Superficial Metal fans

S.D. wrote:

exact33 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Image has 0% to do with whether I like a band or not. Focusing on image is detrimental to the music...and the more image applies, the more likely it's covering up for musical shortcomings.

that is the genuis of radio.

yep. Music should be "heard" and only judged by that.

I'm with you.

Welcome to the minority.

Bottom line for me is image is important but the music HAS to be good.

I think the OP was referring to a certain type of metal/rock fan who likes certain bands/artists just on the strength of image alone and these fans certainly exist. Theirs a lot of fans who are attracted to the whole "yeah I like metal I'm cool attitude" and see metal as a culture to belong to. These are the types of fans that love metal at school and then 10 years after they left school you bump into them wearing a suit and tie with short hair on their way to a Britney spears concert with their girlfriend and say they don't listen to metal anymore lol. Met a few of these types of fans myself.

I look at my situation as an example. Im 34 and have been in metal since around 1990 so for a good 20 years plus. At school and college I had the image, long hair, leather jacket etc and I did feel like I was cool. Upon leaving college I got a job in a bank, cut the hair, lost the piercings and settled into a career which has turned out pretty nicely actually. I've never stopped buying CDs and going to gigs and in fact because of my career I can now pretty much go to any gig I want and buy any cd I want (much to my girlfriends dismay as I have taken over the spare room with all my music related stuff).

The point of that story is that good music, good rock and metal music in particular will always shine through and last a lifetime. Image will always be important, at some time in our lives we'll gaze upon an iron maiden album in wonder at the artwork or grow our hair long to be like our favourite artists. For the superficial fans this will be a fad. For the true fans good music will live with us forever and be handed down to the kids when in about 15 years time I'm sure I'll be heard lecturing my kids on how great music used to be in my day passing down my knowledge of maiden, priest, sabbath and all the other great bands.

Temple of Blood wrote:

S.D. wrote:

exact33 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Image has 0% to do with whether I like a band or not. Focusing on image is detrimental to the music...and the more image applies, the more likely it's covering up for musical shortcomings.

that is the genuis of radio.

yep. Music should be "heard" and only judged by that.

I'm with you.

Welcome to the minority.

You are a minority!!! Good to know I thought I was the only one!!!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Image has 0% to do with whether I like a band or not. Focusing on image is detrimental to the music...and the more image applies, the more likely it's covering up for musical shortcomings.

It's easy to say that now, but I think we were all influenced by the imagery of rock and heavy metal at some point early in our formative years. Even if it slipped in subconsciencely as a kid, looking at the back of dad's album cover and thinking, "Wow, these guys look/dress cool or different. I need to see and hear more of this". Something grabbed your attention, be it the mustaches of Black Sabbath or the gypsy clothes of Hendrix or the nifty artwork of Roger Dean.



Guys by nature are more visually oriented. It's in our DNA or something.

I agree, image was important to me when I was between the ages of 10-16 or so, then it seemed irrelevant.

What if Wino looked like this?

I agree music is more important then image, but in rock n roll, no matter what genre, image is important, and it has been since day one.

Elvis had an image, Chuck Berry had image, Jerry Lee Lewis had image, even Buddy Holly had an image.

Sure it morphed with the rise of David Bowie, Slade, T. Rex and Alice Cooper, but none of that would matter if they did not have the music behind it.

The music was enhaunced by larger then life rock stars, that is why Hendrix dressed the way he dressed, why Robert Plant ripped his shirt open and why Mick Jagger runs around the stage, plus they are not just artist but performers, image has always been part of the appeal of rock n roll.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

What if Wino looked like this?

And sounded like that too?

He would rule even more!

This discussion is twistin' mah melon. I'm sitting here listening to Nuclear Assault and daydreaming about what it would've been like if they dressed like Nitro, but still played the same music. Would I have liked them as much?

Who cares what Wino looks like? IRRELEVANT

Fat Freddy wrote:

This discussion is twistin' mah melon. I'm sitting here listening to Nuclear Assault and daydreaming about what it would've been like if they dressed like Nitro, but still played the same music. Would I have liked them as much?

Yes you would, except that you would have thought they dressed stupidly but you would still like the music.

S.D. wrote:

Who cares what Wino looks like? IRRELEVANT

Would he be your avatar if he looked like Christopher Cross?

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Who cares what Wino looks like? IRRELEVANT

Would he be your avatar if he looked like Christopher Cross?

The facial expression cracked me up. Wino is not very intimidating in person, he's a short little dude, very quiet and introspective.

manny wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

This discussion is twistin' mah melon. I'm sitting here listening to Nuclear Assault and daydreaming about what it would've been like if they dressed like Nitro, but still played the same music. Would I have liked them as much?

Yes you would, except that you would have thought they dressed stupidly but you would still like the music.

Well, Nuclear Assault vs. Nitro, given the era isn't that much of a stretch. But what if Nuclear Assault looked liked the guys from say, oh, I dunno, The Knack, with white shirts and skinny ties...

Just read this on a heavy metal blog:

Quote :

I have to preface this rant by stating that the reaction to White Wizzard is amazing, but also a bit “over the top,” not because the band doesn’t deserve it, but because most American metal fans are f*cking assh*les when it comes to respecting our musical heritage. The same people who bought the latest Behemoth and The Black Dahlia Murder albums will surely buy into the much deserved hype of White Wizzard, but if someone throws on a Raven album, the same people are almost guaranteed to laugh at the “old school” metal and not give two sh*ts. You know what we call these people? We smurfing call them posers. If you are going to like metal, I applaud and embrace you, but please don’t be a smurfing hypocrite. You don’t like old school traditional metal? That’s fine, but I don’t want to see your a s s at a White Wizzard or Ravage show, horns up and cheering until you are hoarse just because they are “in” and signed to your favorite label. This is the antithesis to what metal is about.

Yeah, people also judge bands by what labels they are on.

Most of my favorite new bands are independent or on the smaller metal labels.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Yeah, people also judge bands by what labels they are on.

Most of my favorite new bands are independent or on the smaller metal labels.

Though I am not implying this about you, I've seen some metal fans who don't like bands unless they are on the most obscure label ever and have the crappiest production you've ever heard. (TrOO arcane steel!) So I guess it goes both ways.

Maybe in black metal. I've seen no evidence that is true in the retro thrash scene of 2011.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Maybe in black metal. I've seen no evidence that is true in the retro thrash scene of 2011.

I've seen that with traditional heavy metal fans.

The retro thrash scene seems to appreciate EVERY band that is wearing white high-tops, a denim patch-clad vest, a bullet belt and a Slayer t-shirt.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

manny wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

This discussion is twistin' mah melon. I'm sitting here listening to Nuclear Assault and daydreaming about what it would've been like if they dressed like Nitro, but still played the same music. Would I have liked them as much?

Yes you would, except that you would have thought they dressed stupidly but you would still like the music.

Well, Nuclear Assault vs. Nitro, given the era isn't that much of a stretch. But what if Nuclear Assault looked liked the guys from say, oh, I dunno, The Knack, with white shirts and skinny ties...

Is your Baby Talking Dirty