Subgenres and Money

            In chapter six of Extreme Metal, Keith Kahn-Harris talks about subgenres of extreme metal.   I thought this was pretty interesting because it directly related to my popmatters article, writing about a subgenre that uses classical music as an influence.  “At the forefront of this experimental tendency have been some of the members of the early 1990s Norwegian black metal scene.  Bands such as Ulver and Arcturus have incorporated classical music, ‘trip hop’, sampling operating singing, and drum and bass into their music” (Extreme 133).   Experimenting in music is something that I think is necessary in order to make new sounds and helps transgress the genre.  However, sometimes transgression is not necessarily a good thing.  I think that as a whole, the subgenre of nu metal was a bad form of transgression.  Bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit took over the musical scene and became almost as popular as heavy metal in the 1980s.  They had singers that rapped over down tuned guitars and sang about “the dysfunction of the singer” (Extreme 135). 

            One thing I thought was interesting was the authenticity factor of metal.  “Grossberg argues that in postmodernity authenticity remains an important value in rock – as it is in extreme metal where to be ‘true’ and not ‘trendy’ is paramount – but an authenticity that acknowledges the impossibility of differentiating between the authentic and inauthentic” (Extreme 145).  I think that this is why a lot of times the metal scene is not very popular.  They don’t want to be trendy and give in to social norms; instead they want to be different.

            However, heavy metal bands suffer from the same problems as popular bands.  Even though they don’t want to be ‘trendy,’ they need to make money and have to have some aspects of their music to conform to social norms.  As was the case with extreme metal band Mayhem, when one of the members wanted to videotape torturing a member to death in order to sell more copies of their album.  However, this didn’t go as planned and they got in a fight about a record contract, ending with the stabbing of guitarist Euronymous.  So the influence of money does not only affect popular music, it affects extreme metal bands like Mayhem.