Ultimate Symphony said:
You DO realize that most music (other than jazz and classical music) nowadays is built around pop structuctures, right?
The pop structure isn't what makes the music unsophisticated.
But you did it yourself. You separated classical and jazz from the multitudes of other currently existing forms of music. As much as I love metal, I can see that there is nothing refined or respectable about going up on a stage and blasting "noise" for an hour. Even bands like Opeth, with their entire aesthetic devoted to creating transcendental music that overshoots boundaries and expectations, is limited in its sophistication. In fact, any sophistication in their music is due to the incorporation of the acoustic guitars, classical composition, and jazz textures.
SADUDE said:
The way sophisticated was initially used by whomever that brought it into the thread, leads me to believe that it includes social acceptance. I am more ashamed of the social baggage that comes with metal than the actual product itself. The image that metalheads have created. However, others behavior does not effect my listening experience. I don't need to hear any cliche live and let live type comments either. I will never defend metal or preach it because it is just as rediculous ideologically as anything else. I like metal but it has many flaws. It is without a doubt another form of pop music. Pop for angry suburban white kids. Just like rap is pop for angry minorities, and suburban white kids who think they're minorities. The main attack on here can be fully understood through watching the fans on the newest slayer dvd. The people who believe in the mystic power of the mighty dragonswordflame. The people who eat steele and shit metal. THe people who listen to usurper for reasons other than comic relief... Come on people admit that metal is just angst, unless we're talking rhapsody. In that case it is probably sexual frustration.
Sadude, you've hit the nail on the head. It's a delicate concept to adequately explain, but I think a lot of the cultural refinement and classy-ness that comes with the delicate tinking of a jazz pianist or the evocative serenade of a symphony playing Vivaldi is lost in metal due to the Neanderthal approach towards the music and the stereotype associated as a result. And no matter what,
that is how it will remain. Metal will always be minor in the grand scope and scheme of music history, because its culture is not rooted in the sophistication required to gain a foothold in the annals of history.
Even if all metalheads began wearing formal dress and headbanging/crowdsurfing/moshing was eliminated, the stereotype of extreme behavior being ubiquitously found hand in hand with extreme music would remain steadfast. As sad as it may be.
As long as I'm young, I'll don the metal tees, I'll speak the metal speak, and I'll go home and turn the In Flames and Godsmack CDs high. But when it's time to raise a family, or become a member of sophisticated human society, the noise must go to the place all guilty pleasures go.
The proverbial attic.
