Classic Metal Class Session 4 — Mimesis, Metal, and Tribute Bands
In the fourth session of our monthly class focused on the intersection of philosophy, music history, and heavy metal, my co-host Scott Tarulli and I wanted to take on a really substantive topic: the importance of mimesis in music and the arts generally, and in classic metal specifically. That’s a Greek term that can be translated as “imitation” (but also can be understood as “reproduction”. Discussions about the nature of art (including music) have long viewed it as involving — or even at its core, just being — mimesis.
There are a number of other issues connected with this broad matter that we’ll likely explore in upcoming episodes, but the one that we focused on in this session is rather specific We centered the discussion on issues that arise out of one main mode of mimesis — a particular kind of band, tribute bands, which are centered entirely around imitation.
We’ve all seen them either live or in other media like YouTube videos — bands whose entire purpose and point is to imitate another band, going past just covering their music to imitating their appearance, their style, their ethos. Sometimes, they’re dead-on. Sometimes they’re from the originals. Sometimes they rock. And sometimes they suck.
But there are thousands of tribute bands out there, so we discussed what distinguishes tribute bands from other types of band, and examine the range of values they provide, deal in, or exploit — and what their relationships are with the original metal bands they imitate.
If you would like to watch the session recording, here’s the video:
We also get into specific discussion of certain bands specifically, for example, KISS. In one way, becoming a KISS tribute band might be easier visually — anyone could be hiding behind the makeup and costume, whether they facially resemble the original members or not. Then again, given that all of the members sing as well as play their instruments, that could make performing as KISS a bit more demanding.
Adding another wrinkle, the two remaining original members — Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley — have floated the idea of having KISS continue on without them, by adding new musicians to play their characters (as Tommy Thayer and Eric Carr do in the present band), which would perhaps transform the actual KISS band into what is effectively a KISS tribute band!
We’ll likely revisit this general topic sometime down the line, as well as some of the associated issues we didn’t get to during this initial session. We also have plans to do an interview with a musician actively playing in a tribute band about that experience. . .
I’m Greg Sadler, the Heavy Metal Philosopher. You can join me and my co-host Scott Tarulli each month for a new session of Classic Metal Class).
I’m also the president of ReasonIO, a speaker, writer, and a producer of highly popular YouTube videos on classic and contemporary philosophy. I teach at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and offer classes to the wider public in my Study With Sadler online academy. I also produce the Sadler’s Lectures podcast and co-host the Wisdom for Life radio show
