Question for those of you who grew up with metal

I've been trying to figure out how it is that whenever a band gets mentioned here how you all are able to chime in with your opinions, knowledge and actually have an indepth discussion. Now Ultmetal, I realize grew up with metal and I'm guessing he got his knowledge over the years as he purchased CD's, and developed a taste for different genres etc.

Now me, while I probably know the members of Metallica, I couldn't tell you guys jack **** about the names of the members, line-up changes etc. of other bands. Dave Mustaine is a household name for me though. Although I could at least tell you what genre they play.

Perhaps if I hadn't gone through a period of the church telling me how evil rock n roll was I might be able to better able to participate in some of these discussions. Oh, I could say, I like this band or that band. Probably couldn't tell you why though. I just like em.

Do you guys sit around and study the artwork, the line up read all the print in that comes with the CD or what? To me, it's all about the music. I could care less about the lyrics.

When I was 19, I could talk authoritatively about most of the progressive rock and beginnings of metal music scene, but not any more? Is it because I'm getting to be an old fart?

Tell me about your experience. I find that as interesting as everything else on this board.

I was and am still huge music geek and once I got into AC/DC when I was 12, 13 that opened a flood gates and got me interested in metal/hard rock. Radio back then did not support metal with the exception of odd track here or there so the only way to learn about bands you love or to discover was thru rock magazines.

Thanks to mags like Circus, Hit Parader, Faces, Creem and even hair metal mag Metal Edge, not only did I learn about bands that I loved but also discovered new bands etc. I also learned its history and discovered blues, classical, and even jazz researching the history of the genre. Magazines would mention Led Zeppelin and in the same article mention Muddy Waters etc. And yes I read the liner notes, producers etc,

It also helped that the flea market sold a great selection of used vinyl hard rock/ metal albums at a reasonable price. Sorry for the long winded answer.

For me, I can only pontificate about bands I'm passionate about. When it comes to somebody like Metallica, since I'm lukewarm toward them (at best), I probably know less than you about them.

However, take some of my faves like The Angels, Tony Carey, Pink Cream 69, etc, and I can tell you the chronology of albums, revolving doors of members, side projects, etc. When I get something by one of my favorites, I consult the net to find out what went on in making the album, any lineup changes, etc. Then I study the liner notes and especially read the band Thank You's. I can't tell you how many new bands I've discovered by reading the thank you liner notes from some of my favorite bands.

Hey Manny, I like the long winded answer, and yes I am beginning to remember a bit now about when I was young. I did read the album liner notes and buy magazines. But at some point I quit.

If it takes a long winded answer I am very interested. No apologies necessary. I appreaciate your time and answer.

And Tohostudios-- I am always interested in what you have to say, either here or at CMR. You and Mr Wizard are my favorites.

I have been in the past and I am currently an Extreme Music Journalist covering mostly Christian or Positive message bands but as such I follow the entire extreme music industry for the most part. I was also in a few bands, and managed a few. If I can share what I know or have learned than that is what I try to do, without coming across as some sort of an elitist or know it all!

i started listening to punk & metal at around 5 or 6, thanks to having an older sister who had many boyfriends coming around. they'd always give me a cassette or record to entertain myself with while they knocked boots. as i got older, i'd buy metal mags & discover new bands, or i'd discover some by reading the liner notes of another. obviously i was heavy into tape trading for some time as well, & that was always a fun way to get turned on to new stuff. i was never really stuck on any particular sub catagory of metal, so i would literally read up on or try & obtain any band i'd hear about, mostly out of some insane OCD.

while i always tried to keep up with discographies & style changes with in bands, i never got in the habit of keeping up with band members changes for the most part. as big a Misfits fan as i am, i still cannot name any members aside from Doyle, Jerry, & Glenn.

When I was younger it was just part of my lifestyle, and I followed most of the "basic" bands like Sabbath and Zeppelin and Purple and Nugent, Priest and UFO and all that. Hard Rock and Metal were definitely my music of choice, but I wasn't a fanatic about it. I wasn't a big magazine reader or anything.
Later with the internet and other sources came a comprehensive overview of Metal history, and I realized that there were hundreds of great bands that I missed out on as a kid, never was exposed to, so I became sort of obsessive about learning about everything I had missed out on originally (Captain Beyond, Budgie, Lucifer's Friend, etc.). Now that I've absorbed most of the underground type stuff I guess the novelty has worn off some, and I'm just back to listening to what I want to listen to without thinking too much about it. Maybe getting old is part of it, I'm not sure.

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And Tohostudios-- I am always interested in what you have to say, either here or at CMR. You and Mr Wizard are my favorites.

Thanks! We older rockers need to stick together! GW and I will save you a spot on the porch at The Home.

You may have to take the rocker between GW and I though to try to buffer that extreme crap he likes.

I think when youre young you want to be a part of something, you want to belong to something. Alot of us felt we "belonged" to a band or a genre or an underground movement. I know I did. When you get older, your priorities change. I mean, who wants to see a 48 year old groupie or some 55 year old hangin' around a band and screamin' "You guys f****in' rule!!!" all drunk and beligerent 100 times a day and night.When you get older, it is still a part of your life, even more so with the advent of the internet. Heck, I know more about the bands I grew up with now than I did when I was a fanboy. But when youre older, you gotta get some kind of grip on life and balance family and work and stuff like that.

Metal is still my favorite style of music, but it aint like some lifestyle I live, it's just music. It's an art form that I appreciate, like many other forms of music. It's entertainment. I'm a big sports fan but I think alot of sports fans need to get a grip. I like to watch movies but I know some people who read every People Mag and US mag that comes out and their life revolves around movie celebrities.Those people need to get a grip as well. It's just entertainment.

When I was a little kid, my mom introduced me to a lot of classic rock bands. I listened to AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple in addition to the popular music of the 90's. Since I grew up with the internet, every time I got interested in a new band, I could read about them online, which I think is how I started to learn band members, different albums, etc...

Like Toho, most of my knowledge is reserved for bands I'm at least a casual fan of, but sometimes I end up learning the names of people in bands I hate through osmosis or something.

tohostudios wrote:

Quote :

And Tohostudios-- I am always interested in what you have to say, either here or at CMR. You and Mr Wizard are my favorites.

Thanks! We older rockers need to stick together! GW and I will save you a spot on the porch at The Home.

You may have to take the rocker between GW and I though to try to buffer that extreme crap he likes.

I didn't realize he like extreme metal that much. Especially since he is always raggin' about 'some hardcore band from Seattle' Speakin' of Seattle, I absolutely cannot stand to listen to grunge.

Well, like a lot of us here, I got into Metal in the mid eighties and gained most of my knowledge through magazines (Circus, Hit Parader, Metal Edge) and MTV (Headbanger's Ball, The Hard 30). This was the kind of "golden age" for the genre, so it was sort of on everyone's lips and in their hearts. Also, I was lucky to inherit some old records from my Uncle and some knowledge from him too. And, it helped that the local record store was less than a half mile from my house and there was a kid who worked there and he was a wealth of knowledge. Plus, even though both my high school and junior high school were Catholic schools, we all listened to hard rock and Heavy Metal so there was a free exchange of information(same as when you meet people at a concert or hang around the counter at a record shop) and you learn stuff and remember it. I don't read the liner notes extensively like I once did. Now, I read for the musicians guesting or the writing credits. With the advent of the internet and the wider proliferation of nostalgia shows on VH1 or websites like this place and Scott and Kurt's sites or Heavyharmonies and Sleazeroxx, etc. it's easy to keep up and current with the lineup changes and release dates.

I learned alot from playing in bands with older dudes and checking out what was going on in the local club scene. Graduating to a migrating band doing various club circuits nationaly made me familar with some bands that eventually made it from one level of succes to another. Or the guy from one band we played with becoming a member of another band when we went back to that particular region.

Also like others have mentioned, rock publications and liner notes from lps were rich in info about members and other stuff. when something is important ot you, the memory kicks into overdrive and info sticks io the brain. example, when you see Paul Rodgers name an old Free album. You recall it vividly a few years later on a Bad Company record.

James B. wrote:

I learned alot from playing in bands with older dudes and checking out what was going on in the local club scene. Graduating to a migrating band doing various club circuits nationaly made me familar with some bands that eventually made it from one level of succes to another. Or the guy from one band we played with becoming a member of another band when we went back to that particular region.

Also like others have mentioned, rock publications and liner notes from lps were rich in info about members and other stuff. when something is important ot you, the memory kicks into overdrive and info sticks io the brain. example, when you see Paul Rodgers name an old Free album. You recall it vividly a few years later on a Bad Company record.

Yeah, I guess I can relate to that reference to Paul Rodgers. I just finished listening to him with Queen just a few days ago. I suppose if I really tried hard I might be able to join in on some of these threads. I just never thought I had that much to contribute hence being here so long and the low post count.

If I like something I read about it and there's a lot to read about metal.
For many of us, it's not a casual thing, we are very immersed in it.

I discovered hard rock & heavy metal in high school and it just blossomed from there. Hanging out with other metal heads, reading all the rock magazines and, yea even reading liner notes ("they thanked [band x], so they must be cool too") helped expand my metal knowledge.

For me, it also helped that I'm a big trivia nerd. I spent allot of time reading trivia books, playing games, etc. so I have tons of useless knowledge bouncing around in my head.

Going through the booklets, reading the liner notes, etc.

Having a good memory helps too. I have a pretty good "visual memory", so whenever I see or read something, the picture usually stays in my mind for a long time.

Reading the newsfeed on sites like Bravewords, Blabbermouth and the likes, plus interviews with bands in the various 'zines helps you get more familiar with the names and history of a band as well.

I'm a geek, plain and simple. As a kid I was way into comic books and therefore I wanted to learn as much as I could not only about the characters, but about the artists/writers/publishers who produced the books. Back then I could rattle off every superhero who'd ever been a member of the Justice League of America, who wrote this crossover or that, what issue # a certain artist began or ended a "run" on a character, yadda yadda yadda.

When I entered my teen years that obsessive-compulsive mindset transferred itself to my love of metal. When it came to bands I liked, I wanted to know EVERYTHING about them. I'd read every metal mag I could get my hands on (both popular ones like "Circus" or "RIP" as well as underground 'zines), hang around record stores, watch interviews on MTV or listen to 'em on radio, study the liner notes in my records/tapes/CDs, and so on and so forth. Nowadays I have more important stuff to worry about so I may not be as compulsive as I used to be about such minutiae (spelling?) on recent bands/releases, but to this day all of that old trivia is still taking up a frightening amount of real estate in my brain. If I'm in Wal-Mart and I see the cover of, say, "Master of Puppets" on the store shelf I still turn into Rain Man. "Yeah... Master of Puppets. Released 1986 on Elektra records. Produced by Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mixed by Michael Wagener. Five minutes till Wapner. K-Mart sucks."

I can't tell you how many times I've brought up some inconsequential bit of metal trivia in a conversation and my wife will say "WHY do you know that?"

I started listening to hard rock and metal when I was in grade school in the 1970's. Magazines, books, concerts, albums, liner notes, friends, band members...I soaked up whatever information I could about the bands I liked, even back then.

I too gave into the religious mindset that anything secular was evil for a short while just like you bgast. Honestly, while I do miss some of the things I got rid of back then, (such as some of my autographed items and personal stuff, like all my Heathens Rage stuff) most of it I have obtained again. Also, I did grow in my faith during that period in my life so I can't say I totally regret it.

Like alot of the guys here I grew up studying the artwork,liner notes and lyrics of all my metal cassettes.It was my favorite hobby and still is to this day.Music has always been such a huge part of my life.I would spend hours in my room just cranking the music and flipping through the booklets.Anything metal always had my attention whether it was the Metal mags or albums.

First let me say thank you to everyone that posted in this thread.

I guess what it boils down to is that there is some stuff that I know, and I might skim Metal Archives for information but I really don't think that I am going to go all out at this point in my life and make it an obsession. Although, I do say that music is way high up on my list of priorities because I just happen to enjoy it so much. It really has a spot in my life that helps me cope at the end of the day.

Metal has been an obsession since I was in the 4th grade back in 1983. I read a LOT of magazines back then as well as still doing so now. I retained a lot but seemed to have lost a bit in my age. Way too many bands to follow but I still try.

I'm almost 40 and I've been paying attention since I was 14 (back then you got your metal and hard rock info from reading Hit Parader, Circus, etc).

Cliffy wrote:

I'm almost 40 and I've been paying attention since I was 14 (back then you got your metal and hard rock info from reading Hit Parader, Circus, etc).

I'm 58 and even I remember Hit Parader. I remember Black Sabbath's first album was almost too heavy to deal with. Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad were about as hard as it got back then. Even Chicago back then when they were CTA had some pretty hard songs.

For me my knowledge in metal is mostly based on christian metal. Since the day I became a christian at age of 7. There was a book store on the basement of the church, and someone used to play some rock in there. Petra was the first rock band I got to know, and I was always looking for music to sound similar, So the christian metal scene helped me to not being on the grunge, and 90's rock scene. Then It was about trading cd's with my cousins and friends. Around 2000 internet was expensive to afford, so everybody had to buy a cd in order to get the music.

I am not one of those guys that like to know what are the names of the members of the bands, unless I am a huge fan. Or either read the lyrics. The only Magazine I am subscribed is HEAVENS METAL.

I see that these days Metal is easier to learn about, and is very easy to find what you want, by the help of internet stores, and illegal downloading. It sort of makes it less exited, but the positive about it, is that it could or it brings plenty of new young fans into the old school scene. I just think that MTV has no longer control of that should be the new trend in rock.