Metalhead

Metal music originated in the 1960s and 70s as a part of anti-establishment culture.  The popular mythology of heavy metal begins with an amputation.  In the mid-1960s, teenage guitarist Frank Anthony Iommi lost the tips of several fingers in an industrial accident.  Tony Iommi went on to become lead guitarist in Black Sabbath but to compensate for this loss, he tuned his guitar lower, slackening the strings to make them easier to bend.  Heavy metal was ostensibly born from this unholy union of dismembered fingertips and a sheet metal factory.  Steppenwolf used the phrase, “heavy metal” in their rock anthem ‘Born To Be Wild’ in these lyrics, “I like smoke and lightnin’, Heavy metal thunder” and supposedly this was taken from William Burroughs’ sci-fi novel The Soft Machine, where he had a character named Uranium Willy the Heavy Metal Kid, also known as Willy the rat.  The genre draws on elements of blues rock and psychedelic rock and emphasizes over-the-top volumes and other elements that seemingly fly in the face of mainstream music expectations.  Metal often uses strong beats, long instrumental solos (particularly electric guitars), distortion, faster drums, and aggressive vocals.  “Heavy metal” or sometimes just “metal” songs can be celebratory, reflective, and even inspirational, there is often an element of aggression, dismay, and rebellion against societal norms in their lyrical content.  Back in the 60s and 70s the average listener may have referred to bands like Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest as heavy metal, but the definition gradually evolved to include only bands with a more aggressive style, however, the lines are still kind of blurry.  Metal is an incredibly diverse genre of music, and it can be broken down into subgenres of, Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Extreme Metal, Glam Metal, Grunge Metal, Hardcore Metal, Power Metal, Sludge Metal, Speed Metal, Stoner Metal, Thrash Metal and others.

Last week we had Distinctive Subgenre of Jangle Pop where the theme was to find Paisley Underground songs.  This week the theme is to find Metal songs.  Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you can as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possibly that you will learn a thing or two.  Share your music with others and post a video, try do some research and let everyone know something about the song that you post.  Tell everyone why you like the song, whether it was a hit, or what you think the song is about.  Show the lyrics, let’s all listen to our favorite songs and explore some new music.  Try to find a song that fits the theme, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Suggestions
• Try to use the prompt words or at least conform to a general theme, as you see it.  If the song you select does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• It would be good if you could post the lyrics to the song of your choice, as this is helpful for the people that want to follow along with the music.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due. It would also be a good idea to give credit to the singer and the band associated with your song.
• Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be, but please try not to include too many videos as that just makes it take longer to look at all of the other posts.
• Link to the YouTube video, or you can pull it into your post, so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

This week I will be writing about Alice in Chains song ‘Man in a Box’, and next week, I will be writing about the song ‘Rated “X”’ by Loretta Lynn.  The upcoming prompts will be:
January 22, 2023 – Country Music
January 29, 2023 – New Wave Music
February 5, 2023 – Yacht Rock suggested by John Holton
February 12, 2023 – Sunshine Pop suggested by John Holton