We're told that "a new generation of music fans discovered them when Netflix's Stranger Things used their 1986 song 'Master of Puppets' during a pivotal scene."
This is another case of mainstream media reporting what's in social media. So just go straight to the social media. Here's Serena Trueblood on TikTok ticking off the sins of Metallica.
Or I'll just quote the hastily typed caption to the video: "I find it intersting that they only cared about gatekeeping in their fandom when they started getting big agaib from Stranger Things. Thy only care about what lines theor pockets."
Does "they" means Metallica or Metallica fans? I feel as though I've got to look up "gatekeeping." It's a term of art. At Urban Dictionary, the top definition is to make your interests exclusive in order to protect them from becoming 'mainstream.'" Second highest is "When someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity." The example there is music-related:
"I love punk bands like Green Day!"
"Ugh, they're not even punk. They totally sold out."
Don't bother searching for "agaib," or you'll discover what your brain is perfectly able to puzzle out: "When your dumb ass can’t type 'again.'"
So... what have we really learned here?
1. Metallica is hot at the moment, and it has nothing to do with our having talked about "Enter Sandman"" on this blog yesterday. Another song of theirs was in a popular TV show.
2. There's lots of bad/inappropriate stuff about Metallica out there, if anyone wants to spend a little time assembling the evidence to pop the bubble of possible pleasure that young people today might have derived from actual music.
3. We're in one of these puritanical eras where trying to be a good person is prioritized over pleasure. The result, of course and ironically, is that no one is going to end up being very good at all, and lots of pleasure will be forgone.
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43 comments:
Everyone in rock/pop before the 2000s was in it for the pleasure or fame or money. It was a business and they had very high income expectations for their work. All performers. Then, Napster hit in the late 1990s and killed the old business model by the early 2000s.
Metallica came out against streaming and said "If you don't respect our business model we don't want you as fans."
- Lars Ulrich, drummer of Metallica
People smashed their albums and boycotted the band. So, Metallica was first cancelled for being stubbornly behind the times and greedy. Now they are being canceled for sex and drugs and rock and roll? As a rock and roll band? This is how left wing movements end: some split off and become the new conservatives. Will Metallica join the libertarian right? Will the puritanical young'uns join the rigid moralistic right? Something's got to give.
A greased naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it. You don't find that offensive? You don't find that sexist?
there's a difference between sexist and sexy.. Is there a difference between racist and racy?
"Cancelled"
Yeah, sure. Pretty sure Metallica doesn't give a rat's ass what a bunch of spoiled children think of them or their music.
They "young fans" aren't "cancelling" anyone. They're making a choice to not listen to someone's music for whatever reason they find compelling. Same as I do for rap. It doesn't interest me for aesthetic and social reasons, but no one is writing that people like me "cancelled" rap artists.
P.S Blogger is being a doodie head today. Maybe Google is trying to cancel me.
if anyone wants to spend a little time assembling the evidence to pop the bubble of possible pleasure that young people today might have derived from actual music.
1. There is a lot of self-loathing on the political left.
2. Which cannot be sustained if pleasurable options are available.
3. Thus, no pleasure can be allowed.
4. Other than pointing out that others are more despicable than you.
5. Profit
Metallica's first album was "Kill 'Em All." This is precisely how I feel about Generation Z.
Anyone watching Stranger things and liking it?
I started season one and I could only get a few shows in.
Something about child abduction and child experiments = disturbing ruins my sleep.
The writers of these shows - where do they find all of these demented ideas?
Is the series over? or are they making more seasons?
I want to skip to the end to see what happens. well - sort of - I barely care.
Speech police! speech police! call the speech police! snitch on your neighbors!
Metallica are a bunch of greedy assholes, but their music is great.
Althouse, you listen to the 'A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs' podcast. There's a long history of musicians being reprehensible people, which is to say, no better than many other people, just with wealth and fame and more opportunities to behave badly than the average person. Why would we expect Metallica to be any different?
Aristophanes' Clouds includes a debate between the Just Speech and the Unjust Speech. Among the many pleasures there: a proper gentleman likes to look at beautiful boys, but for the most part stops at looking. I know, even the gaze is often a sin these days. So if a boy sits in the sand at the beach for a while, he is asked when he gets up to brush away the marks that his genitals might have left. Otherwise he might be blamed for inflaming the older men. Aristophanes agrees with a lot of intellectuals that "conservatives are hypocrites," but he doesn't necessarily agree with their prescriptions. He probably loved his life in somewhat corrupt Athens.
Nobody tell them about David Bowie. ������
We're in one of these puritanical eras where trying to look like a good person by applying social pressure to some other guy is prioritized over pleasure.
FTFY We all know that means "Fixed that for you", but, like you, I was stumped for a second by "agaib".
I seem to recall that Metallica and other hard rock bands were known for saying and doing things that weren't appropriate for children and polite society. We had Tipper Gore to save us from those reprobates. Now that we have clown trannies reading to children and everyone is assumed to do drugs, Ian Dury sounds almost quaint singing about sex and drugs and rock and roll.
Let's see. There was actual music in America from George M. Cohan to the Eagles. Did anything happen after that?
>Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Anyone watching Stranger things and liking it?<
Not me. I suffered through about five episodes and couldn't take it anymore. The acting, almost across the board, is just terrible. Especially the mother and the gay looking/acting kid, whose actors are simply abysmal. Even Matthew Modine, whom I've always liked and respected is mediocre. The only ones who are even plausible are the sheriff and the little weird-looking kid. Wanna hear about the ludicrous plot? Nah, you've had enough....
So all of a sudden sex, drugs, and rock & roll are BAD?
Censorious and puritanical scolds take many forms and guises, and should always be mocked.
I'll bet the poor girlchild has never even heard of ZZ Top.
Ice Nine -
I actually thought some of the kids (the younger boys) were good in terms of acting.
but I agree - I had to stop watching because the plot is so awful.
"if you like enter sandman you aren't a metalhead"
Deal.
I also like "Summer of 69" and Strauss's "Four Last Songs."
Big ears are fun.
"If you like enter sandman you aren't a metalhead."
You say that like it's a bad thing.
I'm not a metal head. Haven't been one since high school (which was when Metallica formed and performed). No regrets, not a single one.
And no STDs or physical or mental damage from smoking too much weed, drinking too much alcohol, or banging skanky chicks.
Not too fond of Metallica or Metallica fans, but I'm siding with them in this case. Too many of the younger fans don't quite get that Metallica has been around 40 years or so and they (the new fans) can't really come in and just take over the fandom. A lot of the newer fans also have a problem with seeing the band outside of the context of the TV show. Kind of like trying to say that "In The Mood" was inspired by the bombing of Pearl Harbor because it's been associated with WWII through so many modern movies.
The writers of these shows - where do they find all of these demented ideas?
There seemed to have been a glut of corporate evil villain shows on the streamers. The ones that start with a drugged up woman waking up in the conference room kind if thing…
…I had fun with Stranger Things only because that was my age and era. It was fun to see how twentysomethings in Hollywood obsessed with the details of the time interpreted the time- what board games were in the suburban basement playroom, the kid cars, the video arcade, etc.
Not bad but just a little bit off was the big conclusion…
"Gatekeeping" used to be something young creatives were mad about. You could only get a novel out to the people if a big, out-of-touch publisher decided to include it in its limited annual lineup, and all the super-great stuff you and your friends were writing just stayed on the slush pile. And you could only put out music if a record company signed you, but you can't even get their reps to hear you play at the local club.
Now, ironically, when gatekeeping is less powerful -- because anyone can self-publish a book and put it on Amazon, or record music on inexpensive equipment and put it on streaming services -- the Hip Youngsters want MORE of it. They want book publishers to become even more stringent in what they're willing to put out (based on the latest social trends, so they fall in the narrow range that requires representation of certain types of characters, but not if that would also involve cultural appropriation on the part of the writer). And, apparently, they want musicians to be promoted only to certain types of fans, lest they be tainted by association -- something that would be nearly impossible to do without the weight of a big record company behind them. Basically, now that artists are freer than ever to put out any material they want to the largest possible audience, they're more constricted than ever by the audience itself.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Anyone watching Stranger things and liking it?
I started season one and I could only get a few shows in.
Made it maybe 1.5 eps in. I just found it uninteresting.
Beavis hardest hit.
I watched the latest Stranger Things with my teen children because we had watched the earlier seasons and felt like we had to. It was unbearable. Not only that, but the episodes kept getting longer and longer. The final episode ran 2:40! Don't start watching. You might feel compelled to keep going and it is NOT worth it.
One typo is intriguing, Freudian. Four typos are inept.
"If you like enter sandman you aren't a metalhead."
Nice joke (about gatekeeping).
Knew nothing of Metallica. Seems that was a wise move.
Not too fond of Metallica or Metallica fans, but I'm siding with them in this case.
You're not really siding with Metallica fans, you're siding with Newsweek. People who claim to be skeptical about mainstream media might want to be less gullible every time they try ginning up a stupid "cancel culture" story using social media as a source. It's click bait, nothing more.
Head like a hole, black as your soul. I'd rather die than give you control./NIN
The age of progress with liberal fringes.
I sometimes have trouble ditching a book that doesn't grab me, but I'm merciless about dramatic series. My wife will invest those hours, but I won't.
BTW, some posters show up as "unknown." I thought that was a no-no.
Something about child abduction and child experiments = disturbing ruins my sleep.
Just sleep with one eye open, gripping your pillow tight.
That should fix it.
It's too bad that people can't just enjoy music for what it is, music.
My partner is an ESL person, doesn't understand 98% of the lyrics in songs. Yet, prefers some songs to others. She enjoys the music, the harmonies and melodies without the meaning(s) of the lyrics.
I watched the TikTok, excruciating. Why would anybody value the opinion of this person?
Odd/ironic to single out Metallica for problematic behavior among 1980s metal bands. I was a pretty big fan back in the day (and I consider "Enter Sandman" and the whole Black album to be late-stage-lost-their-groove Metallica). I do not recall them having a particularly Bad Boy reputation, at least not relative to other groups like, yes, Guns & Roses, or Motley Crue, Poison, etc. And the whole 80s metal scene paled when compared to the excesses of the 70s bands like the Stones, Aerosmith, etc.
Also ironic that weak little totalitarian blue-haired screamers and deep-state huggers are criticizing GenX'ers. GenX's whole thing was that we didn't give a damn what the government busybodies or polite society thought. Just leave me alone, I'll figure things out by myself.
All I wanted was a pepsi...
I'm listening to History of Rock and Roll in 500 Songs and enjoying it.
I've commented here that it should be History ... in 500 Trigger Warnings given the host's constant trigger warning. Annoying but not enough to make me stop sending him $5/month and listening.
I just got around to the ep on Aretha Franklin (Which among other things got me listening to her father and to Rosetta Tharpe)
He does his trigger warning bit in the intro then takes it a bit further. Something about "And for those of you who have complained about these warnings, you make want to skip this episode. As well as all future episodes." (Subtext: "GFY if you don't like it")
Reading this post and comments makes me wonder if rather than being a woke trigger warningist, he is really being very smart.
Supposed he discussed the people involved, many pretty horrible, in the music without the warning. Would he then be accused of condoning the behavior? I think that would be unfair but in today's world, it is a possibility and could get him cancelled.
In any event, I really love the podcast and thanks again Ann for putting me on to it.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
When I hear of "The Sandman", I think of Karla, head of the KGB and George Smiley's arch nemesis.
Smiley:"You know why they call him the sandman, don't you? Because he puts people to sleep." [kills them]
Metallica always seemed like a death sentence to me. Never could listen to anythng of theirs.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control.
Just a little pin prick.
Comfortably numb.
And nothing else matters...
I think heavy metal is ridiculous.
rehajm -
So how does it end?
Your spoilers are safe with me because I have no plans to watch the show.
They do a pretty good cover of "Whiskey In The Jar", but otherwise, I'd give Metalica a miss.
"A greased naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it. You don't find that offensive? You don't find that sexist?"
To me that means oh, it must be Tuesday. Tacos!
What about wholesome Metallica playing Enter Sandman Using Classroom Instruments?
I could only watch a little of that commentary by Serena Trueblood - it is so reminiscent of the fundamentalists who were convinced that P&G was a Satanist company.
I was afraid they would do this to Kate Bush since that generation has now discovered she existed. They haven't yet but there's still time. There's the joke in "Wow" about "hitting the Vaseline" and the song "The Dreaming" was originally called "The Abbo Song."
Either of those is a social death sentence in 2022. I'm sure today's Puritans would be able to dig up much more.
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