Kent Duncan

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1104
11/18/2016
Metal: Promoting Immorality or Vastly Misunderstood?
Reflection 1:
This assignment has by far been the most difficult of all thus far. I feel that the part I am
struggling most with is the scholarly research aspect of the paper, specifically in citing my
sources. I am trying to maintain a good progression in my paper of they says and I says so I
can use quotes/sources to back my ideas without being guilty of hit-and-run quoting. Overall,
I am satisfied at my progress and the work that I have completed so far. There are areas of this
paper that I would like to polish and much more to add but I am confident that after the
conference in Cameron I will gain a lot of good ideas that I will be able to use to further improve
my work.
Reflection 2:
As expected, the conference in Cameron provided me with great feedback and ideas on
where to take my paper and how to make it more understandable to people of all backgrounds. I
took this advice and expanded on areas that were originally lacking sufficient content and added
new sections to the paper so that it now provides any reader with significant background
information so even those who do not listen to metal will be able to understand the situation at
hand. I have also made an effort to include effective sources that really help me center an
argument around my thesis with adequate evidence to back it up. The final standing of my paper
satisfies what I felt I should accomplish in writing this work. I feel that I have effectively argued
my point and hope that my work will open up a new perspective to many people who once
thought badly of metal or even that it is satanic. I understand that everyone has their own unique
taste and that metal may not be enjoyable to all but my goal here is that more people will come

to understand its true meaning and maybe give headbanging to some good old metal classics a
try.
Final Draft:
Music is everywhere, in our cars, advertisements, homes, and much more. We all have
our different tastes in what we find to be good music and bad music and it has a powerful,
unique effect on all of us. However, one genre of music in particular that has garnered quite a bit
of negative attention is metal. Whenever I tell people that I listen to metal, the automatic
response I receive is, Whoa, you must be a Satanist! Not cool man! and I find great
disappointment in that because in truth, I am a Christian and my lifes goal is to become an
ordained pastor with a doctorate in biblical and pastoral studies. Where did this stereotype of
metal come from? How did people ever come to associate anti-Christian/religious teachings with
those who enjoy metal? The purpose of this paper is to actively analyze the progression of rock
to metal to see how metal became associated with such immoralities and to answer the ultimate
question of: Why has metal music received such a negative, anti-religious connotation and what
are the actual effects of metal on people? This is important to everyone because whether it is
political issues, cultural ideas, or trends; we are influenced by credited voices that possess vast
amounts of power in the way we perceive our world. It is essential that we realize the importance
of this so we can educate ourselves through facts not fabricated by these sources to avoid
misinterpreting key issues.
From an explosive trend set in motion by the success of the Beatles, rock has slowly
developed into many different genres, one of which being metal. The Beatles have inspired many
artists but in the 1960s it was Jimi Hendrix who heard their work and introduced the first take

on modern rock to the world. For this, he is often donned the inventor of rock but truly, his
work tipped the first domino of events that would lead to the creation of metal. His musical
genius spread at a blistering pace and in 1968, a group from the United Kingdom calling
themselves Black Sabbath formed and from the inspiration of Hendrix, gave birth to an entirely
new animal, British Heavy Metal. Aside from being the first metal group ever, Sabbaths musical
influence is found in every metal sub genre, song, album, etcetera and they are credited with
inspiring the most powerful movement set in motion by British Heavy Metal, thrash metal. The
genre started out in two main cities; Los Angeles, California and New York City with four main
bands often called The Big Four: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax at the epicenter of
its existence. Thrash is known for its fast paced instrumentals, raspy vocals, and themes of
politics and other societal issues. It is the most popular genre of metal in the world and its works
are still the most listened to of any other metal branch. In fact, the metal band deemed most
successful of all time, Metallica which was formed in the year 1981, is a pioneer in the early
stages of the genre and continues to revolutionize it to this very day with the release of their most
recent and tenth studio album, Hardwired...to Self Destruct which released November 18th,
2016. The popularity of thrash has grown exponentially since its introduction in the 1980s and it
has become the staple and underlying influence of all metal subgenres.
Take a step back to the 1990s, when metal was still at its peak popularity and its
acceptance was growing in record numbers. However its popularity caught the attention of more
than just the heavy guitar riff, anti-political corruption lyric hungry fans. The introduction of
rock was met with much disdain, the lyrics of anti-corruption and war were misinterpreted and
the music was viewed by many as a promotion of violence, drug-use, and other immoral acts.

This created a societal rift in music choice between generations of people. The Big Bang! The
Birth of Rock and Roll by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum talks about the origin of
this divide saying, Teenagers fell in love with this new sound [rock], listening to it on transistor
radios and buying it in record stores. Many parents believed that this music was simply noise that
had a negative influence on impressionable teens. These impressions startled the older
generations and made rock thrive on the worlds youth. but also the attention of government
establishments, religious affiliates and the largest wildfire of fabricated opinions; the media. An
article by Northwestern University Sociology Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Amy
Binder, entitled Constructing Racial Rhetoric: Media Depictions of Harm in Heavy Metal and
Rap Music. On the subject of media in developing stereotypes of music and even other societal
events she writes, media writers use frames to selectively represent certain elements of their
stories(Gamson and Modigliani 1989) and to emphasize some information to the exclusion of
other data. Framing an issue by using a repertoire of arguments creates a dominant reading of the
text, thereby reducing readers capacities to comprehend the text differently (Entman 1991),
(p.755). This excerpt demonstrates that the conceived thoughts of pertinent issues and even
musical genres within society are developed through various forms of media and covers the
dangerous aspect that such power can limit our knowledge to fit the special interests of many
organizations. Such tragedy was even seen when when even churches began to promote the ideas
of metal spoken by the media, labelling the music in an even darker manner calling it of the devil
or satanic. This act put a wide chasm between metal and many people of faith because they were
now under the impression that they were rebelling against the teachings of Christianity and from
this, a new era of metal groups emerged along with a new genre, black metal. Black metal was

originally for many bands, a direct response to the unfounded accusations of outside groups as
well as a popularity tactic. Metal and rock in general had always been viewed as rebellious so
many groups decided to play the part they were being portrayed for since that was where the
spotlight was shining. It was like the artists was of saying, You think Im a satanist, well Ill
show you! and it allowed many groups to step into a promotion of their work run by the
majority of a society left in the dark about metal. One band at the forefront of this movement,
Slayer, one of the original thrash metal groups. They started a trend of littering albums with
vulgar, images, constructing logos of demonic symbols, and even contaminating their lyrics with
ideas of satanism, mass killings, and other wicked deeds making their music like listening to an
audible form of arsenic. Unfortunately, the black metal tactic worked and it unlocked a new
audience of metal, not yet reached by genres like thrash or British Heavy Metal and further
backed the negative stereotypes of metal and made it harder for society to see that black metal is
a counterculture that does not reflect the values of traditions of standard metal groups.
With the satanic cult of black metal on the rise, people had let the glory days go and
instead wanted to judge all metal by the wrong actions of a few groups instead of by the
collective ideas of the culture as a majority. The original concept of the music was forgotten
almost entirely which leads up to the next point, what exactly is the basis of true metal? To
answer this, you must look back at the early stages of metal. It was founded on the basic idea of
doing something different, being rebellious and breaking the laws of music. Therefore, metal
adopted aspects of freely speaking unpopular political opinions and challenging the status quo of
a corrupt society. An example of such would be found in the lyrics of a very popular song by
Metallica called ...And Justice for All. The lyrics go as follows:

Halls of justice painted green

Money talking
Power wolves beset your door
Hear them stalking
Soon youll please their appetite
They devour
Hammer of justice crushes you
Overpower
These lyrics are talking about how things in society, like the judicial system, have been corrupted
and no longer serve the people or fully deliver justice. For example the line, Halls of justice
painted green money talking, is discussing how greed and the love of money can swing things
like fair decisions within the courtroom. Themes of this nature are found across the board in
metal works along with other ones like the after-effects of war, neglecting veterans their rightful
care, financial crises, social injustices, national defense and etcetera. In fact, metal rarely and
almost never reflects the twisted values or ideas found in counterculture black metal.
So youre thinking, Ok, maybe metal isnt satanic afterall but doesnt it still promote
things like drug-use and violence? It is a well known fact that many musicians of any and all
genres have turned to drug use. Over the past decades, we have witnessed many artists suffer
from addiction; Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison just to name a few. However,
many have taken it upon themselves to end addiction in their lives and to project that message to
people all around the world. Steven Tyler, the lead singer and instrumentalist of the American
rock band, Aerosmith, suffered from addiction to many substances from the early 1970s all the

way up until he began rehabilitation in 1987. It was when Aerosmith released their album
Permanent Vacation in 1987 that Steven Tyler led a campaign within the band to take a
permanent vacation from substances and being intoxicated. Return to the 80s, a classic pop
culture news outlet describes this milestone in Aerosmiths history and rock culture by saying,
So in 1986, Tyler completed a successful drug rehabilitation program, and the rest of the band
did the same over the next couple of years. Because their attempt at a comeback album, Done
with Mirrors, flopped, they knew the next album would be crucial to their careers. So they
worked hard on the album, and at staying clean, and the result was a legendary album. Steven
Tyler and the rest of Aerosmith felt so strongly about promoting their positive message that they
even went as far as denying bands that were notorious for substance abuse from touring
alongside them.
Aside from the supposed negative influences in metal, many people also believe that the
music promotes anger and rage. This stigmatism comes from the initial impression of the sound
of metal which is heard by many as being full of anger and hate because as discussed in an
earlier section of this paper, metal and especially thrash is known for its fast paced instrumentals;
deep, percussive sound; and raspy, sometimes screaming vocals. This assumption purely based
off of sound impression however is quite untrue. In fact metal it keen to promoting positive
emotions and reactions within people who listen to it. This claim is actually backed by a study
conducted by Leah Sharman who is a part of the School of Psychology at the University of
Queensland. The procedure of the experiment was reported by ABC News in an article called,
Heavy Metal Music Combats Emotions like Depression, Anger, Study Finds by Matt Watson.
The study was described as follows, Ms Sharman said study participants spent 16 minutes in an

'anger induction' where they described relationship, employment and financial issues that upset
them. They then spent 10 minutes listening to songs of their choice followed by 10 minutes of
silence. Half of the participants chose songs that contained themes of anger or aggression with
the remainder choosing songs about isolation and sadness. All of the responses indicated that
extreme music listeners appear to use their choice of music for positive self-regulatory purposes,
she said. This study resulted in the finding that extreme music, metal in particular, made people
feel more positive emotions especially in times of distress or sadness. The apparent reason for
such is that the tone of metal and many forms of rock seems more relatable to the realism that
people are not always happy-go-lucky, that sometimes this world will get you down. It almost
provides a sense of relatability like when talking to someone who can empathize your situation.
Metal has been through the wringer with this dark stereotype of satanic hanging over
its head that developed through the counterculture of Black metal. It is however seen through
studies and lyrics that this however is simply not the case. Metal actually possesses quite a
positive message and is capable of positively influencing others emotions. At first, I will admit
that I was a bit skeptical of metal and I too thought that it was a little on the edge of immoral. I
remember the first metal song I ever heard was Enter Sandman by Metallica. Around the same
time that I initially heard that song, I had been playing guitar for about a year and as soon as I
heard that opening guitar riff, I was immediately hooked. Since then, I have widely expanded my
taste in metal from thrash bands like Metallica and Megadeth to British Heavy Metal bands like
Def Leppard and Black Sabbath to the more hardcore stuff like Five Finger Death Punch and
Testament. I have had a firsthand experience with the emotion building potential of metal as it
has helped me remain positive through very difficult times in my life. I have even began to

incorporate metal into my guitar playing style when putting pieces together for the praise band at
church which I am a part of to just messing around with different chord progression and riffs
when I have a bit of down time. I once saw metal in the same way that most people do but
through research and giving it a chance, I have discovered that it is nothing like what the general
public has been led to believe. My goal for this article is to open the eyes and ears of others to
the world of metal and to contribute my part in removing the stereotype that it is the devils
music. Anyone should be able to appreciate such a fascinating side of music without
prejudgments of immorality from those around them. My wish is that more people will become
aware of the true side of metal and maybe even listen with an open mind to a few examples of
what a lot of the world is misled into avoiding.

Bibliography

Binder, Amy. "Constructing Racial Rhetoric: Media Depictions of Harm in Heavy Metal and
Rap Music." American Sociological Review. Vol. 58. N.p.: American Sociological Association,
1993. 753-67. Print.

Hetfield, James A. ...And Justice for All. Metallica. Rec. 25 Aug. 1988. Blackened Recordings,
1988. CD.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "The Big Bang! The Birth of Rock and Roll." The Big
Bang! The Birth of Rock and Roll. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, n.d. Web.
21 Nov. 2016.

Watson, Matt. "Heavy Metal Combats Depression, Anger, Study Finds." ABC News. ABC
News, 25 June 2015. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

Stroessner, Paul. "Albums of the 80s: Aerosmith Permanent Vacation." Return to the 80s.
N.p., 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.