Capstone: Metal Music Stereotypes

Posted on by

You know the moment when you make a new friend and decide to go out for coffee? You pick your friend up, they get in your car, and you crank up the tunes. The friend looks over at you and says “EW. You listen to screamo?” or “EW. You listen to death metal?” No matter how many times I introduce someone to the music I listen to, nine times out of ten these are the responses I get.

I feel like there is no other music genre that gets are stereotyped or as generalized as metal. While the outside world classifies all metal and “screamo” or “death metal,” true metal fans will tell you that these are just two genres of music that could be classified as metal. Much like country music has many different types like bluegrass, folk, modern country, and honky tonk, metal also has a large variety of different genres within the main metal genre. The differences between these genres can be extreme both in lyrical content and in instrumental makeup. Throwing every person that listens to metal into the screamo or death metal categories is like a slap in the face.

Metalheads are also subject to getting stereotyped for their appearance and lifestyle. When people envision metal concerts they envision a group of people dressed in all black, with thick black eyeliner, long grungy hair, piercings and tattoos all over the place. However, the reality is that most metal fans are no different than myself, a 28-year-old dad of a two year old who wears jeans and plain colored t-shirts 99.9% of the time and doesn’t have a single tattoo or piercing. I don’t do drugs, I am not gothic, I don’t worship the devil. I’m just your average guy, and I listen to metal.

For the reasons stated above I will be addressing some of the many metal stereotypes plaguing me and fellow metalheads.

Leave a Reply