“March Madness” swept across the nation recently, and the public was filled with anticipation of which teams would make it into the bracket and rise as the victor. Even though I share the same birthday as Justin Bieber, I have a different reason to celebrate March — it is Metal Month. Amazon not only proudly supports Metal Month, but also gives deep discounts on almost all metal albums. Seemingly, I am the only one within my friend circles that took advantage of this offer. Why is that? Why don’t more people listen to metal?
People fear what they do not understand. With most of us, this is true. People fear the lyrics they cannot understand, even if they are often more beautiful and elegant than they are perceived to be. If we say only what we can understand contains beauty, then we are making a gross mistake. A sort of “music-centrism” develops from this, or even a form of elitism. For example, take a look at the Billboard Top 100 chart. Besides the beat and the singer’s voice, what else can we say is good about the song? Have you heard anyone describe pop songs as truly being “beautiful”?
“Metal is the devil’s music” is often the prime reason why people don’t listen to metal. This is not true, for only a select niche of bands do this (Satanic black metal). Some artists don’t even have singers. (Pomegranate Tigers) A hasty generalization is not only a poor excuse, but also, can we really say that a certain genre worships the devil when the hit songs in America and across the globe worship pleasure, chemicals and sex?
Metal has always been a big part of my life and my family. My sister and I went to punk shows when we were 5 and 7, respectively. We’ve gone as a family to countless local and non-local rock, ska, punk, metal, and Christian shows. I have probably been to more than 100 concerts, and that is no exaggeration. When I went back home for Christmas, I saw a progressive metal show, two ska shows and a metalcore show. I wear several different articles of clothing that represent bands. My iTunes contains numerous bands from numerous different genres and subgenres: like Judas Priest to Switchfoot, or Insomnium to The Classic Crime, and even Fallujah to the Goo Goo Dolls.
Metal is also not defined by what anyone says; oftentimes “metal” is a leap into the unknown and uncharted. Whoever could have guessed that some artists use an orchestra? (Haggard) Does any music on the radio have heavy influences in jazz or make use of violins? (Ne Obliviscaris) Would there ever be an international artist on your phone besides Psy or One Direction? Is there any explicitly Christian music on your iPod? (Demon Hunter)
I challenge all of us to follow that zeitgeist into the art that is music. As Confucius said, “everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
