The publicity process that heavy metal releases go through is relevant to every fan. Without that process, the method of discovering new heavy metal to listen to would be the result of randomly going to live shows in hopes that a heavy metal band is playing, or hunting down unknown heavy metal musicians' websites and ordering whatever is available there without knowing anything about the band. Publicity is the way information gets spread about heavy metal, and in today's environment it shapes heavy metal itself. To be ignorant of the publicity process is to be a victim of it.
True heavy metal is not done with the intent of pleasing listeners; it is not done with the intent of making a record company executive happy. True heavy metal happens when a musician or five come together in a dank under-ventilated room to crank out some serious noise. They might even record it. But without the publicity process, nobody is going to know about it. Make no mistake, the popularity of heavy metal musicians and their ability to sell records or to go on any tour depends on the same publicity processes that any other performance artists rely on. Heavy metal has just been smart enough to develop its own internal publicity and distribution machines so as to be directly covered by the media most biased and dependent on the publicity process itself. Heavy metal musicians then get fed into this cannibalistic machine to be judged by those who have no outside perspective on what they're doing. When they break out of that insular, immature little world of media, the musicians always freak out and end up completely changing their way of doing things and lose their signature sounds. I propose that the entire problem of heavy metal losing its edge and integrity in the light of mainstream publicity is entirely the fault of the isolated climate of media coverage that heavy metal musicians must regularly contend with. Because the distinction between heavy metal media and heavy metal itself is so easily confused, when a musician discovers that heavy metal media is essentially lacking meaning, faith in and practice of heavy metal principles and sounds disappears. That is also why musicians that sell out are always clueless and puzzled by their former fans' outrage; the musician is merely occupying the scene that their new publicity is a part of, the same as they always have.
Kill your internet and burn your magazines to preserve heavy metal.
True heavy metal is not done with the intent of pleasing listeners; it is not done with the intent of making a record company executive happy. True heavy metal happens when a musician or five come together in a dank under-ventilated room to crank out some serious noise. They might even record it. But without the publicity process, nobody is going to know about it. Make no mistake, the popularity of heavy metal musicians and their ability to sell records or to go on any tour depends on the same publicity processes that any other performance artists rely on. Heavy metal has just been smart enough to develop its own internal publicity and distribution machines so as to be directly covered by the media most biased and dependent on the publicity process itself. Heavy metal musicians then get fed into this cannibalistic machine to be judged by those who have no outside perspective on what they're doing. When they break out of that insular, immature little world of media, the musicians always freak out and end up completely changing their way of doing things and lose their signature sounds. I propose that the entire problem of heavy metal losing its edge and integrity in the light of mainstream publicity is entirely the fault of the isolated climate of media coverage that heavy metal musicians must regularly contend with. Because the distinction between heavy metal media and heavy metal itself is so easily confused, when a musician discovers that heavy metal media is essentially lacking meaning, faith in and practice of heavy metal principles and sounds disappears. That is also why musicians that sell out are always clueless and puzzled by their former fans' outrage; the musician is merely occupying the scene that their new publicity is a part of, the same as they always have.
Kill your internet and burn your magazines to preserve heavy metal.
