Heavy Metal and the Underground Mainstream
“[Metal] is so fucking huge, yet certain people don’t even know it exists,” said Rob Zombie in a 2004 interview with Banger TV for a rockumentary series called Metal Evolution.
Metal’s media presence is strangely growing more apparent on YouTube. Even among guitar and music enthusiasts, Youtubers like Jared Dines, Stevie T, and Rob Scallon to name a few have grown a massive following. These are all metal guitarists and metal comedians.
They make fun of bad metal songs, Lars Ulrich’s drumming (or just Metallica in general) and even stereotype band members (e.g. the singer is always the backbone of the band…and an asshole, or lead guitarists think they’re the greatest thing since Hendrix.)
There is also a growing in metal YouTubers that are not musicians. YouTubers like Heavy Metal Entertainment, The Metal Monster and Jhofffilms that all not only make fun of metal in a brotherly manner, but also make fun of the stereotypes of die hard fans of the genre.
One of my favorite videos that make fun of metalheads is Jhofffilms video on “How to Date a Metalhead.”
There is even a phone app called MetalAmino that shares blog posts and forums that is only dedicated to talking about metal of all subgenres.
But when I ask a Beyonce fan what lettering she used in her Slayonce tour or the lettering for Kanye’s Yeezus logo, they don’t know what the hell I’m talking about…but it looks edgy!
This is where a version of conspicuous consumption comes into play. Popular shops like H&M and Urban Outfitters are selling band’s logo on fashion to an audience that are usually not metalheads.
If you want to read more about this issue in particular, I already wrote a blog post on it.
There’s a sense of “otherness” when one would spot a stereotypical-looking metalhead — usually wearing a band T, a battle vest (denim vest covered in band patches) and/or long hair — one might think they’re mean, tough, unapproachable or worship Satan.
I do not know how exactly the massiveness of metal has managed to stay out of the public eye (unless it’s the music that is being blamed for something atrocious like Bob Gould addressing how Cannibal Corpse is ruining the country with overly grotesque and aggressive lyrics during his election.
Cannibal Corpse never signed onto a major label, but the controversy and national talk about the Florida band gained them a lot of popularity and a lot of sales. However, many journalists and fans have said that the band members are some of the nicest they have ever met. Even Jim Carry asked the band to be features in his movie Ace Ventura in 1994.
But does this still feed to the “otherness” and stereotypical image of the brutal genre? How is metal so massive yet so underground? That we may never know.
I can theorize that it’s due to the genre’s constant criticism of government and mainstream consumption. We can see this lyrically in Megadeth’s, Slipknots and even Ice T’s band, Body Count. Metal has usually be the music of the outcasts in school.
To open and close this article with a Rob Zombie quote, “We never asked to be the weirdos or the outcasts, we sort of just end up there.”
