Metal Reviews

1. Are you male or female?

☐ Female

2. What is your age group?

☐ 21-40

3. What is your education level?

☐ Graduate school technically inbetween. Finished undergraduate degree and soon going to grad school.

4. What are your political tendencies?

☐ Other

5. How do you define your religious beliefs or lack of them?

☐ Agnosticism

Some questions on your relationship to music:

6. How often do you physically purchase albums (not legal downloading)?

☐ Once a month


7. How many hours do you spend listening to music each day?

☐ 3-5 used to be more but now this is about it.

8. How often do you go to concerts?

☐ Twice a year probably the closest answer, typically every few months though I'm back home it tends to spike up since I go to a lot of small local shows.


9. Do you more often buy albums or download albums?

☐ Buy

10. Do you play an instrument?

☐ Yes three to be precise.

11. Have you ever been part of a music group that released some form of album?

☐ No not to my knowledge, though in high school I played some keyboards parts for the band of an acquaintance when they were trying to record an album. I don't think they ever managed to release it though.

Now some questions about heavy metal bands in particular.

12. Image is important for a heavy metal band.

☐ Somewhat agree

13. Technique is important for a heavy metal band.

☐ Somewhat agree

14. Lyrical content is important for a heavy metal band.

☐ Somewhat agree

15. Political views are important for liking a metal band.

☐ Neutral

Questions about how you live as a fan:

16. Apparel is important for a metal fan.

☐ Neutral

17. It is important to listen to genres other than heavy metal.

☐ Strongly disagree

18. It is important to listen to as many genres as possible.

☐ Strongly disagree

19. What is the most important element of a metal band?

☐ Songwriting

20. Which is the most important band of the following?

☐ Motörhead

Thanks to everyone who answered. I thought maybe some debate could be sparked by this as well, so if anyone has any questions feel free to speak out. The survey is still open, so if you haven't answered yet, you can do so. In the meantime I'll start drawing up preliminary results and post the percentages here, should be interesting.

The results so far. Due to mathematical necessity, not all percentages add up to 100.

First, some general information on your person.

1. Are you male or female?

☐ Male 90.5%
☐ Female 9.5%

2. What is your age group?

☐ 0-20 38.1%
☐ 21-40 59.5%
☐ 40+ 2.4%

3. What is your education level?

☐ High School/College prep 24%
☐ High School/Vocational training 14.4%
☐ College undergraduate 43.2%
☐ Graduate school 19.2%

4. What are your political tendencies?

☐ Left-leaning 50.4%
☐ Right-leaning 19.2%
☐ Centrist 9.6%
☐ Other 21.6%

5. How do you define your religious beliefs or lack of them?

☐ Judeo-Christian monotheism 9.6%
☐ Islam
☐ Hinduism
☐ Oriental philosophy 2.4%
☐ Satanism
☐ Agnosticism 12%
☐ Atheism 57.6%
☐ Other 19.2%



Some questions on your relationship to music:

6. How often do you physically purchase albums (not legal downloading)?

☐ Less than once a month 45.6%
☐ Once a month 19.2%
☐ 2-5 times a month 26.4%
☐ 6-10 times a month 4.8%
☐ More than 10 times a month 4.8%

7. How many hours do you spend listening to music each day?

☐ Less than 1 2.4%
☐ 1-2 24%
☐ 3-5 48%
☐ 6-8 21.6%
☐ More than 8 4.8%

8. How often do you go to concerts?

☐ More than once a week
☐ Once a week 7.2%
☐ Twice a month 12%
☐ Once a month 24%
☐ Twice a year 31.2%
☐ Once a year 12%
☐ Less than once a year 14.4%

9. Do you more often buy albums or download albums?

☐ Buy 31.2%
☐ Download 69.6%

10. Do you play an instrument?

☐ Yes 74.4%
☐ No 26.4%

11. Have you ever been part of a music group that released some form of album?

☐ Yes 36%
☐ No 64.8%

Now some questions about heavy metal bands in particular.

12. Image is important for a heavy metal band.

☐ Strongly agree 12%
☐ Somewhat agree 45.6%
☐ Neutral 21.6%
☐ Somewhat disagree 16.8%
☐ Strongly disagree 4.8%

13. Technique is important for a heavy metal band.

☐ Strongly agree 50.4%
☐ Somewhat agree 24%
☐ Neutral 9.6%
☐ Somewhat disagree 14.4%
☐ Strongly disagree 2.4%

14. Lyrical content is important for a heavy metal band.

☐ Strongly agree 21.6%
☐ Somewhat agree 48%
☐ Neutral 9.6%
☐ Somewhat disagree 14.4%
☐ Strongly disagree 7.2%

15. Political views are important for liking a metal band.

☐ Strongly agree 2.4%
☐ Somewhat agree 4.8%
☐ Neutral 24%
☐ Somewhat disagree 24%
☐ Strongly disagree 45.6%

Questions about how you live as a fan:

16. Apparel is important for a metal fan.

☐ Strongly agree 2.4%
☐ Somewhat agree 14.4%
☐ Neutral 26.4%
☐ Somewhat disagree 21.6%
☐ Strongly disagree 36%

17. It is important to listen to genres other than heavy metal.

☐ Strongly agree 55.2%
☐ Somewhat agree 21.6%
☐ Neutral 12%
☐ Somewhat disagree 4.8%
☐ Strongly disagree 7.2%

18. It is important to listen to as many genres as possible.

☐ Strongly agree 26.4%
☐ Somewhat agree 12%
☐ Neutral 26.4%
☐ Somewhat disagree 26.4%
☐ Strongly disagree 7.2%

19. What is the most important element of a metal band?

☐ Technique and virtuosity 14.4%
☐ Songwriting 72%
☐ Style 12%
☐ “Trueness” or “Kvltness” 2.4%
☐ Commitment to the scene

20. Which is the most important band of the following?

☐ Iron Maiden 38.4%
☐ Metallica 28.16%
☐ Slayer 2.56%
☐ Megadeth
☐ Motörhead 25.6%
☐ Ozzy Osbourne 5.12%
☐ Mötley Crüe

That one's quite interesting. I was gonna say I thought metal was generally right-leaning but then I guess if you did a survey like that for punk fans you'd get 90% left-leaning or something. So, I suppose relatively speaking it still is.

Hahaha.

1. Are you male or female?

Male

2. What is your age group?

21-40

3. What is your education level?

College undergraduate

4. What are your political tendencies?

Centrist

5. How do you define your religious beliefs or lack of them?

Islam

6. How often do you physically purchase albums (not legal downloading)?

2-5 times a month

7. How many hours do you spend listening to music each day?

3-5

8. How often do you go to concerts?

Less than once a year

9. Do you more often buy albums or download albums?

Buy

10. Do you play an instrument?

No

11. Have you ever been part of a music group that released some form of album?

No

Now some questions about heavy metal bands in particular.

12. Image is important for a heavy metal band.

Somewhat disagree

13. Technique is important for a heavy metal band.

Somewhat agree

14. Lyrical content is important for a heavy metal band.

Neutral

15. Political views are important for liking a metal band.

Somewhat disagree

16. Apparel is important for a metal fan.

Strongly disagree

17. It is important to listen to genres other than heavy metal.

Strongly agree

18. It is important to listen to as many genres as possible.

Somewhat agree

19. What is the most important element of a metal band?

Songwriting

20. Which is the most important band of the following?

Ozzy Osbourne (assuming this also includes Black Sabbath)

I think it's very interesting you should say that. I would never think metalheads would lean right. I mean, metal and conservatism certainly do not mix.

I understand there's obviously more than just conservatism to being right-wing, but from my outsider's point-of-view I tend to associate right-wing with conservatism very strongly.

So, I guess my question is, what makes you say that?

In Switzerland I definitely see a lot of discrimination and nationalism going hand in hand with metal. In fact, I have right here on my desk a study from the American Sociological Review about "Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes", which suggests a strong correlation between listening to discriminatory music and being a discriminating person. Of course, it's all based on the level of education (according to this particular survey, the genres with the least educated fanbase are Country, Gospel, Rap and Heavy Metal), so any proof of higher education among metal fans (as my survey found) should disincline us to assume a correlation between right-wing policies and liking metal.

Depends on the scene, I guess. True, a lot of thrash bands back in the day were moderate lefties. And I would call Black Sabbath moderate lefties as well. Then of course there are far-left metal luminaries like Carcass and Napalm Death.

But, thrash nowadays is completely apolitical (at least, as far as I can tell it is), and bands like ND were always a minority anyway. Perhaps it's just my bias towards black metal, but nowadays when I think of political/social attitudes in metal the first thing that comes to mind are all those BM bands that are all about the misanthropy and elitism. That attitude is embodied most extremely in the NSBM scene, but it's part of the BM ethos as a whole, I would say.

Then, there are all those true/power bands. I have always seen glorification of war, machismo, national pride etc. as very right-wing attributes, and they are all a huge part of metal.

But how much is just symbolic hype and how much is actually real beliefs? I don't really think Manowar honestly want to go around slaying people. The like the image and the symbolism of a strong band of brothers.

Yeah, but they seem pretty Republican. Hasn't the guy even released hunting DVDs?

To be honest, I'm not sure it matters whether in the case of someone like Manowar whether they actually believe it or not. The fact is, that imagery characterises metal; who is drawn to it, the way metal listeners perceive the world, etc. To me, the ideas of emphasising individual power, and "brotherhood" (in the way Manowar use it, NOT in the "all men are brothers sense") are right wing ideas, whether they are intended as a political statement or not.

Not just in thrash, I'd say. Most metalheads I know tend to be apolitical, and I'd say this tends to be the general modern phenomenon these days. In the west we live in such circumstances that there are no circumstances that absolutely force people to form an opinion regarding politics. Hence liberalism tends to be the default persuasion among most, including many metalheads I'd say.

As for the NSBM issue, I'd say only a small percentage of those bands who take a right wing stance are even remotely "active" about their political persuasion, especially when compared to music in politics in other genres. You don't get the same level of activism in NSBM (with a few exceptions, and it seems those most active are the eastern European bands from Russia, Ukraine, Greece and so on) that you get in RAC and co. In many ways, whether left wing, right wing or indifferent, where politics and ideology is concerned many bm bands ride on the coat tails of the early 90's bands and their reputation.

There are of course a few "leftists" as well as the poll here suggests, but I think its only among certain pockets of the community, and I think many of those leftists are more so in name than in lifestyle and contribution to any ideology or cause. That said, metal as a whole is often about individual strength and "survival of the fittest" mentality which can clash with the more collectivist attitude of the left wing.

Mostly agreed. I guess this is probably a pretty liberal site by general metal standards in terms of attitudes. I think so, anyway; we certainly get less lengthy flamewars about race than there are at, say, metal-archives.

When I said what I did above I was assuming we were talking about attitudes rather than actual activism. When it comes down to actual commitment and activity, I'd say metal has pretty much always been apolitical, and is very cynical about political action of any kind (sort of a "South Park" attitude). But, in terms of attitudes, I think metal emphasises a lot of imagery and concepts that I'd consider "right wing", without explicitly commiting to those view points (So; machismo, pride, strength and honour, all of those very Manowar-y things).

I also think a lt of it has to do with the way issues are presented in the eneral media. The idea of "political correctness" (which for me is one of the biggest strawmen ever created, but that's another thread entirely) is always associated in the media with "the left" and "liberals", and the idea of (allegedly) preventing free speech in case it offends people is guaranteed to upset any metalhead. So, I think a lot of right-wing feeling in metal comes from knee-jerk reactions against liberalism, associated with the left.

Indeed, I agree. Its likely because metal has, for the most part, existed slightly out of mainstream society. Even in the 70's and 80's when political activism in the west was more of a regular occurence, the metal scene generally remained detached. I think its because of the free speech issue. There really is, when you think about it, no real room for the individual who wishes to express himself freely within any current popular political party. The right wing tends to infringe upon freedom of speech as much as the left wing, and as much as liberalism tends to for reasons of PCness as you mentioned.



Most certainly, though I think in some ways we can't truly associate such values with a political persuasion. For example, many metalheads adopt the idea of rebellion and the constant questioning of authority (often considered "left wing") along side valuing strength, honour, pride and so on. I think its more so that the sub-culture has drawn upon various influences in order to really embody that idealised heroic figure who symbolises absolute freedom and self-reliance detached from the tamer tendancies of modern society. Strength and pride are very much necessary for the making of the truly free individual.



Agreed. And I think that's where we really need to grow beyond such a black and white political dynamic. The one can oppose facets from all popular political spectrums without necessarily falling into any particular one; something I'd say many metalheads have not yet realise, and so slot themselves into the popularly used terms...which in and of its self can be said to stand against what metal idealise.

Yes, I think this is exactly right and a very good way of putting it. And again, this is where the way in which political discourse is presented more generally comes in. IMO (as a left-winger myself) it's a symptom of the wider failure of the left in recent decades to emphasise the ways in which left wing philosophy can embrace the idea of the "truly free individual"- IMO more so that right wing philosophy ever can.

In the West we've become extremely accustomed to a very limiting and simplified political narrative. It goes "the left is well meaning and believes in equality at the expense of the individual, whilst the right believes in individual freedom over equality". It's really a distortion (at the very least, a gross simplification) of what both left and right philosophies are actually about. But, if we take the attitude that you describe above, there's really no contest as to which one of those poles to head for if you listen to black metal.



In some ways, I see it differently here. I think that the traditional spectrum of "left versus right" does still have a lot of life in it, and can be used to encapsulate a huge range of different ideas. If anything, it bugs me more when people (again, this is kind of the South park effect) effectively say "ah, left and right, I don't like any of them- it's douche and turd", whilst actually the ideas they are talking about can be accomodated by that spectrum. So, I'd go so far as to say (based on posting/lurking in metal forums, so hardly scientific) that there are a whole load of people in metal that dismiss the whole idea of left versus right, whilst adopting positions I would consider to be pretty right wing. That's semantics though, so not too important.

1. Male
2. 0-20
3. College undergraduate
4. Left-leaning
5. Atheism


Some questions on your relationship to music:

6. Less than once a month
7. 3-5
8. Once a month
9. Download
10. No
11. No

Now some questions about heavy metal bands in particular.

12. Somewhat disagree
13. Somewhat agree
14. Somewhat disagree
15. Somewhat disagree

Questions about how you live as a fan:

16. Somewhat agree
17. Somewhat agree
18. Somewhat disagree
19. Songwriting
20. Metallica

I'm a big fan of Political Compass's approach to the political spectrum that adds an authoritarian and anarchism axis to the traditional left/right axis; seeing as there are forms of authoritarianism that encompass both left and right wing and forms of anarchism for all those particular economic ideals as well, it allows for a more accurate sense of where one stands.

Rio, I completely agree. For the most part, everyone in power in the Western world is interested in preserving the traditional state-to-individual relationship, which results in contrasted approaches: while western progressivism tends to promote collectivized group action in terms of economic structure (social democracy) and freedoms in the social world (gay marriage, secular rule), Western conservatism promotes the exact opposite of collectivized social structure (opposition to gay marriage, promotion of the 'nuclear family,' an undercurrent of hostility to women and minorities) while promoting individual freedom in the economic sense.

The problem I have with the political compass is that it assumes you can have this "mix and match" between social and economic attitudes, without needing to acknowledge the deep connections between social conservatism and economic "individualism", and conversely between social liberalism and economic "collectivism". Both the former have their roots in uptight English Protestants in the 17th century, and for the earliest radicals economic and social leftism where two sides of the exact same coin. They were both an integral part of rejecting the ruling orders.

The same is true today, unless we accept the logic that the capitalist economy equals "individual freedom". If you see, as I and I assume DM does too, the capitalist wage relationship as an unfree one, in comparison to, say, the socialist idea of workers running their own workplaces, then social and economic freedom are part of the same thing. Both are against hierarchy, and that is ultimately what all left wing ideas SHOULD be about.

So, for me the idea of seperating out social attitudes as being purpendicular to economic ones is wrong.

Guys, take it to the politics thread please? Could we stick to metal culture discussions here?