Liebe Baddies,<\/p>\n
Ab und zu ist es ja ganz gut, mal etwas von „außen“ zu hören, daher wollte ich euch diesen Text meines amerikanischen Freundes Raphael Tehan, seines Zeichens Autor, klassischer Cembalist, Experte für Renaissance und Frühbarock-Musik sowie fanatischer Heavy Metal Fan nicht vorenthalten, einfach weil diese Kombination so selten vorkommt.<\/p>\n
Raphael und ich befinden uns schon seit einiger Zeit in einer fortdauernden Diskussion über verschiedenste musikkulturelle Aspekte, heute hat er mir eine „kurze Geschichte des Heavy Metals“ geschickt, in der er beschreibt, wie sich diese Gattung aufgrund vergleichbarer Entwicklungen wie bei uns in der Neuen Musik in unzählige Subgenres aufgesplittet hat, nicht immer mit einhergehender Verbesserung der künstlerischen Qualität. Aus seinem Text spricht auch die Sehnsucht nach einer Zeit, in der es noch so etwas wie einen „allgemeinen Kanon“ gab, eine Sehnsucht, die ich teile, weil sich dann die potentielle Relevanz erhöht und man nicht allein zu einer kleinen eingeschworenen Spezialistengemeinde spricht.<\/p>\n
Diese Sehnsucht meinte ich auch leicht aus euren schönen Berichten über gute Erfahrungen mit „szenefernen“ Aufführungen herauszuhören.<\/p>\n
Der Text ist leider auf Englisch, mir fehlte die Zeit ihn zu übersetzen, wer des Englischen nicht mächtig ist, mag diesen Eintrag ignorieren oder ihn mit „Babelfish“ übersetzen, dann gibt es wenigstens was zu lachen. Ich finde den Text persönlich sehr konzis und gut!<\/p>\n
Hier ist der Auszug:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To answer a comment you had made a while back, which is how I felt at I actually believe that this is one of the problems with the music This is extremely prevalent in the metal genre. Let me tell you a little THE HISTORY OF METAL 101: CLIFF NOTES EDITION<\/em><\/p>\n In the beginning, there was acid rock. Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, By the late 70s, as heavy rock matured and took on new qualities, heavy Then the major record labels caught wind of this new fad, and By the late 80s, anti-pop metal groups became more and more aggressive That’s about when heavy metal as a genre ceased to exist, the tentpole This is what I meant in an earlier email that Gentle Giant would never The only exception to this rule are the mega-bands who established their days when the music was fresher and bands were discovering something<\/em><\/p>\n new, and it wasn’t so much of a glorified lifestyle.<\/em><\/p>\n \n (aus einem Mail von Raphael Tehan, unser Heavy Metal Experte Peter Köszeghy mag hier noch einiges hinzufügen, wenn er will!)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\none time too: it’s easy to lapse into being either a snob, or becoming
\nintentionally narrow-minded. People generally like to label themselves,
\nto choose sides, to project a settled personality, and oftentimes I
\nthink this leads people to selecting a musical genre that they think
\nprojects the type of person they are (or want to be) and then closing
\ntheir minds to other types of music. Sometimes this is absolutely
\ncontrived, for instance with people who are not particularly
\nmusically-inclined, but decide to label themselves as „classical
\nlisteners“, for instance, because it fits the image they want to project
\nof themselves, even if they don’t even really know what that style of
\nmusic means. But even in the case of people who have more of an ear or
\nappreciation of music, sometimes they withdraw into a particular genre
\nthat suits them and then shut their minds to other styles of music as a
\nkind of defense mechanism.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nbusiness today. The record labels have adapted themselves to almost
\nencourage this type of self-inflicted musical labelling, so that now you
\nhave boutique labels which specialize in very narrow, particular types
\nof music catering to a prebuilt audience whose choice of musical genre
\nis almost a lifestyle decision, whilst the major labels limit themselves
\nto mega-bands who have a high chance of going platinum and selling lots
\nof units in non-musical environments like Walmart. There’s a real
\nproblem with this kind of hyper-specialization to me — the risk is that
\nmusic becomes increasingly segregated, and the vitality of fresh blood
\nand new audiences is killed off.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nstory about metal: <\/em>\n<\/p>\n
\nCream. Then came Black Sabbath, who played acid rock just like everyone
\nelse but added one critical ingredient to the mix: they added horror and
\noccult themes to their music. Heavy metal was accidentally born, but it
\nsounded just like acid rock.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nmetal started to coalesce as just a bit distinct from other types of
\nheavy rock, usually because of the musical themes or the song structures
\n(which were more Baroque). When punk rock hit, a new generation of heavy
\nrock fans imitated many of the new approaches that punk rock had
\nintroduced, and in so doing gave birth to the New Wave of British Heavy
\nMetal, which crystallized heavy metal as a distinct type of hard\/heavy
\nrock. Judas Priest and Motorhead were first, then Iron Maiden and all
\nthe rest. The successful NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden went on world
\ntours, and young people in Europe and America were inspired and ran with
\nthe new sound, and heavy metal became the distinctly-recognizable sound
\nit is today.<\/em><\/p>\n
\ncorporatized it, repackaged it, and made glam-pop-metal a big deal,
\nputting millions of dollars behind fru-fru bands with huge hair that
\nwould appeal (bizarrely) to teenage girls. Bon Jovi, Poison, and Motley
\nCrue are the best representatives of this.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nand technical in opposition to this, and metal achieved its second
\nmainstream spurt of popularity during the thrash movement, led by
\nMetallica and Megadeth, before the second wave was overwhelmed by the
\nSeattle Rock movement, and Nirvana, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nterm „metal“ was coined, and all the metal bands either fled underground
\nor evolved into a different musical style. At that point, Metal
\nshattered into increasingly more and more specific, narrow, even
\nincompatible styles. The trend continued, getting more and more
\ncomplicated, till today. Now, we have tons of different boutique „metal“
\nrecord labels with very specific rosters of bands doing very specific
\ntypes of metal, and catering to a very specific audience. Death metal,
\nblack metal, gothic metal, power metal, true metal, alt-metal,
\nprogressive metal — on and on.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nbe allowed to exist in the current climate; because they would be buried
\nbeneath an avalanche of labels (stylistic labels, not record label
\ncompanies). All these labels are so narrow and so stultifying that
\nthere’s no more freedom of expression. Heavy metal and what it has
\nbecome is, I think, a peculiarly extreme example of this. There’s no
\nsuch thing as a „heavy metal“ band anymore. Now it’s all politicized
\nsomehow. And the record labels that release metal only strengthen this
\nodd politicized segregation. People who try to do plain old-fashioned
\nheavy metal are usually thought of as a nostalgia band, which is a kiss
\nof death.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nreputations in the early days and have somehow become timeless, like
\nIron Maiden for instance. But they would never have been allowed to form
\nin the musical climate that has come since the 1990s — they have merely
\nsurvived it. It’s a sad fact that I nearly never listen to new metal
\nbands. I’m not into the whole „scene“ — I usually listen to the classic <\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n