Heavy metal (often referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music[1] that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States.[2] With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, and emphatic beats. Allmusic states that "of all rock & roll's myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality."[3]
Early heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, though they were often critically reviled, a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence; Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden followed in a similar vein. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal had attracted a worldwide following of fans known as "metalheads" or "headbangers."
In the mid-1980s, glam metal became a major commercial force with groups like Mötley Crüe. Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme, aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, while other styles like death metal and black metal remain subcultural phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles such as nu metal, which often incorporates elements of funk and hip hop; and metalcore, which blends extreme metal with hardcore punk, have further expanded the definition of the genre
Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these attributes. New York Times critic Jon Pareles writes, "In the taxonomy of popular music, heavy metal is a major subspecies of hard-rock—the breed with less syncopation, less blues, more showmanship and more brute force."[4] The typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Keyboard instruments are often used to enhance the fullness of the sound.[5] The loud, distorted Hammond organ and occasionally the magnetic tape-based mellotron were popular with early metal bands; these instruments were displaced in the 1980s by electronic keyboard synthesizers. Today, keyboards are used in styles such as progressive metal, power metal, and symphonic metal. Some nu metal bands incorporate hip hop elements, which may include a DJ scratching and creating various sound effects.
The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal.[6] Guitars are often played with distortion pedals through heavily overdriven tube amplifiers to create a thick, powerful, "heavy" sound. In the early 1970s, some popular metal groups began cofeaturing two guitarists. Leading bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden followed this pattern of having two or three guitarists share the roles of both lead and rhythm guitar. A central element of much heavy metal is the guitar solo, a form of cadenza. As the genre developed, more intricate solos and riffs became an integral part of the style. Guitarists use sweep-picking, tapping, and other advanced techniques for rapid playing, and many styles of metal emphasize virtuosic displays.
The lead role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides with the traditional "frontman" or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension as the two "contend for dominance" in a spirit of "affectionate rivalry."[5] Heavy metal "demands the subordination of the voice" to the overall sound of the band. Reflecting metal's roots in the 1960s counterculture, an "explicit display of emotion" is required from the vocals as a sign of authenticity.[7] Critic Simon Frith claims that the metal singer's "tone of voice" is more important than the lyrics.[8] Metal vocals vary widely in style, from the multioctave, theatrical approach of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, to the gruff style of Motörhead's Lemmy and Metallica's James Hetfield, to the straight-out screaming and growling At the Gates' Tomas Lindberg, to the phlegm-clogged, possessed style of black metal singers such as Mayhem's Dead.
The prominent role of the bass is also key to the metal sound, and the interplay of bass and guitar is a central element.[9] The bass guitar provides the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy."[10] Metal basslines vary widely in complexity, from holding down a low pedal point as a foundation to doubling complex riffs and licks along with the lead and/or rhythm guitars. Some bands feature the bass as a lead instrument,[9] an approach popularized by Metallica's Cliff Burton in the early 1980s.[11] Metal bassists frequently use picks instead of fingerstyle plucking, to get a stronger, clearer articulation. A few use shred guitar–style techniques such as tapping and sweep picking. In some styles, such as thrash and death metal, the bass may be distorted with a bass overdrive pedal for a heavier, thicker sound. Nu metal as well as death metal bassists often use a five- or six-string bass (or a detuned instrument) with an extended lower range.
The essence of metal drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed, power, and precision."[12] Metal drumming "requires an exceptional amount of endurance", and drummers have to develop "considerable speed, coordination, and dexterity...to play the intricate patterns" used in metal.[13] A characteristic metal drumming technique is the cymbal choke, which consists of striking a cymbal and then immediately silencing it by grabbing it with the other hand (or, in some cases, the same striking hand), producing a burst of sound. The metal drum setup is generally much larger than those employed in other forms of rock music;[10] in some cases, a "huge drum kit envelope the whole of the backline" of the stage.[14] Aside from the standard toms, bass drum, snare, and hi-hat, ride, and crash cymbals used in many rock drumkits, there is often a double bass drum, additional toms, a number of additional cymbals (e.g., splash and extra crash cymbals), and other instruments such as a cowbell.
In live performance, loudness—an "onslaught of sound," in Deena Weinstein's description—is considered vital.[6] In his book Metalheads, Jeffrey Arnett refers to heavy metal concerts as "the sensory equivalent of war."[15] Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix, Cream and The Who, early heavy metal acts such as Blue Cheer set new benchmarks for volume. As Blue Cheer's d**k Peterson puts it, "All we knew was we wanted more power."[16] Reviewing a Motörhead concert in 1977, Paul Sutcliffe noted how "excessive volume in particular figured into the band's impact."[17] Weinstein makes the case that in the same way that melody is the main element of pop and rhythm is the main focus of house music, powerful sound, timbre, and volume are the key elements of metal. She argues that the loudness is designed to "sweep the listener into the sound" and to provide a "shot of youthful vitality."[6] Heavy metal's fixation on loudness was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This Is Spinal Tap, in which a metal guitarist claims to have modified his amplifiers to "go to eleven."
[edit] Musical language
[edit] Rhythm and tempo
The beat in metal songs is emphatic, with deliberate stresses. Weinstein observes that the wide array of sonic effects available to metal drummers enables the "rhythmic pattern to take on a complexity within its elemental drive and insistency."[10] In many heavy metal songs, the main groove is characterized by short, two-note or three-note rhythmic figures—generally made up of 8th or 16th notes. These rhythmic figures are usually performed with a staccato attack created by using a palm-muted technique on the rhythm guitar.[18]
An example of a rhythmic pattern used in heavy metal.
Brief, abrupt, and detached rhythmic cells are joined into rhythmic phrases with a distinctive, often jerky texture. These phrases are used to create rhythmic accompaniment and melodic figures called riffs, which help to establish thematic hooks. Heavy metal songs also use longer rhythmic figures such as whole note- or dotted quarter note-length chords in slow-tempo power ballads. The tempos in early heavy metal music tended to be "slow, even ponderous."[10] By the late 1970s, however, metal bands were employing a wide variety of tempos. In the 2000s, metal tempos range from slow ballad tempos (quarter note = 60 beats per minute) to extremely fast blast beat tempos (quarter note = 350 beats per minute).[13]
[edit] Harmony
One of the signatures of the genre is the guitar power chord.[19] In technical terms, the power chord is relatively simple: it involves just one main interval, generally the perfect fifth, though an octave may be added as a doubling of the root. Although the perfect fifth interval is the most common basis for the power chord,[20] power chords are also based on different intervals such as the minor third, major third, perfect fourth, diminished fifth, or minor sixth.[21] Since the power chord is based on a single interval, it enables guitarists to use a high level of distortion without unintended inharmonicity or intermodulation distortion. If a triad— a chord with a root, third, and fifth— is played on a heavily-distorted guitar, intermodulation distortion may produce frequency components at the various sums and differences of the frequency components of the input signal which will be not be harmonically related to the input signal, leading to disarmonious sounds [22]. Most power chords are also played with a consistent finger arrangement that can be slid easily up and down the fretboard.[23]
The main riff from Megadeth's "Addicted to Chaos" is an example of a heavy metal riff incorporating several types of power chords
[edit] Typical harmonic relationships
Heavy metal is usually based on riffs created with three main harmonic traits: modal scale progressions, tritone and chromatic progressions, and the use of pedal points.
Modal harmony
Example of a typical heavy metal Aeolian harmonic progression in I-VI-VII (Am-F-G): the main riff of Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law"
Traditional heavy metal tends to employ modal scales, in particular the Aeolian and Phrygian modes.[24] Harmonically speaking, this means the genre typically incorporates modal chord progressions such as the Aeolian progressions I-VI-VII, I-VII-(VI), or I-VI-IV-VII and Phrygian progressions implying the relation between I and ♭II (I-♭II-I, I-♭II-III, or I-♭II-VII for example).
Aeolian harmony is used in songs such as Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law", Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name", and Accept's "Princess of the Dawn", each employing a I-VI-VII progression as its main riff. Phrygian harmony is used in songs such as Mercyful Fate's "Gypsy" (main riff I-♭II-I-VI-V), Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" (main riff built on the ♭II-I relation), and Sodom's "Remember the Fallen" (Introduction + main riff—the riff closing implies a Phrygian cadence: I-♭II-III).
Tritone and chromatism
Example of a harmonic progression with the tritone G-C: the main riff of "Black Sabbath"
Tense-sounding chromatic or tritone relationships are used in a number of metal chord progressions.[25][26] The tritone, an interval spanning three whole tones—such as C and F—was a forbidden dissonance in medieval ecclesiastical singing, which led monks to call it diabolus in musica—"the devil in music."[27] Because of that original symbolic association, it came to be heard in Western cultural convention as "evil". Heavy metal has made extensive use of the tritone in guitar solos and riffs, such as in the beginning of "Black Sabbath".
Pedal point
Heavy metal songs often make extensive use of pedal point as a harmonic basis. A pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass range, during which at least one foreign (i.e., dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts.[28] Heavy metal riffs are frequently constructed over a persistent repeating note played on the low strings of the bass or rhythmic guitar, most usually on the E, A, and D strings.[29] In other words, a single bass note—most frequently low E or A—is persistently repeated while some different chords are successively played, including chords that do not normally incorporate that bass note, which creates a sense of tension. An example is the opening riff of Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'". In this case, one guitar plays the pedal point in F, while the second guitar plays the chords.
[edit] Classical influence
Robert Walser argues that, alongside blues and R&B, the "assemblage of disparate musical styles known...as 'classical music'" has been a major influence on heavy metal since the genre's earliest days. He claims that metal's "most influential musicians have been guitar players who have also studied classical music. Their appropriation and adaptation of classical models sparked the development of a new kind of guitar virtuosity [and] changes in the harmonic and melodic language of heavy metal."[30]
The appropriation of "classical" music by heavy metal musicians typically involves musical elements associated with the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras of art music. Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth began experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, guitarists Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen used eighteenth-century Baroque and later classical compositions as models, inspiring neoclassical metal players including Michael Romeo, Michael Angelo Batio, and Tony MacAlpine.
Although a number of metal musicians cite classical composers as inspiration, heavy metal cannot be regarded as the modern descendant of classical music.[31] Classical and metal are rooted in different cultural traditions and practices—classical in the art music tradition, metal in the popular music tradition. As musicologists Nicolas Cook and Nicola Dibben note, "Analyses of popular music also sometimes reveal the influence of 'art traditions.' An example is Walser's linkage of heavy metal music with the ideologies and even some of the performance practices of nineteenth-century Romanticism. However, it would be clearly wrong to claim that traditions such as blues, rock, heavy metal, rap or dance music derive primarily from 'art music.'"[32] Heavy metal borrows only some aspects of classical music, such as motifs, melodies, and scales, rather than more complex features, such as counterpoint, polyphony, and classical structural forms. Heavy metal bands, including progressive and neoclassical metal bands, generally do not seek to observe the compositional and aesthetical exigencies of classical music.
[edit] Lyrical themes
Common themes in heavy metal lyrics are sex, violence, and the occult. The sexual nature of many heavy metal songs, ranging from Led Zeppelin's suggestive lyrics to the more explicit references of latter-day nu metal bands, derives from the genre's roots in blues music and its frequently sexual content.[33] Since the 1980s, with the rise of thrash metal, a substantial number of metal songs have included sociopolitical commentary. Romantic tragedy is a standard theme of gothic and doom metal, as well as of nu metal, where teenage angst is another central topic. Genres such as melodic death metal, progressive metal, and black metal often explore philosophical themes, while more extreme forms of death metal and grindcore have purely aggressive, gory, and often unintelligible content.
Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, lending them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden's songs, for instance, were frequently inspired by mythology, fiction, and poetry, such as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Other examples include Black Sabbath's "The Wizard," Megadeth's "The Conjuring" and "Five Magics," and Judas Priest's "Dreamer Deceiver." Other artists base their lyrics on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, politics, and society or religion. Examples include Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," Ozzy Osbourne's "Killer of Giants," Metallica's ...And Justice for All, Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight," Accept's "Balls to the Wall," and Megadeth's "Peace Sells." Death is a predominant theme in heavy metal, routinely featuring in the lyrics of such different bands as Black Sabbath, Slayer, and W.A.S.P.
The thematic content of heavy metal has long been a target of criticism. According to Jon Pareles, "Heavy metal's main subject matter is simple and virtually universal. With grunts, moans and subliterary lyrics, it celebrates...a party without limits.... [T]he bulk of the music is stylized and formulaic."[4] Music critics have often deemed metal lyrics juvenile and banal, and others have objected to what they see as advocacy of misogyny and the occult. During the 1980s, the Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the U.S. Congress to regulate the popular music industry due to what the group asserted were objectionable lyrics, particularly those in heavy metal songs. In 1990, Judas Priest was sued by the parents of two young men who had shot themselves five years earlier, allegedly after hearing the subliminal statement "do it" in a Priest song. While the case attracted a great deal of media attention, it was ultimately dismissed.[34]
[edit] Fan subculture
Heavy metal music has its own "scene" of metal fans, who have created what a 1993 study called a "subculture of alienation" with its own standards for achieving authenticity within the group.[35] Deena Weinstein's book Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture argues that heavy metal "…has persisted far longer than most genres of rock music" due to the growth of an intense (103) "subculture which identified with the music" (7). Metal fans formed an "exclusionary youth community"( cool which was distinctive and marginalized from the mainstream" society (139) [36]. The heavy metal scene developed a strongly masculine "community with shared values, norms, and behaviors" (104). A "code of authenticity" is central to the heavy metal subculture (46); this code requires bands to have a "disinterest in commercial appeal" and radio hits (154) and a refusal to "sell out" (273) [37].
The author of a 1993 study on metal fans noted some heavy metal performers or fans were classified as "poseurs" "...who pretended to be part of the subculture, but who were deemed to lack authenticity and sincerity." [38] Similarly, Jeffrey Arnett's 1996 book Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation argues that the heavy metal subculture classifies members into two categories by giving "...acceptance as an authentic metalhead or rejection as a fake, a poseur."[39] The metal code also includes "opposition to established authority, and separateness from the rest of society" (166). Fans expect that the metal "…vocation [for performers] includes total devotion to the music and deep loyalty to the youth subculture that grew up around it…" (60); a metal performer must be an "idealized representative of the subculture" (230) [40].
While the audience for metal is mainly "white, male, blue collar youth" (102), this group is "…tolerant of those outside its core demographic base who follow its codes of dress, appearance, and behavior" (112).[41] The activities in the metal subculture include the ritual of attending concerts, buying albums, and most recently, contributing to metal websites (294). Attending concerts affirms the solidarity of the subculture (181), as it is one of the ritual activities by which metalheads celebrate their music (205). [42] Metal magazines help the members of the subculture to connect, find information and evaluations of bands and albums, and "express their solidarity" (181) [43]. The long hair, leather jackets, and band patches of heavy metal fashion (described in more detail below) help to encourage a sense of identification within the subculture (207). However, Weinstein notes that not all metal fans are "visible members" of the heavy metal subculture. (140)
[edit] Visual elements
As with much popular music, visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal. In addition to its sound and lyrics, a heavy metal band's "image" is expressed in album sleeve art, stage sets, the clothes of the band, band logos, and music videos.[44] Some early heavy metal acts, such as Alice Cooper and Kiss and some newer bands such as Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, and GWAR have become known as much for their outrageous performance personas and stage shows as for their music.[45]
Down-the-back long hair, according to Weinstein, is the "most crucial distinguishing feature of metal fashion."[46] Originally adopted from the hippie subculture, by the 1980s and 1990s heavy metal hair "symbolised the hate, angst and disenchantment of a generation that seemingly never felt at home," according to journalist Nader Rahman. Long hair gave members of the metal community "the power they needed to rebel against nothing in general."[47]
The classic uniform of heavy metal fans consists of "blue jeans, black T-shirts, boots and black leather or jeans jackets.... T-shirts are generally emblazoned with the logos or other visual representations of favorite metal bands."[48] In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest and Mötorhead helped establish elements of biker culture and leather fashion in the heavy metal scene.[49][50] Metal fans also "appropriated elements from the S&M community (chains, metal studs, skulls, leather and crosses)." In the 1980s, a range of sources, from punk and goth music to horror films, influenced metal fashion.[51] Many metal performers of the 1970s and 1980s used radically shaped and brightly colored instruments to enhance their stage appearance. Fashion and personal style was especially important for glam metal bands of the era. Performers typically wore long, dyed, hairspray-teased hair (hence the nickname, "hair metal" wink ; makeup such as lipstick and eyeliner; gaudy clothing, including leopard-skin-printed shirts or vests and tight denim, leather, or spandex pants; and accessories such as headbands and jewelry.[52] Pioneered by the heavy metal act X Japan in the late 1980s, bands in the Japanese movement known as visual kei—which includes many nonmetal groups—emphasize elaborate costumes, hair, and makeup.[53]
[edit] Physical gestures
Fans raise their fists and make the "devil horns" gesture at a concert by Estonian heavy metal group Metsatöll in 2006.
Many metal musicians when performing live engage in headbanging, which involves rhythmically beating time with the head, often emphasized by long hair. The corna, or devil horns, hand gesture, also widespread, was popularized by vocalist Ronnie James Dio while with Black Sabbath and Dio.[26] Gene Simmons of Kiss claims to have been the first to make the gesture in concert.[54]
Attendees of metal concerts do not dance in the usual sense; Deena Weinstein has argued that this is due to the music's largely masculine audience and "extreme heterosexualist ideology." She identifies two primary body movements that substitute for dancing: headbanging and an arm thrust that is both a sign of appreciation and a rhythmic gesture.
Maiden_Freak1990 Community Member 
|
|
