Metal: The music genre of choice for the gaming community?

[EatPieYes]

If you're gonna boil down my musical taste into genres: Post-bob Jazz, Alternative, Math Rock, little bit of Prog and Indie.

I mostly despise metal; it's, more or less, about anger and hatred. Nice in small doses, everybody feels violent emotions sometimes, but get stuck in it and you'll get rotten down to the core (metaphorically speaking).

 

[Keava]

Really? Everything tatgeted at teens in England appears to be full of indie music and other assorted arse.

Pretty much in Poland you can divide the 15-24 demographic into 40% metal 45% hip hop 15% reggae. Not to mention metal got to be the 'media' favourite few months ago when leader of Behemoth started dating a pink self-proclaimed queen of local pop. For several weeks every tabloid wrote about Nergal and his bride-to-be.

 

[katsumoto03]

Avenged Sevenfold is probably my most listened to band, but I enjoy most forms of music in one way or another.

If I want metal, A7X.
If I want classic rock, I listen to the Beatles
If I want rap, I listen to Hollywood Undead
If I want Irish folk, I listen to The Blood of Cuchulainn (a song)

So no, I wouldn't really call myself a 'metal head', merely someone who enjoys certain songs in the genera.

 

[Dylan Voyda]

I would say rock in general instead of just metal, along with techno. Everything else is also to a certain degree.

 

[PUR3_GAM3R33]

Was never really a fan of Metal,not that its bad or anything I just prefer Techno/Trance/whatever Gorillaz counts as.

 

[The Afrodactyl]

I'll listen to anything except rap.

For instance, on my mp3 player, Noisettes -> Slipknot.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

As my English teacher put it...

The large portion of 'hardcore' gamers and metal heads stem from the same background.

Your average middle class white kid. This is not to be racist and I know there is a lot of diversity but it is a key area in both metal fans and hardcore gamers.

So it just makes sense there would be a fair amount of overlapping.

Plus there is nothing like playing Halo to some crazy ass Japanese metal.

Mainly this. Gamers and Metalheads are both the type of people who mainly reject the dominate social culture of their time and instead turn to an alternative culture.

Although I thought that more techno/electronic music was the choice music for gamers. For obvious reasons.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

To me, nothing at all is better than Iron Maiden. While I do listen to a LOT of metal, mostly black metal, I listen to just about everything to some extent. Even some country.
The general rule for me is, if it isn't just released to sucker in thousands of dollars from naive teenagers, then I'll listen to it.

 

[MrSaber]

Well when i do listen to music when i game its usually Dream theater or Rush so i dont have to find another song in the middle of a game (Yay 20 minute songs!!!)

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Nothing says FUCK YEAH like listening to some ATR or KSE while playing MW2.

 

[Chewster]

I prefer Bands like Radiohead, The killers, Arctic monkeys etc... to metal bands.

Yeah, ditto. I'm more of an indie rock sort of guy, with a good portion of various genres of electronic music and old-school/90s punk thrown in to boot.

I actually don't much care for most metal, as I find it to be a strange mix of power-fantasy wankery and guitar showboating. The only way I could see anyone enjoying it is ironically because it seems so ridiculous.

But, just my opinion and certainly not the last say.

 

[Flishiz]

I have to disagree. I think rap is an equally valid gamer music choice, seeing as the glut of rap games, from Def Jam Icon to the 50 Cent things.

Basically all I'm saying is that while metal is prevalent, it's by no means dominant.

If we take this forum as a fairly good sample group for gamers, considering that "the metal thread" was 20 or so pages long and anti-rap threads turn up fairly regularly, I think metal definately seems to be the trend. Even though its not universal, the proportion of metalheads here seems to be much higher than in any other sample group.

While I do think your argument carries many points of validity, I do have to say that the sample of a single website, however large and arguably intelligent, is only a small scope of all gamers.

 

[the Dept of Science]

I have to disagree. I think rap is an equally valid gamer music choice, seeing as the glut of rap games, from Def Jam Icon to the 50 Cent things.

Basically all I'm saying is that while metal is prevalent, it's by no means dominant.

If we take this forum as a fairly good sample group for gamers, considering that "the metal thread" was 20 or so pages long and anti-rap threads turn up fairly regularly, I think metal definately seems to be the trend. Even though its not universal, the proportion of metalheads here seems to be much higher than in any other sample group.

While I do think your argument carries many points of validity, I do have to say that the sample of a single website, however large and arguably intelligent, is only a small scope of all gamers.

Fair point. In reply, I would say that when you are talking about gamers as a whole, you are now talking about a very large section of the population. I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of people aged 10-30 play videogames. The fact that there are rap leanings in this sample group is mainly because rap is the most popular genre at the moment.
This forum is more of a sample of GAMERS* not gamers or "gamers" or people who's friend owns an X-Box. Like, people who devote a serious amount of time to playing and discussing games. And in this forum, there definately seems to be trend towards heavy metal.

*as implied by the term "gaming community", like how you wouldn't refer to everyone that listens to the occaisional indie album as a "member of the indie community", only the ones that are seriiously into it

OT: My theory is that they both have something to do with nerdery. (Sorry about poor sampling again but...) I do physics for a degree and it seems that a good 20% of the people in my lectures are ostensibly into metal (ie. I see them following the fashion). This proportion is far far higher than I see just walking around and about my uni or attending my non-physics lectures (there is not a single metalhead in my philosophy lectures).
Nerds just seem to have latched onto heavy metal in the same way that they have latched onto sci-fi/fantasy books. I can hazzard a guess at a few reasons. Metal is a genre generally by outsiders for outsiders. It can be complex, not just musically, but in trying to keep track of all the different movements, bands etc.

 

[Nifty]

I don't like this notion that because you play games, you have to listen to a certain type of music. I know I'd sooner take Simon & Garfunkel over something like Slayer any day. Saying that, I'd rather chew the skin off my hands than listen to Slayer so that's not saying very much.

 

[TeeBs]

I find certain jazz tracks to be more fitting to the game then metal, but then again I find the characters in cowboy bebop, who borrow heavily from film noir, more bad ass then massive muscles and I like to think the character I'm playing as to have a more subtle sentimental side.

Also I dont really care for metal unless its Jazz, Post, Sludge and a few Metalcore and Prog Metal groups.

 

[The Fork of Truth]

I'm a folkie personally. Not wanting to sound snobbish, but I suspect I'm in quite a minority there. I quite like Sabaton though.

 

[ElTigreSantiago]

I dont see many gamers or hardcore gamers into Black Metal or Death Metal...

I prefer pop/punk and a bit of post-hardcore.

I actually dislike metal due to the (generally) samey nature of each and every song.

Why is that everyone who dislikes Metal always says that its samey when its acctually NOT samey at all.

I saw Porcupine tree live in concert. Every song was exactly the same. This is the same case with most songs I hear.

I say it because it is what I hear. Just like you probably hear music I like and think it whiny and emo, when most of it isn't at all.

Its what I hear based on my own likes and dislikes.

Partner, I've never even heard of "Porcupine". Just because some random band played similar songs in their setlist doesn't mean all metal is the same. There's an immeasurable difference between Lamb of God and Electric Wizard, or Amon Amarth and Dimmu Borgir. The only thing that's "samey" about metal is it's all fucking awesome. Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_subgenres .

As for the correlation of metal and gamers, I'd say it's because us gamers and us metalheads are usually different people than the rest of the normal mainstream kids. And also, metal's aggressiveness usually goes great with a game.

I for one listen to different stuff depending on what I'm playing.

Halo or other FPS: Lamb of God and other fast, brutal metal.
Saints Row 2 or GTA: Gorillaz, Daft Punk and a bunch of electronic. I feel it fits the city.
Dragon Age, Oblivion-style RPGs: Amon Amarth. The songs fit perfectly.
Mass Effect 2: Techno and electronic. It fits the space age feel of the game.