VH1 and metal

[IronPlant]

VH1 does a fine job of chapping my butt with the way it presents the history of metal.

I'm watching "Heavy: The story of Heavy Metal" right now. It does better than past metal shows where they present hair metal as the be all end all of the 80s but they still rewrite the past. Even when one of the musicians that are in the know says something correct they go to the announcer who blares out some false romantic recording industry BS.

Does this bug anyone else?

And is anyone aware if there is a way to complain about this to VH1? And has anyone made a list of everything wrong with their colorful portrayal of the past?

 

[Braxil]

VH1 ist not krieg.

 

[High Speed Kurt]

It doesnt bother me. To average Joes and Janes on the street, 80's metal was hair metal. That's what everyone knows. The other documentary...from that anthropology guy (title escapes me right now) did a GREAT job of presenting metal. Hell look at the family tree listed on there, power and progressive metal were listed, and bands like Guardian, Sym X and Blind Guardian, edguy were represented. While he didnt go into depth about em, at least they were included.

Kurt

 

[the rhythm]

VH1 and metal=oxymoron.

 

[mëtålspëd]

VH1 and metal=oxymoron.

Say that 10+ years ago, and I would have agreed. VH1 is the most metal thing that we having going in the mainstream (Im counting their sister station VH1Classic too). Something is better than nothing.

 

[Yngvai X]

Headbangers Ball is pretty metal, although it may not be the metal most of us like...they still do play good metal videos.

 

[mëtålspëd]

Headbangers Ball is pretty metal, although it may not be the metal most of us like...they still do play good metal videos.

I can't even watch the new version of that show. I might see one video I like (unless its a special host who breaks out the classic stuff). It is a shadow of its former greatness. IMO the second coming of this show failed when they chose a hardcore musician as a host. uke:

 

[High Speed Kurt]

I enjoy the new headbangers ball. Its about 50/50. They do play a lot of crap, but Im one of those who enjoys Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God etc

Kurt

 

[jimbob232]

It doesnt bother me. To average Joes and Janes on the street, 80's metal was hair metal. That's what everyone knows. The other documentary...from that anthropology guy (title escapes me right now) did a GREAT job of presenting metal. Hell look at the family tree listed on there, power and progressive metal were listed, and bands like Guardian, Sym X and Blind Guardian, edguy were represented. While he didnt go into depth about em, at least they were included.

Kurt

The rights to that documentary were bought by VH1, they had no influence/input on the product.

VH1 still sucks a nut

 

[Midihell]

"Heavy Metal: A Headbangers Journey" was the documentary that was fairly decent and pretty accurate. I agree that to the average person 80's hair metal was what metal represented to them. We as a whole know better. So you have to look at the demographics that VH1 is trying to market to. Hence why you see a large majority of the videos they do show are 80's hair metal oriented. The old saying "You can't please everyone" comes to mind. I'm just happy that at least one of the videos stations even takes the risk to show metal type videos on a fairly consistent basis. It would be nice if there was a true metal station that played all genre's of metal. But there's no money in it, so that is something that will not come to fruition.

That's my take on it. Your mileage may vary.

 

[booB]

I enjoy the new headbangers ball. Its about 50/50. They do play a lot of crap, but Im one of those who enjoys Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God etc

I agree... in fact, I'd rather watch HBB than VH1 Metal Mania... most of the good videos on Metal Mania are ones that I've seen a hundred times anyway, and the rest is annoying hair metal. I've learned about a lot of good stuff on HBB... for example, I learned that the new Moonspell was f***ing amazing, I learned that the new Cryptopsy is actually listenable, and I learned that Demons and Wizards actually make videos.

 

[IronPlant]

I do not agree with the idea that it is ok to perpetuate exaggerations and lies if that is what a target audience will accept.

People need a chance to decide for themselves. There are people out there discovery metal everyday. Just this year I introduced some people to power metal and progressive metal. They really liked it and have been snapping up everything I'll let them listen to.

People aren't dumb. Give them a chance.


As for "Heavy: The story of Metal" I can't take anything about metal history seriously that barely talks about Iron Maiden.

What I find really sad is that it is obvious that 4 or 5 guys on the show know what is up. I knew D Snider knew what was up the second he said Dio was a great singer in Sabbath, as good as Ozzy. Agree with him or not, but mostly only serious metal heads would even think of having such an opinion. But the Narrator, or whoever wrote what he says, I want to slap that guy. So much obviously wrong stuff comes out of the guy. ugh

 

[Pellaz]

People need a chance to decide for themselves. There are people out there discovery metal everyday. Just this year I introduced some people to power metal and progressive metal. They really liked it and have been snapping up everything I'll let them listen to.

+1

I was able to convince a friend of mine, Drew, to come up from the wilds of extreme southern Fulton County to the Blind Guardian show in central Atlanta (an extra free ticket helped). He's more of a Pantera/Disturbed type of metal fan, so I wasn't sure how he'd take either Leaves' Eyes or Blind Guardian.

He really enjoyed BOTH bands, to the point of asking me to email him the names of other bands in the genre that he'd like.

It served as a reminder to me that maybe, just maybe, the music we all like here isn't as inaccessible to the mainstream as we'd thought. Maybe there's hope.

 

[Ruthven]

I do not agree with the idea that it is ok to perpetuate exaggerations and lies if that is what a target audience will accept.

People need a chance to decide for themselves. There are people out there discovery metal everyday. Just this year I introduced some people to power metal and progressive metal. They really liked it and have been snapping up everything I'll let them listen to.

People aren't dumb. Give them a chance.

I have my oft-told story that happened many years ago when I worked at a music store. There was one guy who came in who was looking for the latest Bush album or something like that. During the coversation, he remarked that he grew up with bands like Priest and Maiden, and loved the "hard" sound. The media was presenting those horrid neo-grunge bands as "the current face of hard rock," and this guy was just out of the loop when it came to the progressive and power metal scenes. Make a long story short, he left with an Iced Earth album instead of Bush and the knowledge that metal had never gone away.

VH1 seems to think that metal was an '80's phenomenon that died out at the beginning of the '90's only to be rekindled by nu-metal...I hate that attitude.

 

[3DimensionalAperture]

Say that 10+ years ago, and I would have agreed. VH1 is the most metal thing that we having going in the mainstream (Im counting their sister station VH1Classic too). Something is better than nothing.

LOL what a load of bullshit. I remember watching their "least metal moments" segment and hearing a guy saying "there's no room on this earth for Swedish heavy metal" during a piece of Europe (the band).

VH1 is made up of a load of old uninformed idiots who don't know the first thing about metal. The same is said about MTV2, but at least MTV2 doesn't present metal as a joke like VH1 does.

Over all, I'd rather have nothing than something uninformed and downright wrong.

 

[mëtålspëd]

Between the behind the music stuff on metal bands, to their various metal specials (like the one talked about above and 100 most metal moments), and various metal dvd showings (Anyone catch their lastest airing of the new Judas Priest dvd? I did).... and of course metal mania, Id say VH1 does a heck of a lot more for metal music overall, then you are giving credit for. But hey, it seems you like the pessimist role, so just stick with it.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

VH1 at least plays the kind of metal I want to see and hear. Same can't be said for MTV2 and the shit they play on "it ain't your daddy's Headbanger's Ball". I thought they did a pretty good job on that four hour documentary last night. It presented metal from a mainstream point of view, but what do you expect? It wasn't the history of UNDERGROUND heavy metal.

Only thing I found distasteful about it was everyone praising Ozzfest as the second coming. Bullshit. PPUSA stomps Snozzfest into a pulpy mess of a mud puddle.

 

[Burnout]

I enjoyed Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, I thought it was quite well done, though it wasn't perfect. Apparently Orphaned Land is supposed to be featured in the sequel though, so that's something to look forward to.

 

[IronPlant]

It presented metal from a mainstream point of view, but what do you expect? It wasn't the history of UNDERGROUND heavy metal.

I expect honesty. They went from one big industry hit to the next with no one in-between; acting like each one invented whatever sound. That kind of stuff is about as historically accurate as saying that George Washington won the US's independence by having a fist fight with King George.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

I expect honesty. They went from one big industry hit to the next with no one in-between; acting like each one invented whatever sound.

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Could you be more specific about what you thought was dishonest about the portrayal? Keeping in mind that they are trying to cram 30 years of metal music into a 3-hour documentary.

Case in Point:

I could have been offended that they completely ignored my favorite band Savatage, but time constraints and the fact that Savatage never really was a "mainstream" metal band help me overlook this major oversight.