Some old friends of my parents came over to my house for dinner a few days ago. They have a son about my age. I’ve never really met him before though or I don’t have any recollection of it. Anyway, this evening turned out to be an incredibly fascinating one. Basically, my knowledge of heavy or black metal music or whatever the hell it’s called, increased by a tremendous amount, thanks to him. Apparently, you can only be a true music enthusiast if you listen to Iron Maiden and Metallica. I dislike both.
Firstly, I do NOT think metal is music. Weird, long haired, heavily tattooed, pierced guys screaming their lungs out at me definitely isn’t music, even though they claim it is. Eric Clapton sang rock music wearing a simple shirt with a pair of old jeans and his guitar. He didn’t need a thousand piercing and tattoos all over his body or a disgusting leather jacket to claim that he was indeed the God of Guitar. I know this is probably the most trending genre of music right now, especially amongst boys, but I don’t really get it. I never will. Nor will I ever get the Nicki Minaj’s and Jessie J’s or all the other thousands of rappers or hip-hoppers that are out there. Recently, there was this huge hype about this band called Swedish House Mafia who were coming in to the city to perform live. It lead to hoards of teenagers paying crazy amounts to watch them, even though half of them had probably never even heard of them before.
Anyway, the interesting part of my evening was when I was scrolling down this guy’s music list and I came across some names of heavy metal bands. One of them was Dying Foetus. Was this some kind of sick joke? How can that possibly be the name of a band?! After I recovered my senses, I scrolled further down, only to lose them again and again. There are bands with names like Sick Puppies, Butthole Surfers, Cannibal Corpse and FleshGod Apocalypse! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stared daggers at the boy, wondering if he was sane or whether he had a depression problem, and he only replied with, “hey! It’s not easy to come up with a band name. Why don’t you try coming up with something?” I wasn’t quite sure about how to reply to that, either tell him he needs to see a doctor because he listens to bands with names like dying foetus or tell him that musicians are supposed to be creative people and they REALLY ought to be able to come up with slightly less violent, gory names. There is also a song by a band called Necrophagist called Mutilate the stillborn. What kind of song is that? What has become of this world? I don’t there are many bands that pay any attention to the lyrics of their songs these days. It’s sad, really. In that list were also some absolutely hilarious names like I set my friends on fire, I butter the bread with butter, I killed the prom queen, Herman’s hermits and Puddle of mudd!
It makes me wonder whether music has just become a medium of letting out your frustrations while using tonnes of swear words. There is a difference between letting out your frustration and expressing yourself. Is music no more about spreading a message or telling a story, may be like the Beatles did? And what exactly is the attraction to all this heavy metal bullshit? Is it just a fad, like so many other things? Have teens lost just about all their individuality in this day and age? I don’t understand. It baffles me to no end! How is it that bands with names like ‘Butthole Surfers’ actually have a fan following? I don’t think I will ever understand these things and I don't think I even want to try to. It’ll all just continue to be a mystery to me.
Anyway, fun evening.
It makes me wonder whether music has just become a medium of letting out your frustrations while using tonnes of swear words. There is a difference between letting out your frustration and expressing yourself. Is music no more about spreading a message or telling a story, may be like the Beatles did? And what exactly is the attraction to all this heavy metal bullshit? Is it just a fad, like so many other things? Have teens lost just about all their individuality in this day and age? I don’t understand. It baffles me to no end! How is it that bands with names like ‘Butthole Surfers’ actually have a fan following? I don’t think I will ever understand these things and I don't think I even want to try to. It’ll all just continue to be a mystery to me.Anyway, fun evening.
