What's with the negative view on rock/metal music?

[Silent Anima]

As a metalhead, I can say that we frequently make ourselves an easy target for negative attention. Even I frequently get pissed off at the amount of blatant, deeply insulting religious intolerance in the genre.

I think most of it is for shock value. Though there are examples of bands calling out religion for it's faults instead of mindless bashing. Take this song:

Spoiler: Lyrics

State of condition comatose burn victim
The deaf blind paralyzed blight
Pure decision to end the suffering of those
That cannot win the fight

So what'd you do, so what'd you do
With your god the fat you chewed
And from his silence to your faith infer
To split the hair and watch them suffer
And still, you say "you're playing god" "in the name of god"
"for the love of god" ...goddamn you

Opposition to prolonged life decision
By the man who calls himself right
Holier than thee, you go breaking your creed
Solely perceived on your false insight

chorus

As her eyesight fades
In the dark she'll curse your name
His hearing dissipates
Now in silence he'll curse your name
The man under a bullets reign
They will all curse your name
The child defaced by flame
They will all curse your name

Ryan solo
Time passes and the nation of god refuses time is wasted on a contradicting point
They taste their flexible morality and choke on the bitter reality

Greg solo
Ryan solo
Greg & Ryan

State of affliction derails your conviction
By the man at first who wasn't sold
Your position faces the opposition
Now a victim of your misguided mold

chorus

Greg solo

Spoiler: Story behind song

From singer Ezra Haynes: "The song Biomech was influenced by a Coloradoan girl who at a young age was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia, or ONH, a condition where optic nerves don't develop properly in the womb. As a result of that and facing total blindness, she needed to find treatment and that's where stem cell research comes in. Stem cell research being the highly controversial subject that it is in United States led her to seek treatment in China funded by fundraisers held in Colorado. By using stem cell research Chinese scientists were able to grow the optic nerve needed for her vision. The approach taken in writing the lyrics to Biomech is putting yourself in the shoes of the struggle, not being able to find treatment for your illness due to someone else's beliefs. Ultimately the naysayer ends up with an illness in which a stem cell procedure is their only hope."

 

[CrystalShadow]

When people who dont listen to metal think of what metal is, they think of this...


This is pleasing to my ears, but the vocalist doesnt sound like, you know, actuall singing. And of course, hyper violent and all that shit.

They dont know about all the other types of bands out there. Its more of a pre-consived notion than anything else.

Hmm. I don't tend to like metal, but that sounded alright.

The thing is, the songs I have heard generally hurt my ears to listen to.
To be honest, punk songs are frequently a lot worse for that...

But my point is, listening to some of these songs can feel similar to listening to someone scraping their fingernails across a blackboard.

That's an incredibly unpleasant noise to most people, and I while people certainly have varying tastes, you can't expect someone to like something that to them sounds like a form of audible torture.

The wider problem of course, is that it only takes a handful of bad songs to result in a person writing off an entire genre by association.

Or, of course, the actual difference in taste.

A friend of mine tried to get me to listen to a punk rock song... She found the lyrics really good or something.
Anyway, to her, it was some kind of amazing song with great lyrics.

To me... It was noise that was physically painful to listen to, and whatever the lyrics might be about was impossible for me to determine, because I couldn't understand a single word of it.

All that really says in the end though, is just how extreme differences in musical taste can actually get.

And it can be difficult to understand from both sides.
If you love it, you might fail to see how it could effectively constitute a form of torture for another person.
And if you find it painful to listen to, you'll have a hard time understanding how anyone could possibly like it.

 

[Silent Anima]

The best kind of Metal to show to detractors is Power Metal, provided you can get them to read the lyrics at the same time. Most people think shredding and pounding unilaterally leads to singing about demons and scantily-clad succubi and, well, generally everything that ends up in a typical Cradle of Filth song. Bands like Helloween, on the other end, are typically steeped in Tolkien-based hero worship and maintain a largely positive outlook on things. The same goes for Italian Metal (i.e. Rhapsody), where ending up with an operatic finish about some sort of epic clash between a single wizard against an entire army is fairly commonplace.

There's plenty of Metal subgenres that absolutely don't wallow in doom and gloom, but they naturally don't get much circulation. The mainstream media tends to give more attention to anything that's borderline Screamo or that makes Trent Reznor's melodramas look like a half-hour spent watching the Teletubbies.

Completely agree about power metal. Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, and Stratovarius (gotta love 'dem Finns) were three of my gateway bands that got me into metal. I listened to bands like Metallica too, but power metal is where my heart is. It's one of the less "offensive" and more approachable sub-genres (except for maybe folk metal for those that are into the folky stuff). It's metal, but it doesn't "scare" people so much. Power metal has upbeat (sometimes fantastical) tempos and themes, aren't as loud, not known for screaming or Satanic themes, etc. I mean, bloody Nightwish has certain songs/lyrics rooted deeply into mythology, fairy tales, classic literature, and DISNEY (as well as the entire song Fantasmic, which is deliciously stuffed with it).

You mention Tolkienesque lyrics, and all sorts of bands, but don't include The Bards? For shame sir. You can't talk about Power Metal without at least a passing mention of Blind Guardian, it's complete heresy to do so!

And for those of you wondering, here's some songs from them.

Spoiler

While Power Metal is one of my most favorite genres of metal, I must say I wasn't to attracted to it at first. I wasn't used to those type of vocals. But now, like I said, I love it! And as long as we're plugging our favorite bands...

Spoiler: Lost Horizon FTW!!

And we can't leave out Highlander!

 

[Jazoni89]

BMTH are still metal. They've gotten less heavy since their debut album but they're still metal...
And I'm not really sure why people think metalcore is closer to hardcore than metal. Listen to a hardcore band, listen to a metal band, then listen to a metalcore band. In most cases metalcore will sound closer to metal. It just doesn't have the same intense, claustrophobic energy and raw guitar sound.

I might be listening to the wrong metalcore then. The metalcore bands I've listened to sounded closer to post-hardcore than metal. Probably why I'm not that into it.

What bands in particular?

Bands like Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Vanna, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, We Came As Romans, and others along those lines. I really like Between the Buried and Me, though. They're considered metalcore as far as I know.

Yeah, most of those are pretty watered down metalcore/post hardcore. The Number Twelve Looks Like You are usually considered mathcore or grindcore though. Maybe even screamo.
God I'm such a genre nazi.

If you want to be more precise, some of those are Deathcore, such as the Devil Wears Prada.

I'm the biggest genre Nazi out, ever since I've been on Rate Your Music.

I don't even listen to that sort of music (i'm more of a Shoegazer than anything, it's much better than anything Metal in my personal opinion), and I know what genres most of those bands go in.

 

[ultimateownage]

That's quite a generalisation. And it's also complete bullshit.

People say that about any music. They just have a different opinion, and it's often very vocal in regards to music. Just because it's directed at the two genres you like (which are also extremely popular) doesn't mean it's ONLY directed at the two genres you like.

 

[Taerdin]

1. i dont like the screaming.
2. i dont like the long fast guitar solo.
3. i dont like how the music has no meaning (music not lyrics) its all just loud and screamy a sad song should have a sad tune.
4. i dont like how its all a sport fastest solo louder music longer hair.
5. i dont like how it all sounds the same.
i dont like metal and neither should you

This is the poster child for why people have a negative reaction. They are ignorant and plaster entire genres with bullshit stereotypes.

 

[Gerishnakov]

Don't like metal. Not going to get all angry about it. I just don't like it, in the same way that I just don't like dubstep or house, etc...

Pretty much all I listen to is rock or 'indie' and electro. I don't generally keep up with musical trends. I remember reading somewhere that if you've developed a musical taste by the time you're around 21, because a lot of people don't, they'll just listen to loosely defined pop music, then you'll pretty much keep the same tastes for the rest of your life.

 

[thedevildancer]

1. i dont like the screaming.
2. i dont like the long fast guitar solo.
3. i dont like how the music has no meaning (music not lyrics) its all just loud and screamy a sad song should have a sad tune.
4. i dont like how its all a sport fastest solo louder music longer hair.
5. i dont like how it all sounds the same.
i dont like metal and neither should you

This is the poster child for why people have a negative reaction. They are ignorant and plaster entire genres with bullshit stereotypes.

there is reason to all stereotypes and its all my opinion i don't like it ok you don't need to get so aggressive and say i'm ignorant an you certainly don't need to be so condescending

 

[AnarchistFish]

BMTH are still metal. They've gotten less heavy since their debut album but they're still metal...
And I'm not really sure why people think metalcore is closer to hardcore than metal. Listen to a hardcore band, listen to a metal band, then listen to a metalcore band. In most cases metalcore will sound closer to metal. It just doesn't have the same intense, claustrophobic energy and raw guitar sound.

I might be listening to the wrong metalcore then. The metalcore bands I've listened to sounded closer to post-hardcore than metal. Probably why I'm not that into it.

What bands in particular?

Bands like Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Vanna, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, We Came As Romans, and others along those lines. I really like Between the Buried and Me, though. They're considered metalcore as far as I know.

Yeah, most of those are pretty watered down metalcore/post hardcore. The Number Twelve Looks Like You are usually considered mathcore or grindcore though. Maybe even screamo.
God I'm such a genre nazi.

If you want to be more precise, some of those are Deathcore, such as the Devil Wears Prada.

I'm the biggest genre Nazi out, ever since I've been on Rate Your Music.

I don't even listen to that sort of music (i'm more of a Shoegazer than anything, it's much better than anything Metal in my personal opinion), and I know what genres most of those bands go in.

The Devil Wears Prada aren't deathcore at all...

 

[Jazoni89]

BMTH are still metal. They've gotten less heavy since their debut album but they're still metal...
And I'm not really sure why people think metalcore is closer to hardcore than metal. Listen to a hardcore band, listen to a metal band, then listen to a metalcore band. In most cases metalcore will sound closer to metal. It just doesn't have the same intense, claustrophobic energy and raw guitar sound.

I might be listening to the wrong metalcore then. The metalcore bands I've listened to sounded closer to post-hardcore than metal. Probably why I'm not that into it.

What bands in particular?

Bands like Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Vanna, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, We Came As Romans, and others along those lines. I really like Between the Buried and Me, though. They're considered metalcore as far as I know.

Yeah, most of those are pretty watered down metalcore/post hardcore. The Number Twelve Looks Like You are usually considered mathcore or grindcore though. Maybe even screamo.
God I'm such a genre nazi.

If you want to be more precise, some of those are Deathcore, such as the Devil Wears Prada.

I'm the biggest genre Nazi out, ever since I've been on Rate Your Music.

I don't even listen to that sort of music (i'm more of a Shoegazer than anything, it's much better than anything Metal in my personal opinion), and I know what genres most of those bands go in.

The Devil Wears Prada aren't deathcore at all...

Oh dear, epic fail on my part, I was thinking of Bring me the horizon or something along those lines.

 

[Seagoon]

Rock and metal happen to be two of my favorite musical genres. However, I've noticed that without fail if someone doesn't like rock or metal, it seems to immediately goes beyond simply "I don't like that genre." to something along the lines of "How can you listen to that crap?" or "That music is so offensive!".

How can something be offensive purely based on it's musical content? It doesn't even seem to matter what band is playing the music or what is even being said in the lyrics, offensive or not.

Maybe it's just me, but as a regular listener I've gotten plenty of crap for listening to it.

Thoughts/opinions?

It's not that people think it's offensive. It's that people often associate it with sexually insecure men and annoying emo types. I personally like most metal music but some just annoys me..

 

[AnarchistFish]

BMTH are still metal. They've gotten less heavy since their debut album but they're still metal...
And I'm not really sure why people think metalcore is closer to hardcore than metal. Listen to a hardcore band, listen to a metal band, then listen to a metalcore band. In most cases metalcore will sound closer to metal. It just doesn't have the same intense, claustrophobic energy and raw guitar sound.

I might be listening to the wrong metalcore then. The metalcore bands I've listened to sounded closer to post-hardcore than metal. Probably why I'm not that into it.

What bands in particular?

Bands like Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Vanna, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, We Came As Romans, and others along those lines. I really like Between the Buried and Me, though. They're considered metalcore as far as I know.

Yeah, most of those are pretty watered down metalcore/post hardcore. The Number Twelve Looks Like You are usually considered mathcore or grindcore though. Maybe even screamo.
God I'm such a genre nazi.

If you want to be more precise, some of those are Deathcore, such as the Devil Wears Prada.

I'm the biggest genre Nazi out, ever since I've been on Rate Your Music.

I don't even listen to that sort of music (i'm more of a Shoegazer than anything, it's much better than anything Metal in my personal opinion), and I know what genres most of those bands go in.

The Devil Wears Prada aren't deathcore at all...

Oh dear, epic fail on my part, I was thinking of Bring me the horizon or something along those lines.

Treading on thin ice...

Bring Me The Horizon's debut album was indeed deathcore, but they're metalcore too now.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

BMTH are still metal. They've gotten less heavy since their debut album but they're still metal...
And I'm not really sure why people think metalcore is closer to hardcore than metal. Listen to a hardcore band, listen to a metal band, then listen to a metalcore band. In most cases metalcore will sound closer to metal. It just doesn't have the same intense, claustrophobic energy and raw guitar sound.

I might be listening to the wrong metalcore then. The metalcore bands I've listened to sounded closer to post-hardcore than metal. Probably why I'm not that into it.

What bands in particular?

Bands like Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Vanna, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, We Came As Romans, and others along those lines. I really like Between the Buried and Me, though. They're considered metalcore as far as I know.

Yeah, most of those are pretty watered down metalcore/post hardcore. The Number Twelve Looks Like You are usually considered mathcore or grindcore though. Maybe even screamo.
God I'm such a genre nazi.

If you want to be more precise, some of those are Deathcore, such as the Devil Wears Prada.

I'm the biggest genre Nazi out, ever since I've been on Rate Your Music.

I don't even listen to that sort of music (i'm more of a Shoegazer than anything, it's much better than anything Metal in my personal opinion), and I know what genres most of those bands go in.

The Devil Wears Prada aren't deathcore at all...

Oh dear, epic fail on my part, I was thinking of Bring me the horizon or something along those lines.

Bring Me the Horizon aren't deathcore anymore .

OT: Haters gonna hate, that's really all there is to it.

 

[thedevildancer]

1. i dont like the screaming.
2. i dont like the long fast guitar solo.
3. i dont like how the music has no meaning (music not lyrics) its all just loud and screamy a sad song should have a sad tune.
4. i dont like how its all a sport fastest solo louder music longer hair.
5. i dont like how it all sounds the same.
i dont like metal and neither should you

This is the poster child for why people have a negative reaction. They are ignorant and plaster entire genres with bullshit stereotypes.

there is reason to all stereotypes and its all my opinion i don't like it ok you don't need to get so aggressive and say i'm ignorant an you certainly don't need to be so condescending

Are you 12 or something? Metal =/= Screamo. Listen to some Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden and then maybe people won't think of you as a musically stunted ignorant turd.

i don't want to, okay i don't like metal why do you want me to listen to it if i'm only going to hate it.
and who is "people" most "people" don't like metal its to of a extreme genre nobody thinks that of me.

ps.i dont like neither black sabbath nor iron maiden.
pps. i'm 29
ppps. i'm amazed by how many jewish symbols are in metal, for example sabbath(שב&#1514 is the seventh day of the week, Armageddon(הר מיגד&#1493 is the place of the end of the world and just outside baitshemesh in Israel,Behemoth(בהמו&#1514 is the hebrew word for beast and many many more.

 

[Jazoni89]

BMTH are still metal. They've gotten less heavy since their debut album but they're still metal...
And I'm not really sure why people think metalcore is closer to hardcore than metal. Listen to a hardcore band, listen to a metal band, then listen to a metalcore band. In most cases metalcore will sound closer to metal. It just doesn't have the same intense, claustrophobic energy and raw guitar sound.

I might be listening to the wrong metalcore then. The metalcore bands I've listened to sounded closer to post-hardcore than metal. Probably why I'm not that into it.

What bands in particular?

Bands like Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Vanna, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, We Came As Romans, and others along those lines. I really like Between the Buried and Me, though. They're considered metalcore as far as I know.

Yeah, most of those are pretty watered down metalcore/post hardcore. The Number Twelve Looks Like You are usually considered mathcore or grindcore though. Maybe even screamo.
God I'm such a genre nazi.

If you want to be more precise, some of those are Deathcore, such as the Devil Wears Prada.

I'm the biggest genre Nazi out, ever since I've been on Rate Your Music.

I don't even listen to that sort of music (i'm more of a Shoegazer than anything, it's much better than anything Metal in my personal opinion), and I know what genres most of those bands go in.

The Devil Wears Prada aren't deathcore at all...

Oh dear, epic fail on my part, I was thinking of Bring me the horizon or something along those lines.

Treading on thin ice...

Bring Me The Horizon's debut album was indeed deathcore, but they're metalcore too now.

I wouldn't know though, I'm only really familiar with their debut album.

 

[ElPatron]

Then I assume it's cultural difference because in my country it's not a matter of "bias".

It's usually a journalist talking off his ass and the media makes a huge fuss, and everyone believes it.

A politician was criticized for being a satanist because he listened to Metal. Not Death or Black Metal, or even any weirder stuff. Just plain Metal.

Back when Rammstein released their album, the German media made a big fuss about them being Neo-Nazis.

These are two examples I could think off, and they happened in different countries.

I think it's more of a matter of people believing everything they are told, instead of actually searching.

And I think it's pretty rude to don't say why don't you like a certain kind of music. When I am confronted with that question I am totally honest and explain my gripe with the kind of music, or just admit I never heard anything from that genre.

Not as rude as questioning someone's tastes, but still a little rude.

 

[Ieyke]

Rock seems almost universally respected.

Country seems hated by everyone who's not a country fan, and country fans seem to be almost ONLY fans of country.

Rap gets a lot of crap (probably because it's really just noise, not music, a lot of the time).

Classical music is highly respected, but people think you're weird if you just listen to it.

Metal is seen as just angry music for poorly adjusted people or something like that.



Seems to me that most types of music have some type of negative opinion attached to them but, in my experience, Rock and its closely associated genres are pretty universally respected or at least accepted. I assume The Beatles, Elvis, and other huge worldwide phenomenon-type musicians have pretty much made rock the most widely "accepted".
So....yea....I think it's weird that you think a negative opinion of Rock is the norm...
I mean, there's that whole old "rock'n'roll is the Devil's music" thing, but I think the only people who might still take that seriously are going to be the same religious nutjobs who think D&D is Satanic....

 

[MiracleOfSound]

No, they think of this:

If the drummer closed his snare drum, I'd actually rather enjoy that. As it is, the constant ringing is too St Anger-ish for my ears.

 

[DoPo]

ppps. i'm amazed by how many jewish symbols are in metal, for example sabbath(שב&#1514 is the seventh day of the week, Armageddon(הר מיגד&#1493 is the place of the end of the world and just outside baitshemesh in Israel,Behemoth(בהמו&#1514 is the hebrew word for beast and many many more.

Well, Armageddon I think is more of a general Bible reference rather than specifically Jewish. Maybe Behemoth, too (am I right when saying it's in the bible). I think they are generally a lot of religious references there, especially if you look at album/song titles. To tell you the truth, I just now realised how many - no wonder some people may think it's the devil's music. The fact that some metal bands just go "In your FACE, religion!" doesn't help. And they only do it for the sake of...I don't even know why they do it.