People who play/listen to metal aren't douchebags

Hey, I'm back! Here to talk to you about the common misconception that metalheads are douchebags:

I've heard many people sincerely make this claim, and it irritates me about as much as people who say "I like all music except for country". (First of all, you don't like all kinds of music. People say this when they don't really know anything about music, and then they tack on the whole except country bit just to add a little credibility to their statement. But think how ridiculous this is: do they really like celtic dance music, or trippy experimental music like Black Dice? Of course they don't; if you played Black Dice in front of them they'd probably permanently judge you as "weird" or "different". And second, have any of these people every actually listened to country music? Not, obviously, that awful shit that you hear on Country Music Television, you know, pop country, but say Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline or like half of the music by the Rolling Stones. Country is one of the biggest influences on modern music, and people who identify it as the only type of music that they don't like need to smarten up.)

But yeah, back to to the topic at hand. It's pretty clear that anyone who says this has never made a conscious effort to listen to metal. Which is not to say that they haven't heard it before, but metal, especially the harder stuff, is definitely an acquired taste. I should add as a disclaimer that I don't listen to metal, but I am familiar with it, and I think it's awesome. It's just not the first thing I think of when I'm in the mood to listen to music. I do however, know a lot of people who listen to metal, and I know they're not douchebags. That's why people who argue that they are really get to me. Here are some of the arguments that they use, and my take on them:

When they yell and grown they just sound stupid:

Admittedly, the sound of someone screaming or growling is initially a little jarring. It's definitely different than other types of singing. But what about it is stupid? It's extremely expressive and, when you get used to it, relaxing. If you listen to music for its therapeutic value, then I don't think you'll find better music than metal. Imagine putting on your headphones and having someone do all the yelling at screaming you wish you could do for you. Anger, I think, is a better weapon against stress than, say, sadness. Namely the kind of whiny music that most people listen to when they're in a bad mood.

Also, you could really level this "they sound dumb" claim against any singer; they're all making animalistic cries to vent their feelings. How else would you define singing? The only difference between metal singers and any other type is that most people don't find it palatable to listen to. If this is a valid reason to call someone a douchebag, then you might as well call everyone a douchebag since no one's voice is going to please everyone.

Metal lyrics are so cheesy

First off, I don't think it's a stretch to say that 80% of music out there has lyrics that are either meaningless, vapid or melodramatic. I don't really know enough about metal to safely claim that it's any different. However, I will say that, in general, metal strays away from the type of lyrics that dominate most other music forms. That is, it strays away from your typical love song. Not to say that there's anything wrong with the occasional ballad, but I mean, the whole thing is just a little boring at this point. "I miss you" and "I want you" and "I hate/love you" have been used as themes a million times, and not only that, are usually done in entirely unoriginal, non-engaging ways. Say what you will about metal lyrics, at least they're comparatively original, whether they're about viking conquest, or war, or the future.

Take, as an example, that popular Edward Sharpe song which I'm pretty sick of at this point. "home is wherever I am with you..." basically the entire meaning of this song is: We love each other very much. We love our parents a lot too, but not in the same way as we love each other. And then they add in a little "Holey, moley" and some "Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ" just to sound a little different. Compare this with Metallica's One: a song about a soldier who's been severely injured and put on life support. He's conscious, but can't communicate the agony he feels, and all he wants is to be left to die. I'm not going to say that Metallica writes beautiful poetry or anything, but I think it's easy to see that at least the subject matter they're writing about is far more compelling than the Edward Sharpe song.

Ok, last one:
People who listen to metal are all violent, angry assholes

First off, just because metal has a lot of yelling in it, doesn't mean it's angry. Second, just because people write angry songs, doesn't mean they're angry people. Most people I know who like metal are more subdued than your average person. Why this is, I'm not sure; maybe they're timid by nature, or maybe metal is just a great way to release excess anger.

If I had to characterize you're average metalhead in some way, it would be that they generally don't give a fuck. I think it's obvious why this might be; it's as if they took one glance at popular music and society and became nauseous. Then, pushing as far from this as they could, they set out to make music that would be entirely rejected by the majority of people. This is a very liberating thing; and it means that within the culture anything goes, just so long as it's interesting. I feel like at a metal concert you're just as likely to see, say, a guy wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, as someone with a mullet and a wife-beater (though I don't have too much evidence for this).

And that's it, don't judge a book by it's cover, etc, etc.