Comments on: Metalhead: An Essay

By: Allen Holt

Allen Holt — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:43:20 +0000

Big hair, big makeup, plastic shoes, tight pants, the works.

Wait, was that the band, or you? :)

Bon Jovi were totally showmen, and I think they connected with most of their audience the way you described -- and I think that's why they're about the only band from that era still making hit albums and having successful tours today. (Thanks for giving me somewhere to bring up that point, because I couldn't find a good place to fit it into the essay!)

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:39:09 +0000

I first saw Bon Jovi open for Scorpion in Savannah, GA. Big hair, big makeup, plastic shoes, tight pants, the works. It was de rigeur! To think, I blended in at the time! I think I was 16 and no one checked my ID. If my parents had seen me at the time, I would have never made it out the door. :) Bon Jovi were catchy, they were showmen, they "spoke" to my attention-seeking teen-aged heart and echoed my desperate and somewhat complex combinations of hormones and naivetÃ©.

Anyway, your candor and insight are much appreciated and your 'guilty' secret is safe with us.

By: Allen Holt

Allen Holt — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:51:07 +0000

I think you're exactly right about the sorts of metal that were still acceptable, and I think it was directly in counter to what had come before it: I think kids in the 90s were into the angry, serious music precisely because their peers from the previous decade were so into the fluffy, shiny stuff. That music tried so hard to separate itself from what had come before that it might've gone too far in the other direction.

Also, I think that sort of responsive shift might be the last time that sort of thing happens -- there's now such easy access to so many different kinds of music and so many different artists that we're not going to see that one massive shift anymore. We've seen more of a shift in the way music is consumed than we have in the music being consumed. Since there's really not that concept of a universally popular artist anymore, there's nothing to have a concerted reaction against.

By: Nora

Nora — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:41:33 +0000

I was definitely too young to be into that era of hair metal, but the thrash and arena types were alive and well in my teenage years. It wasn't top 40 anymore, and it showed up more on SNL than MTV, but people were still backtracking into Metallica's older albums and cranking GNR. One of the effects grunge did have was that everyone gravitated towards the dark brooding metal, since it was emotionally in sync with the rest of popular music. This ended up replacing Def Leppard with the vast array of metal/rock bands in the 90s. It seems to me that the 80s as a decade was impressed with how over the top it was, whereas the 90s was impressed with how upset and bored it was. Whatever the decade wanted to celebrate about itself, that's the music it chose to canonize. The media of my teenage years redefined “metal” as “serious and angry,” which allowed everyone to mock the popular music it came from as “not metal.”

By: Allen Holt

Allen Holt — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:53:18 +0000

Glad you liked it, Jeff! Somehow I'm not surprised that you did. :)

And thank you for the kind words on my writing. I worked harder on this essay than on anything I've written for quite awhile -- in fact, that's one of the reasons I subtitled it "An Essay." I realized when I passed two thousand words that it was more than just what I normally do for a blog post!

By: Allen Holt

Allen Holt — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:50:47 +0000

I think you're enough younger than me that it wouldn't even remotely have been cool for you to be into hair metal as a teenager; it had already gotten hit with the post-grunge backlash so thoroughly that listening to Bon Jovi then would have been ostracizion-worthy. (Is that even a word? "Ostracizion?") Anyway, you're totally right -- NOW, everyone's got SOME of that stuff in their collection, and we're far enough away from the backlash that you can listen to it with only minimal mocking. :)

And glad you like the banner pic! I took it last weekend and thought it was about perfect for use here. :)

By: Jeff Newberry

Jeff Newberry — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:39:16 +0000

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Allen, you nailed it. I am now a snooty jazz snob whose main collection ranges from Bill Evans to Miles Davis to John Coltrane to Ella Fitzgerald. However, between the ages of 12 and around 20-something I DIED for this kind of music (& the Blues, of course).

I'm amazed at how retroactively snobby the entertainment media can be. 20 years ago, they kissed GNR's ass. These days, the same media dismiss GNR completely. Ditto for Bon Jovi. Ditto for scads of decent bands.

Fargo Rock City is a wonderful book, but your essay is equally wonderful. You need to write more things like this, and you need to SUBMIT. You're a damn fine writer, and you don't need to forget that fact, my friend.

By: Nora

Nora — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:33:54 +0000

Mmm, the Descendants. And I like Suicidal Tendencies. But I didn't get into either until I was in my twenties.

This is a really interesting essay, sir. I went the grunge/industrial route and thumbed my nose at metal, but even I have some Def Leppard and Bon Jovi on my iPod. It's hard to argue with catchy songs, even if you've decided you're Not That Kind of Person. No matter how many mosh pits you were in, sometimes you just find yourself swooning melodramatically to "Blaze of Glory," because it's just a good song.

By the way, nice new banner design! I love it.