What's your defenition of cheese?

[keifling]

I don't think the mere inclusion of trumpets constitutes a designation of cheese as someone noted in another thread, but I do have my own criteria. Plagiarizing a traditional song or nursury rhyme like yankee doodle or happy birthday and unsuccessfully attempting to disguise it as catchy power metal is what cheese means to me. Nobody is immune to the practice, as even the masters like early Helloween and Freedom Call are both guilty. Curious... how do you decipher?

 

[General Zod]

Cheese, for me, is largely created by the lyrics. I rarely view music as cheesy.

 

[TychoCelchu]

The more a band's image centers around things that are not part of a daily human experience, the cheesier it comes off as. Being very serious in your presentation when this is the case makes it more so. Having a sense of humor or tongue-in-cheek attitude about it is usually an effective defense or reducing mechanism.

In the overall picture, ALL metal is cheesy. All of it. Metal is inherently ridiculous. I love it anyway, and sometimes I love it BECAUSE of that, but I still recognize what I'm seeing.

Similar to Zod above, it's usually not the music that I find cheesy. It's usually a band's visual image and/or lyrics that put it over the line.

The shortest route to certain cheesiness is spoken narration.

 

[Magius]

I also consider lyrics to be the determining factor. Generally speaking, songs filled with cliches fall into that category. Raising swords, riding on wings of time, loaded guns / locked and loaded, rolling thunder, lightning striking, brothers in arms, renegades, steel wheels, flying to the sky / sun / stars etc.

 

[AngraRULES]

To me it's usually a combination of factors, but more often than not hard to identify. I know cheesy when I hear it, but that's just me.

And as far as the Freedom Call comment... Sure, let's just call them cheesy.

 

[Purveyor Of Evil]

To me it's all the metal music I love.

 

[mel_progson]

I think the ultimate form of cheese in metal for me is whenever a band uses the term 'metal', particularly in a song title. I automatically disregard any tune with the word 'metal' because of the cheese factor.

 

[VenomGA]

lyrics are a part of it, but to me...the band's IMAGE is the overriding factor in their CHEESE Factor...see Swashbuckle, Manowar, etc

 

[Mardoch]

The more a band's image centers around things that are not part of a daily human experience, the cheesier it comes off as. Being very serious in your presentation when this is the case makes it more so. Having a sense of humor or tongue-in-cheek attitude about it is usually an effective defense or reducing mechanism.

Hammerfall, I think that's what you're talking about there.

I generally agree with what's been said before me. Lyrics and attitude/image are the largest determining factors of cheese.

For instance, Hammerfall is pretty much always cheesy whereas Dream Evil is only sometimes cheesy.

 

[nomisofsiman]

To me it's usually a combination of factors, but more often than not hard to identify. I know cheesy when I hear it, but that's just me.

Pretty much my feeling on it as well. It's not something you can really define, but to me it's pretty easy to identify when I hear and/or see it. I'm surprised though that more people haven't talked about the cheesiness of black/death metal because God knows that can be as well.

I honestly don't have a huge problem with cheese. I prefer good lyrics, but I do have a thing for songs that contain a story as well. I just don't like badly written lyrics, which I think isn't necessarily having to do with fantasy-type lyrics.

Another thing that changes it for me is the tone of the band. Helloween for example, while some of their lyrics are cheesy, they don't exactly take themselves seriously either.

 

[Corsair]

Bal-Sagoth.


But, I love it.

 

[edgeofthorns]

I don't mind lyrics being "cheesy" if the band is having fun with it, as well as the listeners i.e. classic Edguy.

~Brian~

 

[adaher]

I find the ultimate cheese to be lyrics that are pretentious and overly serious. A lot of bands shoot for something profound, but most of them miss by a mile, making the lyrics hilariously awful.

When a band is shooting for cheese, and they nail it, it's cool. When a band is shooting for something more serious, trying to move the listener, and they miss, it puts bands like Freedom Call to shame. It's kinda like a bad movie. The worst movies are the ones that try to be something important and end up being unintentionally funny. Music is no different.

 

[AngraRULES]

it puts bands like Freedom Call to shame.

I think they did the job themselves.

 

[Pellaz]

Bal-Sagoth.


But, I love it.

+1




(I don't love typing in their song-titles. Cut-and-paste is my friend!)

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Milk-based food products.

 

[OrbWeaver]

Milk-based food products.

Yogurt does not = cheese
Ice cream does not = cheese

YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Shit.

 

[AngraRULES]

Shit.

That also is not a milk derivative.

 

[nomisofsiman]

Milk-based food products.

I knew someone would make a comment like this sooner or later on this thread.