one wants to hear, you'd rid a good chunk of vanity from these discussions.

 

[Line666]

I'd have to disagree based on my own experiences, people taking the piss/talking down to me because of the music I listen to leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I do think the level of posturing is quite ridiculous a lot of the time though.

Yeah that's a fairly anecdotal or experience based thing I guess but having been around a few indie peeps I've never seen them sit around and discuss whether something was tr00 or not. Anyway that's me just forming an "If I had to make a choice" scenario. Ermz pretty much summed up what I was going at in my last post there.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Yeah that's a fairly anecdotal or experience based thing I guess but having been around a few indie peeps I've never seen them sit around and discuss whether something was tr00 or not.

Nope not at all, that's more to do with the fact that "trveness" is a pretty unique concept that only exists in metal though. Their pretensions pertain to different yardsticks, and they are generally quite snooty and dismissive rather than aggressive. As you say though, that's just my experience.

 

[kvoid]

^ Disagree entirely and it makes perfect sense.

OP realises the glaring contradiction that the whole "I'm a non-conformist screw the world I'm gonna wear denim, cargo pants and listen only to unsigned gurgling bands that no ones heard of" is itself an entirely conformist thing to do because you're still obeying someone elses fundamentals for what predefines and anti- or counter culture mentality.

I think fundamentally if you want to be your own man it is difficult to be part of a subculture which in its most base form idealises closed mindedness and still maintains a generic dress code just like every other subculture out there. I have been victim of this too when I was younger and its a liberating feeling being able to drop the pretense and just listen to something with a chorus once in a while because you arent worried about loosing your self inflicted anti-cool badge. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

Sure you as an individual might like having long hair and wearing denim but should you do this purely because you so desperately want to identify with some sort of 'metalhead' tag? That's lame and no less conformist than a bunch of sceneys getting fad haircuts so they feel they can belong to something bigger than them; its that single burning human desire to belong burning holes in common sense. In a way I have more respect for the indie kids because at least they can belong to something without having to sit and shit on everything else like it's some sort of higher calling.

I wear patches of bands I like, not ones I hate. I may or may not be listening to metal at all at any given time. I've always listened to goth rock, post punk, industrial, punk, hardcore, also a lot of world music as well that I found had aspects of what I find interesting. I don't feel like it in any way compromises who I am. If someone has such feelings they're obviously trying to fit way too hard into a lifestyle that's just not for them. So they burn out and become average people with average tastes for average trash (Katy Perry is an example, no offense to anyone who likes her but that shit is just plain smut, Lady Gaga at least has some quirk to her music that keeps it interesting, the former, nothing in my books at least).

Yes "Metal" as a lifestyle trend is pretty fucking stupid, but at least it is not some politicized groupthink brainwash like extreme left/extreme right punk or hardcore. It is fairly innocuous and if you in any way feel like you've grown the music out I guess it was never for you. It sure isn't anything far too intelligent, none of these musicians have PhDs in philosophy or any natural sciences. Most of it is shit from the land of dragons anyway, pure adolescent escapism. To expect more from it is a little retarded. I like Metal, and I will never be ashamed of telling the world I do. I don't put on "faces" to succeed. That's behavioral indoctrination and compromise of me as an individual I am not willing to subject myself to. Will I wear a suit? Sure. Will I cut my hair for a job? Fuck that job then. You may call it not willing to grow up. I call it keeping at least some self-respect

In sum, this whole "I grew the fuck up and Metal is gay" shit is vain as fuck. No one fucking cares.

 

[HatchetDrummer]

I disagree with or can't relate to pretty much everything in this thread.

Thats because in the bay area its a way of life, not a "thing" your into before you hit 30...

For about 70% of the people out there, metal is the music you listen to when you trying to tell the world to fuck off when you in the age of 16-26. But for damn near everyone in the bay area metal scene, its not about anything other then seeing sick bands, getting fucked up with your friends, and releasing the energy from your shitty job and lame life, if that is the case...

Then again not many people get to hand out with the likes of Chuck Billy, and Gary Holt, Steve Sousa, Rick Hunolt, Eric Peterson... on a regular basis. Try to tell me that those dudes are just overgrown children trying to fit in a scene... ha ha get real.