(quote reformatted to something more conventional to save space)
HeavyMetal wrote:The concept of the casual listeners white noise makes since, but as for simple lyrics, chorus and lyrics focus, and hooks you have KISS and Def Leppard. Def Leppard is very lyric driven with tons of hooks. Or maybe even No More Mr. Nice Guy by Alice Cooper. Even non-KISS fans no the lyrics to a KISS song, they're so simple to know.
I guess many Metal singers have leather lungs, but Bruce of Iron Maiden or Dave from Van Halen aren't unpleasant. For that matter Def Leppard is also pleasant. Or the band HIM for something from today.
Even if they found one band trite its not like there aren't about a billion other metal bands of all kinds; granted I think half of them have the same members.
Otohiko did I not say I've listened to a ton of other music?
But that I've never found anything in another genre not done by metal. Its not a matter of being open minded or not. I would say I gave most other music a greater chance than most give metal. I actually used to listen to a whole lot of other music. Then I just kept finding out about metal bands that did the same things, but metal.
Point taken on looking to individual bands (particularly since metal is mostly unique from band to band), but if you like certain things for the most part you will find them more in one genre than another. So at some point you can look at your CDs and say I have more of this type of music or my favorite band is this type. I should probably point out that I do not break music up into numerous or strictly defined genre. To me there is but light and dark metal; call it speed, thrash, prog, etc it all goes back to the archetypes of Sabbath or Zepplin; beautiful or evil. The same thing goes for other genre as well.
I found my like of metal long before I knew the reasons for it, but reasons there be. I just want to understand the the thoughts of others. Anytime someone says hey listen to this I can pretty well always say try this metal band if you like that. It’s a question of what makes you like your music?(I ask partially because so many hate metal. Though most listen to the media too much. Sanders is the real chicken killer.)
I spelled out the most general of things that draw me to metal, but so far we have a short list of reasons for other music:
White Noise/Background Listeners
(I do that with Metal, but I can see that many could not.)
WARNING: this response is probably going to turn out tl;dr, so if this is the case just skip down to the conclusion header.
This is what I suspected from the start, but couldn't really articulate over the like day and a half that I've been looking at this topic and trying to get in a succinct and correct response. The real question being asked here is not why people listen to other kinds of music, but why people listen to these other kinds of music over metal, when they're aware that metal exists and can provide a lot of what they're looking for. What follows as an answer is personal opinion, but may resonate with metalheads who have already answered, and with those who aren't into metal who want to know how this question even comes up.
If you took a total set of the general population and did a linear combine of their tastes with the total set of all existing metal songs, you would find that nearly everyone would like at least one metal song, but this would not be the same song, nor from the same band; they might like multiple songs, but most will come up with only a handful in comparison to metalheads. We'll refer to this set as the 'first 90%' of the population. If you play them the right song or songs, they'll like it, but they most likely will never buy a CD of go to a show. If they don't hear the right music, they'll be able to go happily through their lives without taking notice of metal at all. These people will never be 'into' heavy metal in the way that you and I are, and there is nothing that can be done to change this. Short of a total brain transplant, they will never become metalheads, and if metal were to change sufficiently to appeal to them, it would lose its own essential character. These people listen to other music because it is the music that exists for them; heavy metal is either not on their radar or enjoys no special status over everything else.
That was the first 90%; now for the next 10%. These are the people who have 'what it takes', personally and mentally, to become metalheads. This 10% is sampled from all people, everywhere; it's one of my strongest convictions on this subject that metalheads are not created but
awakened: that liking heavy metal is not a conscious decision but an automatic or subconscious response. If these people never hear any metal, they will go on without it, but may or may not miss its presence. Once they discover themselves as metalheads, they will buy CDs, go to shows, and otherwise participate in the scene, though the level of such may wax and wane based on other things going on in their life. These people listen to metal because it is in them to do so, and it's at this level where "metal with outside element X' starts to be preferred over "outside music focusing on element X" simply because it's metal.
Among this 10%, though, we find the one-percenters, for whom metal subsumes everything else. This term is borrowed from biker vocabulary; the original contention is that only 1% of the population has the capacity to live the rock-n-roll, outlaw-biker lifestyle, but as long as 1% of the population lives this way, the spirit of rock'n'roll will never die. It is at this level that it's possible to ask the question posed by the OP in complete seriousness, because the one-percenters are so deep into metal and so aware of what it has to offer that, no matter what musical mood strikes them, they very seldom need to go outside of the loose and extremely broad boundaries of metal to get it. These are the people who spend every weekend at some show or another and nearly all of their disposable income on CDs and other merch. They make the scene go, and in nearly every place on earth, they
will find their way into metal, because whatever intangibles it delivers are essential to them. If Asian Rock Rising wasn't offline again, I'd link there as a great tribute to the one percent in putting down roots for metal in countries that we in the west might not expect it to.
Conclusion:
1) People listen to music besides metal because very few people have the ability to make metal the mainstay of their musical diet.
2) This is because metal requires something as yet not accurately described from its listeners in order for them to make the necessary commitment to be metal fans.
3) Even asking this question indicates a disconnective state where it may not be possible to understand the answer.
hth,
--K