Here is my unedited speech as asked for by addictedtoylvis
Metal Music: The Black Sheep of the Music Family
Music is something that appeals to everyone. It gives others a glimpse into how one person sees life, feels, and conquers the difficulties that they have faced. It aids people and gives them the strength to face this so called journey we call life. So, if music does all of this, why do we judge and condemn a certain genre and the people who listen to it? My name is Alexis Monday and I’m going to give examples and reasons as to why metal music should be more socially accepted.
Metal uses a lot of the sames themes as pop, rap, and hip hop music does. They even use some of the same concepts as country music. Theses themes include things such as drugs, sex, alcohol, bullying, accepting flaws,love, and suicide. For each theme I will give an example to help show and prove that metal music is not as bad as many of you all believe.
There are many different songs about drugs. Some promoting it and others not so much. The metal song I have chosen to use an example for this theme is Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” and the “Strange Clouds” by B.O.B. “Master of Puppets” talks about how drugs are detrimental and kill you. As heard in the lyrics ”Needlework the way, never you betray, Life of death becoming clearer, Pain monopoly, ritual misery, Chop your breakfast on a mirror, Taste me you will see, More is all you need, Dedicated to How I'm killing you.” However, in comparison there is an abundant amount of rap songs that glorify the use of drugs and alcohol. Such lyrics that promote the use of narcotics is “Strange Clouds”.
“All we do is pour it up, All night, drinks out, (That's how we do it), (That's how we do it), And all we do is light it up, All night, all you see is strange clouds, Strange clouds, strange clouds” are the lyrics to that song. I don’t know about anyone else, but I would much rather listen to “Master of Puppets” compared to “Strange Clouds” just based on the lyrics alone. One, because they steer people away from drugs and two it is lyrically more imaginatively written.
Another popular topic in music is sex. Some songs go into rather comfortable detail about this topic and others do not. The metal song chosen to prove this example is “When the Lights are Down” by Kamelot. The chorus goes,” 'Cause when the lights are down, There's no more to say, Love is the real pain, An eternal revolution in my heart, And when the lights are down, You're so far away, Tell me your real name, In the silence of the darkness we unite.” As one can see this does not go into any detail at all about what is occurring. The counterexample for this topic is 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop.” I know that most of you know the lyrics to this song so no I’m not reading the lyrics just no.
Another topic that I have found in metal is suicide, but not in the sense that most of you would assume. These songs talk people out of suicide. I will use yet another Kamelot song for this because they have a perfect song to be used here. The beginning of their song “The Pendulous Fall” starts out with “In a garden, in a hand, Lies a key to shadow land, You're far from feeling strong, The worst begins, In the sediments of life, In the comfort of a knife, You hold your breath, And pray to god it won't take long. And you wonder where the rainbow ends, With its autumn setting sun.” This sets up a situation in which someone is about to end their life and praying that it will not take long. The chorus hits and says “There's a way from it all, Though the chances are small, We'll come back again, Won't you think it over, Life is a pendulous fall, But maybe worth the pain, And soon enough we'll go, Where nobody can touch us.” This is trying to encourage the person who wants to commit suicide that life is hard and gets harder, but it’s worth it and soon enough we’ll all go to heaven or whatever you believe in where you won’t be bothered any longer. Surprisingly, there are not that many pop or rap songs that try to talk others out of suicide. Nevertheless, I finally found one that kind of does. The All American rejects put out a song long ago called “Move Along.” The chorus to this song is “When all you got to keep is strong, Move along, move along like I know ya do, And even when your hope is gone, Move along, move along just to make it through, Move along, Move along.” This song tells one to keep moving along that they should not give up. However, it does not give any reasons or incentives as to why one should do this.
Now, a MAJOR reason I prefer to listen to metal over all other genres is because the lyrics are intelligently written and make one think. Gemini Syndrome is a band that tends to use more ambiguous words to get their point across. The lyrics “Color-coded blasphemy, This really strange anatomy, Is this really my life?, Something isn't right., The ambiguity, This whole damn conspiracy, Playing out in my head, Something isn't right.” are from their song “Basement” which is about learning to live with a person’s flaws. These lyrics are worded rather beautifully and sound intelligent. On the other side is a Jason Aldean song called “She’s Country.” The chorus of this song goes “Country, (shoot) from her cowboy boots to her down home roots , She's country, from the songs, she plays to the prayers she prays, That's the way she was born and raised, she ain't afraid to stay, country, Brother she's country.” Now to me the Gemini Syndrome lyrics sound way more intelligent than the way Jason Aldean’s lyrics are worded.
As an added bonus there are a lot of metal bands that tell stories through their lyrics. Stories I believe help people to broaden their imagination and metal assists a person in doing so. Kamelot, apparently my favorite band now, has two whole albums dedicated to one story. The gist of the story is a man leaves his hometown and the love of his life to search for answers about the universe and eternity. He encounters a fallen angel who makes him bargain his soul for the answers that he is seeking. The angel told the man that if he ever found a time when he is content and wants to stay there the angel will take his soul. The man runs into his love once again, but knowing that he can’t stay with her, he leaves her. This deeply saddens her and she commits suicide. The man turns on god and questions his existence. However, eventually the man realises that the fallen angel deceived the man, and so he leaves the angel and asks god for forgiveness. Their is no reply to the mans cry. The man finally realizes that love is the answer to all his questions and he feels content. With this contentedness the fallen angel comes for the man’s soul, however the man’s love fights the fallen angel for his soul because God decided to allow him back in Heaven. She wins. There are plenty stories like this told in metal music!
I hope I have successfully proven to you all that metal music is not as terrible and satanic as many people believe. The genre as a whole is wonderful!
