The Purpose of Metal

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entanglement

entanglement

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Jan 30, 2006
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I was watching the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey the other day. Its quite a film. Despite having certain areas of improvement, it addresses almost every factor that makes up 'Heavy Metal' in the current day.

This thread is influenced from one of its sections called 'Fans'.

What is Metal to you? What do you need it for in your life? Does it solve a purpose of Soothing/Relaxing you? Does it even out the dullness in your life? Is listening to it similar to appreciation of art for you? Does it make you forget reality and, like Dickinson puts it.. enter a whole different universe of imagination?

Why is metal a part of your life?
 
the genre is a huge visceral thrill for me no matter what subgenre I am listening to

it functions as a form of escapism from the routine, boring, banal, and extremely predictable day to day life

psychologically speaking, it allows me to exercise all of my pent up frustration and/or rage in a safe and healthy manner (bodybuilding has the same effect)
 
There are more important things to me than music- I'm not trying to be critical of people who consider music a huge priority to them, I'm just saying that there quite a few other things that have greater importance in my life.

That said, when I listen to metal, it does feel like an escape for me. I love the way that a lot of metal tells a story / creates an atmosphere unlike any other. It's part of my life because it creates a fuller aesthetic experience that other forms of music, in my opinion.
 
ThisIsACoolName said:
There are more important things to me than music- I'm not trying to be critical of people who consider music a huge priority to them, I'm just saying that there quite a few other things that have greater importance in my life.
Click to expand...

This is basically true, but not as much for me as it is for most. I live and breathe music. From about a half hour after I wake up in the morning until I go to bed (with sporadic breaks in between of course) my iPod or cd player is playing. During school, I listen to it during most classes (some teachers actually care), and of course in between classes. I charge the goddamn thing more than anyone on earth. The battery is going to go very fast.

Metal means everything to me; it provides an escape; it gives me something to focus on when there is nothing else to focus on, I straight up enjoy it more than most things, so listening to it most of the day is, well, sheer enjoyment. I have ADHD pretty bad, and even at this age it is pretty active. Like I mentioned above, it gives me something to focus on, or block out what is going on outside so I can focus. It gives me something to analyze, to pick apart, to review in my head, decide if it was good or bad. The fact I love it is just a plus. I like to collect it, I have about 415 albums at this point, probably 310+ of them metal. I have not been listening to metal very long, either, so it feels like quite an accomplishment. Besides reading and writing (which have the same effect on me), it is the only thing I am truly interested in. Most people have a plan of what they want to do in the future, what they are good at, what kind of career they want to have. I don't. The three things I excel at are music (listening to it, making it, studying it), reading, and writing. I always thought about writing for some newspaper or magazine, I am not incredibly good at writing long stories. Mostly poems.

Whatever the cas may be, music is one of the few things that I have a firm and definite grip on.
 
music itself is an indescribable art, to the point that we invent a new culture full of new terms to try to come close to even pinpointing with some sort of clarity exactly what we are hearing.

that being said, metal takes this culture to its heights. we are tireless in our efforts to describe the distorted noise that we hear and hear as beautiful. our thoughts on conventional stylings that are meticulously carved out and polished until the real meaning is destroyed is one of disdain, if not pure hatred. we are akin to the raw feeling that we hear through the music that we love.

music to me is more than just a reason to vent. its a big part of my life. i'm in a music fraternity, and will be seen most often with music related shirts, cd's or news on the tongue. i guess to me, music is something i hope is in my life forever.
 
I don't believe that any art has an inherent purpose so the same would go for metal.

Music is probably the most important thing in my life (aside from my girlfriend) and I listen to music any chance I get (on average probably 16 hours a day) and spend roughly 2 of those hours each day reading forums, checking out new bands, extending my music collection, etc. I'm a music geek, basically. But I can't really pinpoint a concrete purpose it fulfills (I guess if I want to assign a purpose to it, it could be anything from "keeps me occupied" to "makes me happy").

But like I said, I don't really believe that art really has a purpose. It should be a personal expression of an artist and nothing more than that. If other people can find a purpose in that (by for example enjoying it) then that's great. But it should never be the purpose to begin with (or atleast not the main purpose). If a band or artists makes music purely so other people will enjoy it then they're more of an entertainer than an artist in my mind (which is infact the category that I would put a lot of pop music "artists" into).

And I wrote this about music in general rather than metal specifically because to me metal is just a subset of music in general and is not more special or important to me than other genres are (ofcourse it might be on any given day, but as a whole it isn't).
 
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