So what are your opinions on heavy metal?

Question

Do you think that heavy metal is as bad an influance on people as the media has blown it up to be? What are you personal opinions on it, and if you DO like this kind of music, what bands do you listen to? Any genre of metal counts for this one; heavy metal, black metal, death metal, goth metal, glam metal, etc. Thanks for participating, it's a survey assignment for school :)

Answer 1

I think that to characterize people by what the listen to or what they watch is a mistake.

Case in point:

My 65ish year old neighbor is very religious. She goes to church and prays without fail. Her favorite band is Metallica. She listens to it sometimes while she's praying.

I think that some people will blame their bad behavior on what they listen to or watch, but everyone should have moral instincts about what is appropriate and what isn't. If they don't it's not music's fault. It's theirs.

--Lee Ann

Answer 2

Well, I listen to plenty of metal myself. I have listened to plenty of Death Metal and Black Metal, although it's not something I listen to that much of anymore. My faovrite Death metal abnd would be Death. My favorite band is Megadeth ([mostly] 80's thrash), but I generally listen to Power Metal most of the time now. Power Metal is a genre which has quite a bit of fantasy in it, and that fantasy might encourage people to play games like World of Warcraft, which would definatly be a bad influence, but you have to stretch quite far to think that. As for the who satism stuff or whatever, I don;t think metal is a bad influence in that respect, of course it depends on what you;re listening to though. There is White Metal out there too, which is basically just Christian Metal, so it would be slightly hard to argue that it's a bad influence.

Favorite metal bands (in no order): Megadeth, Pantera, Slayer, Death, Sonata Artica, DragonForce, Blind Guardian, Edguy.

Oh, and I'm 16 by the way... listening to metal for about 4 years, maybe more... been my favorite genre since I started hearing it pretty much.

Answer 3

Heavy Metal music !!! One of the most attractive and amazing music that ever exist in this world. Everything in this world is like a coin, every coin have to side, so in this music also, heavy metal have 2 side, the bad side and the good side. But i won't talk about the bad side or the good side of this music. Cause what the bad side and the good side is depending to a person who listen to this music, remember the person, not the music. Every music is a good thing for us to explore, and also the heavy metal music. When any media or ppl say about the bad thing about this music, then in my mind that they say about the person who listen or make this music as an artist, but NOT the music itself. Maybe ppl get wrong about this, heavy metal music never make anyone become savage, rude etc. No music is like that so when ppl or media say about the bad things about this music then who talk about that never understand the heavy metal music and i think that's so stupid.
I have been listen to heavy metal since my 12 years, so it almost 25 years i do listen to it, and there is nothing happen with me, i do not become satanic, i become rude etc. So heavy metal music NEVER give any bad influence to ppl.

I am listening to many bands, i love all metal music genre, but what in my heart deeply is 80's metal music.

Answer 4

I think conservative, puritanical thinking has brainwashed a number of people into this ultimate mindset that heavy metal is evil. everyone says heavy metal leads kids to do violent acts or commit suicide. i remember a time when i suffered an insurmountable amount of depression (not emo, huge difference) and i started listening to bands like slayer, lamb of god, pantera and children of bodom, it didn't make want to beat anybody up or shoot myself, in fact it made me feel better as a person and i've been listening to it ever since. if you want damaging music listen to emo, rap or pop. emo makes you feel even more depressed about yourself because they're depressed for no real reason. rap sucks anyway and their lyrics talk bout beating up cops most of the time because their depressed with their lives. and pop makes you feel useless because they're basically "i'm pretty you're not, deal with it or leave" and pop is everywhere you look so the only solution would be suicide (i'm sorry if i'm exaggerating). i listen to a wide range of metal from it's roots to the fastest s**t you can come up with. i hope you do well and make a point in this survey knowing that metal is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be

Answer 5

I am 47 years old, I grew up in the slums of NYC, I have listened to Metal all my life, I Retired from the US Army Military Police after serving 21 years of service, I raised 2 wonderful children with my metal out there. My children have turned out well as have I. Blaming "Heavy Metal" is just another losers attempt at attention. All I know is that "Life is what you Think it is" I think its GREEEAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!

Hanz

Answer 6

heavy metal is not anything like it was in the 80's. good idea on listing the different kinds as there are many. i don't think music influences people to the point of raping, murdering, suicide as people would love to suggest. it's usually the finger pointers that have something to gain or want to avoid blame that do this. people that are weak will seek this as an excuse for their actions.

i was never a fan of glam metal, hair metal, whatever. i think their a bunch of poseurs. i particularly like speed metal. death/black is ok. basically, as long as the music is good, i'll like it.

my favorite by far is judas priest. my list is gonna reflect 80's (sorry, music sucks nowadays) anthrax, helloween, fate's warning, sod (punk?) mod (punk?) joe satriani, slayer, king diamond, wasp, dio, to name a few

i can't call the likes of white lion, poison, dokken, bon jovi, ratt, motley crue, cuz i really can't call a hair band heavy metal although i do like dokken (have all their cds) and ratt

Answer 7

I don't think that you can blame music for things like the media tries to. But I do think that anyone in the limelight who has a following needs to be responsible in their actions. But I love heavy metal I love old school stuff like Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne I love Disturbed, Metallica, Korn, Deftones, Static X, and lots more. However I would never do something because of music that I didn't believe in (Like I wouldn't go and shoot someone because someone I like sang about doing it, I wouldn't commit suicide because I heard a song about it just like I wouldn't be a slut because of some pop song) I hate how metal sometimes gets blamed when teenagers do stupid things like going on a shooting spree or whatever but pop music doesn't get blamed for young girls sleeping around and getting pregnant because they wanted to act like the Pussycat Dolls or Paris Hilton.
I hope this makes sense. I think its worse for pop music in some ways because it gets to people younger. A lot of people don't get into metal til a bit later because their parents don't expose them to it and in primary school theres not many opportunities to listen to this music really.
So yeh anyway I really like metal music. the only bit I don't like is when a 'singer' doesn't actually sing at all. They scream the whole way through. Now I don't mind the screaming but only in small doses and interspersed with singing.
Good Luck with your assignment

Answer 8

I think metal is not as bad as people say it is I mean I listen to allllll the time and im kind of a geek

Answer 9

As I just read in previous answer, some of us don't get into metal music untill later in life. I'm 43 and I noticed I'm liking metal more and more. In the 70's(in my teens) I did not like any metal band at all. Led Zepplin was about the hardest I liked my music. My buddies all liked Queen and Kiss and even though a local radio station played the metal bands on a regular basis I always pictured the all the druggies in town listening to metal. In the 80's all the big hair bands were popular. Again I admit I like a few songs but for the most part I still disliked the majority of the metal bands and especially AC/DC. I guess I thought those guys were evil devil worshipers (LOL). In the 90's Nirvana and Pearl Jam came along. I still stayed away from the metal bands but did I ever get into the two bands I just named. I realize they are alternative bands but the point I'm making here is that my taste in music got harder as I got older. Now in just the past few years I have noticed what I have been missing. All those mean, bad, devil worshiping, druggie music bands I have been avoiding for all these years have been in a whole new spotlight for me. It was when I learned the ACDC's song Back in Black was really about the band deciding to make another album after a band member died was when I decided that metal bands might not be such a negative infulence after all. A few years ago Ozzy Came out with a cd (which I lost) which had a song about his love of music and his love of entertaining his band's audiences all these years. As I was writing this a Metallica song came on....I cranked it. A few weeks ago I took a road trip and cranked the holy s#@t out of a cd I found in a rental car titled "heavy metal" I about went deaf and enjoyed every minute of it. Godsmack.....a year ago i'd tell you that they stink.....now I own two of their cd's and one of my favorite things to do is to crank up a Godsmack cd at 4:30 in the morning on the way to work. I'm not a bad person at all...I dont smoke, drink and have never done drugs nor will I ever. But one thing I will do is crank a Black Sabbath cd till my car speakers about blow out just to listen to the shear talent of Ozzy and his guitar playing and to those heavy metal drums of the drummer of Metallica. And dont get me started on Seether......they do things with guitars and drums that just aren't natural and I love every note of it. Country bands have a reputation of singing about positive things. Metals bands do have reputation of singing negative things, of the darker side in all of us. I think that is why I have grown to like metal bands. I guess I'm wanting to hear songs about the things that are in the back of my head but that does not mean that I'm going to change the person that I am inside. I do like to hear the screaming of Kurt Cobain and the screaming of Seether at 4:30 in the morning. But that does not mean I'm going to cuss out and scream at my customers at 5:00 in the morning when I get to work. For the most part people decide on what kind of behavior they are going to do regardless of the music that they listen to....at least I think so. Granted metal music might make us drive a little faster but I like to think that's all it does to us.

Answer 10

It's not a bad influence. I love all types of metal. I love so many bands but my top favorite is AFI.

P.S.: Not fair! You get a fun assignment. We would never get an assignment this cool.