Why is Metal the dominant music genre on internet gaming forums?

[Onlythestrong]

I hear more about Electronica tunage on gaming sites than metal....just me.

Amon Tobin FTW.

 

[Artemis923]

Now I'll be honest and say I don't really like Metal, but I've noticed that for some reason on every internet gaming forum I go on or look at, Metal is by a country mile the most popular music genre, and this place is no exception. Despite my general dislike of the genre, it doesn't make me angry - just curious (after all, music taste is subjective).

Metal isn't dominating the radio stations, so why is this the case? I don't want to attribute all gamers to one taste because that's ignorant; since I know next to nothing about Metal I'd like to know what characteristics of the genre appeal to you and what, if any, connection do you see to the fact you're a gamer? Is there a connection or is it just a massive coincidence and I don't visit enough forums?

I always thought being gamers would make people more inclined to like electronic/8-bit music like the video below so I find this quite interesting.

Did they get their name from Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge? If so, that's auto awesome.

 

[ffxfriek]

metal rules and rap is crap

 

[Daveman]

Well, on here there are lots of clever people and university studies have shown that people with higher IQs tend to prefer either classical or metal music.

 

[somerandomguy76]

Personally, I don't like listening to music while playing games. I get distracted

 

[jamesworkshop]

why not metal is often a popular genre with young audiences who are likly to frequent gaming forums.
Metal has the most variation of almost any musical genre so a person is likly to find at least one of the different styles appealing, games started off mimicing high fantasy so you are likly to find gamers attracted to power metal.

 

[Ventuquies]

cause its cool and people like to brag about something which is cool to show how "manly" they are even if it is s***.

 

[mooncalf]

I always thought being gamers would make people more inclined to like electronic/8-bit music like the video below so I find this quite interesting.

Historically, perhaps. There's no shortage of fans of electronic genres - but the face of gamerdom has changed to include alot of people with more varied interests.

I certainly recognise a prevalence of aggressive music accompanying aggressive games, but that seems almost unremarkable, particularly when people ape one another in tastes and mannerisms to feel acceptance & solidarity.

 

[AllHailTheAltmer]

I'm a musician first and a gamer second. I can appreciate metal, and there are some really good metal bands, but it's not one of my favourite genres, not when compared to alternative rock, hardcore, post-rock, classical and jazz. Some of the worst music I've ever heard would be categorised as metal. I can see how it fits the whole social outcast image, and how it matches the violence in most video games.

But I am consistently surprised by the sheer volume of metalheads on forums like the Escapist, especially when genres like hardcore and punk provide just as much thrill and counter-culture, perhaps even more. Sometimes I wonder how much music these people actually listen to, both in terms of volume and variety.

I think metal is a really easy genre to get into, both as fans and as musicians, and for most people that is probably enough. But it disturbs me when I see threads like "Top 10 Favourite Bands", and there will always be a handful of people who pick only metal bands for their top ten. That is just madness.

 

[timmytom1]

i listen to the metal becuase it`s tough to learn to play ,basically it`s a challenge which is pretty much the same reason i play videogames

 

[Akai Shizuku]

Well, on here there are lots of clever people and university studies have shown that people with higher IQs tend to prefer either classical or metal music.

I enjoy all kinds of music, from Ayumi Hamasaki (Jpop, explores various genres) to Tupac (old [good] rap). I also listen to a fair bit of classical, smooth jazz, you name it. To me, music is a beautiful thing, and every genre is simply a different way to convey music's beauty.

Rap, however, has devolved into a primitive and mindless perversion which promotes little that is good for society. I'm not saying all rap is bad (there are certainly about two rappers who are an exception), but that's the way it is.

 

[Dommyboy]

Because it's an ever expanding genre. Pretty simple reason in a way.

Aren't all genres expanding? If you compare anything from jazz to hip hop that is being produced today, to what was being produced, say, twenty years ago, you will hear major differences. Jazz has moved from things like Acid and Afro-Cuban jazz in the eighties to the rise in popularity of Smooth Jazz in the 1990s and 2000s. East Coast hip hop, with an emphasis in lyrical dexterity was commmon in the eighties, and has inspired the expansion of the genre into the West Coast, and into the South with crunk. What about metal is more "ever expanding" than other genres?

I never said it is more expanding than other genres, did I?

 

[timmytom1]

. But it disturbs me when I see threads like "Top 10 Favourite Bands", and there will always be a handful of people who pick only metal bands for their top ten. That is just madness.

I picked all metal bands for my top ten ,but love bands like AC/DC the dead kennedys the Jimi hendrix experience and The likes of Melvins and Nirvana ,i just listen to them often enough to feel that they honestly deserve a place in my top ten (though Hendrix probably does in retrospect)

 

[captainwolfos]

I'm too lazy to read all 7 pages of this topic so I'm going to post as thus:

I quite enjoy some electronic, and I'm also nerdy enough to download entire game soundtracks to listen to (I especially love the Tetris theme tune. Show me your worst).

I loved metal back in the day, but I've since mellowed out and I listen to what I listen to, ie if I like it, I'll listen to it; I don't really care as long as my ears don't implode. Not like that Hannah Mon-fricken'-tanna and whatnot my sister would make my poor fragile brain explode by calling it music.

 

[Dramatic Flare]

I don't have a particular preference on a genre of music. I have a particular preference on quality. I don't listen to things that suck, and I find plenty of that in ALL genres. The only genre I think I can not find anything that sucks in in Classical, and that's because it's been so long all the really bad music was forgotten and we've only remembered the good stuff. And, honestly as much as it pains me to admit, Rock and Roll will die with society. There's always been a group of people jamming, sometimes with singing. This specific fact will never die- but our music will not live past us by twice.
Honestly, who still listens to what was popular in the twenties? And I don't mean just jazz (which is like every other genre to me, some good and some bad), I mean the actual popular stuff. This site [http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/lisa3/20smusic.html] lists a series of hit songs, and I know I realized that the artists behind them are names completely foreign to me, except for maybe Duke Ellington and Louie Armstrong.
Nay, the symphonies will live forever though.
I can point to a series of musicians that I think are above the cut, and mostly I think people will agree with me. I simply say I will give everyone a chance, but if five seconds kills me they're not getting another.

 

[Lord Thodin]

Dunno, id prefer to listen to Sigur ros when playing CoD4. It'd help me concentrate better

 

[Daveman]

Well, on here there are lots of clever people and university studies have shown that people with higher IQs tend to prefer either classical or metal music.

I enjoy all kinds of music, from Ayumi Hamasaki (Jpop, explores various genres) to Tupac (old [good] rap). I also listen to a fair bit of classical, smooth jazz, you name it. To me, music is a beautiful thing, and every genre is simply a different way to convey music's beauty.

Rap, however, has devolved into a primitive and mindless perversion which promotes little that is good for society. I'm not saying all rap is bad (there are certainly about two rappers who are an exception), but that's the way it is.

I hope one of those two is Eminem because I love that guy.

EDIT: ok I just actually listened to the song at the start of this poll, that was worse than house music, and as we all know only ecstasy can make house music sound good.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

You cannot replicate the sound of a guitar being skillfully played by using a computer. You can sample someone playing it or have a digital sounding MIDI voice make noise vaguely resembling a guitar.

Maybe not now, but eventually. Or, you can market it as Avant-garde metal and be a little unconventional with song structure.

As someone who has played guitar and piano for years and produces albums of many different genres for a living, I think I am somewhat qualified to opine that becoming proficient at metal requires a lot more musical talent and skill than learning to program loops in Reason and putting a distortion effect and some noise filters onto some drum samples, as the person in that link you posted is doing.

That is not what the person I linked is doing. For one thing, he builds his own...noisemakers. There are also no drums involved. Secondly, please provide actual evidence instead of just saying you are qualified to make that judgment call.

more complex but it's often of much higher energy and is generally more passionate than most other music.

Prove it.

What I'm saying to both of you boils down to this, prove it. All you're doing is grandstanding.

As for complexity, it isn't that important, Noise, as a genre completely unbound by musical convention, has the most complex songs of any genre in the world because there are no rules. As such, it can be as complex or minimal as it likes. That doesn't mean the more complex songs are better or have anything better about them. Complexity is not its' own reward.

If this was a thread about avant-garde, experimental or noise styles people would equally be discussing what they feel are the merits of that particular art form.

From what you say, the guy in your link builds noisemakers. I have been to many gigs by these kinds of experimental artists, there is quite a scene for it in the city I live in.

Yes, they have a talent, a technical talent and understanding of machinery and technology and how to twist it into interesting sounds.

But it is a different kind of skill than that required to play metal, jazz or any musical form that requires prescision playing of an instrument.

Either form is only more valid or skilled depending on people's opinions and tastes, I am not trying to say metal is better than any other genre, just trying to explain why so many people are so passionate about it.

 

[AllHailTheAltmer]

Dunno, id prefer to listen to Sigur ros when playing CoD4. It'd help me concentrate better

Word. Such an amazing band.