Has Metal Ceased To Be Music Of The Working Class?

I have been in a very introspective mood recently and have taken to looking at the metal world very critically. I don't like to talk politics on the internet, I must admit, but there is an aspect to metal that I believe is relevant to such debate. Please bear with me while I try to unpack what I'm trying to say.

I grew up in the sixties and seventies in a council house in a no-mark town in northern England where everybody's dad worked at one of the two massive truck factories or the chemical works that dominated the town. When I was eleven I went to the local grammar school and for the first time rubbed shoulders with kids whose families could be considered well-off (some hadn't even passed the exams to be there, but their parents paid for them anyway). Most of them were arrogant pricks who wouldn't give the poorer kids the time of day, which was fine by me, but the differences weren't just about money, they were cultural too. They took the piss out of us first for loving bands like Slade then later Sabbath, Motorhead and Thin Lizzy, all the time toting their Bob Dylan, Joan Baez or Peter Frampton records around school like some sort of confirmation of their innate societal superiority. Dylan may have sung about poverty, but we were living it. What no one outside metal circles understood was that the music and the metal culture (drink, drugs, bikes etc), along with horror movies and fantasy & science fiction novels were essential parts of the escape from that soul-crushing poverty most of us working-class kids were forced to face every day. When I first got into heavy metal in the mid-seventies it was most definitely a blue-collar form of music and the only other escape for poorer kids was football and the associated gang violence, but that never held any attraction for me to be honest. No, give me a Sabbath album and an eigth of weed and I could smoke and headbang myself into blissful oblivion!

I got a job on a farm when I was 14. It was fucking hard work, but after giving my mum a couple of quid every week it meant I had money to buy records like Paranoid, Sad Wings of Destiny and Motorhead's debut (along with a bit of booze and some weed) and tickets to gigs where we could hang out with like-minded outsiders and see our heroes in the flesh and you know what, that made it all worth it. Everyone in the music press claimed that punk gave a voice to the working class kids, but half those poseurs were fucking college types who were only interested in the fashion side of the punk scene. No, for me it was Lemmy and Ozzy and Phil Lynott who gave voice to the shit I had going on inside me. Metal was the music of the outsider, the sneered-at and the forgotten.

Now, to finally get to my point, it seems to me that a kind of intellectual snobbishness has started to creep into metal music as it has gained in popularity (which it most definitely has since the early 2000s) that never used to be there . A huge number of bands seem to be constantly striving to "push the envelope" and metal is being continuously diluted to the point where sometimes it's barely even metal at all. Everybody now demands "challenging" and "genre-bending" music and intellectuallising metal has become the norm. Bands who want nothing more than to shake your core with brutal riffs are now looked down on, not even with contempt, but with pity for their caveman style of musical expression. No longer is Sabbath's doctrine of "we wanted to replicate the sound of the factory metal presses in our music" considered good enough. Some bands seem almost embarassed and apologetic that they play metal at all. Back in the day the sneering and snide remarks came from outside the metal brotherhood, but now it is coming from within too. Lyrics have to be about bearing your soul and exploring your feelings. It seems to me that metal is no longer music of the heart and the gut, but of the mind and it has become, for some, an intellectual exercise to allow them to achieve some form of one-upmanship (particularly in this social media and soundbite obsessed zeitgeist we live in) and as such I think it has lost it's power. Like the tossers who walk around in designer torn jeans (we wore torn jeans when we were kids because we couldn't afford new ones) to my mind many modern metal adherents are satisfied with a mere facsimile of a scene - it doesn't really actually mean that much to them anymore, it's just another commodity to use and abuse and the brotherhood and cameraderie that came with being a metal fan, one of society's outsiders, in the 1970s and '80s has been lost.

I understand the counterpoints - you're an old fucker, the world's changing and you're stuck in your ways. Yeah I get it and all that may be true, but you know what, I think we had the best of what the metal scene had to offer which transcended the mere music and became a part of what we are. I no longer consider metal to be a separate culture anymore, it is just another arm of the consumerist world we live in, a disposable commodity that follows fads and trends as much as any other cultural fashion. But, some of us will still be here, long after the others have moved on to the next big thing and that's what matters.

I have a different view on this with the main difference being that I have never associated metal (or any other form of music for that matter) with social class.  As I have stated elsewhere on here, metal is my music.  For me it is not tagged to any particular group socially, culturally or politically for that matter.  It is an extension of me, it is not something that I rely on to help me feel (or know) my place in any aspect of civilisation.  Having come from a working class background and having to work my way into a role career wise which means I can now enjoy a lifestyle that many would perceive to be anything but that which I grew up in, I can confirm that metal has been with me throughout my life and is not something that is every liable to leave me regardless of the circles in which I move.  I do not identify as "metalhead" or whatever term is used nowadays so I have no real affiliation for being part of a scene anyway.

Because I can isolate music from the rest of what is going on around me I can only connect with it on a personal basis not as part of a collective experience (as a rule I do not really like other humans all that much, I will freely admit).  If an artist wants to do something different and I don't like it then it soon gets ignored and I have a great system for being able to reference what has failed to interest me to avoid me falling down the same rabbit holes.  I don't necessarily agree that the pushing of boundaries is something that is demanded.  Personally (based on my recent experience of that Scarcity record) I think that the actual "limitless" nature of what gets tagged as metal is should see a stronger underground for those of us who enjoy the more primitive aspects of music but I do not deny that I can enjoy the expansion of traditional sounds to some degree as well. 

Rationally, I think there absolutely has to be a place for artists to express whatever the hell they like - even if I think it is shit.  I could spend my time making myself miserable and irritable (and I genuinely would get so) by over-focusing on these less than favourable elements but I just go back to what I know I like instead.

I think that people's perceptions around metal's image are probably drawn from their own experiences. As someone that was raised in a middle-class family, was always provided for well & lived in one of the most attractive parts of the world, I can't say that I ever thought of metal as anything working class until I was playing in bands & saw the audience we would draw to shows. At that point it became very clear that metal was more attractive to a specific clientelle but I don't think that audience has changed much over time (at least it hasn't in Australia where metal music is probably less popular & has always remaining exclusively in the underground). Metal is clearly an escape & a way to get your aggression out for many people & it's possible that there's not as much of a requirement for that in the upper class. The Aussie metal scene was generally always quite inclusive & welcoming for those outsiders that struggled for acceptance elsewhere, again not something that the upper class have a problem with most of the time. You could be a part of something that felt like it was vital & important but also had an element of secrecy about it which gave it an added level of attraction for many people. Perhaps the internet has put an end to a lot of that feeling of being "in the know" as everything is so accessible now but I tend to think that metal is still very much an underground thing.

I'm interested to know why you think metal has grown in popularity since the early 2000's Sonny as that's certainly not the case over here in Oz. It's never been more uncool to be an Aussie metalhead as far as I can tell. The only bands anyone outside of the scene is aware of are the classic bands from the 1980's & early 1990's which was when metal was at its peak here.

I'm interested to know why you think metal has grown in popularity since the early 2000's Sonny as that's certainly not the case over here in Oz. It's never been more uncool to be an Aussie metalhead as far as I can tell. The only bands anyone outside of the scene is aware of are the classic bands from the 1980's & early 1990's which was when metal was at its peak here.

I must admit that there was a short time during the early eighties when the NWOBHM was at it's height that metal was relatively more popular here in the UK than it is at the moment. However that was fairly short-lived and the way it was abandoned wholesale, I feel, adds testament to my point that to many people music is just another fad to be dropped when trend dictates and something "better" comes along. But after it had faded into the underground again, the same guys were still going to metal shows who were there before things took off. To these guys metal always meant more than a mere passing fad.

I say that I feel metal is more popular now because it seems to be more in the public consciousness than it was before. Most people have heard of Metallica and Iron Maiden, sure, but also bands like Linkin Park and Slipknot who are forever on Kerrang!!'s TV channel or on Scuzz are also well known. The fact that there even is a TV channel  showing metal videos is still hard for me to get my head round when in the UK back in the day you couldn't even hear metal on the radio let alone on TV.

Then there's the music nerds of RYM and the like who wouldn't have touched Venom or Motorhead with a barge pole, but who are quite happy to have Cult of Luna albums sat next to their Radiohead or John Coltrane LPs (or more likely on their hard drives) so they can brag about their eclectic taste to anyone who'll listen to their shit.

I must admit that nowadays I am divorced from any involvement in any metal scene and raging tinnitus has pretty much ended my going to metal shows, so I only really base these hypotheses on gut feeling rather than hard and fast data. 

You are dead right Daniel that peoples's perceptions are based on their own experiences, but the early metal bands themselves always say that they played almost exclusively to working class crowds in their formative years. Metal was born in Birmingham in the late sixties / early seventies for fuck's sake and believe me there were few places less working class than Brum at that time - my dad's family are from Birmingham so I have some first-hand experience of the time and place!

OK I'll admit that this thread might be deliberately provocative, but to be honest I thought it might be a topic that would provoke some interesting debate about the metal scene, which has undoubtedly seen some changes since I went to my first Motorhead gig in 1978. I would particularly be interested to hear the experiences of people who are still closely involved in the metal scene in real life (as opposed to on the internet) to get a feel for what it is like nowadays in the underground and to put my mind at rest that there still is an underground and that the outsider reputation of real metal is still intact.

I say that I feel metal is more popular now because it seems to be more in the public consciousness than it was before. Most people have heard of Metallica and Iron Maiden, sure, but also bands like Linkin Park and Slipknot who are forever on Kerrang!!'s TV channel or on Scuzz are also well known.

See I guess that's kinda my point really. Linkin Park & Slipknot's popularity peaked at around the turn of the century which is 20+ years ago now but where are the new mega-bands to replace them? I could be completely off the mark here but if people are still predominately associating metal with bands from multiple decades ago rather than the current crop of metal acts then I would have thought that would have been an indicator that the scene had retreated into the underground again. Who are we looking at from the 2010's & 2020's that can compete at that level?

I say that I feel metal is more popular now because it seems to be more in the public consciousness than it was before. Most people have heard of Metallica and Iron Maiden, sure, but also bands like Linkin Park and Slipknot who are forever on Kerrang!!'s TV channel or on Scuzz are also well known.

See I guess that's kinda my point really. Linkin Park & Slipknot's popularity peaked at around the turn of the century which is 20+ years ago now but where are the new mega-bands to replace them? I could be completely off the mark here but if people are still predominately associating metal with bands from multiple decades ago rather than the current crop of metal acts then I would have thought that would have been an indicator that the scene had retreated into the underground again. Who are we looking at from the 2010's & 2020's that can compete at that level?

What I am getting at Daniel, although admittedly not very well, is that I feel metal has a wider base and has become more pervasive in the culture than it was in it's earlier days. You will hear metal songs in huge movies, on TV adverts and even during football games - watch the NFL and you wil hear Crazy Train or Enter Sandman at nearly every break in play! Maybe my assertion of metal's current popularity was overstated, but it has become more accepted within the culture I don't think there can be any doubt. Either way, to focus on that one statement kind of misses the point I'm trying to make that there are aspects of some of the metal that is made today that have become very pretentious and is lauded above bands that are truer to metal's roots. It was probably wrong of me to associate this with class and I have confessed to trying to provoke a little with the statement, but to be honest rhe current political climate here in the UK has made me very class-conscious again and is somewhat dominating my thinking at this time.

I would still like to hear any commentary on how the metal underground today looks and feels as it is something I am interested in hearing about as it was such a massive part of my life for a considerable period of time and I would.like to hear how it differs (or not) from the days of my involvement many decades ago. 

Wowza, lot to go over here. 

1. I'd like to offer that virality and popularity are different when it comes to examples like Metallica or Ozzy being played at football or hockey events. Sure it's exposure for the Metal genre, but those riffs and songs that any layman would get excited for are played just because they're catchy and make people chant things. The riff to "Seven Nation Army" is still being used at a ton of events and I don't think that necessarily equates to any argument regarding the current popularity (or lack thereof) of Alternative Rock. It's very cool to hear, but I think it falls in line with Daniel's thoughts; no one is jumping out of their seats and getting hype for Deathspell Omega, Oranssi Pazuzu, or Vektor, although Gojira and Mastodon have been able to win over the mainstream crowd quite a bit recently. Even then, those bands' careers still started 20-ish years ago!

2. Going off of that, I do think that Metal is more popular than its ever been just due to the ease of access of Spotify, YouTube, insert the rest of the social media platforms here. The ability to share and discover bands is at an all-time high and people LOVE seeking out random Metal playlists for their workouts without necessarily delving much deeper. However, I think that if you want to talk about the "Metal Scene" as a whole, it's the most divided its ever been in terms of where the traffic goes. You have nerds like us who will throw out names like Imperial Triumphant, Kaatayra, Bell Witch, and Blut Aus Nord for impressive bands that have an impressive modern album catalogue, but we're a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the Metal crowd who divides itself much like our Clan system. After all, someone is giving bands like Sabaton, In Flames, Unleash The Archers, Epica, and Nightwish millions of views on YouTube and while Power Metal is definitely more popular in the mainstream right now, other genres like Metalcore, more Melodic styles of Death Metal, and some Progressive Metal still have horse in the race of vying for listeners. In short I think that there are more people listening to Metal than ever, but no one can really agree on a so-called mega-band anymore. 

3. For the original question, though, I'm someone who has never really made Metal music part of my societal identity. Metal is definitely a part of my own identity and how I interact culturally, but it never drove my opinions or who I associate with in your original "Metal is for the working class" statement. That being said, I think Metal has reached a point where the more accessible stuff appeals to the wider crowd and people won't look at you funny, and the more "extreme" stuff that we tend to listen to mostly gets a "wow I hate this" instead of a "you're a lesser person for liking this". Metal shows are still packed with people that are passionate about the music, but there's definitely a hard divide between the people who are ready to go into the pit and throw shoulders; the entire crowd almost never gets involved. Smaller shows are more about enjoying the music with likeminded people instead of punching each other, especially since it gets dangerous when there aren't enough bodies around to cushion falls or trips. I always have a fun time at shows but I have to choose my battles as Metal tends to attract bigger "tough guys" due to the moshing aspect; I'm in good shape but 6'3", 220+ lbs is a bit out of my weight class. I also tend to be wary of some Metalcore/Deathcore/Death Metal shows as some of the fans are a bit too aggressive for me, throwing spinkicks and punches around for the adrenaline rush doesn't exactly make someone like me feel safe, even though 99% of the crowd is considerate when throwing shoulders. 

Most concert goers are there for a good time though, with crowds for lesser known, but still very talent bands like Allegeaon or Black Crown Initiate sporting all sorts of "underground" band shirts like Wilderun. The overall atmosphere, for me at least, has always been a few hours of escape to enjoy music with likeminded individuals in a way that only Metal concerts can provide, but I can't say I've felt it go as deep as you've said, Sonny. Maybe that's just my personality, but it kind of ends with the music, which is fine for me, if that makes sense. I also can't really say that the Metal concert-goer scene is very diverse either, with shows attracting mostly younger to middle-aged white males, at least in my part of East Coast USA. Hopefully that helps further the discussion in the way you were hoping, Sonny.

Thanks for the comments Xephyr. Your observations about current metal show-going was exactly what I was looking for. The very aggressive moshing was only really just beginning as a thing when I finished concert-going. I took my mate's girlfriend to see Anthrax (she loved thrash, he didn't) on the Among the Living Tour and it was both of our first experience of a moshpit which resulted in us spending all night in A&E while she got her broken arm fixed. To be fair she was no wimp, we stayed for the whole show before seeking treatment and she still came with me to watch Slayer a couple of months later. Needless to say, my mate wasn't too chuffed when we turned up shame-faced next morning, she with her arm in plaster, though! That said, I was never a huge fan of moshpits, I am 6'2" and back then I would have been about 235, so I wasn't a small person, but the downside is that that makes you a target for some dickheads and in the end that wasn't what I went to metal shows for as I'm not at all a violent person by nature. But, for some, it is part of the cameraderie and is a major part of the experience of live shows I guess. Each to their own. However, from what you describe Xephyr it does sound like the underground is alive and well and metal fans are still getting the same kick out of the live experience as I did back in the day and that is really kind of reassuring.

As to your point 3, I guess the more I think about it, I realise that everything was about class in 1970s Britain so metal fandom was only an extension of the ongoing society-wide class divide and so when the so-called "classless society" of the late 80s and onwards was being touted, it was only natural that metal would succumb to it as much as anything else. You only have to look at football (or soccer to our american friends). In the 70s and early to mid-eighties football was strictly a working class sport, with huge amounts of gang violence associated with it, but by the time of the formation of the English Premier League in 1993 a significant number of match attendees were from relatively wealthier backgrounds and nowadays I'm surprised anybody not on good money can afford to attend a game at all.

I think I may need to clarify something also. I never at the time consciously viewed metal as a class-restricted thing or as anything other than something I loved more than almost anything else and the points I originally made were only derived from looking back at those days with hindsight. In the same way that we didn't realise at the time that we were poor because everyone we knew lived the same way, I never back then thought of metal as a societal identifier, it was just a me identifier and I never even thought of it in terms of a "scene", I was just fortunate enough to have friends I hung out with who were into it too and we went to shows and metal clubs where we joined up with even more mates where we could all enjoy a good laugh, a drink, a smoke and some killer music. I may have given the impression that these observations had always been on my mind, but I can assure you that I was nothing like perceptive enough back then to make such observations and I make them now only as I look back on those days with many years of water having passed under the bridge and a whole lot more experience under my belt.

This is a very interesting topic Sonny, and while I don't have the history and experience that you've got, I figure I'll add in my own two cents.

Perhaps one of the differences is the source of money. In today's day and age, we very, very rarely have mega-big arena selling metal bands, with most of them being decades old veterans of the genre who already established their reputation. New bands just don't pop up and achieve that same status that they used to. I think a big part of this is that, well, the economy globally is a mess, and therefore, even big bands usually need side jobs to make ends meet. They can't survive off touring, many never even get to do big tours at all. The revenue is now coming from streaming - a digital world that was nonexistent back in the day.

So, who are the majority of new metal fans?

It's usually not working class fellows who are off to concerts and buying some records at the shop. It's people surfing and streaming on the internet, it's people in forums and on music websites like this and RYM. Technology in general, while generally accessible to everyone these days, is still to me more of an upper-middle class thing as opposed to lower class. Nobody finds bands through word of mouth or picking up a sick looking record of a band you hadn't heard of anymore; they just search the internet, hear stuff on personalized radio streaming channels, get recommended stuff automatically by sites like Youtube, etc. And furthermore - for an up and coming band, getting big on the internet is their best bet to have any success; so they will appeal to that demographic.

And on the subject of how you said "caveman style" traditional metal just isn't good enough anymore; more than anything, I think this is a product of time and over-saturation of the music industry. With decades of metal behind us, and tens of thousands of metal records coming out every year, how in the world is anyone supposed to stand out? Sure, some classic 80's style Thrash Metal is good enough for me. I could listen to 100 bands that just sound like variations on Slayer. But they aren't going to get anywhere. Unless the band does something new, unique, or has a "gimmick" of sorts, it's impossible for them to stand out amongst the vast amount of music that has already been created, and that still continues to be pumped out and historically unprecedented speeds. It's not fair, and I don't like that fact, but I think it just is what it is. Not so much that Metal or it's culture has changed in itself, just that the world has changed, as it continues to do, and Metal, just like any style of music, will have to adapt to the changes in the world in order to stay relevant. 

The revenue is now coming from streaming - a digital world that was nonexistent back in the day.

From everything I've read & heard, bands actually make bugger-all off streaming their music unless they're at the extreme top level. I have several friends that produce music that's sold on streaming platforms & they're always complaining that they make next to nothing from it. All but the absolute elite metal bands make most of their money from touring & merchandise sales these days. The importance of producing their own music is so that they can get people to book them for live shows.

The revenue is now coming from streaming - a digital world that was nonexistent back in the day.

From everything I've read & heard, bands actually make bugger-all off streaming their music unless they're at the extreme top level. I have several friends that produce music that's sold on streaming platforms & they're always complaining that they make next to nothing from it. All but the absolute elite metal bands make most of their money from touring & merchandise sales these days. The importance of producing their own music is so that they can get people to book them for live shows.

Yes, that is my understanding of the situation too. Artists want their music streamed by as many people as possible in the hope that those people will then buy tickets to shows, t-shirts and hoodies etc. This is the only real explanantion for streaming services being so cheap (or even free if you're not bothered by advertising) and the price of merchandise and physical copies of music are so high. I pay a tenner a month for Spotify and can (and often do) listen to dozens of albums in a month, yet to buy a single CD from a local record shop or off Bandcamp costs more than a month of Spotify and for my preferred format of vinyl records, two or three months. You can buy a t-shirt from Primark for three ot four quid, but stick a Maiden or Judas Priest transfer on it and it'll set you back £20+.