Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Give it a bit of metal

As an assignment, I was supposed to choose a particular subculture and go into depth about it. I choose metal heads. In particular Thrash metal. I chose this because it is the opposite to what I normally would have chosen and is a subculture that I know nothing about so would be a definite learning curve.

Why is a metalhead and metalhead?...The philosophy?

I asked this very question to a friend who I studied my foundation who is a lover of metal music. He gave me this answer

"It makes me happy, I can get my rage out in a positive way, even if it means moshing. I head-bang, throw the horns and listen to metal and I'm happy, it also gives me an identity and when I was younger and when I was depressed and alone it gave me strength inside and made me feel special. 

The clothes are uniform which gives an identity, you meet fellow metal heads and there's a connection despite colour, greed and faith. Being an outcast and meeting fellow outcasts just makes you feel part of something which make an outcast feel special"

Jonathan Halls 

So the main parts to being a metalhead is...

  1. To be part of something. A wider group 
  2. Finding your identity within something 
  3. Losing yourself in the music to let out emotion
  4. Rebelling against the commercial and the mainstream 
  5. Love/hate relationship with God and religion


How did the heavy metal subculture start?

Derives from the loud blues and psyched of the late 1960's, but left the blues influence behind and kept the powerful, loud and guitar miffs of the late 60's and early 70's.

It began establishing itself as one of the most commercial successful forms of rock 'n' roll 

The who 
Jimmi Hendrix
Alice Cooper 
Led Zepplin 

These bands fused heavy guitars with blues. 

By the mid 70's the leaders of the new heavy metal were being established 

Black Sabbath 
Deep Purple 
Thin Lizzy 
Judias Priest 
Aerosmith 
AC/DC

By the 1980s heavy metal exploded and was not just music but a way of life. 

By the mid 80's/ early 90's speed metal and thrash metal had broken off the main subculture to form their own and became more popular. 

But by the mid 90's with the introduction of grudge popularity took a nose dive. 

And what about Thrash Metal....

The earliest Thrash metal is credited as thrash metal was Queen's "Stone cold crazy" in 1974 and Black Sabbath's "Symptom of the Universe" though this is subject to debate amongst all Thrash metal heads. 

The fast paced instrumentation introduced by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Venom and Motor Head became the essential aspects of Thrash. 

A great deal of Thrash metal groups pay tribute to hardcore punk. 

The popualrity of Thrash metal increased and lead to a more heavier sound form of thrash metal came with the release of Metallica's "Ride of the Lightening" , Anthrax's "Fistful of metal" , Overkill's self titled EP and Slayer's "Haunting the Chapel". 

1986 - A big time for Thrash Metal, lots of highly publicised thrash metal. 

During the late 1980's Thrash Metal continued its climax with bands like Anthrax and Sepultura. 

Bay Area thrash is referred to a steady following of heavy metal bands in the 1980's who formed and gained international status in the San Francisco Bay Area.  This scene was widely known as a starting point of American Thrash metal. Again this is subject to debate. 

In the 1990s after this climax in popularity for the genre, it died down. 

Though revival has been taken place during the 2000s 

Bands such as Enli and Municipal Wadte have been key to this revival. 

A lot of the old bands from this 1990s have made comebacks in the 2000s 

"Big Four Tour" - Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax

In 2010 seven shows where put on in the Sonisphere Festival. 
First show in Warsaw, Poland, June 16 2010 
Last Show Istanbul, Turkey, June 27 2010
On May 5 2010 Metallica said that the show in Sofia on June 22 would be televised to over 450 cinemas in the USA.

Tell me about the music... 

2 types  - American Thrash metal / British Thrash Metal.

American Thrash Metal 

Agent Steel
Annihilator
Anthrax
Dark Angel
Death Angel
Sucidal Tendencies 
Exciter 
Exodis 
Flotsam and Jetsam 
Infernal Majesty 
Megadeth 
Whiplash
Nucleur Assault 
Oblivion 
Overkill
Possessed 
Razor
Sacred Reich 
Sacrifice
Slayer
Testament 

Thrash metal was spawned by the New Wave of British Metal 

There is an argument that uploads punk as another motivation for budding thrashers. The street ethic played a part. 

Musically the thrash bands aspired towards technical proficiency, which is a part of the punk approach. 

The focal part of this movement was Bay Area of San Francisco, California. Then New York and New Jersey for its cultural centre despite the presence of Anthrax and Overkill. 

Once it started, thrash metal rose to popularity with suitable speed. Bu 1986 and 7 Thrash has taken its command of the metal media into the charts. 

Metallica and its popularity made sure the genre was here to stay 

British Thrash Metal

Atomkraft
Onslaught
Pariah Satan 
Rearimation
Sahbat 
Sacrilege
Slammer 
Toranaga
Xentrix

Britain - The leader in the field of rock and metal 

The brightest hopes of UK Thrash came with Xentrix, Pariah and Sahbat 

Uk Thrash metal was unable to compete with America and Germany. Fans deserted the scene. 

Thrash metal bands tended to write a mixture of "political" songs and more direct, extensional critiques of modern society. 


Metal in the mainstream 



Last year, in the 5 and 6th season of skins there were 2 episodes dedicated to the character Rich, a metalhead shown to shut out the world and listen to his music. The episode in season 5 is purely based around his life as a metalhead. 

Dress/Make up








Jeans/T-shirt (Band, Black, Studded)
Leather Jacket (Studded, ruffed)
Studded bracelets, necklaces and accessories (studs, skulls, bass guitars)
Long hair 
All black clothing 








Where can metal heads shop?



This is a big independent label which bases itself around metal music which also sells merchandise like band t shirts and CDs for fans to buy on its website. 





A t-shirt based store selling t shirts and magazines of all genres.






There is a lot to be bought on ebay. There are a lot of stores within ebay which sell thrash metal music, merchandise and clothing. This particular store sells patches for bags and jackets.



Metal Fashion 



Its a style of dress, body, modification, make-up, hairstyle and so on, done by fans of metal music often know as headbangers or metal heads. 

The fashion has its origins in rocker, biker and leather subcultures. 

Some of the influences of modern military clothing and Vietnam War can be seen by fans and bands of thrash metal like Metallica, Destruction and Megadeth. 
Wearing bullet belts around their waist 
Spike bands or gauntlets
Patches

Designers

Ann Sophie - Back .... Swedish Avant -  Garde designer




Here are some bits and bobs of her A/W 09 collection. Heavily influenced by her personal tastes (she is a metalhead herself) we can see this through her clothing as she is known for her metal/goth clothing. 






Mainstream designers with a metal influence



















Yves Saint Laurent's A/W 2012 collection we can see elements of the metalhead dress in the designs. The focus on black and and the the biker jacket and the top, is a take on the metal style



Kanye West's debut A/W 12 collection showed a lot of leather jackets and experimented with the styles of the jacket with a focus on black. This is playing on the main style of a metalhead, but you could say this is also an influence from a rocker style (subject to opinion) but he does use the item of the leather jacket and turning it into a more avant-garde form.
























Rick Owen's clothes can also be said to be influenced by the metalhead style.


The bagginess and focus on black could easily fit into the sub genre of metal but also could be said to be borderline rocker chic. 

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