Friday, May 3, 2013

That Heavy Metal Music the Kids Like These Days

That Heavy Metal Music the Kids Like These Days

I am trying to keep my word on the daily posting front, this could get really boring for you if I keep posting about what I am up to today. I could tell you about what it was like watching "Brave" for the 200th time with Celia or I could expound on regulatory risk factors for mortgage brokerage start-ups. From there I could have Celia tell you about risk factors related to the movie "Brave" with insights such as "Be careful, horse. SLOW DOWN. You can get a big owwie." We'll skip that for today.

In the formative years of my musical tastes, where you start to associate the kind of music you like with the kind of person you are (or are thinking you will become), I hated Heavy Metal. At least I hated the idea of it. 

I went to stay with my cousins in Manhattan for the summer when I was 13. My cousin Robbie and I were not getting along, I liked Duran Duran and the Police and he liked Motley Crue and Ratt. From his perspective anything "new wave" sucked, from repeated exposure to Motley Crue's video for "Smokin in the Boys Room" -- metal sucked way more... the music was terrible and they looked stupid playing it. Before I went home that summer, I saw the cover of "Metal Up Your Ass" and was convinced metal was idiotic. 

Over the next few years, as I got into punk rock and hardcore, I hung onto my strong aversion to metal. I could not understand how someone could like punk/hardcore and metal at the same time. Fast-forward to my first summer after high school. Driving around with Buck and Jim Reynolds, I was completely won over by Slayer.

A decade later, it struck me weird when Drowningman would get reviewed in metal magazines. Truth be told any "hardcore" band at that time was more influenced by Slayer than Bad Brains.

My point? RIP Jeff Hannem. If it weren't for that "metal," that music I hated as a 13 year old, my band and many others never would have existed. 




No comments: