What is the meaning of the 'horned hand gesture' displayed in rock concerts?

Question

What is the meaning of the 'horned hand gesture' displayed in rock concerts?

Answer 1

it's american sign language for Love

Answer 2

I looked this up awhile back because I wondered the same. From what I can tell, it is very close to the gesture for devil. However, when I saw how the signal for devil was formed, the hand had the end f its thumb against the 2 middle fingernails.

The "Rock On" (as it seems to be used for) has the thumb across the joint of the two middle fingers (or a little higher). This makes the two middle fingers curled closer to the palm, while the "Devil" gesture has the two middle fingers off of the palm.

It seems the gesture may have originated from the devil gesture. It is likely most didn't know its meaning and just began using it as "Rock On"

Answer 3

Ronnie James Dio, as a few have already stated. I believe his grandmother used to chase him around with her hand like that and he ended up doing that later on. I'm not 100% sure if his grandmother did that or if it was another family member of his, but I believe that's along the lines of how he said he came up with it.

Answer 4

If you are in Texas, The hand sign for our University of Texas is the motto Hook'em Horns and it is the upright horns. Anyone who denigrates that sign as work of Satan because they are obcessed with the demi-God Satan their religion created is showing their psychotic sickness.

Answer 5

It can mean alligience to the devil, it can also mean bullshit in Sign langauge if slightly pointed diagonally towards the ground. It can also mean love, but i think this is jsut a cover-up of some kind. It also represents the Texas Long-Horns. Bush did it during a televised parade after his second inauguartion. Imagine what the deaf comunity thought.

Answer 6

i have three theories on this...
one, it just looks cool.
two, looks like a devil with horns
three, it's a hand gesture of 666. the pinky ring and thumb make one six, index ring and thumb make another six, and the index, middle and thumb make another six. cool huh?
also it's the sign of the texas longhorns. go figure...

Answer 7

love has the index pinky and thumb out. the thing you are talking about has the index and pinky out right? that it the symbol for 666, altho i think most ppl who use it dont know that.

Answer 8

It means the Ram or the goat which is associated to the devil.
Go to this website and it gives an explanation

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2005/210105devilhand.htm

Answer 9

Its loyalty to the band, the index finger and pinky up with the The Devil's Horns hand gesture is one that has come to signify every thing rock. However these days it has become less and less so by it's overuse and misuse. In today's music market it appears that no band that claims to even be the tiniest bit rock can be photographed without at least one of them making this symbol.

Put your middle and ring fingers down into your palm whilst keeping the others straight, then place your thumb on top then either hold aloft, point at someone or hold across the chest.

Do not place your thumb underneath or hold out to the side, also never hold the thumb out always keep it on the middle two fingers or it will become the sign language for I love you, unless you're a hippie or in love with a deaf person it's not really appropriate is it?

The way that this found its way into rock culture is via Ronnie James Dio and Black Sabbath. Dio's Italian grandmother being rather superstitious and having no testicles to grab used the Corna for its original purpose. Later in life when he joined Black Sabbath he felt that he needed some kind of gesture to connect with the crowd better. However he wanted to have one that was his own and not use the peace gesture that Ozzy had always used. Given the dark nature of the songs he was singing he decided to use the Corna. As he himself put it in a 2001 interview “I was in Sabbath at the time. It was a symbol that I thought was reflective of what that band was supposed to be all about. It's not the devil's sign like we're here with the devil. It's an Italian thing I got from my Grandmother.”

Unlike now it was a far more active symbol and wasn't just there to be thrust into the air, if the fingers are tilted upwards it was meant to ward off evil but if the fingers were tilted downwards towards the target then it was supposed to "curse" them.

From there it was adopted by metal fans the world over as a vague sign of the occult Satanism or just metal-ness, and has since simply become a symbol of all that rocks, and is even creeping into use in pop music.

Gene Simmons also claims to have invented the sign as a rock and roll symbol before Dio; however I think he is simply trying to jump on the band wagon. On the other hand he does claim to have evidence for this in the form of an album cover but in this enlarged version of the photo in question he is doing it wrong, by forming his hand incorrectly and also by holding it jutting out from his hip not in front of him or above him as it should be done.

The way that this found its way into rock culture is via Ronnie James Dio and Black Sabbath. Dio's Italian grandmother being rather superstitious and having no testicles to grab used the Corna for its original purpose. Later in life when he joined Black Sabbath he felt that he needed some kind of gesture to connect with the crowd better. However he wanted to have one that was his own and not use the peace gesture that Ozzy had always used. Given the dark nature of the songs he was singing he decided to use the Corna. As he himself put it in a 2001 interview “I was in Sabbath at the time. It was a symbol that I thought was reflective of what that band was supposed to be all about. It's not the devil's sign like we're here with the devil. It's an Italian thing I got from my Grandmother.”

Unlike now it was a far more active symbol and wasn't just there to be thrust into the air, if the fingers are tilted upwards it was meant to ward off evil but if the fingers were tilted downwards towards the target then it was supposed to "curse" them.

From there it was adopted by metal fans the world over as a vague sign of the occult Satanism or just metal-ness, and has since simply become a symbol of all that rocks, and is even creeping into use in pop music.

Gene Simmons also claims to have invented the sign as a rock and roll symbol before Dio; however I think he is simply trying to jump on the band wagon. On the other hand he does claim to have evidence for this in the form of an album cover but in this enlarged version of the photo in question he is doing it wrong, by forming his hand incorrectly and also by holding it jutting out from his hip not in front of him or above him as it should be done.

\m/ 666 ROCK N ROLL!!

Answer 10

I thought it was love in sign language