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My generation, the last of generation X, probably wanted to express existential angst with loud music such as altern rock and metal – music centered around dist
by wvh 9y ago
My generation, the last of generation X, probably wanted to express existential angst with loud music such as altern rock and metal – music centered around distorted guitars. Metal took more hopeful '50s and '60s guitar music and turned it into darkness and despair, just like the hippie philosophy and in a way the general world view did.
The millennial generation – my younger brother – clearly follows a different path, more into electronics, going out, partying, and oriented towards the self. I feel they prefer to (comparatively) focus more their own little bubble and pleasure, and less scream about general misery or the state of the world.
I'm a guitar player and one of the last of generation X, and as an angry aggressive male I simply can't imagine hopping around on electronics as an outlet. I think guitar music and specifically heavy genres are far from dead – especially here in Northern Europe – but young(er) people have a different way of expressing and listening to music which is not very guitar-centric. They don't necessarily want to sit down and listen to a record full of doom music like us metalheads did/do, or at least, that's not the main way of enjoying music. It remains to be seen how much this pattern of music consumption will influence how people experience music in the long term.
- kochthesecond 9y agoI would also argue metal was never mainstream. The mainstream was always further takes on pop, which to an increasing degree draws from all the others innovating, if in a moderately expressed way. Listen to mainstream popular music now and you can often find some of the intensity extreme metal explored.
- larrydag 9y agoI have to agree that metal was never mainstream. I always looked at metal as an evolution of punk.
- jghn 9y agoBy many measures metal predates punk
- CuriouslyC 9y agoMetal shares with punk (unless you're talking about crossover genres like crust) a rejection of the established order and affirmation of the individual against the collective. They both also tend to be angry responses to alienation. The aesthetic of the two is radically different though. Metal is about creating a fantastic, otherworldly soundscape, while punk focuses on capturing the raw quality of life. I think industrial music was the true successors to punk. They took the raw grit of punk and made it modern and danceable.
- jghn 9y agoOriginal industrial was far from danceable. It wasn't until the post-industrial in the early 80s w/ groups like Skinny Puppy that what you describe started to happen. However the first part of your point holds, acts like Throbbing Gristle (who coined the "industrial" term) definitely came out of the British punk community.
- alexilliamson 9y agoI would argue that KISS and Van Halen were incredibly main stream and are usually considered metal... at least van Halen
- ams6110 9y agoVan Halen and KISS were not really metal in my book -- glam rock/pop, along with most of the other 80s "hair" groups. Guitar-heavy to be sure, but not really metal.
- camus2 9y ago> I would also argue metal was never mainstream. Come on, it is/was, at least in Europe. Plenty of famous metal bands in the late 90's early 2000. Even death metal had a few commercial successes.
- kochthesecond 9y agoFamous, maybe, but not mainstream. Pretty much the closest thing to ever touch prime time radio are Nothing Else Matters or maybe something by Linkin Park, both of which barely graze into metal.
- larrydag 9y agoIt reminds me a lot of the 80's when synths and keyboards took center stage for a little while. Yet guitar never really died during that time. Guitar is still around its just not center stage.