PEACE, LOVE & WHITE CHICKS

Our West Coast buddies over at NO CLEAN SINGING produced some very thought provoking material today.  Their writer, Islander, wrote a piece in which he cursed the name of white girl “rapper” Ke$ha, whose hit song “Tik Tok” has been topping the charts these past few weeks.  I responded with the following comment:

I actually really like that “Tik Tok” song. I’m not saying YOU have to, but it honestly feels like too many people still MAKE metal or LIKE it just to “stick it” to other genres or to prove they’re better. Heavy music is fully capable of standing on its own. I like to think of myself as a peacemaker.

Well, this prompted Islander to write a second post in which he responded to my comment.  An excerpt:

I confess that Elise is right in saying “too many people still MAKE metal or LIKE it just to “stick it” to other genres or to prove they’re better.” The metal scene has its own form of political correctness that drives many of us to apply a litmus test of purity even to music within the metal genre. If it’s not brutal enough, if it enjoys too much commercial success, if it doesn’t display technical virtuosity, lots of us tend to shit all over it. And as for pop music, well, Elise is right that some of us listen to metal to prove that we’re better than that. It’s that whole “us against the world” attitude which is a defining element of extreme metal. (And I’m compelled to say to all those people who don’t like metal, “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”)

I appreciate this comradery we have.  I guess the point I was trying to make is that I wish we as a musical community could put this whole “METAL AS A REBELLION AGAINST SOCIETY” thing behind us.  I understand that’s sort of how this genre got started, but the approach feels so outdated to me nowadays.  Call me crazy, but I have faith in the product itself.

I never got into metal because I was mad at the world.  Anyone knows me knows that I am not an angry person.  In fact, I am fucking delightful.  I wasn’t all, GRRRR PUPPIES!!! GRRR RAINBOWS!!!  GRRRRR CHRISTINA AGUILERA!!!!!!!!!!!  I just liked metal because it was more complex, emotionally intense and expanded my understanding of what music could be.  I honestly see it as more empowering, positive, and energetic than it is angry and violent…even if some of it is totally loud and brutal.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t like listening to other more “accessible” stuff, too.

I like pop.  I don’t really own very many pop albums in their entirety, but I have tons of pop songs on my computer…and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  I’m not going to sit here and say I LIKE EVERYTHING!!!!! because I don’t, but I appreciate lots of different types of music, and I especially love artists such as Mike Patton, The Dillinger Escape Plan, or even Devin Townsend,  who incorporate lots of different elements and genres into their stuff.  I’d say my most favorite bands are more “interesting” than they are S00PER BR00TAL, because I like to get a little more out of my music than just a little bang-bang-bang, roar-roar-roar.

Blah blah…bottom line: can’t we all just get along?  I’d rather enjoy the music I like because I LIKE it and not because I HATE the other shit in the jukebox.  Y’all feel me?

-Elise