That Music Is So Noisy!

Being a musician and a proud metalhead (A person who enjoys listening to metal music) the argument that metal music is 'just noise' comes up time and again.

In recent years however, it's become very rare. Musical preference is amazingly subjective and when I realized that, I noticed that I inadvertently made my activity of listening to music a highly personal activity and consequently less subject to criticism.

But there is still the occasional person who will make a wild comment like : "You can't understand what they're saying", "It doesn't make sense", "It's too loud", "It's not musical".

So, I sat down one day, not initially to try to make an argument to retaliate but rather, to ponder upon the reasons why I grew to like such an amazing genre and why certain people don't enjoy it the same way I do.

Essentially, I reached these points. It is amazing really, when you discover how the human mind perceives music.

Let's start addressing the generic arguments made:

Statement 1: It's not even music, just noise.

By all means, metal music is validly described as 'music'. Why? Well..

Taken from the Oxford Dictionary:music (ˈmjuːzɪk)
noun
Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

Most people fail to realize that such statements actually mean "This type of music does not conform to my personal idea of music".
And that's perfectly understandable. People who aren't too heavily invested into music of any particular type are usually found to be listening to pop (popular) music or 'chart-topping hits'. This music is generally quite simple and minimalist. Music that is easy to follow is easily enjoyable when heard even for the first time and almost always guarantees financial success. They form an opinion of such music being the standard since this type of music receives more exposure on all forms of media.

What's a little unnerving is that anything that is stylistically different and doesn't conform to this type of music is automatically branded as 'not musical'. Even alternate vocals like screaming are tackled with this argument with statements like "They can't sing" (The reason for such vocals is explored in further statements).

On analysis we find that metal music is more 'musical' and relies widely on technical proficiency and the artistic expression of the musician. Subgenres such as Progressive Metal, Technical Metal, Djent etc are some of the most complex and technical forms of music in the contemporary world.

Statement 2: There's no melody to it.

There are two different retorts to this statement.

Firstly, a lot of metal subgenres have amazing amount of melody in them. NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) and Melodic Death Metal are two good examples where we observe this among literally thousand others that fall into the generic idea of 'melody'.

For other subgenres? Well, untrained ears have a difficult times perceiving the melody because of how it is incorporated. It's different from the aforementioned generic idea of 'melody'.

Secondly, melody is not a requisite for music. A lot of music doesn't possess melody but is still enjoyable. Music that is almost entirely percussive is one example as is with a lot of Indian classical music.

Statement 3: It's too loud.

Yes, metal music is loud.

There isn't anything wrong with loud music. On the contrary, scientific studies show that you actually hear things differently at different volumes due to a number of factors. Most important among these is your brain's sensitivity to midrange frequencies - this is where you'll hear snare drums, human voices, etc. At lower volumes, you're not picking up on the richness of the full sound. 

Because your ears are less sensitive to low and high-frequency sounds, you have to turn up to a certain level before the sound "flattens out" and you can hear them as well as you hear the mid-range sounds.

So loud music is actually more attractive to human beings. And why would that be a bad thing?

This statement is supposedly made by people who physically cannot bear loud music. This includes people from any age group but does mostly consist of people over the age of 30.

The quality of a 'musical ear' plays a huge part here too. A general correlation is that heavy metal listeners have a more evolved perception of music as compared to casual listeners of mainstream music. They can pick out details which aren't obvious to casual listeners even at higher volumes. 

One final point is that  casual music listeners tend to use generic speakers/headphones while listening to music. Metal music possesses a dense orchestration which is not done justice to by the low quality easy-selling selection of listening devices available in the market today. 

Statement 4: It's angry and incites hatred.

Many people tackle the fact that music feels aggressive and heavy sounding. This argument is extensive to retort and is beautifully covered in the following link:


http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/07/26/why-aggressive-metal-can-be-healthy-music-therapy/

This link demonstrates how aggression in this controlled format has a positive effect on the listeners.

The assumption that metal music incites hatred is a claim that is pulled out without any actual observation of metalheads. Metalheads are amongst the calmest people there are. This is a fact best observed in person. Take the chance to socialize with metal listeners and observe it for yourself.

Statement 5: I can't understand the words/They are just screaming.

Let's try an experiment:

List your top 5 songs on a sheet of paper.

Then one by one,begin to recite the lyrics while simultaneously writing them down. Once done, compare your notes to an official source of the lyrics of the same songs. You might just be surprised at how wrong you are.

What you will come to realize is that most people aren't aware of the lyrical content in most of their 'favorite' pieces of music. They may know the chorus and a few verses but even the accuracy of that is largely debatable.

Further, if you cannot understand particular vocals then it has more to do with factors like accent and vocal range. One usually listens to guttural vocals with a lyric sheet.

Yes, 'screaming' is important to metal music but it is incredibly ignorant to say that the music is bad because of this. Vocals such as these are used to put across different emotions as compared to traditional singing. They are not trying to emulate traditional singing and they shouldn't be judged as such. Free musical expression is what it at play here.

Screaming, growls and guttural vocals is usually mixed in with melodic singing on most metal but in those subgenres where there is next to no melodic singing, the vocals are used as an instrument adding a dynamic to the other instruments that are the highlight of the song.

Statement 6: I don't like such types of music

Well, while this isn't exactly a generic criticism of metal . I wanted to talk about what part that opinion plays within this context as we have already seen tin some of the last few retorts.

Musical taste is amazingly subjective. It depends on your cultural background, the music you were exposed to growing up, your philosophies, the music you are exposed to on a daily basis, your musical ear and even heredity.

You don't like metal?

Okay.


Metalheads understand that the level of musical complexity is not for everyone and so isn't the inherent loudness.

What people fail to realize a midst all the claims about metalheads is that metalheads are some of the most open-minded individuals around. They do realize that people have different tastes and also understand that it took a long time for themselves to appreciate the art and it doesn't just happen to someone in a moment.

But as with everything, metal music should be open to criticism and questioning since it is not mainstream. This way more people will learn about the beauty of this amazing genre.


These are just some of the most popular arguments against metal. What do you think about metal and it's general perception? Let me know in the comments.


Signing Off,

Shawn Kenneth Fernandes.

Carnivores

I used to be a hardcore Linkin Park fan when I was younger. Although I've largely grown out of the sound and gone much heavier and complex since then, I still find myself listening to every new album that's released simply because I owe the band my introduction to heavy music. And they still amaze me to a certain extent.

At the time of writing this article, it's been hardly a week since the album "The Hunting Party" was released. Linkin Park had a lot to live up to with it and not only did they nail it but they have also restored a lot of hope to the fans who didn't like the direction they were taking with the previous three albums.

While I could go on and on about the music, there's something a little more interesting about the album I want to highlight and that's the title: "The Hunting Party". This title has not only a unique origin as explained by Mike Sinoda but it reminded me of a long lost thought I once had about the new generation. And with the help of his words, let me explain it to you.

Elders all over the world are concerned that the new generation of kids are becoming 'herbivores' of a sort.

The new generation of kids is found to be really passive in the way they approach life. Instead of going out there and getting a job, applying human effort and working towards improving their lives, they'd prefer to sit back and let things happen to them and wait for opportunities to come to them.

Of course, many will argue that kids these days work harder than almost any preceding generation. What, with all the stress of school, extracurriculars and social pressure? Of course! The problem lies not in the magnitude of the work they do but rather how they mentally approach it.

Instead of going out and actively improving their skills to help their situation, they'd rather sit back and concisely channel all their energy and study for a degree or lesser equivalents. Something to lean back on, insurance that guarantees that you get a job. It's tried and tested and known to work. It's the 'safe' way out.

For them there's no room for hypothetical futures.

But sadly there's also no sense of adventure and experimentation.

And therein lies the problem. In the race to plan everything, map out their life and following a pre-defined path, are they possibly, forgetting to live? In the race to get what they need, are they forgetting what they want?

And what exactly is the point of planning such a life if you're not going to be able to enjoy it as some point?

I shudder to think about what would happen to the world if everyone was to turn into an 'herbivore'.

I'm now going to quote Mike Shinoda (Of Linkin Park)and how he applied this concept to the music:

"Mainstream Rock music is getting increasingly 'herbivorous' these days. These young bands prefer to stick to the calm, jingly and catchy music which is know to sell well. Barely anyone experiments any more. I was looking for the type of music that moves me and strangely, I couldn't find anything out there. Instead, I found myself listening to bands from the 90's. There was something visceral, sincere and noticeably aggressive in that music despite sometimes, actually being quite light. 

So, I decided that our new work was going to be an attempt to get back that feeling. Make rock music dangerous again. We wanted to make mainstream music more 'carnivorous'. That's why we named the album "The Hunting Party" putting ourselves into the role of the proverbial 'huntsmen'.

What is your stance on this? Do you feel that the new generation is really becoming passive or do you think that experimentation, uncertainty and aggression is detrimental to progress?

Get inspired.
Signing Off,
Shawn Kenneth Fernandes

Artwork from "The Hunting Party"