{"id":22142,"date":"2022-01-20T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T10:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22142"},"modified":"2021-12-17T11:18:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T16:18:24","slug":"scholars-consider-metallica-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/20\/scholars-consider-metallica-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholars Consider Metallica, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cMetallica creates emotionally intense music, both sonically and lyrically,\u201d Swanson points out. \u201cIt’s so intense that it creates a \u2018virtual violence,\u2019 one that creates a release valve for despair and violent feelings.\u201d By his estimation, some of society\u2019s pent-up rage can be lessened by experiencing the music of the Bay Area metal band. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to channel those emotions into something that\u2019s productive, instead of destructive. So playing those albums is a sheer catharsis between the band and us,\u201d Swanson says. \u201cAnd it’s very intimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig Swanson observes that Metallica\u2019s more sophisticated approach influenced the scene. \u201cThey really did open up a niche for other bands to fill,\u201d he says. Many bands that followed in Metallica\u2019s wake would place newfound emphasis upon \u201chighly critical [music and lyrics] that are actually saying something instead of just making noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giacomo Fiore agrees with many of the points Swanson made in his thesis. A writer and musicologist, Fiore is a lecturer at the University of California Santa Cruz and an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco. While his own research focuses on experimental music, he teaches about \u2013 and listens extensively to \u2013 popular music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI totally buy the \u2018catharsis\u2019 thing,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you\u2019re frustrated or down, maybe blasting some \u201887 Hetfield will speak to you.\u201d The connection between music and catharsis is a deep and fundamental one. \u201cThere’s a primal scream aspect in terms of letting that sound out,\u201d Fiore says. \u201cWe can seek beauty, but sometimes we may want to vent or mourn. And those are all avenues of expression that music allows us to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially in its early prime years (from the start roughly through to The Black Album), Fiore says that Metallica was \u201cgreat at combining different tendencies in music.\u201d He mentions the band\u2019s skill at drawing from European metal and progressive rock, wedding those influences to the primal energy of punk. Before Metallica, he says, \u201cIf you asked your average teenage metal head, they\u2019d say, \u2018If it\u2019s metal, it can\u2019t be punk!\u2019\u201d Hetfield and his band mates were key in shifting that paradigm.<\/p>\n

Fiore notes Metallica\u2019s ability to hit the sweet spot between aggression and sophistication. The band\u2019s 1999 live album S&M<\/em> took that to the next level, combining Metallica\u2019s roar with the finesse of The San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Kamen. A return to that successful concept, S&M2<\/em>, brought the band and the SFS together again in 2019, this time under the baton of Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas. (An album of that performance was released in 2020.)<\/p>\n

As the band celebrates its 40th<\/sup> anniversary, current-day Metallica has dialed back (moved beyond?) some of the speed metal characteristics that defined its early work. (It\u2019s worth noting that James Hetfield was all of 20 years old when the band\u2019s debut was recorded; today he\u2019s 58.) It has been more than five years since the band released a studio album of new material (2016\u2019s Hardwired\u2026 to Self Destruct<\/em>); a new album is said to be in the works. Meanwhile, an eclectic all-star album released in September, The Metallica Blacklist<\/em> serves to remind listeners of the power and enduring influence of the band\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Commemorating The Black Album\u2019s 30th anniversary, more than 50 artists recorded their own versions of songs from the 1991 album. The participation of artists well outside the sphere of metal \u2013 and even rock in general \u2013 underscores the degree to which Metallica has made a lasting impression. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Weezer, Diet Cig, Cage the Elephant, Moses Sumney, Phoebe Bridgers, Miley Cyrus, J. Balvin, Darius Rucker and Kamasi Washington are among the artists paying tribute to the band on the 4CD Blacklist<\/em>. And Washington is among the artists taking part in the \u201cSan Francisco Takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even today, Craig Swanson still loves those early records, appreciating them from both an academic and gut-level perspective. \u201cThe Frankfurt school [of social theory and philosophy] was very critical of cultural institutions, but they would only study \u2018high art,\u2019\u201d Swanson explains. \u201cMetallica kicked open the door, and essentially said, \u2018Look: this \u2018low\u2019 stuff actually matters<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But when it gets right down to it, there\u2019s the music. \u201cIf you really get into the emotional content of it,\u201d he says, \u201cyou’re crying, you’re screaming. It\u2019s just insane.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… \u201cMetallica creates emotionally intense music, both sonically and lyrically,\u201d Swanson points out. \u201cIt’s so intense that it creates a \u2018virtual violence,\u2019 one that creates a release […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22141,"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-22142","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\/22142","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=22142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22144,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22142\/revisions\/22144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}