Metal: a Conundrum?

Metal: a Conundrum?

What is it about metal that creates so many die hard fans? Besides the rebellion factor of the music being so different from one's parent's music or the folk music of the 60's, for me it's all about the sound. For others it might be the look, and granted sexy long haired musicians are a sight to see, but the black leather and denim attire, the punkish styles, the anarchic bent, is a small part of what metal means to many. Documentaries, notably "A Headbanger's Journey" have done an excellent job of exploring the meaning of metal and its roots, so this is just a personal observation from a metal fan.

Metal is all about the guitar, in my mind, referring to the strings and amplified sound that at times can scream, cry like a baby, wah wah wah or whisper sweet nothings in one's ears. The slower heavy beat drags me in with an irresistible urge to nod the head in time to the rhythm.

I don't believe acoustic guitar can ever be metal, although metal guitarists do acoustic versions of their songs, I've never known a purely acoustic band considered metal, have you?

To be a drummer in a metal band seems like it would be a lowly position, it certainly isn't about you. The drums keep the beat, they are background sound to the metal focus. No one is there to see the drummer, right? However, there are famous metal drummers just like in any other genre, and as much argument over who is good versus bad.

Just when we think we know what metal is about, guitars & distortion, we are thrown a curveball in sub-genres like death metal which seems to be more about the growl than the guitar, or speed metal, whose pace is set by the racing double drumming.

In a rock band, or a blues band, it's about the band or the sound as a whole, with each instrument as necessary to the music as any other, and each member gets to shine. With some exceptions like Jimi Hendrix, all about that lead guitar, a forerunner of metal music, the transition from blues to rock to metal that slowly transpired to create the metal genres we now celebrate.

Many of the early metal bands, such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, used theatricality to pose as evil death and devil worshippers that they now admit were false impressions used for their art, not a philosophy they actually believed or practiced. Yet their pose actually inspired other groups to focus on the practice of satanism and similar activities, notably the Finnish Black metal bands, for the most part metal has zero to do with the devil or any religion or lack of same.

For me, and most, metal is about the music, always has been and always will be. We are diehards, and we aren't going anywhere any time soon.

Metal Music Definition, From Wiki:
Heavy metal (often referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music[1] that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and in the United States.[2] With roots in blues rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are generally associated with masculinity and machismo.[3]

The first heavy metal bands, such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, eventually attracted large audiences, though many were critically reviled (with the notable exception of Led Zeppelin), a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence;[4][5] Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy

Metal such as Iron Maiden followed in a similar vein. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal fans became known as "metalheads" or "headbangers".

In the 1980s, glam metal became a major commercial force with groups like Mötley Crüe and Poison. Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme, aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax, while other styles like death metal and black metal remain subcultural phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles such as nu metal, which often incorporates elements of grunge and hip hop; and metalcore, which blends extreme
metal with hardcore punk, have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Sex IS Music IS Sex

Sex IS Music IS Sex
by Gina Jordan on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 3:08pm ·

I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this, watching live performances especially & guitar players the most of all. When playing an instrument, the look on their faces is what I imagine is the same look & grimaces, facial expressions, they have during great sex. As if enjoying the music, performing it, requires a letting go of self-consciousness, or of control, and the few musicians who refuse to let go, have no passion in their sound. I first noticed this with Jimmy Page in Song Remains the Same, versus modern It Might Get Loud, that his facial expressions are the SAME after all these years, as when he was truly into the playing & lost himself in the music, his face reflects an almost orgasmic looking bliss. Then I started paying closer attention to the facial expressions & body language of famous guitarists in the Woodstock film footage, such as Hendrix, Ten Years After Alvin Lee, Richie Havens, and when they truly let go & sink into their music, it is quite clearly a sexual experience going by their facial expressions and body language.



When a great guitar player holds that guitar right in front of their genitals, the vibration from the instrument must resonate through into their body, their sex organs, the friction alone would be stimulating, and sometimes it looks to me as if the guitar is an extension of their penis, and they are a virtuoso on their organ, playing their music & in some other time & place transported by the playing. Take a close look at their faces, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan as he wails on his guitars, especially during lead guitar parts where the guitar sounds as if it is screaming, moaning, growling even, with the sounds forced from its belly, in an agony of ecstacy. One can see the same expressions on any extremely talented and passionate musician's face during the parts the listeners especially love & react too, as if we are all passing blissful energy back & forth, around in a circle from instrument to musician & back to them on around to us, our body mind & soul, to those near us willing to let go & feel the pleasure, resonating back again to the musician. Like an orgy of sound & orgasmic energy, sound pressure levels, waves, building & building to the climactic moment together, as one.



Often those listening feel the same blissful energy, the music affects the body, our blood & fluids, like our moon does the tides, music is more than just a sound, it is an experience, a feeling, a surrrender, loss of control to the pleasure, a closing of the eyes, an expression of deepest joy, a clenching of our bodies, a stiffening of our sex organs, a stimulation of the very essence of out beings. I've read scientific studies that prove the effect music has on the physical, mental & spiritual body, whether human or animal, plant, liquid or mineral, music has a profound power to alter us for the good or the bad, to heal and to harm, to uplift, to enrage, and yes, to completion and climax as well. I've always thought I was the only one who called the experience eargasms, the full body goose bumps head to toe, hair standing on end, whole body orgasm only passionately played music can create or satisfy. I've found that many people use the same term so I'm not the only one noticing, though perhaps I may have been one of the first to coin that phrase back in the 80's, it is quite possible I am the only one who painted it across her windshield & on a license plate. I have definitely experienced full body orgasms from music, though for the most part it is more foreplay than completion, there are those rare few whose playing is so extremely powerful, I literally come to the music. Am I alone in this? I don't believe so.



Pay attention to the music, the artists on stage, their facial expressions, if and when they let go & drown in the music their talented hands are producing as if by some magick, notice what your body, mind & even spirit are feeling, saying, doing, watch those around you, the closed eyes, the rocking bodies, the moans & screams & little deaths in climactic opera surrounding & sharing energy with you. What do you see? Feel? Hear? Experience? Think? Are you able to let go & surrender, or are you baffled by the joy others seem to be expressing that you can't give in to or allow yourself to risk? Interesting questions to ask oneself, don't you agree?



It's not only live performances that have this effect--the same is true of TV/DVD, radio, CD & stereo, whatever ways we listen whether alone or with a group. If you aren't feeling it, relax, close your eyes, open up to the possibilities & the pleasure, the vibes & energy are just waiting for you to accept them & join the orgy of pleasure the music brings often without cost or consequence, the truest form of safe sex, don't you think? ;-P

AWOLGina AKA Gina Jordan

Copyright August 24, 2011






FEELING IT!

Cadillac Moon in Concert, together again?

Cadillac Moon Original Group

The band I used to work with, who just as they got famous playing the bar scene in Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino & Charlize Theron, the lead singer married his long time live in girlfriend who he let make him quit & it destroyed the band because his vocals were the sound, are back together performing live for an hour below. I can't stop crying, and I found this by accident today, their music can NOT be found anywhere online, or on CD anywhere, never mind live! I'm the only one who had live footage because they are the band I traveled with & filmed, the one I gave up music for 10 years over their breakup, the one who broke my heart, so to find this is an incredible gift & a rare special treat. It is blues jazz with a New Orleans sound though they are from LI, NY. I hope this means they will be performing regularly, and coming up my way again, I'd travel to them if necessary, whatever it takes. They got me started in this industry, my old film of them is on a dead hard drive (I still need to find someone certified to restore corrupted XP drives), no other film existed until now. Bawling my eyes out with joy, sadness, disbelief, bliss, and they sound exactly the same because the lead singer is back too (he looks like shit though, guess his marriage---which broke up the band--didn't agree with him?) and Mike Nugent looks the same as ever & sounds even better. Awesome is an understatement.