METAL: A HEADBANGERS JOURNEY

                                     Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (2005)

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METAL: A HEADBANGERS JOURNEY

Sam Dunn is a 30-year old anthropologist who wrote his graduate thesis on the plight of Guatemalan refugees. Recenly he has decided to study the plight of a different culture, one he has been a part of since he was a 12-year old: the culture of heavy metal. Sam sets out on a global journey to find out why this music has been consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned and yet is loved so passionately by its millions of fans. Along the way, Sam explores metals' obsession with some of life's most provacative subjects - sexuality, religion, violence and death - and discovers some things about the culture that even he can't defend. Shot on location in the UK, Germany, Norway, Canada and the US, this documentary is the first of its kind. It is both a defense of a long-misunderstood art form and a window for the outsider into the spectacle that is heavy metal.


This documentary gave answers to a lot of questions I want to explore in my dissertation.

ORIGINS OF METAL:
As much as I want to avoid a 'history' of metal in my dissertation, metal itself has its firm roots in the 1960/70s and a lot of the subgenres of metal remain unchanged since such a time.
Bands that 'started' metal:
Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath
Sabbath being the most notable and described as creating every well known metal riff!!

Metal was derived from the working class man's blues music, and used a lot of the 'Devil's Note' - the tritone (http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1767,00.html)

A nerw wave of metal was then brought forth in the late 70s and the 80s with bands like Saxon, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Motorhead,

Other musical roots could include dark classical music - Richard Wagner (1813 - 1833)
Due to the use of a lot of bass - tubas, octobass etc and a lot of improvisation, much like Van Halen.

ENVIRONMENTS:
The band members themselves almost always come from very rough / poor backgrounds. This makes a lot of the fans of metal relate to their heroes, as they also tend to come from a similar background. The sound (and indeed the name) of metal comes from a working background - the mines, steelworks etc.

FANS:
Metal fans: Young, hetrosexual males, generally. However, more and more female fans are becoming apparent - myself included.
Heavy metal fans love the music they do because of the sense of confidence and strength it gives them. And getting together in a community of like minded people allows them to be weird, where they aren't considered so by mainstream society!

This can be seen mainly at festivals - Bloodstock, UK is where i went in 2014, but in this film they travel to Wacken.

Metalhead love the tribal feeling they get at festivals. A sense of community and a brotherohood, and a sense of belonging.


METAL CENSORSHIP:
In 1985, the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) released a list of 15 songs to be banned called the filthy 15. (www.nndb.com/lists/405/000093126/)

They targeted one band member in particular - Dee Snider of Twisted Sister

Dee Snider 1985 in court
defending his music

The PMRC picked him as a target because of his apparent unintelligent attitude - and were blown away.
He described the music he had written was not INTENDED in a perverse way, and every person who listened to the music interpreted it in their own way, and for them to assume it were perverse, meant they were the ones who thought in such a way - YOU LOOK, YOU FIND.






GENDER & SEXUALITY:
Male dominated 'boys club' and very unsympathetic to females.
It was led by the strong working class man.
HARD FAST STRONG.

It allows young teenage boys anxiety of growing up to disappear, and to worship heroic male idols.
This was then challenged by glam metal:
Leather & Lace, obsessed with female sexuality
Dressing feminine to provoke attention / trouble
to 'FREAK PEOPLE OUT'
GUTS TO BR GLAM.

Ladies in metal:

Girlschool - all girl metal
band in the 80s

GIRLSCHOOL
The first PROPER all girl metal band that did nothing differently to the men! In interview in the film, they felt sexy, powerful and in control. Female fronted bands are popular now (Arch enemy)






RELIGION & SATANISM:
Religious symbolism is used a lot in metal. Some bands praise the devil, and some, like Black Sabbath, warn of the devil.

Norwegian Black Metal:
Burning Churches
A Statement to break Christianity, satan is the liberator, satan is freedom


DEATH & VIOLENCE:
Death metal - Cannibal Corpse depict the glamorisation of violence, fascinated with death, opposed to being afraid. Ideas of a primal desire - which all humans have.

Murder & suicide:
 Metal has been frequently used as a target or a reason as to why teenagers commit suicide.
Metal, by the fans, is actually seen as being empowering, a sense of not being alone.
It confronts what is being ignored and thats why it invokes such a negative reaction.