History of Metal

History of Metal

In 1986 something strange happened, heavy metal became the most popular music in the world and everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, flashing the devil horn sign and playing air guitars, but not everyone loved it, critics thought that it was unsophisticated music for unsophisticated people, one writer went as far as calling it sick, repulsive, horrible and dangerous.

Tipper Gore, wife of America future vice president led parents in a charge to censure heavy metal resulting in the now familiar warning labels. Religious groups launched their own crusade against heavy metal, they feared it was a vessel for the devil and it created a satanic epidemic among teenagers and then, the law sues came, metal artist were sued for causing kids to commit suicide or even murder, heavy metal was the moral panic of the day and metal fans they were considered low lives, dead end kids and the trash of society. This music has millions of passionate fans worldwide and yet for 40 years it's been consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned. Why has metal provoke such polar reactions? I need to answer this question.

Before I get into how heavy metal has divided people I wanted to explore a subject that is long divided metal heads, who gets to become the first heavy metal band, this debate has been going on for decades so this seems like the best place to start

Origins - History of Heavy Metal

In my opinion Black Sabbath reigns as the first Heavy metal band, it was in the streets of Birmingham, UK in 1960 where Sabbath took music to a darker more sinister place, most people associate black Sabbath with Ozzy Osborne now known as a reality TV dad but it was Tony Iommi Sabbath's guitarist who is responsible for creating the band sound and the first true heavy metal riffs.

Since Black Sabbath the sound of evil has become a defining element of heavy metal but what makes metal sound evil? The blue scale has the flat fifth, the Triton, that's the devils note like the in old days you weren't allowed to use that note but Black Sabbath, their title song they worked on it, the diminished fifth, The Triton. In the middle ages The Triton was defined the music of the devil because it had because apparently it was the sound used to call the beast.

There is an ongoing battle in heavy metal to be more evil than the band that came before you, but there is more to this music than just sounding evil. If you don't have an electric guitar with really good amps and really good distortion you don't have the core of metal, you also need to have a really strong base sound in it with the base guitar and the drums and then usually a vocalist who can soar over top all that stuff with usually a fairly high voice, they can't be soft, cute or sly, they have to be strong in one way or another.

Iron Maiden was part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a movement that build on the foundation laid by early metal bands, they hone the sound that was faster, heavier and more melodic than their predecessors.

With Heavy Metal it doesn't even matter if the microphone is there but you still got to sound like you are projecting to the back of the hall like there is a tremendous effort involved and see you get the return, like particular people like Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden or Rob Helford from Judas Priest have this very operatic style of vocal production that was developed in the 19 century before amplification in order to reach the back of the stage. Dickenson's operatic vocal style has had an enormous impact on Heavy Metal music and all though people don't associate metal with virtuosic style of music like classical or opera it's this influences that made metal unique.

The classical roots of Heavy Metal are fairly obvious in most of the practitioners were fans of dark classical music and in some cases dark powerful heavy classical music like Wagner, he actually reshaped the orchestra, he added tubas, extra bases, octabase which is a double sized base violin that took 2 people to play and when he just loaded down the bottom end of his orchestra so when that orchestra played the rafter shout, there was so much base and it was the first time that people really heard that in life.

Heavy Metal has another music ancestor, one who's roots lies deep in the American South, the root of all rock and roll is blues and slave music, they invented the guitar, it's an African instrument, that's where it started. The origins of metal can take you so back to the blues in America and that of course is very much an oppressed music and very much suppose to people that needed something a little different.

Environment

The history of black Sabbath, deep purple and led zeppelin, this people didn't came from awfully back grounds and therefore they grew up and knew exactly how to present their music to people who came from a like minded situation like when kids are bored, agitated, if they have problems at home, parents, drug diction and alcoholism all contributes to the product of a young angry musician or it could be a negation of sort of the world that is handed to you but no, that is something that is mine and that I know

Fans

Metal heads if you do say something to them they have their own opinions and they can talk to you about it and be like "well, this is what I think." They don't try to like the same music because one of your friends like it or listen to whatever is popular so you can fit in, that's what you find in metal, you find self confidence since is a strong type of music that gives you the ability to stand up and go. It's like a life style music and everything else seems like people are like "yeah I like it for a week and lose interest" but metal fans love it forever.

Metal seems to tell people that you feel weird but you are not and makes people feel like it's not a way to understand your loneliness is sort of a way to feel as though you are part of something that is larger than yourself because everything in metal is larger than it is in life and it gives us Metal fans an alternative universe and a life of imagination where we can view music and usually inspires a lot of them to pick up a guitar and start playing.

With Metal there is so many meanings to it whether is religious or just in life, there is something for everyone and is important since it something we metal heads can count on like things in life they tend to have a good or bad times but whether you have a good day or a bad day metal is going to be there for it.

Metal is outsider music and it's outside our subjects and