The eighteen months since the last issue of LotFP has been the most interesting time of my life. I ended up leaving Atlanta (my home for twelve years) and moving back home with Mom in Florida for six months. I was hit by three hurricanes while I was there. Then I went away to Finland for three months. I'm going to be moving there permanently to get married at the start of 2006.
Along the way, I quit LotFP. It was finished. When I moved away from Atlanta, I did not give the post office a forwarding address specifically so all of the promotional CDs sent to me would be returned to sender and I could be rid of them. Hell, I stopped hearing a lot of bands. I bought one, maybe two CDs a month. I don't download. I have not heard jack shit in heavy metal lately, and I am hardly even experimenting with my purchases since I was not plugged in to release lists, news items, or any real information sources for so long. I had even stopped going to the message boards.
It felt so much better. It really did. I had been so burnt out on LotFP, heavy metal, and the need to hear everything that was out there. All of the terrible heavy metal was not my problem anymore. I did not need to listen to it; I did not feel the need to comment on it. I did not have to know it existed.
For six months, I was separated from my music collection. I learned to want to listen to music again and yearn for it. It was not a duty or a burden. To go so long without my music made me feel something was missing. I needed my heavy metal! To experience heavy metal during this time, I had to think about it. That was the entirety of my heavy metal experience. When I was reunited with my heavy metal, thought and music again became one.
I am actually enjoying heavy metal again.
A funny thing happened on the way to heavy metal writing retirement. I met pop culture. Radio. Television. MTV. I had not paid any attention to any of this since 1994. I went all that time without watching TV or listening to the radio. And then I faced it on two continents.
I saw Swedish and Finnish rap videos. Some person named 50 Cent is an international superstar. I saw Gwen Stefani videos and learned coordination is not necessary to dance. If this is the world of popular music, no wonder people catch on to 'metalcore' as their 'underground' alternative.
I saw Uranium. Headbanger's Ball. I saw The Osbournes for the first time in March 2005. Good to see the heavy metal put in front of large audiences isn't embarrassing or brainless.
Yes, that was sarcasm. And yes, I am horrified at what passes for music in the 'real world,' and I am horrified at how heavy metal is portrayed on television. Juliya? Sharon Osbourne? Are you kidding me?
I am 30 now. Heavy metal is a young man's game, and I realize I have gotten further and further out of touch with heavy metal's prime fan base as the years have gone on. The fact that I have hated more and more heavy metal at the same time its popularity was growing should be evidence enough, but the people making the important decisions in heavy metal are all older than I am. Maybe I'm not as out of touch as my negative reaction to the majority of albums would imply.
Heavy metal is reaching up from obscurity to reach the airwaves, tickling the feet of the pop culture wasteland, in the US and in Europe. But the heavy metal is not coming out right. It seems tainted. The mainstream that is again embracing heavy metal is the same mainstream serving 50 Cent and Gwen Stefani.
Looking at the world of heavy metal coverage with fresh eyes in 2005, I see that it has not improved since the idea for LotFP was conceived in the summer of 1998. It has probably gotten worse. Back then, there was a sense of investment from anyone wanting to step into the realm of heavy metal writing. Even if somebody was not a good writer, had no clue what they were doing, or did not have any brains, the passion for what they were doing was still there. Heavy metal was special, and people were going to know about it!
It was fun to be naïve.
Today, it is different. Between the growing popularity of heavy metal, the lack of investment a listener makes in their downloaded ear candy, and the ease of getting one's opinions out there via the web, I sense a lack of commitment and responsibility in writing, and a sense of desperation in talking about musicians that have honest prospects of major record deals and the possibility of financial success. As the heavy metal scene grows, the writers do not seem to be focusing on the musicians that have little chance to be included in this new popularity. It is the same musicians with realistic chances of MTV exposure and tours in big buildings that are still getting the underground heavy metal press coverage. There is no corporate/independent schism anymore! As the mainstream grabs hold of formerly unknown heavy metal, the identity and foundations of heavy metal are corrupted. The mainstream has taken hold of heavy metal before, and when it was done with heavy metal and threw it away (as it will do again after this trend peaks), the heavy metal scene hit the biggest depression in its thirty-five year history. We have not learned a single thing. Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
This issue won't be the usual interviews and reviews because heavy metal does not need more reviews or interviews right now. Heavy metal needs a readjustment. It needs to be reminded of its priorities. I will take a look at the assumptions of the heavy metal genre, break them down step by step, and ask questions. In asking these questions, I hope to step back and re-organize and solidify my thoughts about the genre of heavy metal. By presenting the questions and discussing possible answers, I hope that readers will examine the genre in ways they have not previously and ultimately come to conclusions about the genre that will lead them to be more critical and demanding about the music they listen to, leading to the success of the higher quality artists out there. I hope they will better remember heavy metal for what it is supposed to be in the onslaught of outside influence that is meddling with it.
I can dream, can I not? Dreaming is heavy metal.
Along the way, I quit LotFP. It was finished. When I moved away from Atlanta, I did not give the post office a forwarding address specifically so all of the promotional CDs sent to me would be returned to sender and I could be rid of them. Hell, I stopped hearing a lot of bands. I bought one, maybe two CDs a month. I don't download. I have not heard jack shit in heavy metal lately, and I am hardly even experimenting with my purchases since I was not plugged in to release lists, news items, or any real information sources for so long. I had even stopped going to the message boards.
It felt so much better. It really did. I had been so burnt out on LotFP, heavy metal, and the need to hear everything that was out there. All of the terrible heavy metal was not my problem anymore. I did not need to listen to it; I did not feel the need to comment on it. I did not have to know it existed.
For six months, I was separated from my music collection. I learned to want to listen to music again and yearn for it. It was not a duty or a burden. To go so long without my music made me feel something was missing. I needed my heavy metal! To experience heavy metal during this time, I had to think about it. That was the entirety of my heavy metal experience. When I was reunited with my heavy metal, thought and music again became one.
I am actually enjoying heavy metal again.
A funny thing happened on the way to heavy metal writing retirement. I met pop culture. Radio. Television. MTV. I had not paid any attention to any of this since 1994. I went all that time without watching TV or listening to the radio. And then I faced it on two continents.
I saw Swedish and Finnish rap videos. Some person named 50 Cent is an international superstar. I saw Gwen Stefani videos and learned coordination is not necessary to dance. If this is the world of popular music, no wonder people catch on to 'metalcore' as their 'underground' alternative.
I saw Uranium. Headbanger's Ball. I saw The Osbournes for the first time in March 2005. Good to see the heavy metal put in front of large audiences isn't embarrassing or brainless.
Yes, that was sarcasm. And yes, I am horrified at what passes for music in the 'real world,' and I am horrified at how heavy metal is portrayed on television. Juliya? Sharon Osbourne? Are you kidding me?
I am 30 now. Heavy metal is a young man's game, and I realize I have gotten further and further out of touch with heavy metal's prime fan base as the years have gone on. The fact that I have hated more and more heavy metal at the same time its popularity was growing should be evidence enough, but the people making the important decisions in heavy metal are all older than I am. Maybe I'm not as out of touch as my negative reaction to the majority of albums would imply.
Heavy metal is reaching up from obscurity to reach the airwaves, tickling the feet of the pop culture wasteland, in the US and in Europe. But the heavy metal is not coming out right. It seems tainted. The mainstream that is again embracing heavy metal is the same mainstream serving 50 Cent and Gwen Stefani.
Looking at the world of heavy metal coverage with fresh eyes in 2005, I see that it has not improved since the idea for LotFP was conceived in the summer of 1998. It has probably gotten worse. Back then, there was a sense of investment from anyone wanting to step into the realm of heavy metal writing. Even if somebody was not a good writer, had no clue what they were doing, or did not have any brains, the passion for what they were doing was still there. Heavy metal was special, and people were going to know about it!
It was fun to be naïve.
Today, it is different. Between the growing popularity of heavy metal, the lack of investment a listener makes in their downloaded ear candy, and the ease of getting one's opinions out there via the web, I sense a lack of commitment and responsibility in writing, and a sense of desperation in talking about musicians that have honest prospects of major record deals and the possibility of financial success. As the heavy metal scene grows, the writers do not seem to be focusing on the musicians that have little chance to be included in this new popularity. It is the same musicians with realistic chances of MTV exposure and tours in big buildings that are still getting the underground heavy metal press coverage. There is no corporate/independent schism anymore! As the mainstream grabs hold of formerly unknown heavy metal, the identity and foundations of heavy metal are corrupted. The mainstream has taken hold of heavy metal before, and when it was done with heavy metal and threw it away (as it will do again after this trend peaks), the heavy metal scene hit the biggest depression in its thirty-five year history. We have not learned a single thing. Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
This issue won't be the usual interviews and reviews because heavy metal does not need more reviews or interviews right now. Heavy metal needs a readjustment. It needs to be reminded of its priorities. I will take a look at the assumptions of the heavy metal genre, break them down step by step, and ask questions. In asking these questions, I hope to step back and re-organize and solidify my thoughts about the genre of heavy metal. By presenting the questions and discussing possible answers, I hope that readers will examine the genre in ways they have not previously and ultimately come to conclusions about the genre that will lead them to be more critical and demanding about the music they listen to, leading to the success of the higher quality artists out there. I hope they will better remember heavy metal for what it is supposed to be in the onslaught of outside influence that is meddling with it.
I can dream, can I not? Dreaming is heavy metal.
