Why do people take metal so seriously?

First off; I haven't read the whole thread because the pages load so damn slowly, so pardon me if I just say things lots of people have already said...

I pretty much agree with the 1st post in this thread and I understand Sadude the way that he doesn't mean that it's stupid to be passionate about whatever music you like. It's when people start to for instance taking comments about a band personally it becomes stupid. I also find it to be stupid to be passionate about the flesh & blood people behind the music. What they create in music doesn't really have much to do with their flesh & blood or their autographs.

And to you people who say "But that's how it is with pop stars and movie stars as well!" I must say that pointing to another bad thing doesn't make the first bad thing better. AND Sadude also wrote in his 1st post that this metal worship thing is just like In Sync worship, so... needless to say, but: shut up.

It seems like many metalheads look at themselves as smarter and better than the majority who worships pop/movie stars but they do the same thing. What makes them think they are better? That they are "special" because they worship something that not "everyone else" worships? Is it better to be lame if you are lame in a not so widespread way?

These fans who kind of see themselves almost as some sort of warriors for the bands they like, saying that everyone who doesn't like these bands are stupid. They think they do the bands a favour, but in fact other people might dislike the bands instead because it's being promoted by lamos. These idiot fans takes it personally if someone says anything negative about the bands they like and they think they have achieved something themselves if the band is successful. It's like when people say "We won" if someone from their country won some sports shit contest.

This thing reminds me of that movie "The Wave", I guess most people have seen it at school...
 
monikaedv said:
That they are "special" because they worship something that not "everyone else" worships? Is it better to be lame if you are lame in a not so widespread way?
Maybe the reason some people believe metal is better isn't because it's different? Let's put it this way, I doubt many here would argue if I said Burzum are better than Limp Bizkit. I guess some people take pride in having a preference for things that they think are better than the majority of mainstream equivalents.
 
Hmmmmm, I haven't heard anything of Burzum that I would actually call quality music, but the little I have heard of Limp Bizkit wasn't either. I think both are crap, musically and image-wise... And hmmm, the messages they try to spread... Well, I don't know about LB, maybe their lyrics are just blatant self promotion so it sucks, but Burzum is nazi so it's even worse.
 
Guardian of Darkness said:
I guess some people take pride in having a preference for things that they think are better than the majority of mainstream equivalents.

But does LIKING something that is smarter or better than the alternatives give us any reason to be proud of ourselves? I can be proud of things I make or do, but I'm not proud just for having the tastes I have... But I'm open to hear whatever you might have to say about this
:Spin:
 
monikaedv said:
But does LIKING something that is smarter or better than the alternatives give us any reason to be proud of ourselves? I can be proud of things I make or do, but I'm not proud just for having the tastes I have... But I'm open to hear whatever you might have to say about this
:Spin:
You can only make or do things because of the physical and mental attributes you were born with. So there's no more reason to be proud of that than to be proud of your tastes, methinks.

I personally feel that Burzum have at times been musically magnificent.
 
Yes, that's true... I also think about that I have more reasons to be proud about what I achieve because I have to practice and fine-tune my abilities. But that can be said about musical tastes too... So I guess being proud of all these things are all OK as long as it's not being taken too far and you start to see gaining reasons to be proud as the purpose of everything you do

Burzum musically magnificent? By pure luck I guess hehehe...
 
Well, I used to really like this one tune of Burzum so I can admit that he had something there...

Anyway, the thing about metal being better than the typical MTV shit... Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. When speaking about musical quality, that is. Take for instance rap; some sampled and programmed monotone shit going on and on in the background and someone speaking and shouting. That's hardly music at all and I don't see a rapper as a musician at all. But I don't see someone who just growls in a death metal band as a musician either...

And those typical pop/porn stars (Britney, Christina etc)... yes, it's manufactured but I don't think all those power metal bands or whatever who sing about characters from Tolkien's books (or other stuff they haven't made up themselves) and play Eurovision song contest melodies are better than that Britney stuff...

Edit: I had written mp3 instead of MTV hahahaha stupid me
 
I want to discuss!!! Don't agree with everything I say! Hehehe, nah just kidding...

I once made a topic in a forum that was a bit similar to this, saying that the typical "fan mentality" (as described above) was stupid and people said they agreed, but then they went on to bragging about which metal artists they had met!!! It made me really wonder about whether I was on the wrong planet...

Anyway, I often wish people were generally smarter and didn't behave like that and I try to share some thoughts about it in hopes that people will question themselves about these things, but ususally it just ends up with poelpe misunderstanding me and getting pissed for no reason, so threads like these are unfortunately a bit of wasted time I think...
 
monikaedv said:
It seems like many metalheads look at themselves as smarter and better than the majority who worships pop/movie stars but they do the same thing. What makes them think they are better? That they are "special" because they worship something that not "everyone else" worships? Is it better to be lame if you are lame in a not so widespread way?
Well, I guess you generalise a bit, not everyone thinks that metal is better because it isn't as popular as pop music.
In fact, metal is almost pop music in some part of the world. I know some people who went in Spain, I think, and they told me that Mago de Oz was THE band to listen to. In Asia, some bands are popular like hell, sell thousands of copies, and I won't listen to anything else even though it's popular there.
I think that metal is in fact better, but there are some metal genres I dislike. Just having the possibility to do anything, to see the diversity and be able to put some intelligent lyrics suffice to lead me to think that metal is better than most of the pop music out there.
Anyway, why would we listen to metal if we don't think that it's better, for one reason or another, than other types of music ?
 
monikaedv said:
Well, I used to really like this one tune of Burzum so I can admit that he had something there...

Anyway, the thing about metal being better than the typical MTV shit... Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. When speaking about musical quality, that is. Take for instance rap; some sampled and programmed monotone shit going on and on in the background and someone speaking and shouting. That's hardly music at all and I don't see a rapper as a musician at all. But I don't see someone who just growls in a death metal band as a musician either...

And those typical pop/porn stars (Britney, Christina etc)... yes, it's manufactured but I don't think all those power metal bands or whatever who sing about characters from Tolkien's books (or other stuff they haven't made up themselves) and play Eurovision song contest melodies are better than that Britney stuff...

Edit: I had written mp3 instead of MTV hahahaha stupid me
Did you read the section of the post where Ultimate Symphony, SADUDE, and I were discussing whether metal was sophisticated or not? Just wondering, because I want to know how you feel about that. It was an interesting discussion.
 
Maybe i can clear a few things up here: The serious metal fan relies on Aristotelian logic; if metal is good, then everything metal is good, and thus all other music and music culture is bad. This is a very closeminded viewpoint, that many people are inclined to. Ive read that more than half of people are of this rather closeminded attitude as they are afraid of the world etc.

Thus, these ridiculous arguments that it is ok to be a crazed metal fan who takes only metal seriously, should be ignored.
 
monikaedv said:
Well, I used to really like this one tune of Burzum so I can admit that he had something there...

Anyway, the thing about metal being better than the typical MTV shit... Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. When speaking about musical quality, that is. Take for instance rap; some sampled and programmed monotone shit going on and on in the background and someone speaking and shouting. That's hardly music at all and I don't see a rapper as a musician at all. But I don't see someone who just growls in a death metal band as a musician either...

And those typical pop/porn stars (Britney, Christina etc)... yes, it's manufactured but I don't think all those power metal bands or whatever who sing about characters from Tolkien's books (or other stuff they haven't made up themselves) and play Eurovision song contest melodies are better than that Britney stuff...

Edit: I had written mp3 instead of MTV hahahaha stupid me

I THINK METAL IS AN EXAMPLE OF A HIDDEN VARIETY OF MUSIC AND WHEN PEOPLE HAVE A LARGER VARIETY, THEY NEVER GO WITH MTV.
I SAY THIS BECAUSE I HAVE SEEN IT IN MANY CASES AND I CANNOT TINK OF AN EXAMPLE WERE IT HASNT HAPPENED.
 
andrew_plamondon said:
Well, I guess you generalise a bit, not everyone thinks that metal is better because it isn't as popular as pop music.
I said "many" not "everyone" :Spin:

andrew_plamondon said:
Anyway, why would we listen to metal if we don't think that it's better, for one reason or another, than other types of music ?

I said it seems those who think the way I described seem to believe that they themselves are better because they like this or that band...

@speed: yes, you're right and there really is not much point in trying to make (stupid) people start thinking differently... so... hmmm... why am I discussing this? To feel superior myself? I don't know. I will shut up... :D

@anonymousnick: no, I didn't read that section, but I do think metal can be sophisticated. I don't really listen to many metal bands anymore but bands like Cynic, Aghora, Virus, Carcass (Heartwork and Swansong, that is) and Maudlin of the Well are pretty much what I'd call sophisticated.
 
Necro Joe said:
Trying to make people feel ashamed for being passionate about music is a pathetic waste of time. Try to "fit in" if you must but don't inflict your worthless populist way of thinking on the rest of us.


Are you trying to tell me that the depiction of metalheads as nihlistic dweebs with no social lives isn't generic? Trying to avoid being classed as a metalhead because your afraid of a stereotype just shows a severe lack of self-confidence.

I don't need to reply ot this or enagage in a pointless time-consuming flame war. All that I will say is your responses further prove the need for this thread. You obviously missed the boat here.