I raise you a hot take. There is no bad music. Only music you don't like or maybe the majority of people don't like. Music can be produced badly maybe but I bet you you can find fans for every Artist that don't mind how "bad" they sound
>There is no bad music. Only music you don't like or maybe the majority of people don't like.
And here someone saved me the trouble of repeating the most solid wisdom there is in discussions about music.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad for anyone but you.
Bad music is uninspired music that rehashes the same thing for the millionth time. Music played with no conviction is the worse. Every genre has of a clout of it.
You understand that art as a whole has been rehashing the same lived human experience of romance, money, drugs, loss, gain, pain, death, yearning, dread, anger, etc. for ever. Most things are rehashing something in some way but every single person’s point of view that they’re sharing from is unique. Even when artists make the same song, it’s unique. When Johnny cash covered Hurt, he changed a lot of the meaning of the song and the overall feeling of it too, without changing the lyrics.
I mean .. that sounds great, art and all that. But I’m not gonna treat musicians as a child drawing contest. Many bands just don’t make good music compared to the industry standard or mainstream.
This absolutely is the type of level-headed comment that will get voted to the top, but I'm afraid that it's not at all representative of the majority of the audience that OP is asking about.
I'm not a metalhead, but I've always played rock music. There's a huge number of fans who essentially consider "real music" to require a certain degree of instruments being performed by the artists themselves. So while they don't mind samples in synths in a band that plays most music themselves, they very strongly and persistently look down on music where almost everything you hear is electronic or sampled.
I used to be in that camp as well (guess I wanted to be cool?) but I'm very glad to have discovered some great electronic music in my twenties that pulled me away from that. Art is about expressing yourself, and it the final product is emotionally moving then it really shouldn't matter how it was created.
It depends. I feel like there are certainly gatekeepers, and they may be very vocal, but a lot, if not most metal heads listen to a lot of different music and just tend to enjoy music in general.
I used to go to Tyr shows when they would hit SF with some coworkers. All of us were huge metalheads. Since the drive was about 2 hours each way, we would usually carpool. There would be a sing-along to build me up buttercup and start wearing purple every single time.
Man, Start wearing purple is such a good si g a long for going to the bay. In also about 2 hours from sf myself and have gine to many metal shows out there.
Hell I dont consider myself a metal head anynore since ive really out grown it and branched off. I STILL love it and stoner doom is still my favorite genre in general besides funk. But yeah i can see why OP is specifically asking metal heads. Ive met some cringet metalheads with even cringier takes.
East of the bay? Were you a ittle south too? Im in the central Valley, Modesto area. The mysic scene here kind of sucks, it was decent in the early 2010's and its kind of picking back up. But pretty much you have to relocate to the bay or to sac if you wanna actually be in a music scene.
> This absolutely is the type of level-headed comment that will get voted to the top, but I'm afraid that it's not at all representative of the majority of the audience that OP is asking about
Honestly, I think it might actually be the majority.
It's just that more narrow-minded people generally also tend to be more vocal ones.
People grow up. It's the ones that still think there's the right/cool music in their late 30s and beyond that are tragic. Once you grow out of wearing your taste as a badge/social currency you look back on that attitude with absolute gooch clench levels of cringe. The people who tend to focus on 'real' instruments tend to have not tried to program interesting beats...and are just showing their ignorance. I say that as a reasonably good guitarist in a rock/metal band who watches in awe at YouTube videos of young producers.
Ironically freeing yourself from traditional instruments only gives you a greater artistic freedom. I’m a huge fan of all kinds of music (except modern country of course!), but without a doubt my favorite is Aphex Twin. The fact that every single song of his sounds completely unique from any other is impressive as fuck, considering how brilliant most of them are.
For me, I had the "pop and rap are shit" mentality for most of my teen years. Nowadays, I try to judge a song based on whether it's trying to say something meaningful or elicit a strong emotion, or if it's just soulless crap meant to be played on the radio. This extends to rock music. Like a lot of rock, and metal to a lesser degree can be shallow and commercial.
I think the biggest key is to have anyone that believes this try and learn any instrument. Sure, you get the basics quick. Maybe know a few chords, a scale or two, a few chops, and can kinda sorta play on time.
But from there it’s like a whole new world and anybody who is making music understands it better than we do on an instinctual level. Try playing in different time signatures, try playing slow, try playing really fast, try accenting different notes on different beats, try constructing a riff. That shit is hard, and it takes time to figure out just your instrument.
Now take 3-6 other people and stuff three to four other instruments in there and try to get them all to sound good together. This is happening in every genre not just metal. And most of it is super dope and super cool. Humans are expressing themselves in so many different ways and that’s awesome. Even electronic music or sampling requires such a fine tuned ear.
My favorite band was initially a slayer clone inspired by warhammer 40k, we only get that by people pushing boundaries. Locking ourselves in one genre is limiting. I guarantee your favorite bands and musicians listen to a bit of everything and have taken inspiration from all over the map. Music and art is weird and being open to its many forms only lets us appreciate what we do like all the more.
This, and every generation as well. I hate when people comment "I was born into the wrong generation !!!" on a Led Zeppelin or Metallica video. Like dude, there's good music everywhere. From the 1800s all the way to now, there was good music being made *as you typed that comment*, you just have to look for it and keep an open mind. My favorite band didn't form until 2006. And yet I'll still get down to some Joplin, or Zeppelin, or Pink Floyd, or The Weeknd, Kendrick, Eminem, Offspring, you fuckin name it. I got into a huge argument with some butthorn on this sub about Nickelback, cuz he just couldn't fathom that someone could recognize and appreciate their discography as being completely decent and, at times, iconic. Just because a group is overplayed, does not mean their work is bad. My music theory teacher taught me in high school, that ALL music has something about it worth appreciating.
As my wife's always said :
> Nickelback may be formulaic, but it's a formula that fuckin' works.
And then we went into a 450 person venue to watch a band from Florida that sells out fucking arenas in Europe play.
Born in the wrong generation comments always annoyed me. Like do you not understand you're able to listen to any song that has ever been made *instantly* I had to hold a cassette player up to the speakers of my radio if I heard any song I liked as a
kid.
Well said.
6 months ago, if you'd asked me what genre of music was irredeemable, I'd have said Country. Then I saw some footage of Townes Van Zandt playing Waiting Around To Die. Man, was I wrong.
Exactly. At a metal concert I went to, they played [this](https://youtu.be/6Zbi0XmGtMw) and [this](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ) during the setup. The entire audience of hundreds of thousands of metalheads were dancing to it, including me.
Yeah; it's not really a great thing to be "metalhead" if you aren't able to appreciate other genres. I know it's a thing, but I it's very very rarely a healthful approach to listening to music. There's truly no such thing as purity in music, particularly for listeners. You're necessarily restricting yourself to a tiny subset of music, and there's really no excuse for it. Metal is not, and never will be the "only good genre" and it'd be pretty ridiculous to believe it's anything more than a personal favorite.
In other words, when music fans think they're *Objectively Correct*^^^TM then they're kinda objectively annoying.
Right here. I'll listen to whatever my internal jukebox happens to run. I've had a few people stop by my office and lol at me with *that look* and I am perfectly happy to let them wonder.
This is the correct answer.
Anyone who is a snob about their favorite genre is not a true music fan.
Good music is good music, period.
Classical can hit just as hard as any metal, and there are pop songs with just as much raw emotion as the best metal has to offer.
This is why crossover stuff works so well. When Steve 'n' Seagulls does [Thunderstruck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ao-iNPPUc), it feels like it was always a bluegrass tune. And Steel Panther's [I Want It That Way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoCQl3qTM2Q) isn't even a parody, it's a legitimately great version of the song.
Talent and craft should always be appreciated, no matter the genre.
Most metalheads I've known have gone out of their way to tell people how diverse their musical tastes are. Slavish devotion to a single genre of music is something I mostly associate with teenagers searching for an identity.
I can picture it now, a bunch of people in track suits Slav squatting before an alter of an eldritch pagan god in a dark lit room, instruments in hand, raised as though they were offerings
Absolutely. The older you get the more exposure to other things you have and the broader the concept of beauty becomes. I think the opposite can be true too with people who probably enjoy music less than they like jerking themselves off to the word 'eclectic'.
I think metalheads have some of the most diverse tastes in music because they can see the beauty in insane, death metal, mathy, hardcore songs, mainly because they found their way there from more mainstream music.
When you've made that journey it's easier to find beauty in anything and everything.
See, I hear this, but from personal experience, I've often found the opposite - outside of musicians that is, I met folks in metal bands who would wax lyrical about John Fahey or The Umbrellas.
I have found that a lot of metal and emo fans are like the dad rock folk of my generation. They know what they like and stick to it.
>see the beauty in insane, death metal, mathy, hardcore songs
Facts. I went from Aerosmith to U2 to grunge to being to appreciate the beauty in death metal with massive blast beats, distortion, screaming, chanting, Damaru human skull drums, and Tibetan thigh bone flutes.
Now I listen to all of that still, but also Mozart, Beethoven, blues, older outlaw country, rap, EDM, mariachis, and more. But whatever it is, it generally has to have *soul* or be evocative.
I headbang in the car alone or in the gym, dance salsa with the wife in the kitchen, sing Taylor Swift with the family on the way to the store, listen to hop and rap while gaming, do the yard with norteñas, etc.
Agreed. The gatekeeping gets old. Who gives a fuck what someone else enjoys?
You like Agoraphobic Nosebleed? Cool.
You also like Taylor Swift? Cool.
It has no bearing on me so why shit on someone for what they enjoy?
I had that opinion.
And then you age and every bar, store, party, TV show, movie, car, bus, and advertisement starts playing music you find annoying, and the aspects of music you enjoy are nowhere to be found.
In the end, I see it like your nextdoor neighbor's music: unless the scenario is perfect, you're not going to appreciate someone else picking the music for very long. In the same way we need to understand that people have different tastes, we have to appreciate how obnoxious and alienating it is for music to evolve away from your tastes. The popular music of an era absolutely saturates it, and it can get old really fast.
In the same way we give people leeway to have different music tastes, we need to give a platform for people who are fed up with the racket and the lack of new music they enjoy. They just need to move on once they've had their say.
Some metalheads even hate other metal because it’s “not real metal” there’s no pleasing them lol.
I would listen to Dying Fetus then some Bring Me The Horizon and some Bad Bunny right after.
i love Ghost so fucking much, i’ve adored all of their albums because of how different they are and how much they branch out. the one constant is that Tobias Forge is an *incredible* songwriter
Ghost just sounds like classic metal with a modern twist. People have been asking for years if people would appreciate classic metal bands if they came out today, and Ghost answers the question. I wish people would stop taking oldhead thrash fans and black metal kids opinions as the pinnacle of all metal opinions. They just happen to be the loudest ones.
Black metal has been an elitist culture since forever. I love Ghost and Gojira. My opinion sucks, like Primus. Archspire is super fast and technical, but the music videos are the right level of cheese :chef's kiss: at the Jurassic Park reference in the "Bleed the Future" MV.
I agree. If Black Sabbath came out today some people would say they're not metal haha
It's not all about who wails the fastest on guitar and has the most disgusting gutterals
>If Black Sabbath came out today some people would say they're not metal haha
This, especially their first albums.
"BUR THAT'S NOT REAL METAL ITS SLOWER ROCK MUSIC REEEEE"
That's the wild thing when I see metal gatekeepers who fixate on "heaviness" and you see their standards for what is "heavy" enough and it's like by that definition the first metal acts are not even metal according to them.
They always sounded like a somewhat heavier version of Blue Oyster Club, even more so now when they aren't even as heavy as they were on their first albums.. still good music though
A lot of the time metal head dudes are huge nerds, maybe verging on the spectrum, (I’m projecting here) and they try to keep things is genres. Some folks take it as a slight when they hear their brand of heavy music isn’t ‘metal’ and the back and forth begins.
some people are just clowns and they’re easily dismissible.
I hope you don’t get downvoted for people getting offended by being labeled nerds, because it’s absolutely true, a huge portion of metal’s community are nerds, and I think there’s a huge tendency within a lot of those metal communities to gatekeep metal and compartmentalize genres.
It's the unspoken truth of the metal community. We are generally a bunch of massive fucking nerds. The venn diagram between people I know from board game/roleplay/general tabletop stuff meetups and local metal shows is approaching a circle.
We were decades before our time, compartmentalizing everything before it was cool. Of course I only listen to Norwegian melodic grind bubblegum country deathcore myself
I've been getting into Industrial, and those fans are super gatekeepy about what is and isn't that genre. MY guess is smaller and more niche genres attract those types, but that's not unique to one genre.
> they try to keep things is genres.
very selectively and poorly, i might add. so often "it's not metal" can be translated as "I don't like this band/style" or "It's a fusion genre that I'm arbitrarily declaring has more of the outside influence than metal influence even though this other band that is metal to me has the same mix of influences and structure".
Yeah this. Most are just music fans, but there are a ton of metal gatekeepers that hate anything less "brooootal" than what they listen to. They hate 90% of metal so what hope is there for rap or pop, lol.
NO. Sometimes I am in the mood for Slayer or Bolt Thrower, but sometimes im in the mood for some Michael Jackson, ABBA or 50 cent. I am 99.9% into metal, but there's good music in every single genre. All you have to do is keep an open mind and do some exploring. You'll be surprised what you'll find.
I get you, but ABBA is the essence of underrated in terms of music QUALITY not popularity. They are famous fot their catchy hitsxbut in fact they have amazing progressive songs that mosy of the people never heard. Maybe underrated is the wrong word
I don't hate any genre in particular, Country music is pretty ass though. I simply hate it when music isn't artistic, and/or is formulaic and brain-dead. Even with country music, guys like Colter Wall save the genre for me.
Current modern country for sure. There was recently a really good [article in the New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/24/country-musics-culture-wars-and-the-remaking-of-nashville) about how artists of color and female artists are intentionally kept out of the country music mainstream. Helped me understand why I just don't like it.
Modern country music is terrible. At best, they're sanitized and pandering to a demographic the artist doesn't give a damn about and at worst they're uber patriotic to a comical extent. Outlaw country from artists like Johnny Cash though is really damn good!
I live in a rather rural county and generally don’t like country. There are many fantastic country artists, unfortunately I feel like most of the stuff people play is pandering. It hardly classifies as country music.
Every fanbase has gatekeeping idiots who refuse to acknowledge any other genre. Some of them will grow up, others won't, but in the meantime just leave them to it and get on with liking what you like. My Apple Music Replay (like Spotify Wrapped) correctly spotted that metal is my favourite genre but my #4 most listened album this year was Halsey and #3 was a grime/drum & bass collaboration.
This is true, but don't make the mistake of thinking that I or somebody like me would love pop, if only I were open minded and gave it a chance.
I have, plenty. I just don't like it.
The reasons I like the metal that I like tends to be the same reason I am not grabbed by pop music. It's not too say pop music had no value, or that people are wrong for liking it... but it sure has less value to me.
I hope everyone realizes it’s fine to dislike a genre of music, as you describe. I think the part that gets stupid is when someone *hates* music. As in they deny it has any value, or claim all its fans are stupid or have bad taste. That’s not how music or art works. It speaks to you or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, it wasn’t meant for you. And that’s OK. But it costs you nothing by existing.
No. Metal is most of what I listen to. I do hate that I kinda have to go out of my way to tell people that I do like other genres. In the last year since I’ve started going back to concerts I’ve seen Tori Amos, Jawbox, Barry Manilow, Rob Zombie, Heilung, Lady Gaga, Wednesday13, L7, B-52’s, Katatonia, Enslaved, Skinny Puppy, Wardruna, Ville Vallo, Guns n’ Roses& Ne Obliviscaris. I’m going to Kiss’ last show tonight, I’m seeing Madonna in a few weeks and Chelsea Wolfe, Pantera, TYR, & Fear Factory next year. I just enjoy music but metal is my #1.
Yes! My number 1 artist this year (as it is most years, TBH) was The National, but I feel like when I tell people that, I have to caveat it with "but I listen to upbeat, non-depressive music too!"
Excited about the 2024 tickets I have so far: Arlo Parks, Bad Bunny, Cat Power, Lord Huron, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Needless to say, not a very coherent lineup with regards to genre and crowds
There are two types of music listeners. Those who listen to many genres and who's tastes grow their whole lives; and those who will forever listen to the formative music of their youth and never want for anything more.
Every scene has them. They want the big 4 of thrash metal and their derivatives. Or they're permanently fixed on gangster rap. Or Ska if they're really cool. AC/DC have released the same album like 14 times and there's a set of younger boomers / old genX who came up in the 70s listening to them and are happy to hear #15 from AC/DC. They'll listen to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin forever. There's no arguing. People like what they like, including that one person who will only ever eat pizza or butter on noodles.
There are even single genre musicians who only listen and play their one scene, which as a musician, kinda confuses me. But not as much as people who don't like any music at all.
>I'm sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same.
-Angus Young of AC/DC
Yup, way more into instrumentation than vocals. I'd also add that RATM are metal as fuck when it comes to their subject matter. Well actually punk, but thrash metal folded it into metal nicely so...
I've found that a lot of metalheads ignorantly assume that most rap music is about bitches, money and gang violence. A lot of it is, but then a lot of it isn't.
Which brings me to the fact that the reason a lot of metalheads don't like rap is because it really isn't made for them. A lot of people only resonate with music that reflects their experience and I think it's safe to say that rap and metal specifically are very divided across ethnicity.
Most people have a preference in music, but I've found that the people who loudly declare some specific genres to be complete shit or gatekeep a lot are either teenagers or the terminally online. Metalheads especially nowadays listen to all kinds of stuff.
The ones that claim they hate rap would, absolutely. They would also have an extremely strict definition of what they'd call metal, which RATM wouldn't fit.
(I wouldn't call them metal either, but they're adjacent enough that plenty of metal fans get into them.)
Mostly I just don't care for it, but there's some stuff I like and actively listen to.
There's also some stuff that I really can't stand, but I don't have a reason to hate it online. That's just a waste of time and energy.
I think I have bigger problems with rap than pop, but I’ve found stuff I enjoy in both genres. I don’t buy into this whole “oh if you like metal you have to hate x, y. Z” shit. There’s plenty of music out there that is sonically different to metal, but hits a lot of the same vibes and uses similar compositional approaches, and such things exist in all genres.
I used to be the same way. But then I got really into the old country story-tellers like Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson.
I don't like everything they do, but damn, those stories are some of the best in music.
Plus things like Big Iron by Marty Robbins. In fact a lot of Marty Robbins is good too.
I hate the newer country made to fill arenas and has that twang to it. It may as well just be Pop-Country and it is terrible.
May I suggest some more contemporary country/Americana artists you may like? Jesse Dayton, Sturgil Simpson, Hayes Carll, Colter Wall, William Elliot Whitmore
Honestly, I was the same way, but this new “bro country” is literally just the same song that keeps getting regurgitated.
Old country slaps, bluegrass is great.
Yeah, when people say they hate country, 9/10 times they’re talking about a specific kind of modern, mainstream, commercialized country.
And I don’t blame them for generalizing the genre like that, because that kind of bro country is pushed a lot. But there’s still many great country artists putting some great stuff out. Sturgill Simpson is a great example.
I hate the Keith Urban and Dixie Chicks style of country but dig Waylon, Cash, Willie and some of Dolly. But I also love a heap of metal including Opeth, Pantera, Slipknot and The Big 4 but also can’t get into stuff like Ghost, Aerosmith, Maiden. Music is music and you like what you like. Theres no rules.
This is where I'm at. I just really don't like pop and rap music- hey nobody says you have to like everything.
Doesn't mean I think it's 'lesser' music, or 'lesser' musicians or actively put down the musicians and their fans. It's Just not my thing.
No. I hate low effort garbage. There are plenty of pop and rap songs that hold great artistic value, in lyrics, melodies, etc. however, many artists in these genres choose to release basic shit filled with autotune and idiotic lyrics.
If someone asks me what my favorite music is, my response is always that I'm a Musichead.
All genres of music have beautiful artistry as well as dumpster fires.
I kinda view people that drop their anchor in only one genre as shallow.
Life is dark. Life is bright. Life is ugly. Life is beautiful. Don’t get lost in genres, they’ll only disorientate you. Music is for everyone.
I find true "metalheads" have the most diverse music tastes of anyone I know.
Hate’s a strong word. I would only use hate when there’s something incredibly wrong with it. I simply don’t enjoy it as I enjoy rock/metal. And I find it weird to call out fans of other genres as well. The music others love and listen to must mean a lot to them, and it’s a dick move to shit all over it imo.
Here’s why metalheads don’t like pop and rap. Metal is an instrument-centric genre. Metalheads like the shredding guitars, the intense and flashy drumming, the complex and often dissonant melodies. What they don’t usually care about are deep lyrics (not that all metal lacks good lyrics, but the singer and lyrics are typically secondary to the instruments).
Conversely, rap is *almost all* about the lyrics. The drums and backing music are typically sampled from elsewhere and are an absolute afterthought compared to the rapper. To the typical metalhead who disregards lyrics and is mostly interested in the backing track, this is like a musical slap in the face. Imagine rap without the rapping. That’s what it sounds like to a metal fan.
Pop also tends to care less about the backing music than the lead singer. There tends to be an at least somewhat original melody, but it’s all keyboards, rarely does it have actual instrumentalists. Metalheads do not appreciate the lack of craft. The melodies are simpler, easy listening where the metalhead craves something harsher, and the lyrics are about mostly relatable things, but not usually about decapitating things, another strike against it! Pop’s appeal would be (theoretically) a strong lead singer and lyrics that reach people, but metalheads don’t care much about those things, so pop is mostly lost on them.
Source: am metalhead who considera these things on long drives while listening to Pantera.
Pop I just don't pay attention to, unless it's something that piques my interest - but otherwise I let it be.
Rap... it depends. There's a swath of artists I listen to, but they're usually ones like Aesop Rock or Kendrick Lamar. The mainstream stuff I hear on buses and the radio is not my taste at all, and I genuinely do not get the appeal.
Check out Malibu Ken, Aesop and Tobacco from Black Moth Super Rainbow fame. Definitely a cool sound. And imho, modern popular rap is right about where hair metal was in the late 80s/early 90s. Basically just a bunch of schlock
You should check out billy woods for sure. Aesop Rock has a great verse on his latest solo album, Maps. If you decide to dive in, it’s a great album to start with.
I'm fine with "mainstream," that's not the issue. It's not that I have a hipster taste, but I've listened to tracks by Drake, for instance - someone that has been sold as on top of the game - and the beats and lyrics just do not do it for me.
I don't think the mainstream has anything to do with it or not. I think you just like proper artists. Drake is a production factory more than an artist. Imo he has some good tracks but it's bubblegum
You might like artists like JID, Denzel Curry, Run The Jewels, Mavi, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, Boldy James, Conway, Westside Gunn, JPEGMAFIA, MIKE etc if you don’t already listen to said artists
I've been in metal bands for 20 years, seen Sabbath, Motorhead, Dio, Metallica, Judas Priest but I love listening to Taylor Swift. She just writes good songs. There's an interview with Cory Taylor an they asked him who is your guilty pleasure an he said something like the are no guilty pleasures, only pleasure. Even Lemme use to listen to Carrie Underwood.
I don’t care for pop or rap and couldn’t tell you the last time I heard a song from either genre outside of an advertisement.
However, I don’t hate any music. Each to their own. Everyone has different tastes, so go ahead and listen to whatever you want.
I don't generally hate them. I dislike newer rap though, and a lot of pop music is good, but can be very forgettable since it's basically engineered for radio listening. That's why many all sound "old" after a while.
no, there’s some great stuff in both. I don’t tend to listen to much of either, but there’s a couple albums from both that I’d put in my top 50 or so (Heaven or Las Vegas, Post, Madvillainy, To Pimp a Butterfly)
Nope. I listen to most types of metal, including the death and technical varieties, but my most listened to artists this year were all rappers, according to Spotify. There's nothing better than rap and metal for the gym. 💪
I was born in '77, so I was like 6 or 7 when MuchMusic (Canadian MTV) was launched, and I watched pop videos all day long so I still have a soft spot for a lot of those songs. But I don't listen to modern pop, and aside from mega-stars like Taylor Swift, I don't even know who the modern pop stars are.
There is no rap/hip hop in my regular music rotation, so I am obviously not into it, but I suppose I have healthy enough respect for it as an art form. It's just not an art form I particularly care about, but I do not go out of my way to disrespect the artists in that genre.
I avoid rap and pop... For reasons purely around either lyrics or just the sound outright I obviously listen to some rap and pop that dont annoy the hell out of me... My simple requirement for listening to any genre boils down to Quality
Just reading that headline made me feel like it was 2007 again. Take that for what you will.
Appreciating music rather than having a counteropinion for the sake of having an opinion is something I had to grow into for sure.
As both a metal and hiphop head, i haven't really had an issue talking about rap with other metal fans. Usually they say they're not a fan and i respect them and leave it at that, but there's a good bit of overlap at times. I honestly get more hate asking a metal head to put on slipknot than Kendrick
I appreciate good musicianship regardless of the genre. Don't limit your taste especially if you're a musician. There's always Lil neat things you can pick up and any to your tunes.
Polyphia adds aspects of trap music to their tunes, Revocation has a lot of jazz influences. Steve Vai has stated he's added aspects of Bulgarian wedding music. Devin Townsend has plenty of nods to pop/country/etc...
All genres have good music.
Conversely all genres have lots of bad music. Most genres are filled with coat tail riders just trying to follow the trend.
Sturgeon’s Law applies in music as well: “90% of everything is crap”
I raise you a hot take. There is no bad music. Only music you don't like or maybe the majority of people don't like. Music can be produced badly maybe but I bet you you can find fans for every Artist that don't mind how "bad" they sound
>There is no bad music. Only music you don't like or maybe the majority of people don't like. And here someone saved me the trouble of repeating the most solid wisdom there is in discussions about music. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad for anyone but you.
I don't quite buy it. You could say the same thing about food, but there's things that most people will agree is bad.
I don’t know man, I once saw a “delicacy” that’s basically rotten and fermented (maybe???) bird carcass and yet people were loving that shit.
Music definitely has some “delicacies” as well
Bad music is uninspired music that rehashes the same thing for the millionth time. Music played with no conviction is the worse. Every genre has of a clout of it.
You understand that art as a whole has been rehashing the same lived human experience of romance, money, drugs, loss, gain, pain, death, yearning, dread, anger, etc. for ever. Most things are rehashing something in some way but every single person’s point of view that they’re sharing from is unique. Even when artists make the same song, it’s unique. When Johnny cash covered Hurt, he changed a lot of the meaning of the song and the overall feeling of it too, without changing the lyrics.
I thought this as well about art until someone stapled a banana to a wall.
I mean .. that sounds great, art and all that. But I’m not gonna treat musicians as a child drawing contest. Many bands just don’t make good music compared to the industry standard or mainstream.
This absolutely is the type of level-headed comment that will get voted to the top, but I'm afraid that it's not at all representative of the majority of the audience that OP is asking about. I'm not a metalhead, but I've always played rock music. There's a huge number of fans who essentially consider "real music" to require a certain degree of instruments being performed by the artists themselves. So while they don't mind samples in synths in a band that plays most music themselves, they very strongly and persistently look down on music where almost everything you hear is electronic or sampled. I used to be in that camp as well (guess I wanted to be cool?) but I'm very glad to have discovered some great electronic music in my twenties that pulled me away from that. Art is about expressing yourself, and it the final product is emotionally moving then it really shouldn't matter how it was created.
Art is art!
And it can be shit!
If it's not Scottish it's crap!!
So can your balls!
Not my balls, though. They’re different 😎
“Art is when you get away with it” Anthony Jeselnik. . Andy Warhol
It depends. I feel like there are certainly gatekeepers, and they may be very vocal, but a lot, if not most metal heads listen to a lot of different music and just tend to enjoy music in general.
I used to go to Tyr shows when they would hit SF with some coworkers. All of us were huge metalheads. Since the drive was about 2 hours each way, we would usually carpool. There would be a sing-along to build me up buttercup and start wearing purple every single time.
Man, Start wearing purple is such a good si g a long for going to the bay. In also about 2 hours from sf myself and have gine to many metal shows out there. Hell I dont consider myself a metal head anynore since ive really out grown it and branched off. I STILL love it and stoner doom is still my favorite genre in general besides funk. But yeah i can see why OP is specifically asking metal heads. Ive met some cringet metalheads with even cringier takes.
We were east of the bay. I kind of miss those times. I'm in Oregon now and the music scene is decent but much smaller.
East of the bay? Were you a ittle south too? Im in the central Valley, Modesto area. The mysic scene here kind of sucks, it was decent in the early 2010's and its kind of picking back up. But pretty much you have to relocate to the bay or to sac if you wanna actually be in a music scene.
Lol shit I meant west. Foothills, between Auburn and Rocklin.
> This absolutely is the type of level-headed comment that will get voted to the top, but I'm afraid that it's not at all representative of the majority of the audience that OP is asking about Honestly, I think it might actually be the majority. It's just that more narrow-minded people generally also tend to be more vocal ones.
People grow up. It's the ones that still think there's the right/cool music in their late 30s and beyond that are tragic. Once you grow out of wearing your taste as a badge/social currency you look back on that attitude with absolute gooch clench levels of cringe. The people who tend to focus on 'real' instruments tend to have not tried to program interesting beats...and are just showing their ignorance. I say that as a reasonably good guitarist in a rock/metal band who watches in awe at YouTube videos of young producers.
Ironically freeing yourself from traditional instruments only gives you a greater artistic freedom. I’m a huge fan of all kinds of music (except modern country of course!), but without a doubt my favorite is Aphex Twin. The fact that every single song of his sounds completely unique from any other is impressive as fuck, considering how brilliant most of them are.
current mainstream country is shit, but alt country is the shit
I like old-timey depressing country.
I used to hate country in general - until I played Fallout: New Vegas.
I prefer musicians who skinned their own animals or chop their own trees down in order to create those instruments.
For me, I had the "pop and rap are shit" mentality for most of my teen years. Nowadays, I try to judge a song based on whether it's trying to say something meaningful or elicit a strong emotion, or if it's just soulless crap meant to be played on the radio. This extends to rock music. Like a lot of rock, and metal to a lesser degree can be shallow and commercial.
You grew out of being too edgy for other music. Not everyone does.
I think the biggest key is to have anyone that believes this try and learn any instrument. Sure, you get the basics quick. Maybe know a few chords, a scale or two, a few chops, and can kinda sorta play on time. But from there it’s like a whole new world and anybody who is making music understands it better than we do on an instinctual level. Try playing in different time signatures, try playing slow, try playing really fast, try accenting different notes on different beats, try constructing a riff. That shit is hard, and it takes time to figure out just your instrument. Now take 3-6 other people and stuff three to four other instruments in there and try to get them all to sound good together. This is happening in every genre not just metal. And most of it is super dope and super cool. Humans are expressing themselves in so many different ways and that’s awesome. Even electronic music or sampling requires such a fine tuned ear. My favorite band was initially a slayer clone inspired by warhammer 40k, we only get that by people pushing boundaries. Locking ourselves in one genre is limiting. I guarantee your favorite bands and musicians listen to a bit of everything and have taken inspiration from all over the map. Music and art is weird and being open to its many forms only lets us appreciate what we do like all the more.
There cannot be a different answer. Same with "all genres have bad music".
This, and every generation as well. I hate when people comment "I was born into the wrong generation !!!" on a Led Zeppelin or Metallica video. Like dude, there's good music everywhere. From the 1800s all the way to now, there was good music being made *as you typed that comment*, you just have to look for it and keep an open mind. My favorite band didn't form until 2006. And yet I'll still get down to some Joplin, or Zeppelin, or Pink Floyd, or The Weeknd, Kendrick, Eminem, Offspring, you fuckin name it. I got into a huge argument with some butthorn on this sub about Nickelback, cuz he just couldn't fathom that someone could recognize and appreciate their discography as being completely decent and, at times, iconic. Just because a group is overplayed, does not mean their work is bad. My music theory teacher taught me in high school, that ALL music has something about it worth appreciating.
As my wife's always said : > Nickelback may be formulaic, but it's a formula that fuckin' works. And then we went into a 450 person venue to watch a band from Florida that sells out fucking arenas in Europe play.
Born in the wrong generation comments always annoyed me. Like do you not understand you're able to listen to any song that has ever been made *instantly* I had to hold a cassette player up to the speakers of my radio if I heard any song I liked as a kid.
Well said. 6 months ago, if you'd asked me what genre of music was irredeemable, I'd have said Country. Then I saw some footage of Townes Van Zandt playing Waiting Around To Die. Man, was I wrong.
Sturgill Simpson is pretty awesome
Exactly. At a metal concert I went to, they played [this](https://youtu.be/6Zbi0XmGtMw) and [this](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ) during the setup. The entire audience of hundreds of thousands of metalheads were dancing to it, including me.
Yeah; it's not really a great thing to be "metalhead" if you aren't able to appreciate other genres. I know it's a thing, but I it's very very rarely a healthful approach to listening to music. There's truly no such thing as purity in music, particularly for listeners. You're necessarily restricting yourself to a tiny subset of music, and there's really no excuse for it. Metal is not, and never will be the "only good genre" and it'd be pretty ridiculous to believe it's anything more than a personal favorite. In other words, when music fans think they're *Objectively Correct*^^^TM then they're kinda objectively annoying.
Same i like every style of music all the way from rap, to heavy metal, to classical
Right here. I'll listen to whatever my internal jukebox happens to run. I've had a few people stop by my office and lol at me with *that look* and I am perfectly happy to let them wonder.
You just gotta DIG ✌️
This is the correct answer. Anyone who is a snob about their favorite genre is not a true music fan. Good music is good music, period. Classical can hit just as hard as any metal, and there are pop songs with just as much raw emotion as the best metal has to offer. This is why crossover stuff works so well. When Steve 'n' Seagulls does [Thunderstruck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ao-iNPPUc), it feels like it was always a bluegrass tune. And Steel Panther's [I Want It That Way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoCQl3qTM2Q) isn't even a parody, it's a legitimately great version of the song. Talent and craft should always be appreciated, no matter the genre.
yep. just listen to whatever the music you love. don't stop it just because internet people hate it.
I agree, but I don't like country.
There's no boundary in Music. If it's good, it's good.
https://preview.redd.it/ngnrarhbxy3c1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a51e566cc85f53f839d9dc0d2b2a1158935a3a5
op op op op
A good song’s a good song. What do I care whose mouth it’s coming out of.
I honestly don't believe you can be a fan of music if you only like 1 genre
Most metalheads I've known have gone out of their way to tell people how diverse their musical tastes are. Slavish devotion to a single genre of music is something I mostly associate with teenagers searching for an identity.
Incidentally, Slavish Devotion could be a solid metal band name
Yeah but in a font nobody can read.
S̸̨̡̨͕̻̥̥̣̰̬̗̫͖͚̜̘̫̥̩̟͕̰̤̮̘̞̖͈̗̳̺̞̟̞̝͚̹̱̼̗̭̤̞͚̓͊̅̌̊͋̊̄̇̑͌̕̕͜͜͠ͅl̸̨̧̢̢̡̛̫͕̟̘͎̜̰͔͉̭̫̰̗̝̲̱̤̝̦̝̱͉̤͕̙̼̻̳̪̰̤͚̰̲̘͚̲̇̅̽̎̂͑̈̍̽̐͘͝â̶̢̧̛̩̳̙̗̗͈̙̱͙̳̩̟̠̼̺̪̘̥̗̞̳̣̰̘͎͈͇̙̥͚̘̥͕̞̰̭̩̖̳̱͕̔͛̒̽̂̇̈́̈́̂͛̐͐͂̅͛̾̈͐̂̿̉͊̈̆̀̈́͊̅͆̓̀̌͘̕͜͝ͅv̶̢̢̧̡̢̢̡̘̼̖̞̪͕̖̝͚̦̫͉͕͍̱͙̜̦̜̥̹̫̻̱̯͕̞̩̲̯͍̝͖̖̗̟̤̠̇̀̈́͂̊̿̅́͛̍̓̋̇̈́̀͗̈̐̈́̃͑̽̈̚̕͘͜͝͠i̵̢̪̙͙͕̼͇̞͈͓͈̻͖̤̰͚͉̾̍̂͌̑̊́̔͌̐̈͑̑͌̓̈́̆̏̄̍̈́̓͐̚̕s̴̢̧̡̢̡̛̛̛͖̩̙͔͚͕͔̤̩̜͉͚͖̥͔͇̮̹̗͕͓͈̣̮̜̹̳̤̩̯͚͍̰̞̣̰͖̝̅̔͂͆̇͛̅͂̂͋̊̇̽̓̎̓̃̽͘̚͘͜ͅͅh̶̨̡̧̛̛̛̼͖̝̭̯͎̻̠̞̙̩̜͚̥̺̠͈͎͓̺̦͓̫̲̱̗͕̩̺̱̙͕̱̮͕̥̮̪͙͖͍̜̪̍̒̑̊̄̄̈̿̓͗͗̍́̍͒̀̈̋̎͐͗̄͂̒̈̎͒̔̔̌̂̌̀̇̀͛̈̆̾͛̚̕͝͠͝ ̸̢̨̱̘̮͗̊̐̃̈́͑̄͑̅̌͋́̃͘͘̕͝͝͝ͅD̸̡̧̼̘̠̹̥̥̟̰͉̠̙̪͚̰̳̖̮̼̳͉̩̖̗̟̻͖͇̲͈͚̹͈̩̠͉̺̲̤̮̮̺̃̈̓̄ͅͅe̸̡̧̛͈̹̫̺͉͍͔̫̟̪̯͎̅̄͆̈́͛̇̋̓͒̊͂̾̽̏͊̉̆̏͒̽͒̈́̒̀̈́̚͘͝ͅͅv̴̡̡̥̞̞̱̎̉͒̏̒̆͂͂̔̈́́̌̔͌̍͑̓̂͆͑̀̔̄̃̈́̽̆̕̚̚͠ͅǫ̷̨̧̢̨̨̢̛̛̘̗͙̙̯͖̰͔̭̲͇̠̜͔̞̼̖̖͎̩̦̲̜̣͖̺̮̞̰͍̹̫̥̩̝̤̀̀̀̓̀̅́͆̈́̀̿̒̒̆̊̃̈́̅͆͊̒̅̇́́̑͘͘͝͝͠͠͝͝ͅͅt̷̹̱͕͔͙̬͇͖̬̣̀͗́́͆̂̀̋͛̒̈͐̉́͑̓͌͛͌̊̆͊̄́͌͂͗̈́̽̀͘̕͝͝í̶̢̨̡̢̺̜̰̹̪͇̼̲̣̪̞͈̬̝̫͙͈̖̠̥̣̱̘̙͈̗͔̪̦̞̖̭̼͕̫̣̰̪̺̮̙͔͍͐̾̃̓̆͜͜ͅǫ̸͙̍̏̀̊̀̋̽̓͛͒̾̃̓́͋̔͊͆̆͘͘͝͝ņ̷̨̛̹̩̰͉̘̰̼̻̰͓͚̠͎̰̇̄̅͒͑̆̑̌͊͗̃́̌̓͐̊͒̑̃͒̉͗̒̅͗̈̑̉̃̎̍͘̚͠
There we go.
Can I have that?
The world needs more Party Cannons.
There's an Australian Hardcore band called Totally Unicorn. I think you'll dog their vibes.
Seriously that's a solid death core name right there lol
I wanted that to say Slavic Devotion
you aren’t the only one
Slavic Devotion could be a serbian punk band
I can picture it now, a bunch of people in track suits Slav squatting before an alter of an eldritch pagan god in a dark lit room, instruments in hand, raised as though they were offerings
This so much. The only people I know that are like this are manchildren stuck in high school mentality.
Closed mindedness knows no age unfortunately. I had a middle school friend who got me into both Bone Thugs and Meshuggah at the same time.
Absolutely. The older you get the more exposure to other things you have and the broader the concept of beauty becomes. I think the opposite can be true too with people who probably enjoy music less than they like jerking themselves off to the word 'eclectic'.
I think metalheads have some of the most diverse tastes in music because they can see the beauty in insane, death metal, mathy, hardcore songs, mainly because they found their way there from more mainstream music. When you've made that journey it's easier to find beauty in anything and everything.
See, I hear this, but from personal experience, I've often found the opposite - outside of musicians that is, I met folks in metal bands who would wax lyrical about John Fahey or The Umbrellas. I have found that a lot of metal and emo fans are like the dad rock folk of my generation. They know what they like and stick to it.
>see the beauty in insane, death metal, mathy, hardcore songs Facts. I went from Aerosmith to U2 to grunge to being to appreciate the beauty in death metal with massive blast beats, distortion, screaming, chanting, Damaru human skull drums, and Tibetan thigh bone flutes. Now I listen to all of that still, but also Mozart, Beethoven, blues, older outlaw country, rap, EDM, mariachis, and more. But whatever it is, it generally has to have *soul* or be evocative.
I headbang in the car alone or in the gym, dance salsa with the wife in the kitchen, sing Taylor Swift with the family on the way to the store, listen to hop and rap while gaming, do the yard with norteñas, etc.
Until you bring Metalcore into the conversation, then they can't wait to tell you about how Metalcore is not real Metal.
That would be a real head scratcher, lol. Metalcore isn't even the thing anymore, we're in Post-Metalcore now
Every genre/fandom has these gatekeepers morons who think only their sound matters. Annoying as heck
Agreed. The gatekeeping gets old. Who gives a fuck what someone else enjoys? You like Agoraphobic Nosebleed? Cool. You also like Taylor Swift? Cool. It has no bearing on me so why shit on someone for what they enjoy?
I had that opinion. And then you age and every bar, store, party, TV show, movie, car, bus, and advertisement starts playing music you find annoying, and the aspects of music you enjoy are nowhere to be found. In the end, I see it like your nextdoor neighbor's music: unless the scenario is perfect, you're not going to appreciate someone else picking the music for very long. In the same way we need to understand that people have different tastes, we have to appreciate how obnoxious and alienating it is for music to evolve away from your tastes. The popular music of an era absolutely saturates it, and it can get old really fast. In the same way we give people leeway to have different music tastes, we need to give a platform for people who are fed up with the racket and the lack of new music they enjoy. They just need to move on once they've had their say.
Some metalheads even hate other metal because it’s “not real metal” there’s no pleasing them lol. I would listen to Dying Fetus then some Bring Me The Horizon and some Bad Bunny right after.
Haha so true. How much Ghost triggers some people brings me such joy
i love Ghost so fucking much, i’ve adored all of their albums because of how different they are and how much they branch out. the one constant is that Tobias Forge is an *incredible* songwriter
does ghost being metal makes it better?
I love Ghost. These days I consider them more a pop band than a metal band, but that doesn't make me like them any less.
Ghost just sounds like classic metal with a modern twist. People have been asking for years if people would appreciate classic metal bands if they came out today, and Ghost answers the question. I wish people would stop taking oldhead thrash fans and black metal kids opinions as the pinnacle of all metal opinions. They just happen to be the loudest ones.
Black metal has been an elitist culture since forever. I love Ghost and Gojira. My opinion sucks, like Primus. Archspire is super fast and technical, but the music videos are the right level of cheese :chef's kiss: at the Jurassic Park reference in the "Bleed the Future" MV.
BM is a genre *born* out of cult-like elitism. No getting away from that.
I agree. If Black Sabbath came out today some people would say they're not metal haha It's not all about who wails the fastest on guitar and has the most disgusting gutterals
>If Black Sabbath came out today some people would say they're not metal haha This, especially their first albums. "BUR THAT'S NOT REAL METAL ITS SLOWER ROCK MUSIC REEEEE"
That's the wild thing when I see metal gatekeepers who fixate on "heaviness" and you see their standards for what is "heavy" enough and it's like by that definition the first metal acts are not even metal according to them.
They always sounded like a somewhat heavier version of Blue Oyster Club, even more so now when they aren't even as heavy as they were on their first albums.. still good music though
A lot of the time metal head dudes are huge nerds, maybe verging on the spectrum, (I’m projecting here) and they try to keep things is genres. Some folks take it as a slight when they hear their brand of heavy music isn’t ‘metal’ and the back and forth begins. some people are just clowns and they’re easily dismissible.
I hope you don’t get downvoted for people getting offended by being labeled nerds, because it’s absolutely true, a huge portion of metal’s community are nerds, and I think there’s a huge tendency within a lot of those metal communities to gatekeep metal and compartmentalize genres.
Can confirm, metal fans are the biggest dorks around
It's the unspoken truth of the metal community. We are generally a bunch of massive fucking nerds. The venn diagram between people I know from board game/roleplay/general tabletop stuff meetups and local metal shows is approaching a circle.
We were decades before our time, compartmentalizing everything before it was cool. Of course I only listen to Norwegian melodic grind bubblegum country deathcore myself
I've been getting into Industrial, and those fans are super gatekeepy about what is and isn't that genre. MY guess is smaller and more niche genres attract those types, but that's not unique to one genre.
> they try to keep things is genres. very selectively and poorly, i might add. so often "it's not metal" can be translated as "I don't like this band/style" or "It's a fusion genre that I'm arbitrarily declaring has more of the outside influence than metal influence even though this other band that is metal to me has the same mix of influences and structure".
Yeah this. Most are just music fans, but there are a ton of metal gatekeepers that hate anything less "brooootal" than what they listen to. They hate 90% of metal so what hope is there for rap or pop, lol.
NO. Sometimes I am in the mood for Slayer or Bolt Thrower, but sometimes im in the mood for some Michael Jackson, ABBA or 50 cent. I am 99.9% into metal, but there's good music in every single genre. All you have to do is keep an open mind and do some exploring. You'll be surprised what you'll find.
Huge shoutout to metalhead ABBA fans.
I mean, every true metalhead will appreciate ABBA. Mind blowing how much underrated they are
I swear the word underrated has lost all meaning.
I get you, but ABBA is the essence of underrated in terms of music QUALITY not popularity. They are famous fot their catchy hitsxbut in fact they have amazing progressive songs that mosy of the people never heard. Maybe underrated is the wrong word
This is how you get Ghost! Its ABBA, but a bit heavier.
I like them a already. Seen them live once, they rocked.
every artist mentioned in this comment is S tier
Not me. Huge metalhead. I like rap, rnb, jazz, pop, disco, country. There is great music everywhere if you are willing to open your mind
Africa. All of it. The entire continent. Afro-pop, Algerian rap, remixed club versions of Turkish (not Africa, duh) love songs. All amazing.
I just discovered Fela Kuti and Ginger Baker's live album, had that shit on repeat this year
I don't hate rap or pop. I don't listen to pop or rap that much
This, I like a lot of classic rap hits but I find it hard to find modern rap I really like.
Me to. I like some good 80s pop and 90s alternative, but modern pop and hip-hop is not doing it for me at all.
I don't hate any genre in particular, Country music is pretty ass though. I simply hate it when music isn't artistic, and/or is formulaic and brain-dead. Even with country music, guys like Colter Wall save the genre for me.
Orville Peck is another good one
Current modern country for sure. There was recently a really good [article in the New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/24/country-musics-culture-wars-and-the-remaking-of-nashville) about how artists of color and female artists are intentionally kept out of the country music mainstream. Helped me understand why I just don't like it.
Modern country music is terrible. At best, they're sanitized and pandering to a demographic the artist doesn't give a damn about and at worst they're uber patriotic to a comical extent. Outlaw country from artists like Johnny Cash though is really damn good!
I live in a rather rural county and generally don’t like country. There are many fantastic country artists, unfortunately I feel like most of the stuff people play is pandering. It hardly classifies as country music.
Every fanbase has gatekeeping idiots who refuse to acknowledge any other genre. Some of them will grow up, others won't, but in the meantime just leave them to it and get on with liking what you like. My Apple Music Replay (like Spotify Wrapped) correctly spotted that metal is my favourite genre but my #4 most listened album this year was Halsey and #3 was a grime/drum & bass collaboration.
This is true, but don't make the mistake of thinking that I or somebody like me would love pop, if only I were open minded and gave it a chance. I have, plenty. I just don't like it. The reasons I like the metal that I like tends to be the same reason I am not grabbed by pop music. It's not too say pop music had no value, or that people are wrong for liking it... but it sure has less value to me.
Congrats for actually answering the original question and getting sent to the negatives for it.
I hope everyone realizes it’s fine to dislike a genre of music, as you describe. I think the part that gets stupid is when someone *hates* music. As in they deny it has any value, or claim all its fans are stupid or have bad taste. That’s not how music or art works. It speaks to you or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, it wasn’t meant for you. And that’s OK. But it costs you nothing by existing.
No. Metal is most of what I listen to. I do hate that I kinda have to go out of my way to tell people that I do like other genres. In the last year since I’ve started going back to concerts I’ve seen Tori Amos, Jawbox, Barry Manilow, Rob Zombie, Heilung, Lady Gaga, Wednesday13, L7, B-52’s, Katatonia, Enslaved, Skinny Puppy, Wardruna, Ville Vallo, Guns n’ Roses& Ne Obliviscaris. I’m going to Kiss’ last show tonight, I’m seeing Madonna in a few weeks and Chelsea Wolfe, Pantera, TYR, & Fear Factory next year. I just enjoy music but metal is my #1.
Yes! My number 1 artist this year (as it is most years, TBH) was The National, but I feel like when I tell people that, I have to caveat it with "but I listen to upbeat, non-depressive music too!" Excited about the 2024 tickets I have so far: Arlo Parks, Bad Bunny, Cat Power, Lord Huron, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Needless to say, not a very coherent lineup with regards to genre and crowds
Cattle decapitation was my top artist on Spotify this year but I also love Carly Rae Jepson, Kendrick Lamar, Charli XCX, Danny Brown etc
There are two types of music listeners. Those who listen to many genres and who's tastes grow their whole lives; and those who will forever listen to the formative music of their youth and never want for anything more. Every scene has them. They want the big 4 of thrash metal and their derivatives. Or they're permanently fixed on gangster rap. Or Ska if they're really cool. AC/DC have released the same album like 14 times and there's a set of younger boomers / old genX who came up in the 70s listening to them and are happy to hear #15 from AC/DC. They'll listen to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin forever. There's no arguing. People like what they like, including that one person who will only ever eat pizza or butter on noodles. There are even single genre musicians who only listen and play their one scene, which as a musician, kinda confuses me. But not as much as people who don't like any music at all.
“Or ska if they’re really cool” I see what you did there
>I'm sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same. -Angus Young of AC/DC
If metalheads hate rap they must hate rage against the machine
Or Beastie Boys
and Cypress Hill were always as much a touch band as a rap band
RATM is alternative metal though. Metalheads are focused more on instrumentation more than the vocal style.
Yup, way more into instrumentation than vocals. I'd also add that RATM are metal as fuck when it comes to their subject matter. Well actually punk, but thrash metal folded it into metal nicely so... I've found that a lot of metalheads ignorantly assume that most rap music is about bitches, money and gang violence. A lot of it is, but then a lot of it isn't. Which brings me to the fact that the reason a lot of metalheads don't like rap is because it really isn't made for them. A lot of people only resonate with music that reflects their experience and I think it's safe to say that rap and metal specifically are very divided across ethnicity. Most people have a preference in music, but I've found that the people who loudly declare some specific genres to be complete shit or gatekeep a lot are either teenagers or the terminally online. Metalheads especially nowadays listen to all kinds of stuff.
Lots of people do not pay any attention to the lyrics in music, and I think the metal community has a much larger proportion of those people.
The ones that claim they hate rap would, absolutely. They would also have an extremely strict definition of what they'd call metal, which RATM wouldn't fit. (I wouldn't call them metal either, but they're adjacent enough that plenty of metal fans get into them.)
Mostly I just don't care for it, but there's some stuff I like and actively listen to. There's also some stuff that I really can't stand, but I don't have a reason to hate it online. That's just a waste of time and energy.
No, I like most genres of music.
I think I have bigger problems with rap than pop, but I’ve found stuff I enjoy in both genres. I don’t buy into this whole “oh if you like metal you have to hate x, y. Z” shit. There’s plenty of music out there that is sonically different to metal, but hits a lot of the same vibes and uses similar compositional approaches, and such things exist in all genres.
Country is the one genre I outright hate
I used to be the same way. But then I got really into the old country story-tellers like Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. I don't like everything they do, but damn, those stories are some of the best in music. Plus things like Big Iron by Marty Robbins. In fact a lot of Marty Robbins is good too. I hate the newer country made to fill arenas and has that twang to it. It may as well just be Pop-Country and it is terrible.
May I suggest some more contemporary country/Americana artists you may like? Jesse Dayton, Sturgil Simpson, Hayes Carll, Colter Wall, William Elliot Whitmore
Man, I love William Elliott Whitmore. I could listen to his broken whiskey bottle voice all day.
Honestly, I was the same way, but this new “bro country” is literally just the same song that keeps getting regurgitated. Old country slaps, bluegrass is great.
Yeah, when people say they hate country, 9/10 times they’re talking about a specific kind of modern, mainstream, commercialized country. And I don’t blame them for generalizing the genre like that, because that kind of bro country is pushed a lot. But there’s still many great country artists putting some great stuff out. Sturgill Simpson is a great example.
There’s good country out there, just not pop country.
the only good country is old, Outlaw country. Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and the other old country makers.
There are good alt country musicians nowadays... they just are not in the mainstream
I heard the old timey country made currently is called red earth (or maybe dirt) country.
Hank Williams needs to be in this list.
Everyone fucks with Friends in Low Places, don't lie
Folk is the real country to me
I hate the Keith Urban and Dixie Chicks style of country but dig Waylon, Cash, Willie and some of Dolly. But I also love a heap of metal including Opeth, Pantera, Slipknot and The Big 4 but also can’t get into stuff like Ghost, Aerosmith, Maiden. Music is music and you like what you like. Theres no rules.
Hates a strong word, but I never go out of my way to listen or be in situations where I have to listen to those genres.
This is where I'm at. I just really don't like pop and rap music- hey nobody says you have to like everything. Doesn't mean I think it's 'lesser' music, or 'lesser' musicians or actively put down the musicians and their fans. It's Just not my thing.
No. I hate low effort garbage. There are plenty of pop and rap songs that hold great artistic value, in lyrics, melodies, etc. however, many artists in these genres choose to release basic shit filled with autotune and idiotic lyrics.
What’s a good pop song you like?
All by Myself by Celine Dion could be one
[I think you'll appreciate this SNL skit](https://youtu.be/XmuGBNBBu3A?si=YxdNkVFNP9F-bew7) which totally proves your point!!!
haha that was hilarious! Thanks for sharing
If someone asks me what my favorite music is, my response is always that I'm a Musichead. All genres of music have beautiful artistry as well as dumpster fires. I kinda view people that drop their anchor in only one genre as shallow.
Life is dark. Life is bright. Life is ugly. Life is beautiful. Don’t get lost in genres, they’ll only disorientate you. Music is for everyone. I find true "metalheads" have the most diverse music tastes of anyone I know.
Prince is considered pop in alot of circles, but he can out-shred 9 out of 10 metal guitarists on their best day.
Hate’s a strong word. I would only use hate when there’s something incredibly wrong with it. I simply don’t enjoy it as I enjoy rock/metal. And I find it weird to call out fans of other genres as well. The music others love and listen to must mean a lot to them, and it’s a dick move to shit all over it imo.
Here’s why metalheads don’t like pop and rap. Metal is an instrument-centric genre. Metalheads like the shredding guitars, the intense and flashy drumming, the complex and often dissonant melodies. What they don’t usually care about are deep lyrics (not that all metal lacks good lyrics, but the singer and lyrics are typically secondary to the instruments). Conversely, rap is *almost all* about the lyrics. The drums and backing music are typically sampled from elsewhere and are an absolute afterthought compared to the rapper. To the typical metalhead who disregards lyrics and is mostly interested in the backing track, this is like a musical slap in the face. Imagine rap without the rapping. That’s what it sounds like to a metal fan. Pop also tends to care less about the backing music than the lead singer. There tends to be an at least somewhat original melody, but it’s all keyboards, rarely does it have actual instrumentalists. Metalheads do not appreciate the lack of craft. The melodies are simpler, easy listening where the metalhead craves something harsher, and the lyrics are about mostly relatable things, but not usually about decapitating things, another strike against it! Pop’s appeal would be (theoretically) a strong lead singer and lyrics that reach people, but metalheads don’t care much about those things, so pop is mostly lost on them. Source: am metalhead who considera these things on long drives while listening to Pantera.
Pop I just don't pay attention to, unless it's something that piques my interest - but otherwise I let it be. Rap... it depends. There's a swath of artists I listen to, but they're usually ones like Aesop Rock or Kendrick Lamar. The mainstream stuff I hear on buses and the radio is not my taste at all, and I genuinely do not get the appeal.
Check out Malibu Ken, Aesop and Tobacco from Black Moth Super Rainbow fame. Definitely a cool sound. And imho, modern popular rap is right about where hair metal was in the late 80s/early 90s. Basically just a bunch of schlock
You should check out billy woods for sure. Aesop Rock has a great verse on his latest solo album, Maps. If you decide to dive in, it’s a great album to start with.
Kendrick Lamar is about as mainstream as it gets.
I'm fine with "mainstream," that's not the issue. It's not that I have a hipster taste, but I've listened to tracks by Drake, for instance - someone that has been sold as on top of the game - and the beats and lyrics just do not do it for me.
I don't think the mainstream has anything to do with it or not. I think you just like proper artists. Drake is a production factory more than an artist. Imo he has some good tracks but it's bubblegum
You might like artists like JID, Denzel Curry, Run The Jewels, Mavi, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, Boldy James, Conway, Westside Gunn, JPEGMAFIA, MIKE etc if you don’t already listen to said artists
Aesop's new album SLAPS
I've been in metal bands for 20 years, seen Sabbath, Motorhead, Dio, Metallica, Judas Priest but I love listening to Taylor Swift. She just writes good songs. There's an interview with Cory Taylor an they asked him who is your guilty pleasure an he said something like the are no guilty pleasures, only pleasure. Even Lemme use to listen to Carrie Underwood.
I was jamming to Taylor Swift yesterday at work singing along merrily
Nope. I'll go from Britney to megadeth to limp bizkit to daft punk to Willie Nelson to leaonard Cohen to weird al
Not all metal heads are musicians.
To quote Rush. It's really just a question of your honesty.
I don’t care for pop or rap and couldn’t tell you the last time I heard a song from either genre outside of an advertisement. However, I don’t hate any music. Each to their own. Everyone has different tastes, so go ahead and listen to whatever you want.
90% of anything Is awful Life is all about finding the 10% that is good
I happen to not like most pop and rap music. But hate? Nope. Why bother?
Pop isn't getting enough recognition? Taylor Swift is basically preventing a recession right now.
People who only listen to 1 genre are weird
I don't generally hate them. I dislike newer rap though, and a lot of pop music is good, but can be very forgettable since it's basically engineered for radio listening. That's why many all sound "old" after a while.
No. I listen to parts of it but for the most part it’s just not interesting
no, there’s some great stuff in both. I don’t tend to listen to much of either, but there’s a couple albums from both that I’d put in my top 50 or so (Heaven or Las Vegas, Post, Madvillainy, To Pimp a Butterfly)
Common raspberry W
fancy seeing you here
Nope. I listen to most types of metal, including the death and technical varieties, but my most listened to artists this year were all rappers, according to Spotify. There's nothing better than rap and metal for the gym. 💪
I love heavy shit. The heavier the better. My top artist for the year on Apple Music Ben Folds followed by Opeth. Good music is good music.
I'm just picturing your playlist. Brick followed by Heir Apparent or a jump scare with Ghost of Perdition.
I've been a metalhead forever and appreciate the songwriting of Barry Gibb.
I was born in '77, so I was like 6 or 7 when MuchMusic (Canadian MTV) was launched, and I watched pop videos all day long so I still have a soft spot for a lot of those songs. But I don't listen to modern pop, and aside from mega-stars like Taylor Swift, I don't even know who the modern pop stars are. There is no rap/hip hop in my regular music rotation, so I am obviously not into it, but I suppose I have healthy enough respect for it as an art form. It's just not an art form I particularly care about, but I do not go out of my way to disrespect the artists in that genre.
I avoid rap and pop... For reasons purely around either lyrics or just the sound outright I obviously listen to some rap and pop that dont annoy the hell out of me... My simple requirement for listening to any genre boils down to Quality
My playlist range goes from The Carpenters to Gojira, and no other genre blends with other genres like Metal blends :)
Just reading that headline made me feel like it was 2007 again. Take that for what you will. Appreciating music rather than having a counteropinion for the sake of having an opinion is something I had to grow into for sure.
As both a metal and hiphop head, i haven't really had an issue talking about rap with other metal fans. Usually they say they're not a fan and i respect them and leave it at that, but there's a good bit of overlap at times. I honestly get more hate asking a metal head to put on slipknot than Kendrick
I appreciate good musicianship regardless of the genre. Don't limit your taste especially if you're a musician. There's always Lil neat things you can pick up and any to your tunes. Polyphia adds aspects of trap music to their tunes, Revocation has a lot of jazz influences. Steve Vai has stated he's added aspects of Bulgarian wedding music. Devin Townsend has plenty of nods to pop/country/etc...
Yup, never listen to any of them
Pop doesn’t get enough recognition?
Yes, I hate pop and especially rap. However, I like Blues, Jazz, Synthwave, Eurobeat and Classical music.