Friday, December 5, 2008

Horror/Metal Connection?

I noticed over on the Cadaver Lab forums that there seems to be a strange separation of the sexes. All there are, of course, horror fans, but for some reason all of the male fans also love love love metal music, whereas the female fans seem to feel pretty "Meh" about this musical styling.

Why is that, do you think? If you're a metal and a horror fan, explain yourself! Now! I must make the connection between cock and Insane Clown Posse! Other than the obvious homoerotic over tones, that is. ;)

Now, sexually I have an innie. I'm not anti metal (or peen. Rowrl!)but I'm not wet for it or anything. I used to rock out to Poison, but junior high school was a long, long time ago, and I think we can all agree that Poison isn't really what you'd call "hard core".

I listen to most kinds of music, but I tend to gravitate towards gothabilly, with a side of punk and a liberal garnish of Tom Waits. I also listen to musicals. Because I have a vagina and that's part of our girl code. If you don't listen and like it your union dues get upped so the rest of us can buy the Phantom of the Opera in Mexican Spanish. Then we have a pillow fight in our panties and practice kissing.

Is it the angry thing? Does it get you hard? (It's okay, I freely admit that a lot of music turns me on. Be honest. We're all friends here. I won't put it on my billboard, I promise. Truuust me.) Stress relief? Or is this some mysterious boy thing like touching yourself in public?

I hate not knowing! INFORM ME!

9 comments:

Cins said...

I don't know how you do it Stac. I have no clue how you can write something so dirty and yet make it sound so very pedestrian as if you were just asking me to pass you the salt.
Perversity flows so naturally out of you, like water.
I guess I better go put the nighty on and we better start practicing...My hubby will set up the video cam.

BTW, Rob Zombie is awesome horror film music.

Stac said...

Well see, I don't think I have that little filter that makes you not talk about stuff like this. I'm curious, dammit! I wanna KNOW!

We will be very popular on YouTube. ;)

Ooo! Good point, I like Rob Zombie.

Edit: mistyped, fixed it.

Anonymous said...

Oh yays! I get to be one of the first guys to make an explanation! Heh!

If we're talking strictly about the Horror/Metal connection, I think the reason I enjoy the genre from that perspective is many sub-genres in Metal fit the Horror genre to a "T". Death Metal, for example, often uses graphically violent lyrics set against equally filthy sounding instrumentals, which would sound right at home in any overtly gory Horror flick. And Black Metal, with its emphasis on moody sounds and a sometimes ambient nature, can come off as just plain eerie. And if there's anything that also says Horror, it's the feeling of being creeped out. (There've been nights where I was out driving, listening to some Darkthrone, and just feeling a bit more spooked out.)

As for WHY I, a card carrying member of the "peen" club, enjoys Metal? You did mention it in your article; it IS a release. Normally I'm just your typical mild-mannered witty weirdo, but there are just days where the stress builds up to a point where I feel like I need to hear SOMETHING that sounds harsh and abrasive to get some of that tension out. I also enjoy Metal from a technical standpoint; granted the genre is not without crap bands, but if you can play instruments THAT fast, and still maintain a good rythmic beat, then you're doing something right.

(But for the record, my life is not centered around Metal. I have a TON of it in my collection, but I also have other things to balance it out. And yes... That includes plenty of Tom Waits, as well. Heh!)

Unknown said...

Im pretty sure I started this debate over on the Cadaver Lab forums, so one of you already knows my opinion.I love metal music. Mainly because, being a dude, I get angry at stuff. SO instead of punching stuff, I listen to some heavy stuff...and then possible punch something, but not as hard. Also, its a lot easier to lose yourself listening to heavy stuff, than popular music.

Stac said...

MM: Thanks for the explanation! I wasn't kidding; I really was curious, and I seriously hate not knowing. I once unwrapped my Christmas presents and then re-wrapped them because I couldn't stand not knowing. Notice that I only did this ONCE.

I would really be curious to see what the break down would be between a huge cross section of male and female horror fans, and male and female non-horror fans.

Big inters: I think you're right! It was an interesting point that you raised; I wonder if any of the women on the CL boards would classify themselves as metal fans?

M Brueschke said...

I like metal. Black/Death and Goth metal. Alot of it is hopeless/depressing/everyone is screwed type of lyrics. Or there'll be a song on an album about hope and the rest is badness.

So yea, what Metal Mikey said.

Stac said...

Thanks, M, for letting me know! :D

BonesawLtd said...

I see that you mentioned Tom Waits... Who is this guy? It seems like he's been around forever... You're the second person today that have mentioned today.

However, as you know... I'm metal. I think your question has been answered, but I think that both Horror movies and Metal excite the dark side of a person. In real life I am as boring as they come...but when I watch horror or listen to metal, it lets the dark out a little (sounds dramatic but it really isn't)

Also, having been in a plethora of bands in my lifetime, Metal can be the most technically difficult to play. It is a real challenge. Not all bands are technically adept, but many are.

Anonymous said...

I think of it has a lot to do with why many male teens get into horror and metal in the first place. When you're a kid, often (not always, but often) you're attracted to metal for the same reasons you're attracted to horror. Male teenage rebellion. Shock value. Offensiveness. Metal makes mom n' dad angry. Put on a Lucio Fulci Zombie t-shirt sometime. Then try on a Cannibal Corpse t-shirt. They look much the same. They're the same kind of shock, the same kind of rebellion. Both metal and horror use extreme imagery to act as subversive and confrontation forms of disillusioned, antisocial, reactionary rebellion.
Let's face it. Most people got into horror because of the gore or the cheap scares or the dark iconography, not because of the deeper themes or storytelling styles. Similarly, most people got into heavy metal for similar reasons. Thing is, the longer you stay interested in something, the more refined your tastes become. Just like the kid who saw Friday The 13th Part 7 when he was a kid is probably watching more intelligent stuff, like Aftermath or Martyrs nowadays, the kind of stuff that pushes envelopes beyond just the borders of taste and gratuitous sex n' splatter, the kid who listened to Slayer when he was a kid because of all the pentagrams probably listens to Slayer now because he understands the musical complexity of it, and the primordial power of simple, arcane, controversial subject matter.
"Why do guys gravitate towards metal whereas more gals don't?" though is a tough question, and there are no simple, clear-cut answers. I think it, to some extent at least, has to go back to childhood, much like the roots of why we like horror, as well as the roots of the music. Now, personally, I love Psychobilly. I think its easier for females to get into Psychobilly simply because Psychobilly tends to be more female-friendly. Psychobilly's roots are in Punk, and Punk, traditionally, is female-friendly (not counting the later proliferation of chest-beating Hardcore bands and Neo-Nazi scum punkers) because Punk really is about challenging the social norms and everyone being equal and being empowered and independent and yada yada yada, regardless of gender. There's a strong feminist undercurrent to Punk, so it's more friendly to the female gender. More friendless to women means more women in the scene. More women in the scene means more women in the bands. More women in the bands means more female perspective in the music itself and the imagery of the bands' identity. Etc. Etc.
Metal, meanwhile, is traditionally less female-friendly. It's very primal, with lots of emphasis on machismo and testosterone posturing and traditional patriarchal archetypes (knights, vikings, cavemen, soldiers, etc.). It's not all like that now. Metal has taken pages from the Punk playbook and evolved its own ideology and iconography accordingly, but the roots of Metal remains very heavily ingrained in muscular, violent, angry attitudes.
Psychobilly is more about fun. Metal is more about catharsis.
Males typically have a greater thirst for catharsis. It's how we're raised. We're raised with generations of the aforementioned knights and vikings behind us, looming over us, telling us we're supposed to be that kind of person. It's sexist, really, and I think most of us are aware of that and try to overcome it, but its cultural programming and its with us from birth.
You can look at it, simplistically, by looking at the Barbie/G.I. Joe dichotomy. Barbie is marketed to girls. G.I. Joe to boys. The message is clear. Girls are supposed to (again, this is sexist social tradition saying this, not me) be into fashion and make-up (and you can't deny that Punk and its creep chic offspring Psychobilly tend to be very whimsically fashion/make-up oriented), and boys are supposed to be into war and violence.
As for me? I like Metal. I especially like Metal in its most extreme forms. Death Metal. Black Metal. Gore Metal. Thrash Metal. Doom Metal. Etc. But I also like Psychobilly. I like Deathrock. Goth Rock. Punk. Classic Rockabilly. Greaser Rock. Ska. I also like 50's Bubblegum Pop and Doo-Wop. Metal, I think though, effects me the most. I'm normally a pretty quiet, introverted kind of guy. It's liberating to throw on a Motorhead album or something and just headbang when no one else is around.
Yes, that makes me a dork. No, I don't care.