Poll: Why do lots of people hate Heavy Metal?

[ragestreet]

I dislike it for the same reason I hate Justina Bieber. It's loud, obnoxious, and I can't understand a word they're saying most of the time.

 

[awmperry]

For those saying that metal isn't mainstream - sorry, chaps, but a lot of it is these days. I don't know metal myself - a bit of Manowar and Paul Di'Anno is about my limit - but my wife is a huge metalhead and even she says you can't get much more mainstream than Metallica, Rammstein etc.

Personally, I don't like (most) metal; there are a number of metal bands that clearly exhibit a huge degree of musical virtuosity, but there are an awful lot more that think they need nothing more than cymbals and shouting. Even good metal often isn't to my taste, but its real downfall is that it's so very easy to play bad metal - which is why so many dismal bands do it.

 

[omega 616]

What are we classing as heavy metal here? Cannibal corpse? Hatebreed? 'cos I have to be honest, there are so many sub cultures of metal/rock it's a joke.

You say pop and people know what you mean, same for blues, jazz, R&B, rap, hip hop, house etc (although I think house, trance, drum and bass, dance etc all sound the same, massive bass line and some melody over the top).

I am very fussy with my music, I like slipknot, disturbed (in small doses), dope, hatebreed, siliva, drowning pool, seether and linkin park but I can't stand iron maiden, metallica, guns and roses, AC/DC, Def leopard, Guns and roses.

I also can't stand bands like trivium and kill switch engage, there all singing (rather well) then next thing there wailing like a banshee and it ruins the whole song.

 

[smithy_2045]

It's a bit hard to hate something when it neither threatens you, or pains you in some way. But I think the reason why many people sincerely dislike hearing heavy metal (myself included) is because more often than not it isn't a melody and singing, it's noise ....

Noise for the sake of making lots. of. noise.

That being said if you like it I'm not going to judge you as something fundamentally flawed just for doing so. Just don't play it so loud on the train and other public places where I have to listen to it.

I dislike it for the same reason I hate Justina Bieber. It's loud, obnoxious, and I can't understand a word they're saying most of the time.

Just for a few examples of metal that have intelligible vocals and a prominent melody.

 

[z3rostr1fe]

I still need to listen to GOOD metal music... So that I could convey my final opinion for it...

I'm more of an Alternative Rock type of person, but currently into hiphop(the kind of hiphop which doesn't entirely reference Sex, Drugs, Money or whatever shit they think is cool) and R&B. But who cares, we love and enjoy that type of music, right? Those people who thinks that your type of music genre sucks just envies you because you can appreciate that kind of music.

Long live music!

 

[The Stonker]

Well, I want to ask you guys one thing.

Aren't 90% of all heavy metal bands well, the same thing? Think about it. You might listen to a whole album and then think every single song is fine. But none are HOLY CRAP THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!
I don't get that effect alot from the bands of today and that's why I listen to some electronic,classical and symphonic metal.
I want something original! Goddamnit.

So to sum it up. I'm not hearing any advancement since Iron Maiden.

 

[Danik93]

I used to listen to metal and nothing else... Then I found Deadmau5 and now a days I'm listening more to techno,Dubstep and so on... And recently I have started to listen alot to Lady Gaga and Lily Allen and other mainstream stuff! so I have started to loose interest in metal...
I mean just listen to this!
<youtube=y8HC_Sno_tA>

So awesome!!! after 2:40 it gets magical!
but I just bought a ticket to Metaltown 2011 this summer because some of my childhood bands are playing (SOAD and Korn) I can't wait!

 

[ENKC]

Haters gonna hate, period.

Well, that and its whole "RAWR SATANISM GORE!" stereotype. I enjoy all that as a metalhead myself, but it's intended to be confronting and it succeeds.

 

[omega 616]

Because a lot of people, like me, think that music should be something that has emotion; something that 'means' more than just "fuck life!" or whatever. Hence i don't listen to it because to me, it is too noisy and soulless. BUT music is a very subjective thing, and i understand that people can listen to Metal and say that it gives them all the emotion and "soul" as my music gives me. and that would be true. so if you like Metal: good for you. I don't, but i would never say "you're Wrong!" or anything stupid like that.

I will let corey from slipknot deal with why people listen to it, although I am not 100% in agreement with the "were the only ones doing it".

Go to 2:32


The sound in music in this vid is awful.

Just trying to help you understand a little bit.

 

[Captain Pirate]

I don't like most metal.
The stuff I've heard, other than the bands I mention below, quite frankly, all sounds the same to me. In my opinion.
dun-dun-dundundun-dun-dun.
Power chords and drums playing at the same time in very similiar notes.

Take note that I said MOST metal.
I do enjoy some, more tuneful pieces like Master Of Puppets. I haven't heard any other Metallica; it's just not my type of music really.

Tool fucking rock though.
System Of A Down are alright, and Avenged Sevenfold are good.

I'm not really a metal person.
Just like, I suppose, few metal people are fans of the likes of Pendulum.
Each to his own, if you love metal, why should I tell you not to?

The only real objections I have to music are the piles of sparle-covered shit on the charts, that parades itself as 'pop' music, and exists only to hit it big in the Top Ten then flop and get forgetten by the time the next one has come along.

 

[Thirsk]

Metalheads should want people to hate metal, because the genre works best when it is an utter counter-culture. I mean, look at the eighties and nineties and compare them to today. Metal is too close to mainstream, the genre needs a rebirth before it stagnates to nothing.

Truer words have seldom been spoken, man. The more inaccessible the culture, the truer the members. Metal needs to get away from the slick, over-produced music machinery and back into the dirty, raw underground.

That's partly why I listen to doom: it's a fairly unknown genre, so it's still largely true. It's also a part of the reason for why I love what Darkthrone is doing these days: filthy, no-nonesense crossover that is both oldschool and original at the same time.

 

[GiantRaven]

I love the people who say Heavy Metal is simply 'noise'. I wonder what they would do/say if they listened to music that was actually noise based.

The thought of such ill-informed closed-mindedness makes me laugh.

Anyhow, the problem I have with Heavy Metal lies not with the musical content (although there is a lot of thrash out there) but with the fans (disclaimer: not all fans but the archetypical stereotype has to come from somewhere). I don't get them. I despise their elitist nature, belittling other genres of music as beneath them whilst RAGING whenever somebody has the audacity to imply the reverse.

And the emphasis on sub-genres and what constitutes as 'True Metal'? What a load of rubbish! Metalcore is Metal! Nu-Metal is Metal! The definitions of genre may be blurred but that does not mean they are removed entirely.

 

[Ldude893]

Heavy metal is just sound to my ears, but that's my opinion. I'm not entitled to put it above the opinions of anybody else.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Now ,when you say 'heavy metal', do you mean the '80s style metal? Or the entirety of all metal genres, you know, just 'metal'? Or just people who advocate them as the metal sub-genre of 'heavy metal'? Would you include hybrid genres? And if you would see heavy metal as a name for all metal genres, would you include stoner rock? Stoner rock is in essence a metal subdivision even though it ends on rock. And if you would allow stoner rock, would you also allow stoner sludge? And if we're talking stoner sludge, we automatically enter the 'sludge metal' scene, would you include that? Taking in mind that sludge metal is actually metal (sub-genre stoner rock and doom metal to be precise) that takes elements from punk music (hardcore punk to be exact). If so, should we also extend the qualifications to other punk/metal fusions? For example grindcore, would you allow grindcore under the title of metal, or heavy metal? Or would that be too 'industrial'? And would you also take in the more heavier types of metal (black metal, death metal, etc.) and put them under the term 'extreme metal', or would you still count them as just 'metal', or, in this case, 'heavy metal'?

Just sayin'...

I'd work more band-specific than genre-specific, what with all the fusions going on. And every other band that pops up giving an new name to its music to claim they invented a new genre...

 

[GiantRaven]

Heavy metal is just sound to my ears, but that's my opinion. I'm not entitled to put it above the opinions of anybody else.

I'm pretty sure that any genre of music can be considered sound but maybe that's just me.

 

[Napierdalac]

Heavy metal is just sound to my ears, but that's my opinion. I'm not entitled to put it above the opinions of anybody else.

I'm pretty sure that any genre of music can be considered sound but maybe that's just me.

I'm pretty sure that he means that it's just a bunch of random sounds, thrown together and called music.

Arent all music just random sounds thrown together?

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

I can see why people wouldn't like metal, it's generally quite (for lack of a better word) "noisy". If you want to convert someone though then hand them a copy of Brutal Legend - it pretty much sums up why metal is awesome.