Did you ever get that sneaking suspicion that some metalheads are “faking it”?
Sure, they have bought all the right things. They have the posters on the walls, the tshirts, the CDs and rare vinyl and maybe even some classic demos.
But they’re faking it and you can tell because they don’t understand metal as being different from rock music, indie, emo, punk — you name it!
They’ve picked metal as an identity, because they need some cause in order to claim their lives have meaning, but they don’t seem to understand it at all.
It’s like they’re spectators at an art gallery who say “I like the red one; red’s my favorite color!” or tourists visiting a battlefield when they can’t remember who the two sides were. It’s like they’re not actually engaged with life itself much at all, but want to dress up like metalheads so we think they are.
Now, if you get enough of these people together in a room, they’ll start to vouch for each other. “John’s okay, he’s ueber-kult, especially if you ignore that collection of emo and indie punk moldering in his closet!” And across the room, John’s saying the same thing about Shawn.
But if you step outside the happy little circle of social bullshit, suddenly the truth is revealed like shapes under snow in that instant where you realize your location and recognize its landmarks: these people are inverted metalheads. They don’t like metal, they like the idea of looking like metalheads. They don’t like the ideas behind metal, but they like that it seems “different.”
Who do you know who’s faking it? It might be time to call them out on it just to watch them squirm.
The point of this post is obvious, yet it definitely needed to be put into words. Thanks for that.
poor gary :( He really does love Carcass ya know!
ahahahaha Gary always pops up on these kinda blogs.
bless him.
LMFAO. GARY YOU FUCKING EMO TWAT XD
hahahahahaha gary gets so much shite like this xD
It’s only a matter of time until I pop up somwhere like this Gary, you alpha male.
We’re watching you Gary
Judging this guy for his hair? How very Heat magazine of you.
No one said anything about his hair, except you. lol.
If you are that concerned about people being ‘fake’ you’re either 13 or don’t have a lot of friends (or a lot of a life)
Boo-fucking-hoo.
Since when the fuck was metal about how you dress? I mean sure, there’s got to be some ‘don’t-fucking-go-there’s, but this, I feel, isn’t it. Wearing plain blue jeans and a bandshirt of one of your favourite bands is hardly ’emo’. Just because he has short hair?
Oh dear.
Grow up, stop acting as though you’re some form of authority in metal… you really, really aren’t.
“If you are that concerned about people being
Well you enjoy being elitist and narrow minded with your other tr00 extreme metallers keeping your little community alive and shrinking, while I go have a beer with the real metalheads, cheers!
It never ceases to amaze me how "tolerance" is spouted by the supposedly tolerant to the decidedly intolerant.
“Then who is? If your answer is,
And, still, people think that this is argument is superficial. They fundamentally refuse to understand that what is being spoken of is not outward appearance. Possibly, they refuse to understand this, because they themselves are only concerned with outward appearance, though from an inclusive, rather than exclusive, perspective.
It’s funny though, because he’s not exactly being judged for his personality is he? They’ve never met him, and therefore know jack-shit about him, and how he is. I know him in person, he’s a good friend of mine, and it’s safe to say he’s far from ‘faking’ anything. And how are these assumptions NOT at least partially based on the superficial? They’re judging him for how he looks, because how he looks obviously means he isn’t a ‘tr00’ fan. They can’t judge him on anything else, considering it is likely unknown (to you) as to who the fuck he is and what he’s like, as already stated. This article implies that my friend doesn’t understand metal and what it’s about? You and your baseless statements have it all wrong…
Seriously, some people. /rolls eyes
Actually, I’ve met him. He’s a total superficial hipster. Muumipeikko, if you’re who I think you are, LOL – not everyone gets to fuck fat black chicks. Lucky guy!
Muumipeikko has failed to understand my previous statements.
What is understood in this article is that the interior effects the exterior – at least to some extent. The detractors appear to be focusing on one assumption of their own, which is that the image used is one of a person who may or may not be “true”, but is assumed by the writer to be “untrue” because of the way he dresses. This assumption on the part of the detractors is incorrect in two ways. 1: fundamentally; 2: they are failing to understand that stereotypes are stereotypes because the matter of a given “stereotype” often correlates with reality. To put it in a more easily digestible manner: the concept that stereotypes are always wrong is a stereotype. This person, whose image is shown in this article, may or may not be “true”. However, it is often the case, that those who choose to dress/wear their hair/pose/act like him, are not “true”.
Even so, by discussing this, I am moving away from the actual topic of the article, the actual meaning behind it. The image is a distraction for those who are so superficially-minded as to be caught up by things like image. If you look at the picture, and then read the article, you may notice something interesting – the article speaks of those who “appear to be metalheads”, yet, if I, or anyone I know, were to see somebody who looked like the person in the image, I would not imagine, for one second, that they could be a “metalhead”.
I suggest that people re-read the article, without even thinking about the image.
The only people who should be wearing wristbands are the ones behind a kit or a guitar…