Heavy metal subculture
Fans of heavy metal music have created their own subculture that encompasses more than just appreciation of the style of music. Fans affirm their membership in the subculture or scene by attending metal concerts (an activity seen as central to
Heavy metal subculture
Fans of heavy metal music have created their own subculture that encompasses more than just appreciation of the style of music. Fans affirm their membership in the subculture or scene by attending metal concerts (an activity seen as central to the subculture), buying albums, growing their hair long in most to (almost always) all cases (although some metalheads do wear their hair short; one very famous example is late 70s to 80s-era Rob Halford), wearing jackets or vests often made of denim and leather, adorned with band patches and often studs, and since the early 1980s, by contributing to metal publications.
The metal scene, like the rock scene in general, is associated with alcohol, tobacco and drug use, as well as riding motorcycles and having many tattoos. While there are songs that celebrate drinking, smoking, drug use, gambling, having tattoos and partying, there are also many songs that warn about the dangers of those activities. The metal fan base was traditionally working class, white and male in the 1970s, and since the 1980s, more female fans have developed an interest in the style. Also, its popularity and interest in it has grown among African Americans and other groups recently.
Heavy metal fans go by a number of different names, including metalhead, headbanger, hesher, mosher, and thrasher, being used only for fans of thrash metal, which began to differentiate itself from other varieties of metal in the late 80s. While the aforementioned labels vary in time and regional divisions, headbanger and metalhead are universally accepted to mean fans or the subculture itself.
Heavy metal fans have created a "subculture of alienation" with its own standards for achieving authenticity within the group. Deena Weinstein's book Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture argues that heavy metal "has persisted far longer than most genres of rock music" due to the growth of an intense "subculture which identified with the music." Metal fans formed an "exclusionary youth community" that was "distinctive and marginalized from the mainstream" society. The heavy metal scene developed a strongly masculine "community with shared values, norms, and behaviors." A "code of authenticity" is central to the heavy metal subculture; this code requires bands to have a "disinterest in commercial appeal" and radio hits as well as a refusal to "sell out." The metal code also includes "opposition to established authority, and separateness from the rest of society." Fans expect that the metal "vocation [for performers] includes total devotion to the music and deep loyalty to the youth subculture that grew up around it;" a metal performer must be an "idealized representative of the subculture."
While the audience for metal is mainly "white, male, lower/middle class youth," this group is "tolerant of those outside its core demographic base who follow its codes of dress, appearance, and behavior." The activities in the metal subculture include the ritual of attending concerts, buying albums, and most recently, contributing to metal websites. Attending concerts affirms the solidarity of the subculture, as it is one of the ritual activities by which fans celebrate their music. Metal magazines help the members of the subculture to connect, find information and evaluations of bands and albums, and "express their solidarity." The long hair, leather jackets, and band patches of heavy metal fashion help encourage a sense of identification within the subculture. However, Weinstein notes that not all metal fans are "visible members" of the heavy metal subculture. Some metal fans may have short hair and dress in regular clothes.
In the musical subcultures of heavy metal and punk, authenticity is a core value. The term poseur (or poser) is used to describe "a person who habitually pretends to be something he/she is not," as in adopting the appearance and clothing style of the metal scene without truly understanding the culture and its music. In a 1993 profile of heavy metal fans' "subculture of alienation," the author noted that the scene classified some members as "poseurs," that is, heavy metal performers or fans who pretended to be part of the subculture, but who were deemed to lack authenticity and sincerity. Jeffrey Arnett's 1996 book Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation argues that the heavy metal subculture classifies members into two categories by giving "acceptance as an authentic metalhead or rejection as a fake, a poseur."
Heavy metal fans began using the term sell out in the 1980s to refer to bands who turned their heavy metal sound into radio-friendly rock music (e.g., glam metal). In metal, a sell out is "someone dishonest who adopted the most rigorous pose, or identity-affirming lifestyle and opinions." The metal bands that earned this epithet are those "who adopt the visible aspects of the orthodoxy (sound, images) without contributing to the underlying belief system."
Ron Quintana's article on "Metallica['s] Early History" argues that when Metallica was trying to find a place 