| VH1 Dont Know Metal |
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Recently there have been a couple of
pieces in the media purporting to tell the story of metal or the story
of a metal band and quite frankly, they have pissed me off to no end.
I consider myself to be a pretty serious fan and I have done a lot of
amateur research into the roots/history of metal and as such, I felt
that the way metal music and its musicians were portrayed in the documentaries
to be stereotypical in the worst sense, invalid and almost laughable
in the remarkable lack of understanding of metal and metal culture. To be fair, the first two episodes of
the four-part "Heavy: The Story of Metal" were pretty good.
They covered the birth of metal in Birmingham, England and had interviews
with the main players in the scene as well as several well-recognized
music journalists known for their work in the genre. However,
Deep Purple and their influence on the sound of metal were conspicuously
absent. I realize that many people disagree with the inclusion
of Purple in metal and that's fair but to say that Ritchie Blackmore's
guitar work, Jon Lord's heavy metal organ or Ian Gillan's vocal style
had no hand in the birth of metal is a bit ridiculous. I mean,
if you are going to interview Bruce Dickinson and talk about the way
in which his vocal delivery changed Iron Maiden and not talk about the
fact that he idolized Gillan, is sloppy to say the least. Let's
face it, like it or not, there are a large number of guitarists who
started off their life of riffs with "Smoke on the Water"
or the guitar solo from "Highway Star" - they are iconic if
nothing else and certainly as influential as Led Zeppelin who were included
in the documentary. Despite my beef with the lack of Purple coverage,
the first two parts seemed reasonably balanced and comprehensive when
compared with the last two parts. Part Two covered the NWOBHM and ended
with America's response to the NWOBHM -- fine, no issues there.
Part Three covered Glam/Hair Metal and the L.A. scene and that's about
it. America's response to the NWOBHM is Hair Metal and nothing
else? What the hell is that about? I thought maybe Part
Four might rectify the problem but instead it covered thrash by briefly
talking about Metallica and the other "originators" of the
genre: Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer and then moving on to apparently
more important movements in American metal. Anthrax, Megadeth
and Slayer each got a name mention and one video clip played and that
was it. The rest of the episode focused on the combination of
rap and metal and then the impact of shock rocker Marilyn Manson on
American youth, particularly those at Columbine who had supposedly listened
to his music before shooting their classmates. That was it.
That was the end of the documentary. I ended up watching an interview
with Fred Durst as part of the rap metal segment hoping Part Four would
get better and it never did. I also waited for some mention of
how popular Pantera was in the 90's and how they stood out as a successful
mainstream metal band at a time when metal was supposedly killed by
grunge. Didn't happen. According to VH1's "Story of
Metal", Fred Durst deserves an interview and even more air time
than he has already wasted, hair metal ranks an entire hour of coverage
and Deep Purple and Pantera are not even part of the "story"
of the genre. What is wrong with you people that you think that
is okay let alone representational of a genre that apparently you know
nothing about? Then there is the fact that Dee Snider,
Blackie Lawless and Sebastian Bach ranked more interview time than almost
any of the other metal musicians, perhaps with the exception of Tony
Iommi or Geezer Butler. Yes, kids, in the world of VH1, Twisted
Sister, Skid Row and W.A.S.P. are just that important to metal.
The real reason I suspect they were featured so prominently is that
they all produce good sound bites when they speak as opposed to some
of the other "real" musicians interviewed. Granted,
I did have a bit of a crush on Sebastian Bach back in the day and still
lust after his Skid Row era pictures to a certain degree but Dee Snider?
Give me a fucking break. The only redeeming feature to seeing
so many clips of Dee Snider speaking was that his hypocrisy was blatantly
apparent - see Dee rage against the inclusion of keyboards and acoustic
ballads in metal, see Dee rage against the PMRC and censorship, see
Dee Snider rage against Tesla, see Dee give Arnold Schwarzenegger a
handshake/hug at one of the Gubernator's events because Dee "let"
Arnold use "We're not Going to Take It" as his campaign theme
song when he was running for Governor of California. Oh Dee, you're
such an angry young man - apparently the only thing you don't rage against
is money. I have a Masters Degree in English and
like to think that between my education and my work as an editor and
a writer, I know a thing or two about the English Language. Call
me crazy but if you are going to title something "The Story of
Metal", the use of the word "the" assumes a completeness
or comprehensiveness that certainly was not present - "A Story
of Metal" would have been more accurate. However, this is
not my only concern with both the title and the documentary. It
also insinuates that it portrays the story of the music, of the genre
- it does not. I will admit that it certainly did a good job of
covering the mainstream American media impression of and coverage of
metal but sadly that doesn't make for a catchy title nor does it give
the viewer an accurate idea of what metal is all about. Lesson
learned? Don't get excited about mainstream media coverage of
a largely underground music genre. There is still one thing that is bothering me, however, and that is my genuine anger about the whole thing. After all, what do I care if VH1 produces yet another shitty rock documentary? No, I don't think that is why I am so angry. I think I am angry because I worry that some kid is going to watch said shitty documentary and think that what it presents is the story of metal and that would be a shame because metal is so much more than that. Any metal fan will tell you that it is not always easy being a metal fan. There have been many times when metal has been unpopular or even thought of as being dead and done with and in a way that makes me sad because I feel it is a genre that has so much to offer in terms of musicianship, passion and sheer power - metal is the ultimate musical adrenaline rush. And yet, if popularity means productions like "Heavy: A Story of Metal", then I would prefer that metal remain "dead" and underground where it will be safe from the mainstream which obviously doesn't understand it or its fans. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites          Add your comment
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