This essay will explore the connections that can be drawn between classical music -such as baroque, and romantic eras- and the genre of heavy metal. The essay will hopefully show why heavy metal is more technically similar to works by classical composers than any other genre of music. It will also discuss three main aspects about heavy metal's relationship with social and political events, such as how classical music enjoys the recognition of high art status, where as heavy metal does not, yet a significant connection can be made; how heavy metal is regarded as musically illiterate, but studies suggest otherwise; and how both genres of music punctuate intense emotions through dramatic instrumentation.
Summary:
When people hear heavy metal music, they instantly throw up connotations of anger, violence, and Satanism. It is these extreme, but not necessarily false, ideologies that widens the unthinkable gap between classical music and metal. But it is not just the sound of heavy metal music that can be compared to classical music, but the musicians behind it. Classical music was often written as a way of expressing the feelings of the composer, or evoking emotion from the listener, and an article on Vancouver Sun (2013) suggests that this is one of metal's primary functions, stating that “Both musical genres are characterized by visceral outbursts of virtuosity and histrionic emotion.” Of course, music did not just appear out of thin air, they were developed through influence. With regard to rock music, guitarists took influence from various classical techniques, and fuse them with their blues rhythms and scales to create something new (Walser, 1992) as the development of music has always been. For the classical and baroque eras,...
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...scourse to some extent in order to become as important as they are; if composers like Wagner had kept quiet and made music in the style of Bach for the rest of their lives, there would be no popular music. If the young boy in Twisted Sister's “I Wanna Rock” video (1984) had said to his father “I want to become a doctor” after being asked “What do you want to do with your life?!”, there would be no popular music. The rebellion of heavy metal was propelled by the tensions of patriarchy and capitalism, and made a statement that defined individuality. If metal was musically illiterate, then it wouldn't encapsulate the past as well as it has through bands like Deep Purple and Van Halen. Most importantly, heavy metal is a genre that provokes the most emotion from its listener and even the musician. You do not have to do research to discover this, you just have to listen.
In rock music its target audience is the youth. And by youth I am not referring to teenagers, but instead to the mentality of youth, the adults and teens still in the sociological stage between being a ‘kid’ and accepting the responsibilities of ‘adulthood’ [Weinstein pg6] These youth negotiate the genre and change it to their liking. For example both males and females have different subgenres of rock targeted specifically at them. Males are seen from a young age as being naughty and rowdy, not very responsible and thus given more freedom. While girls are seen as quiet and polite, with very low aggression. These traits have reflected in the genres that are targeted at the two genders. Males were targeted with Heavy Metal as it expressed the qualities the very qualities they will have to give up in order to become adults and how they will lose their freedom. While for females rock music is soft and romantic, females will typically grow up faster than males and leave youth behind in order to take up responsibilities. An example of how the music was negotiated to fit the two genders is seem in the 1960s when performers such as Carole king and James Taylor transformed themes of protest into sentimental commentaries, romance and illusions of youth. [Weinstein pg 12-13] While heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath sung about politicians and how disgusting they are for exploiting young people in the name of greed which is shown in the song Wicked World. This very characteristic of rock being created by the youth for the youth is still alive today, for example during the 2004 presidential election Green Day released American Idiot. The song was about how the media and political are brainwashing Americans to remove their individuality. The singer wanted to warn America of this and prevent them from turning into ‘idiots’ and
Although the style of ‘Rock music’ is easily adaptable to many different sounds, it is still thoroughly identified by its definingly amplified rhythm. The sudden worldwide popularity of rock and roll resulted in an unparalleled social impact. Rock ‘n’ Roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language in a way few other social developments have equaled. The social impact is so large that rock stars are worshipped worldwide. In its early years, many adults condemned the style of music, placing a stigma on its name, and forbid their children from listening and following its ways.
The lyrics of metal music are often misunderstood to be a call to action, advocating violence to listeners. In reality the lyrics are meant to comfort the listeners and help them deal with the negative emotions they feel from this situation. Especially amongst teens who most frequently feel the negative effects of being different. The most musically "heavy" kind of metal there is is called death metal. Originally, the name was coined because of the lyrics of this subgenre of metal. The lyrics dealt with death caused by, murder, war, and any other kind of unnatural death imaginable. Now, the name is used to refer to a kind of metal with especially driving rhythms, energetic instrumentation and vocals (usually of the screaming and grunting sort), and incredibly low end and heavy sounds. Death metal is basically as far as you can go into the genre of metal. Even in this subgenre, the lyrics often spread positive messages.
Another reason why classic rock is the best is because you had to be talented to become famous. If you are vocally or musically talented now you have to be physically attractive to make it big. Now if you are pretty and have no musical talent you can throw in a lot of autotune and be “talented”. For example Steven Tyler, he was never really a attractive guy. He couldn’t just wake up one day and be pretty. He made it big for his talent. Same thing with the lead singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain. If you’re not attractive you might as well kiss your talent goodbye and find something else to do with your
What Gore and Choy have misunderstood is the way that music can create bonds between people, both between individual fans of a particular group and between the singer and an individual fan. People can learn how others think and can learn more about themselves through the sometimes-brutal reality of modern musical lyrics. Nirvana's song "Dumb" can show popular people how it feels to go through high school as a social outcast. The music of Garbage and L7 can give men a glimpse of the female mind. The music of Nine Inch Nails and the Gin Blossoms can take sane people on a trip through the mind of someone who is losing his (or her) sanity.
Throughout the decades the face of rock music has changed drastically because of a series of small events that have occurred for example, the song that saw the birth of early rock music The Comets hit Rocket 66 a 50's classic that endeared audiences with its atypical crunchy guitar tone, this was brought about by Ike Turner who dropped his guitar amplifier outside of the recording studio causing the amplifier to break and distort the sound this small accident caused Rock and Rock if we fast forward around 20 years and you have a young man called Tony Iommi working in a steel factory in Birmingham when he loses concentration severing the tips of two fingers causing him to de-tune his guitar to make it playable for his injured left hand and this spawned the birth of Heavy Metal music or is this all just a music purists point of view? or is there more to this than the cute stories and our perception that all of these outcomes could have been predetermined by previous events? could it be that we as listeners, consumers and human beings have manipulated the evolution of rock music to suit our personal tastes to feed our hunger to feel at one with the music? which leads me to authenticity. A few aspects of the criteria for music to be deemed authentic can be broken down into two main categories these are what sub genre of rock music is it and how is it related to its social class and the common behaviour within that class, for a quick example if The Sex Pistols famed for their bond with the working class turned round only to sport a posh upper/middle class accent would they have been billed as the working class heroes? or would they have been merely cast as posh boys playing loud music but with nothing to shout about. The genres of mu...
As the nineteen seventies came to a close so did many of the musical styles of that decade. While some faced what seemed to be extinction others went through a sort of evolutionary process. The bands that were at the top of the heavy metal ladder during this time were such acts as Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and Tygers of Pan Tang. These groups would be just some of what the new crop of heavy metal bands would consider inspirational. This style, which is typically referred to as "The New Wave of British Heavy Metal," would fuel and empower many acts to stardom. (Marshall 3)
Most things have their beginnings in something small: a word, a breath, or idea; but not music. Music begins with a single vibration. It explodes and carries on, morphing worlds of unrelated personas. It lives rampantly in the mouths of millions of unruly and free-spirited teenagers, like a fever. The rock 'n roll trend that defiantly rose against the conformist ideology of the mid-twentieth century left remnants that commenced the start of a progressing society: a culture that redefined the rules of society and pushed social and moral limits while addressing social concerns.
The changes in rock and roll music reflected the mood of the population in the United States during the Vietnam War. Rock and roll, written as rock ‘n’ roll, music was fully born in the 1950’s and formed from electric blues and gospel music. Rock and roll is characterized by electric guitars, a strong rhythm and youth-orientated music. This music became popular because of the children of the decade. Parents called this type of music “noise.” While parents were listening to calm music, their children were listening to rock n roll.
Heavy metal music has developed greatly ever since it was created in the late 1960’s, evolving into large and varied categories of subgenres. It is not uncommon for types of metal to be confused for one another despite their distinct differences. There are hundreds of subgenres, but three of them will be discussed, the bluesy and distorted doom metal, the fast and fantastical power metal, and the ill reputed black metal.
Baroque music is characterized by its development of tonality, elaborate use of ornamentation, application of figured bass, and the expression of single affections. A considerable philosophical current that shaped baroque music is the interest in Renaissance ideas that spawn from ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greeks and Romans considered music to be an instrument of communication that could easily stimulate any emotion in its listeners. Therefore, musicians became progressively knowledgeable of the power one’s composition could have on its audiences’ emotions. Because of this, one of the primary goals of baroque art and music was to provoke emotion in the listener, which is closely connected to the “doctrine of affections”. This doctrine, derived from ancient theories of rhetoric and oratory, was the theory that a single piece of art or a single movement of music should express one single emotion. Intrinsically, instead of music reflecting the emotions, composers aspired to cause emotions in the listener. Ma...
Rock music has been commonly linked with violence, rebellion, hysteria, distortion, sex, and more negative characteristics. According to Cotaga (2011), Rock'n'Roll groups are thought to be constantly intoxicated or affected by substances and steady gathering individuals encompassed by young
This article demonstatres how important Kurt Cobain was both as a rock and roll icon and a philosopher. His songs which he recorded himself are still popular today, over 20 years after his death. The author argues how Cobain influences other young artists and his effect on the direction of the music industry.
Buelow, George J., “Music and Society in the Late Baroque Era.” Music and Society in the Late Baroque Era. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1994. p. 1-38
This essay will be discussing Theodor W. Adorno’s critiques of popular music and examine the extent of whether or not his criticisms are accurate to contemporary music. A range of issues will be discussed in the essay to explore the subject matter. Through research, there will be relevant quotes and theories to support the views of this particular topic.