Deena Weinstein

It's not new: ever since its emergence heavy metal music (or rather metal music at large, for this is what is discussed here) has been the object of many controversies, denounced, and victim of prejudices that would have been funny were it not for some legislators trying to censor it. Deena Weinstein, a professor of sociology, tackles here the music and its followers head on, to try and give outsiders a serious and accurate picture of such a misunderstood musical genre. Here's not an history show more of metal music, then, but a 'social description'.

Now, first published in 1991, such description is obviously not innocent: glam metal exploded on MTV the whole previous decade, thrash is slowly emerging, and, above all, we are then barely 5-6 years after the PMRC hearing and its political agenda tried to discredit and legislate the whole scene. It's indeed the whole point of this book, what the author asks right from the start: 'What are we making a public issue about?'

As a sociologist, she adopts a purely academical approach by focusing on a triad: artists, audience, medias. It may sound basic and dry, but as a metalhead myself I couldn't but be impressed by how accurate her whole analysis was. She is indeed far from being a clueless armchair intellectual, and it shows in how engaging she is all along. She displays a serious knowledge of a scene which is quite difficult to grasp for the noninitiate; and the way she sails through it all, steering the reader smoothly by being enlightening while debunking all the silly labellings (death-obsessed, Satanists, sexual perverts, blah blah blah...) is a feat to be reckoned.

She acknowledges the complexity and skilful musicianship required to play such a style. She, above all, nails fascinating points when it comes to describe its main features. For instance, putting metal's emergence back into the socio-economical context of the 70s, both in the UK and in the US, she gives interesting insights explaining not only its main demographics (young white males, blue collars) but the reasons behind its core characteristics. Metal indeed was then more than a response to society at large, it was also both a reaction and an offshoot of the prevalent counterculture of the time that is, the hippie movement: to hell with love and flower power! Hail to a new music that would be both Dionysian and Chaotic.

Particularly interesting (to me in any case) was her discussion of the mass media in regards to its relationship with the music. As I said, this was first published in 1991, and every metalhead will know such period to be crucial: not only commercial glam was decaying, but underground thrash was emerging. MTV, here, makes for a case in point, that I found highly relevant not only to metal but music at large. Deena Weinstein is here blunt, yet so right:

'Mass commercial media have no respect whatever for the content or form of a cultural object or for the critical standards of a specialised audience. For the mass commercial media, music is a product and a commodity, and the audience is merely an aggregate of listeners to be sold or delivered to sponsors. The mass media will produce and play what their managers believe will get them the largest or most profitable audience.'

And indeed, so was it with glam. Commercial mass media had surely put it on the map (glam made MTV) but, being driven by profits, such success will cost the music a massive price: these media would, in turn, format the music so as to suit their own interests. The consequences would be two fold: by constantly broadcasting the same type of repetitive, uncreative, formatted music over and over they overkilled the genre they were displaying while, on the other hand, many metalheads would find such dumping down and commercialisation such a betrayal of metal core roots that they would go underground, where thrash will emerge. Three decades later, glam, who had enjoyed the support of commercial mass media, is deader than dead; whereas thrash has richly evolved and fragmented into a multitude of extreme subgenres, still making the wealth of the metal scene.
Such analysis is therefore fascinating because, although we are talking here about metal, it applies in fact to any genre the mass medias put their claws on: turn on any musical channel, watch the cr.p being on display, and if you have some wit about you then get the point... As for me, an extreme metal fan, I like to ponder on a question she dares to push when it comes to the birth of thrash:

'Without the exaggerating and reinforcing effects of the medias, would the split [with glam] have been so pronounced?'

Absolutely engrossing!

So... To conclude, what of the PMRC and its mediatic circus, then? She doesn't spare her view: 'lyrics were interpreted in a maximally incompetent way, logical fallacies were committed, and the distortions were tirelessly repeated and taken up by the media without reflections.' You bet! Now, the PMRC may have relatively failed in its endeavours, but aren't the baloneys it entertained about metal music still prevalent? Well, like or not, metal remains 'the beast that refuses to die', and if you are curious as to know why, let alone understand what heavy metal really is all about, then this book is the perfect read. Enjoy! show less