Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
I love them. Got into their stuff when they supported Slayer at the Horden Pavilion many many years ago. They were great at Soundwave this year too.
Heavy metal fans: brighter than you think
Guitarist Angus Young of AC/DC, a band considered to be pioneers of heavy metal, which apparently attracts more sociable and sporty fans than many other music genres. Picture: Adam Ward Source: The Australian
HEAVY METAL fans are often dismissed as violent troglodytes who would rather rip the head off a bat than head to the gym. But a new survey has found that metal heads are more sporty, sociable and musical than fans of other genres.
The survey, one of the largest conducted of Britain's metal fans, also found that a musical genre associated with gruesome imagery, and which often relies on satanic lyrics, is considered an overwhelmingly positive force in the lives of those who love it. It also found that the average metal fan is highly educated and is more likely to play in a band, with two thirds of those surveyed able to play an instrument.
Carried out by the British Phonographic Industry, which contacted fans via metal magazines such as Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, the survey goes a long way towards exploding some of the myths about metal fans, although it also found that three quarters of the 3,700 respondents were unmarried with no children. That implied that heavy metal is perhaps not the music of romance.
Dante Bonutto, managing director of the metal label Spinefarm, countered that the figure reflected the relative youth of metal fans. “There used to be a cliche about hard rock fans having trouble getting girlfriends although that was definitely not the case if you were in a band,” he said.
“But a lot more women are open to metal these days. You also have a lot of younger fans involved. An Iron Maiden or AC/DC concert is a bit like going to a football match. You get dads who take their sons, to pass on the torch.”
The survey highlights the positive aspects of a dose of metal that belies the outsider status of many of its fans. Almost 80 per cent felt “energised” after listening to metal, with a quarter playing sport and a third regularly visiting the gym, while nearly three quarters said that the music had helped them to get through a tough period in their life.
“Without question, metal is a positive thing,” said Mr Bonutto. “It's a fairly escapist type of music. If you go to a gig then you won't learn anything about politics but you know you are going to have a good time. Metal gets you through a bad day.
“It's sad when it gets blamed for all sorts of things, especially in America, because it is an easy target. But metal fans have very broad shoulders.”
He said that educated people had always gravitated toward metal, given the literary nature of many of the genre's lyrics. He noted that Rush once based a whole album on the writings of Ayn Rand and that Led Zeppelin looked to the “sword and sorcery” books of Tolkein for inspiration. “You had to have an inquiring mind and a thirst for knowledge to appreciate this music,” he said.
Metal was one of the few genres to survive the punk explosion of the 1970s unscathed, and today it remains a counterpoint to the charts.
“Metal is still underground in the UK as it has little mainstream media support,” said Mr Bonutto. “But that works in its favour and always has. It defines itself against the mainstream, the 'short-term' music fans that don't play or think too much about music, like The X Factor. Metal defines you against that shallow form of music.”
The genre grew out of the industrial Midlands when bands such as Black Sabbath pioneered a new heavy rock sound in the late 1960s. The subsequent new wave of bands, including Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, pushed the genre into the mainstream and inspired a generation in America.
Mr Bonutto said that Black Sabbath, who effectively created the genre, had been on the rise again since the 1990s, when grunge bands led a revival of their music. “You eventually get the respect you deserve,” he said.
The Times
