Assignment 1-3-3

METAL RITUALS

            Metal music, though created to be something outside of “normal” and something not repetitive or adhering to social standards, has not been immune to a creation of rituals and traditions. The most constant ritual over the past couple of decades has been the “horns” that the fans and musicians make by raising their hand with the middle two fingers tucked under the thumb and pinky and forefinger erect. Speaking specifically of metal music, this tradition started with Ronnie James Dio of Black Sabbath in 1979 when he began using the symbol that he had seen his Italian grandmother use to ward off evil (Appleford, 2004). Another popular ritual that has filtered into other genres of music but can be seen at most every metal concert is the mosh pit. Moshing is “ritualized and furious form of dancing which combines physical aggression with collective displays of emotion” (Riches, 2011). The mosh pit began in the the early 1980s heavy metal scene and the phrase “mash”, pronounced as mash, was coined by the band Bad Brains when they used the term to incite the behavior known as moshing as live performances in the early 1980s (Riches, 2011).

STEREOTYPES

            As any other popular culture topic, Metal music has many stereotypes surrounding the music brand as well. One very common stereotype associated with metal is that the music is gender-biased towards males and only targeted towards a male audience (Hill, 2011). While, at one time at its initial inception, metal did have a higher percentage of male listeners, an influx of various subgenres of metal fans, such as emo, have attracted just as many die-hard female fans to the metal scene as there are long-time faithful male fans. Yet another stereotype surrounding the metal genre is that the music itself promotes and evokes acts of violence or criminal behavior from the fan base. This has gone as far as lawsuits being filed against labels such as Cannibal Corpse, Deicide and Slayer in the 1990s for promotion of violence type suits (Phillipov, 2012). However, many studies have proved the music lyrics incite no direct acts of violence and “Controversies in which metal music is implicated as a contributor to violence are typically understood by scholars as being fabricated by conservative groups seeking to impose their own moral agendas on those with different values, tastes and cultural practices.” (Phillipov, 2012).

REFERENCES

Appleford, Steve (September 9, 2004). "Odyssey of the Devil Horns". Los Angeles City Beat. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20071122030548/http:// www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1216&IssueNum=66

Hill, R. (2011). Is Emo Metal? Gendered Boundaries and New Horizons in the Metal Community. Journal For Cultural Research, 15(3), 297-313. doi:10.1080/14797585.2011.594586. Retrieved from EbscoHost

Phillipov, M. (2012). Extreme music for extreme people?. Popular Music History, 6(1/2), 150-163. doi:10.1558/pomh.v6i1/2.150. Retrieved from EbscoHost

Riches, G. (2011). Embracing the Chaos: Mosh Pits, Extreme Metal Music and Liminality. Journal For Cultural Research, 15(3), 315-332. doi:10.1080/14797585.2011.594588. Retrieved from EbscoHost