The Community
ROCK AND ROLL! => All Them Other Guys => Topic started by: Zzzptm on May 11, 2018, 08:42:45 AM
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This is a tricky question... there's plenty of loud music out there, but us metalheads :headbanger: often ask if something is metal, more metal, less metal, not metal enough, poser metal... it's a mess. So, we need to set some boundary markers so we know where we're starting to leave metal behind and get into something different.
For example, even if I don't like Slayer, I can agree that Slayer is a metal band. Megadeth and Metallica, they're also metal. We can put the "thrash" or "speed" adjectives on them if we like, but it's not really necessary. They're metal, and recognized as such by metalheads everywhere.
But is the metal a matter of instrumentation, or is there more to it? For example, here's a tune from Ronnie and the Red Caps from 1958...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGL_la4zb1Q
And I say this is a metal tune. The amps aren't ready for arena rock, but the way the guitar and drums are going... dude... :yes: :headbanger: :death: The trumpet doesn't hurt, either. And, yes, that's Ronnie James Dio playing the trumpet.
Other songs from that band were more in line with the rest of the 50s, but this one... even the title, "Conquest", is metal.
And I wouldn't even bother with the proto- label. That's for stuff that, historically, was developing towards metal. This song is already *there*.
By comparison, I can play a jump blues song and say, "Hey, that's pretty damn close to rock and roll." But when I put on Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti", I point at it and say, "That, my friends, *is* rock and roll."
Well, I can play "Hey Bulldog" by The Beatles and say, "That's some heavy stuff, it's heading in a metal direction." I would contend that this Ronnie and the Red Caps song is what that Beatles tune is heading towards.
Metal music certainly has a tension to it. It's intense. There needn't necessarily be shouting or growling or even speed or loudness. The intensity is where it all starts. There are sounds we typically associate with metal bands and their songs, but let's be honest and admit that even acoustic music can be metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCRv_DnAZQs
:headbanger: Great stuff, and it points to connections between metal and certain tribal/traditional musical genres. Not that those are necessarily metal, but certainly could be used as influences on metal.
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Or, take the story of "The Train Kept A-Rollin" and how it went from jump blues to metal...
Original jump blues, by Tiny Bradshaw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci4EQDD4CqA
Then Johnny Burnette turned it into a driven rockabilly tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtcVvWRvrIU
That's more metal, but not quite there. Rockabilly can get pretty dang close, though, because it's so intense in its own way.
We go next to The Yardbirds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd1gRHk28IE
This one has Jeff Beck playing. It's a good rocker, but pretty much not far removed from Burnette's version. But add Jimmy Page and we get...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adbGT8Rg9OE
Wow. That, my friends, is so close to metal it may actually *be* metal. It's got a different intensity, more pulled together than the earlier version. The arrangement is different, and so is the attitude.
Let's check out the Aerosmith version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EvGn22Mplg
Starts off as a straightforward hard rocker. I'm going to say it's not metal. It rocks hell yes, but it's not metal. Go to the part that is either live or has a crowd overdubbed... that's around the 2:10 mark. The drummer picks up the speed, and that boost in tempo gets the band to change its whole outlook. Much more driven of a tune... but not quite metal. It's harder rock, yes. Really dang hard. But just not *quite* metal yet.
So let's study the Motörhead version, the 1978 live one, to be specific:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRtjLBU4YkY
I use this one because it's more metal than their 1980 Hammersmith version, which I would contend is closer to punk than it is metal. But that difference just goes to show, along with the Yardbirds example, how bands can shift in style from day to day, or even song to song. The 1977 studio version from Motörhead is metallic, but also a lot like Hawkwind's space rock sound.
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Metal's got a Rock attitude, Heavy (read: weighty) riffing and a rythm that drives you f'n mad... :rockon: :jimi: :drummer: :guitar:
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Metal's definition certainly changed over the years, What was metal in the 70's, certainly isn't considered metal anymore in a most cases. And so much of the "Hair Band", Bon Jovi type stuff that came out in the late 80's, I never considered metal, Yet most of it was categorized as such. Nowadays, the stuff people consider metal, I don't have any love for at all! I guess my bottom line is that: I don't know what makes metal, metal! The epitome of metal for me, is a band like Judas Priest.
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True, Judas Priest is another one of those standards. When you've got a Priest album, you've pretty much got a metal album.
But then we get to bands like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, which didn't sound like JP's brand of metal until the 80s. DP stepped away from that sound after Blackmore left, BS stayed on top of it, even in their Mk1 reunions. Before the 80s, they were labeled "heavy metal", along with Aerosmith and Queen... :think:
I'll grant that some Aerosmith and Queen are metal, but not all...
And then, yes, the posers... hair metal, etc. They copied the sound of metal in terms of guitar effects, drumming style, and so forth, but that's all they copied. There was the similar sound, but none of the *attitude* or *intensity*.
"Bad Medicine" sounds like metal... but it ain't... and "War Pigs" doesn't really sound like metal... but it *is*...
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I don't know, I've never considered Sabbath a metal "Band", more like a Hard Rock band that "played" or "went" metal, when it was needful to do so, particularly on Born Again, but then again, I didn't discover Sabbath until around 1980-'81, when I was 9. So someone who was listening to them in the 70's and considered them a "metal" band, is going to have a different concept of what metal is.
This is probably the most "metal" that Aerosmith ever got, IMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-TSvxZ40RQ
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Wikipedia's article is quite broad... basically, a bunch of guys emphasizing the beat, syncopated or otherwise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_music
But I like this quote:
The metal scene has been characterized as a "subculture of alienation", with its own code of authenticity. This code puts several demands on performers: they must appear both completely devoted to their music and loyal to the subculture that supports it; they must appear uninterested in mainstream appeal and radio hits; and they must never "sell out". Deena Weinstein states that for the fans themselves, the code promotes "opposition to established authority, and separateness from the rest of society".
Bon Jovi, being a tool of the music industry's attempt to cash in on the sound, would be not metal by this definition, while Black Sabbath and Deep Purple are in. Yes, the latter two had hits, but they were more interested in making their money from doing gigs and album sales, not the singles.