I’m just generally angry about the lack of respect in the music industry. In performers. In listeners. In general. I’m angry that some so called “musicians” in these trendy metalcore bands are all the rage. And you know, some of these musicians are tremendously talented and intelligent, and they may even desire to take a different approach to their music, but the vast majority of them follow this trend because they know it will put them in the spotlight. They know that their merchandise will be put up on Hot Topic’s wall as soon as you can say “sellout”. 

The other huge wave that has been devouring our bars and clubs in the last few years is indie folk pop. I actually enjoy a lot of these acts, but how many of them sound EXACTLY the same? 

And punk…I don’t proclaim to be an expert in this subject (i know how touchy you hardcore kids are) but I could go on for days about the new wave of punk and hardcore emerging above ground these days. And now with the reunion of Verse, Refused and At The Drive In, (and maybe I’m over-ambitious when I say this) the punk scene has potential like we haven’t seen since the genre was born in the early 80’s. I owe so much of my inspiration to bands that stem from this, but the fact that respect is near to non-existent in this community for other genre’s of music or bands in the SAME community makes me want nothing to do with this highbrow crowd. 

The punk kids hate the metal kids. The metal kids hate the punk kids. The folk-inspired hipsters who are hung up on these God damn bands that have predominantly tried to recreate the 60’s while fashionably representing the early 90’s snub and talk shit about everyone who isn’t like them. Fuck you. Oppress your feelings, pretend like anger isn’t an emotion that you were doomed with and keep your intellectual noses in the air under your thick rimmed glasses, spitting on anyone who has the nerve to admit that they really didn’t see that one band in that one basement before they were mentioned in that one magazine. By the way, your “subculture” is obviously not so alternative if half of your generation looks like you. 

I don’t get it. Where is the vision? Why are we still bowing down to unoriginal versions of the same band we’ve seen 467 times? I’m just angry and I won’t pretend that I’m above this. I’m not. We’re not.

And I’m still outraged by the gender issue. Just because I was blessed with a uterus does not mean that I can’t throw down. In fact, my estrogen gives me more fire than most of my male counterparts. My body was created to endure the pain of bearing another human being; I can handle myself. The fact that I am judged strictly because of my sex pushes me to work even harder to prove that maybe I am a maniac. 

The comparisions. THE COMPARISONS.

“You’re like Everytime I Die but with a chick!” Fuck you. We’re like Fine Fine Titans. Look, you may mean that as a compliment, and trust me, we love the music that band creates. However, I’m sure Everytime I Die would not appreciate the 12+ years they’ve spent evolving their sound to be used as an association to a band that’s only been together for a year and a half that actually doesn’t sound remotely like them. 

“Haley Williams” What? Really? A mainstream, pop-punk band with strictly clean vocals? I really adore her, but the only thing I have in common with Haley Williams is that we’re both chicks. WEIRD, RIGHT?! 

I get it. People tend to analyze music and correlate it to the sounds their ears have heard before. Vision also has a lot to do with this, unfortunately. We just LOVE to compare, contrast and criticize anything we think have a small knowledge base on. It’s human nature. I appreciate when people try to compliment us using identifiable bands, but I know the pendulum swings both ways. So seriously, stop comparing. Turn off that folder in your head that you’ve filed every band you’ve ever heard in and stay in the moment with us.

Sure, call me a hypocrite because I just said that a million bands sound the same and then yell “don’t you dare say we sound like this band!” It’s true. I’m a hypocrite, maybe. However, my goal is not to mimic the sound of other’s, so if it does, we’ve failed.

At least I’m trying. We’re trying. 

We must be listening to different worlds of music. What I get from this is that Metal is solely based around a grueling and an aggressive screaming vocal style, and outside of that, no other vocal style fits and will easily be grouped in with “nu-metal.” Maybe we should take a short look at Metal’s history?

Heavy Metal began with bands such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant set the stage with his melodic, upper-register powerhouse vocals. He was named the “Greatest Metal Vocalist of All Time” according to Hit Parader in 2006 (still very relevant) and various other sources such as Rolling Stone. 

As Aerosmith led the way and paved a path for Hair Metal in the 80’s, bands such as Poison, Twisted Sister and Warrant took over the scene with their glam rock style, power ballads and music that offered melodic vocals. Not only did a lot of these bands LOOK like girls, staunchly covered in layers of makeup, long, delicately styled hair and tight feminine clothes, but some of the vocalist actually could have been confused for women due to their high-pitched vocals.

We enter the 90’s with Avante Garde Metal with the likes of (just to name a small variety) The Number Twelve Looks Like You with their spuratic, high-pitch shouts and screams, The Mars Volta with their melodic vocals, also mainly sung in an upper register, and Mr. Bungle.

What Mike Patton - the almighty God of Music - did for vocals (along with so many other aspects) in metal music is revolutionary. He killed a pre-conceived notion or standard in vocals with his effects ranging from operatic and heavy melodic swooning (hear: Pink Cigarette) to spuratic churping, screaming, shouting, and even Gregorian Chanting featured in “Goodbye Sober Day.”

With Mike Pattons direct influence in the forthcoming music, even his vocals in Faith No More, falling a bit short of Metal for the time, inspired the likes of Nu-Metal with his hip-hop vocals against screaming metal riffs.

Speaking of Nu-Metal…again, we may be living on different planets. With Nu-Metal making it’s wave in the late 90’s with bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn and Papa Roach, I can’t draw the connection to their rap-rock style and a female singing melodically against electric guitars.

When we take a look at sub-genres such as Death Metal, Doom Metal, Grindcore and Thrash Metal, there is no doubt that screaming/shouting/aggressive vocal styles take precedence against a more melodic approach, but many bands have bridged the gap and  still weave intermittently between the two, be it male or female. If you take a look at today’s very popular Metalcore wave, it’s everywhere. And many of these male vocalist sing, again, in their upper-registers, just as Robert Plant so diligently paved the way to do so.

So, no, I don’t believe this argument holds merit. Screaming, while valuable to metal and hardcore music, is not essential to it’s existence. And if you “can’t take it seriously” because it is a female singing, well that, my friend, is sexism.