Hey guys.

I'm working on a research paper for one of my classes that discusses the possibility of extreme metal having a significant impact on popular culture. Now, for the sake of general audience purposes, I had to kind of stick with a lot of popular definitions (i.e. extreme metal being an umbrella term for black, death, thrash and doom metal), and some of the more popular bands within those genres (i.e. Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Burzum, etc,etc,).
For part of my paper, I would like to get some metalhead perspective on whether or not extreme metal in general has had any impact on popular culture in any form or fashion. I know this is kind of vague, but I'm running out of time here. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

What about your own perspective? Aren't you a metalhead?


heh .. probably in fashion primarily. Though now "church burning" is a pop reference. and .. you know .. Satan.

With these types of projects it generally helps to have some sort of interpersonal perspective on whatever the matter may be. The audience already knows my perspective for the most part. I have to be able to be able to relate others to my own.

I already did include a bit about NBM and the church burnings and basically how the NBM bands' attempts to distance themselves from popular culture lead them to be a popular cultural phonomenon in their own right.

No, not really. Perhaps extreme metal was part of popular culture in Norway to some extent with their tabloid reporting of those infamous events, but in America, it's a stretch to make more than a tangential reference. The closest you'll get are some death metal bands playing early at a festival like Ozzfest or deathcore bands playing on a pop-punk thing like the Warped Tour, but metal has a relatively limited audience, and extreme metal an even more limited subset of that known more for dedication than prominence. Two steps away and nobody cares or is more than slightly aware of extreme metal.

Yeah, I'm having a hell of a time thinking up a single thing in pop culture other than the odd t-shirt with a pentagram to be edgy.

Not to contradict your point or anything, but what about the inclusion of bands like Meshuggah, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Testament among others on the official soundtracks of major studio films? Do think that says anything about a correlation between extreme metal and popular culture?

Again, I'm not trying to flat out contradict what you're saying, I'm just trying to get outside perspective.

I think extreme metal has had a more important impact than many of us think - it has become synonymous with the "other" in a political way. It's a sign of immaturity, of brashness and boldness, and while sure many mainstream movies will point to Slipknot or Dimmu with their fringe characters - there is an underlying sense of baseness that is extrinsically connected to extremism in metal.

In no small way, extremism in music is like extremism in any fashion - representative of a group that lives on the outside of social norms - inspite of how "normal" they may seem. There's a subconscious expression in people who do not understand the music to immediately link it to a fearful and angry disposition - and this is not on accident. We are a group of thinkers/listeners/believers united underneath the banner of outsider understanding.

So, is the impact tangible in an immediate sense? No. Few people understand it. But, is it tangible in a philosophical sense? Yes. We represent a heard outside of the normality of life - and when people want to represent this in media/pop-culture they use our music to define the culture as a whole....

Heavy metal is a subculture. It is an art form that exists within pop culture. One important thing to note that it is NOT a counterculture, which is what punk was. A subculture can absorb outside influences and then incorporate them into itself creating a new paradigm. This is by and large how a lot of genres of metal formed. Punk was largely a reactionary form of music.

As for how large of an impact it has had on pop culture as a whole, my answer would be not too large. If you survey 1000 people at random in a first world country, i'm willing to bet less than 10% could name a band that is undeniably an extreme metal band(no Lamb of God, Metallica, Priest, etc). Extreme metal is something that by definition, is not going to be accepted by the mainstream. In my opinion, for something to have a large impact, it's fanbase(or at least its awareness) must transcend multiple subcultures. For instance, a band like Nirvana(not extreme metal, but go with me here) was part of the same scene as bands like Melvins and Husker Du, so it resides in the Grunge subculture. However, through widespread distribution and various other modes of syndication, Nirvana became a band who's sound is recognized by metalheads, punks, goths, the hip hop community, and even your standard "I listen to everything" high school girl. Something with that kind of spread is now in the collective consciousness of the mainstream. This is something that cannot be said of a band like Suffocation, who's only mainstream exposure was through a commercial for a special on the History Channel. The closest an extreme metal band has come would probably be Mayhem for the events of the 90's, but that was pretty much isolated to Scandinavia. That story never was a thing in the US. Also, given the size of the populus, notoriety only in Scandinavia doesn't even begin to influence pop culture. They do, however, have ABBA going for them.

Speaking as someone with a Sociology degree, I would strongly warn you away from using metal as a source. We get these questions on here (and lots of other forums) all the time and it never really ends well. If you're running out of time, you should not have picked something you're interested in that's a massive hard-sell to anyone outside of this ghetto. I've seen way too many half-assed books about Metal come out in the last few years to support any further intersection between academia and extremism. If you dont have the insight to write it as a purely subjective memoir in the year 2013, you certainly should leave it alone if it's to an an exercise in satisfying the course requirements for a media paper at nowheresville community college.

@Chainsaw Omega: Metal is certainly not as much counterculture as punk, but it is wrong to say that it is not a counterculture. There are many forms in which metal positions itself in opposition with mainstream culture and this opposition forms a large part of its identity. It is not however the main defining element like in punk. I'd definitely position it somewhere inbetween counter-culture and mere subculture rather than view them as exclusive (which is what your first paragraph seems to imply). One could say metal is not merely "reactionary", like punk, as you say, but its opposition stems from the fact that it has its own independent identity that is not really compatible with the mainstream. However, that identity (that is not completely homogenous, but more so than in punk) was only formed over the years while it usually began very punk-like, as a "reactionary" impulse against hippie culture (Black Sabbath), moralism (death metal), modern society as a whole (black metal) etc..

Definitely reminds me of the Glam vs. Thrash stuff. As in, everything the Glam guys did, the Thrash guys would write a song about killing posers.

Just sayin'.

If you've already got a strict thesis you must adhere to then this advice won't mean much but I actually did an anthropology paper on the birth and evolution of the black metal movement a few years back and it turned out nicely. I had started with a much bigger premise, something about the impact of metal in general, and it was much more difficult as there was so much ground to cover. When I narrowed it down to strictly black metal it was much easier to fine tune my paper.

I did an anthropology paper comparing violence across cultures; Structural violence, spiritual violence, things like that. I devoted the last section comparing ways in which violence can positively construct identities and bonds, in which I mentioned Micronesian ritual harm with the violence in mosh-pits. I assumed the marker would hate it, but it turned out reasonably well, so I'd tell anyone - if you think metal has a place in your academia, stick to your guns if you believe your making a good point.

My intentions in coming here didn't come from a lack of insight on my own part, but more rather wanting to get insight from the community as a whole. It's all a matter of getting opinions that aren't my own, which you as someone with a degree should know is a fairly vital part to an exploratory research paper.
And I'm sorry my choice in topic for a Gen-Ed required 200-level writing class doesn't satisfy your pretension. The next time I'm in assigned something in a basic writing class, I'll be more considerate of your pointless ambitions.

edit: I can't read

If I'm not mistaken, he was listing those bands as examples of what isn't extreme metal.

It's a bit of stretch to say that extreme metal has made an impact on popular culture in my opinion. Ten out of ten people unfamiliar with metal will identify it as the 'rahrah' music which is just screaming and noise, grouping it together with any other genre with harsh vocals and distorted electric guitars. That is to say, everyone acknowledges it as a thing that exists somewhere, but that's pretty much the full extent to which it is prevalent in pop culture.
So what if some bands have made it to the soundtracks of mainstream films? That's no different to any random obscure electro-industrial band making it to the soundtrack of a science-fiction/cyberpunk film. It's no indication of any meaningful impact.

Excellent post scorntyrant.

MA is not representative of metal as a whole. Some proclivities from the wider world of metal are mirrored here, but there is a fundamental divorce between the masses who attend the big fests and the posters on this forum, that being that the guys who post here are also ultranerds who post on internet forums in addition to being metalheads.

Doing your homework on metal is a B A D bad idea. It's not a very academic subject and unless you are actually going to do physical investigations on a very wide swath of venues, events and people you just aren't going to get any meaningful information about the sociology of metal. Social science is a science, which means you have to be scientific about it. This forum is not a source of scientific data. Just take it from the many people who have done it and ended disastrously (myself included as well as everyone who's tried it here).

It might depend on one's definition of extreme, but yeah, those would do. Didn't know they were in movies. Still, until I hear some DSBM and someone actually has a genuine shrieking catharsis at any point in a mainstream movie (not holding my breath), I'm going to say it's been background music and hasn't made a whole lot of genuine impact. Good on 'em for getting the revenue, though.

I did an investigation on metal in highschool. It sucked. I got a 10 for it, but I don't know if it was due to the fact that the teacher knew nothing about metal.
I don't really know about metal having an impact on pop culture, but I don't see extreme metalness anywhere. Even if it is present in ever continent, and even if its fanbase is loyal to death I don't think half of the world even knows that there is such thing as extreme metal. Even if there have been over 90 thousand bands, metal is still underground. Even if Metallica sold out extreme metal has not. Even if there is a lot of mallcore there are more independent and really obscure bands. And even if many consider it a lifestyle, a subculture or whatever, we still have a long way to go to be part of the pop culture.

If your're not willing to listen, on your head be it then. Stick around here long enough and you will see this same topic pop up every 6 months, and it never goes well.

^That being said, I'm not asking you for direct academic advice. I'm asking you for perspective on another matter entirely. Also, it's a fairly basic composition class. You have to try to fuck it up. So, if you have something of substance to offer, thank you. If not, then thanks for your concern but please stop wasting my time.

dayng..

2 things I noticed that might have been influenced by (extreme) metal:

- the drums production in popular songs. I don't know if it's a parallel evolution of production technics, but I hear nowadays far more drums sound (not blastbeats or else) in pop songs that could fit in metal songs. Don't have a precise example in mind to back it up though...

- nails on woman clothes this year, but it may come from punk rather than extreme metal, as fashion likes to be punk every other year

This is unnecessarily rude for a newbie asking a favor of everyone here. You can stop wasting our time if you're just going to be a jerk about it.

As a future teacher, I think I'll refuse any papers about metal. I agree with everything Scorntyrant said as well.