{"id":22139,"date":"2022-01-19T05:30:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T10:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22139"},"modified":"2022-01-20T08:01:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T13:01:44","slug":"scholars-consider-metallica-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/19\/scholars-consider-metallica-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholars Consider Metallica, Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was part of a larger feature \u2013 a collaboration with Nick Veronin \u2013 previously published in SF Standard<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Metallica: Counter-cultural Critics, Vehicle for Catharsis<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As Metallica prepares to celebrate its 40th<\/sup> anniversary with December\u2019s \u201cSan Francisco Takeover\u201d \u2013 concerts plus a raft of related events \u2013 it\u2019s the perfect time to take a look back at the career of the celebrated metal band, and to explore the musical and larger cultural relevance of Metallica and its music.<\/p>\n

When Metallica burst on the scene with their debut release, 1983\u2019s Kill \u2018Em All<\/em>, the record made only a small ripple on the commercial landscape of popular music. But along with a select few other bands \u2013 Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer \u2013 Metallica had pioneered thrash metal. Taking inspiration from both punk and late \u201870s New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Metallica created something that was at once familiar and new.<\/p>\n

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\nThough the record would earn triple-platinum status (3 million copies sold in the U.S.) some 16 years after its release, the influence of Kill \u2018Em All<\/em> upon the metal scene far outpaced its initially modest chart action. An entire generation of metal bands would retrospectively cite Metallica\u2019s debut as an influence. The breakneck tempos, thunderous bottom end and shredding lead guitar work of Kill \u2018Em All<\/em> established a template that the band could have followed indefinitely.<\/p>\n

But by the time of Metallica\u2019s breakthrough \u2013 and major-label debut \u2013 Master of Puppets<\/em> (1986), the band had further refined and expanded its musical approach. An exemplar of thrash metal, Master of Puppets<\/em> also demonstrated a marked improvement in the band\u2019s songwriting (with lyrics by rhythm guitarist James Hetfield). And the jump from an indie label to market giant Elektra brought with it improved production values that would serve to sharpen the Metallica sound even further.<\/p>\n

The next great leap forward was 1991\u2019s Metallica<\/em> (widely known as The Black Album). Easing back on the beats-per-minute allowed the music (and listeners) to breathe, and allowed more space for melody and lyrics to catch the ears of an audience well beyond the speed- and extreme metal scenes. A massive critical and commercial success, Metallica<\/em> debuted at the number-one spot on album charts across the globe. And the record displayed remarkable staying power: its 635-week reign on the Billboard 200<\/em> chart is bested only by Pink Floyd, Bob Marley and fellow Bay Area band Journey.<\/p>\n

And while Metallica\u2019s music of those years was remarkable and greatly influential, it was the band\u2019s lyrics that helped set the band apart from its contemporaries. In 2002 \u2013 by which time the band had settled into its role as a kind of elder-statesmen-of-metal role \u2013 Metallica’s music found itself the subject of a scholarly work. Craig Swanson was teaching sociology at North Central Michigan College when he completed his Master\u2019s thesis, The Heavy Side of Metal: Metallica\u2019s Counter-Hegemonic Trilogy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Nearly two decades later, Swanson chuckles at the highfalutin title. \u201cIt\u2019s more easy to explain it by calling it \u2018counter-cultural\u2019 rather than \u2018counter-hegemonic,\u2019\u201d he says. But Swanson stands by the central idea of his thesis. \u201cI focused on three albums: Ride the Lightning<\/em>, Master of Puppets<\/em>, and …And Justice for All<\/em>,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe lyrical content is scathing against contemporary society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swanson emphasizes that while Hetfield and his band mates don\u2019t present themselves as sociologists, Metallica\u2019s music comments intelligently and incisively upon sociological themes. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a pretty thorough analysis,\u201d Swanson believes. He notes that Metallica addresses themes of violence on three distinct levels: personal (e.g. suicide, as in \u201cFade to Black\u201d from 1985\u2019s Ride the Lightning<\/em>), interpersonal, and institutional violence such as war (…And Justice for All<\/em>\u2019s \u201cOne,\u201d for example).<\/p>\n

Swanson notes that Metallica’s nuanced lyrics were a cut above what most other metal bands were churning out. \u201cI’m an anarchist, and I’m pretty cool with some kind of political violence,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cBut a lot of metal is just \u2018break shit.\u2019\u201d From Swanson\u2019s perspective, Metallica pinpoints violence not as \u201can inherent biological thing in humans,\u201d but rather as an institutional creation.<\/p>\n

And Swanson believes that Metallica\u2019s music serves an important function that extends well beyond entertainment. He cites the concept of predictive programming, \u201cthe idea that people can use music to shape society in ways that…aren\u2019t wonderful.\u201d He says that Metallica \u201cruns completely counter to that by critiquing it.\u201d And they go further with the musical component.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story was part of a larger feature \u2013 a collaboration with Nick Veronin \u2013 previously published in SF Standard. Metallica: Counter-cultural Critics, Vehicle for Catharsis As Metallica prepares to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,46],"tags":[4727],"class_list":["post-22139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-metal","tag-metallica","cat-41-id","cat-46-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22139"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22309,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions\/22309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}