This past weekend, I attended the EMP Pop Conference in Seattle. I was there to deliver a paper called "It's Not Just A T-Shirt," about the ethics of wearing metal T-shirts when you're not actually a metalhead. (I'm agin it.) I've posted the text of the paper on my blog; here's a link.
The event was a lot of fun. I met people whose work I'd read online, some of whom were smarter than their published opinions. My own talk got a solidly favorable reception - a few people came up afterwards and said they'd never thought about class issues w/r/t metal, which shocked me, because I find those issues pretty unavoidable once any discussion of metal gets beyond "Dude, the new Priest album fuckin' rocks!" (Which it does, by the way, though they shouldn't be selling it as the return of their "classic lineup" when they've got Scott Travis, who only came on board for 1990's Painkiller, on drums.)
There were a lot more women than I expected to see - my own panel was 50/50, and one of the most interesting discussions was "How To Rock Like A Black Feminist Critic," which included a contribution from a black female metalhead from Canada. Other talks I caught included "Steely Dan And The Pleasures Of Simulation," "Albert Ayler In Vietnam - And Out," and "Creating The Cool Mask: From Expression To Construction To Simulacra." Most of the speakers I heard kept it pretty jargon-free, which was nice, and I gotta say I had a much better time than I was initially afraid of having. Seattle's a pretty nice-looking town, too - wouldn't bitch too much if I had to move there.
When they call for submissions for next year, I'll be throwing my hat in the ring again for sure.
The "ethics" of pop-culture-appropriation? Strikes me as analogous to discussing the ethics of falling rocks.
Not to say I don't see why it irks some...
Posted by: Vincent Kargatis at April 20, 2005 12:13 PMIt's a real stretch to suggest that a non-metalhead appropriating metal culture is like a white man putting on blackface. Historically and culturally, the metalhead "community" can in no way be compared intelligently to the African-American community, unless there was some great enslavement of metal fans a couple hundred years ago that I missed hearing about.
Posted by: David Jones at April 20, 2005 8:16 PM"The message is not “I’m just like you” – it’s “I can dress like this for a magazine photo shoot or a concert, and be rich and famous; you dress like this all the time, and you’re always going to be poor and a nobody.” It’s not inclusive, it’s contemptuous. Metal is the armor with which metalheads protect themselves from the world’s contempt. Using that armor to signify that contempt is as grotesque and vicious as blackface minstrelsy."
That's where you completely left the world of intelligent critique. I was skeptical, but still willing to accept most of what you'd said up until that point. And in fact, the excerpt above made me go back and see all that came before in a new light. Ignoring the worries about what comes before the quote above, we're left with a.) an enormous, completely vicious assumption on your part about the two pop stars in question that you in no way give a convincing argument for from observable dacts, b.) a comparison to blackface minstrelsy?! which as has been pointed out already, is gross and unthinking and c.) in the end, a call for violence against two teen pop stars who may create music you find abhorrent, but who in no way deserve violence for putting on the shirt of a band that's part of a scene you identify with. Yes, it's only a slap, but even as a rhetorical device, it seems offensive and uncalled for.
Posted by: bw diederich at April 21, 2005 12:38 PMI should say that I actually really enjoyed the article. I think it's a thoughtful and well-written piece. I don't really agree with much of it, but that doesn't matter so much.
A couple questions, though:
How do you know that these teen pop stars aren't also fans of the musicians whose shirts they wear? Their ages don't really mean anything. I'm a huge Ayler fan even though I was born several years after his death.
Also, I've always considered metal as a sub-genre of pop. Of course, not all of it is popular, but just the fact that it gets played on MTV AT ALL, no matter the time of night, indicates that it operates, at the very least, at the fringe boundaries of popular music. You're more likely to come across one of the metal bands you mention in your article on MTV than you are say, a Bob Dylan video.
When I was a kid I listened to a lot of metal music, as did my friends. I never really saw it as a "class" issue, because most of us were, comparatively speaking, pretty wealthy. Most of my friends, including myself, no longer listen to metal, a few still do, but I can't say that "class" has any bearing on who does and who doesn't. To me, metal music occupies the territory of an anarchist adolescent fantasy world. I've never thought of it as really speaking to the everyday concerns of the working class, but rather as offering up a kind of attitude (which the listener literally has to buy into) about how the individual chooses to face the world (basically with a big "Go Fuck Yourself.")
Finally, I think the seriousness which people attach to who wears what t-shirt is basically ridiculous, but then I'm a guy who doesn't think too much about clothes in the first place. I will admit, however, that generally speaking I don't think much of people who wear t-shirts with any prominent logo attached to it: be it a metal band, a pop band, a sports team, or anything else.
Posted by: David Jones at April 22, 2005 10:06 PMMy favourite T shirt is a limited edition run given away by the US Army to the employees of United Airlines (and others) who helped fly troops & supplies out to the Gulf for Gulf War I. There's a map of the region and the slogan "US Army Summer Tour - Rock & Roll To Go". Not so much metal as mettle. Needless to say I don't wear this particular garment if I'm shopping for couscous and ras-el-hanout in the bustling markets of Barbès Rochechouart, for fear y'all might end up seeing me LIVE ON EL JAZIRA with a groovy orange jump suit and some crazy fucker with a scimitar lopping my head off and raising a pint of blood. Cheers boys
Posted by: Dan Warburton at April 22, 2005 10:55 PMI just want to say that crawjo david jones is a real treat/pain to read. Who can tell what this up and coming reviewer and intellectual is going to say next!??
Good stuff.
Posted by: shitbirdlouise at April 23, 2005 3:48 AMSorry the above comment was so mean and crappy.
I've enjoyed this site since it started, but crawjo is preposterous. Stop him.
I realize I've said nothing and composed another mean and crappy comment.
and under a pseudonym at that, very ballsy of you.
Posted by: jon abbey at April 23, 2005 6:35 AMYep, truly heroic.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at April 23, 2005 8:10 AMShitbirdlouise,
That's nice.
Posted by: David Jones at April 23, 2005 8:36 PMI'm A Bummed-Out White Guy Who Joined "an authentic self-selecting subculture that transcends racial, class and even national boundaries," and All I Got Was Somebody Mistaking Me For Ashlee Simpson 'Cause We Wear The Same T-Shirts.
Dude. Get used to it. Us white folks can't be authentic no more, we can only temporarily steal authenticity from The Dark Ones -- a Sysiphean task. White man's burden. Just join one of those "communities" of powersuited white entrepreneurs and sell authenticity back to them -- which occupation is, after all, our authentic identity. How fringe white-guy artists are supposed to fit into this picture is what the real fun's all about. Hmm, think I'll go apply for a grant on that topic...
Posted by: Tom Djll at April 24, 2005 2:25 PMReading this piece confirms it:I'M ALREADY TIRED OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!
Posted by: Bill at April 25, 2005 2:10 PM>I'M ALREADY TIRED OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!
It's gonna become a lot less boring as it progresses. I'm in the middle of reading this and figuring out where in my crappy apartment I'm gonna store all the canned food, flashlight batteries, and ammunition - and where I'm gonna plant my crops.
Posted by: Phil at April 25, 2005 2:19 PMI don't agree with Tom's comments above about whiteness etc. The sort of attitude he expresses is one which has developed over the last few decades, through understandable causes, though the perception of white people as 'unauthentic' remains not necessarily because it's true, but because it is sold back to them repeatedly. Why make it seem okay for everyone to be cool at once, when you can sell more music, clothing, cinema tickets, etc. through a cultural system that allows white kids to feel rebellious by trying 'not to be white' and black kids to feel more 'real' in opposition to white people. This is a very basic and general assessment of the situation, but I do believe those 'power-suited entrepeneurs' aren't selling authenticity back to white people, but perpetuating a separated society. And part of what they're selling is the idea that the role for white people is to be corporate and soulless -- that is no one's 'authentic identity.' It's low self-esteem and self-punishment, perhaps easy to channel through the general white Christian attitude that we are all guilty sinners. It's a situation which I hope will begin to disappear in the 21st century.
Anyway, I didn't log on to get analytical about that in particular, it's one of those topics that gets to me. I did, however, log on to get analytical about . . .
Posted by: michael rodgers at April 26, 2005 3:22 AMThe T-Shirt paper contained many things that disturbed me in its presentation, and I debated for a few days whether I thought it was worth dipping my toe into the warm, shallow waters of the online discussion. I found myself still contemplating it over the weekend, so here goes . . . All passages in italics are quotes from "It's Not Just a T-Shirt" for reference since it's not reproduced at the top.
[Metal is ultimately a male-dominated form, and that manifests itself in every wardrobe choice made by metalheads. Heavy workboots, jeans, leather and/or denim jackets, spiked bracelets, belts and chains and, more and more these days, elaborate facial hair are all part of the metal look, though the T-shirt is the primary and most important element.]
[Although there are women in the metal scene who dress almost identically to men, wearing the same T-shirts, jeans and boots as their boyfriends or male acquaintances, many if not most female fans dress in a more overtly sexualized way – spike-heeled boots, miniskirts or extremely tight jeans, low-cut tops, et cetera. So it’s important to recall that the two people I cited in the beginning are both female. By making the choice to wear metal shirts, these young women are not only intruding onto the territory of metal fans. They are also crossing gender lines, by wearing clothes associated primarily with male metalheads.]
[In direct contrast to metal, pop music celebrates the hypocrisies and contradictions of American culture, particularly in regard to class. Pop wallows in the crassest sort of new-money materialism, and scoffs at anything that might bust up the party. Songs with lyrics about social issues are seen as novelties, just as much as the once-every-few-years fluke hits in Spanish. The music of 50 Cent, to take an obvious example, is a stew of vainglorious hyper-macho posturing, asserting his superiority in a purely symbolic realm – exactly like Mötley Crüe’s music was in 1986. It offers nothing to an audience that comes in search of guidance]
A couple of the striking hypocrisies and contradictions in this article are the complaint about two female pop singers stealing the identity of a sub-culture, and possibly tresspassing on its male domain, and the attack on pop music's values, or lack thereof, while the article only mentions in passing that 'many if not most female fans dress in a more overtly sexualized way'. I would argue metal has much to answer for itself in terms of 'macho posturing', unequal gender treatment, and its factional associations with racist ideologies before it can claim moral superiority over other forms of music. The extremely misused analogy to blackface has been noted adequately in previous comments. As far as the problem of teenage girls wearing metal t-shirts I would probably cheer Ashlee Simpson for trying to break down sexist guidelines to dress within the metal community if I could first get beyond the absurd idea that they are indeed robbing a people of their identity.
Further, I find it diffilcult to picture so many people coming to metal 'in search of guidance.' Rap music fans in search of guidance can find it if they want it, such as in Jay-Z's '99 problems' or Snoop Dogg's 'Drop It Like It's Hot'. I'm not advocating either messages of metal or rap, but it seems there's as much guidance in either genre if you really want it. In my experience and in observation of others, metal attracts people because it rocks really hard. Much of the serious tone to metal songs must be so, as it is difficult to be called Slayer if your lyrics are about falling in love and building a house together. Songs about the Angel of Death seem more appropriate to the 'canon.'
[Ashlee Simpson would send an entirely different message if she walked onstage in a Slipknot shirt, and her management and her stylists know it. A shirt promoting a current act carries a much greater weight of implied endorsement, in the mind of the larger non-metal public, than does one advertising a veteran band with a pop-cultural presence that transcends the self-contained and insular metal scene, like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden. Indeed, Maiden shirts work particularly well for this, because in the non-metal world, they are so inextricably tied to their zombie/demon mascot Eddie that they might as well not be a band at all. More people know them from pictures than from songs.]
[And of course, the exploitation of the poor as cannon fodder has been the subject of metal anthems for decades – think of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” Metallica’s “One” and Slayer’s “Mandatory Suicide.”]
The article gives two examples: two teenage popsinger girls wearing Motley Crue and Motorhead shirts. I can recall Stella McCartney wearing a designer Iron Maiden shirt many years back. I think you could buy one for 50 pounds or something absurd.
I didn't know that Iron Maiden's mascot was called Eddie. I doubt many non-metal fans know that. I think this passage is getting close, though not making the connection: there is something about the bands used for these ironic T-shirts that transcends the insular metal scene: they are incredibly theatrical. Slipknot is theatrical, too, but not in any way near the epic, fantastical style of the 80s metal bands. Current metal bands wouldn't be so fun to reference, and I think that's part of why it's more attractive to have them on a T-shirt. There was a lot of tight leather, spandex, big hairdos and high-pitched wailing around back then.
While Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs' may be an example of their social consciousness, they also did 'Sweet Leaf'. Black Sabbath's Paranoid album cover, for example, seems difficult to defend. Metallica's 'One' launched them into the massive commercial outfit they are today. I think they only lasted one more album before cutting their hair. I agree with previous comments that it is difficult to place metal in a purely minority profile. All these bands mentioned fill stadiums. Slipknot T-shirts are ubiquitous here in London. Go to Camden Market, and it's roughly 1:1 ratio of Slipknot/Eminem shirts for sale. Look at Ozzy's pop status today. Was he really helping people arm themselves against the world that reviles them, or making successful rock music? Bruce Dickinson hosts a radio show on BBC's 6music digital station; I doubt he could achieve this without the help of trendy ironic types wearing Iron Maiden T-shirts. And I think the article could do well to decide whether Motley Crue is a real metal band, or just a 'party' band. If they are the latter there seems no reason why pop singers can't wear a Motley Crue shirt.
All this is still within the popular realm of metal, where again I note the theatricality and fun is most prominent. It seems safe to assume it will be a few more years before Ashlee Simpson wears an Agoraphobic Nosebleed shirt.
[Given all of this, why would pop performers want to be seen as in any way connected to metal, even through something as superficial – to them – as a T-shirt? What do their stylists believe Ashlee Simpson’s Mötley Crüe shirt, or Hilary Duff’s Motörhead shirt, symbolize to their fans?]
[Therefore, a metal T-shirt does not represent an allegiance to metal – it’s shorthand for a generic mall-friendly rebelliousness or “attitude.”]
If the essay had just been a short description of the way metal fans dress, followed by this sentence (achieved after 20 paragraphs or so preamble), I would have agreed, because that's simply what it is. To be horrified by the act of wearing a Motorhead shirt is overreacting. Popular culture has been borrowing from everywhere for as long as anyone can remember.
I was talking to a skater friend of mine about this, and he was telling me about when people started wearing skate shoes, skate shirts, etc. who weren't skaters. It used to annoy him that he couldn't be so sure anymore about walking up to a stranger wearing skate gear, and immmediately trading stories, talking about skating etc. But he wasn't so offended to feel he was being robbed of his 'armor'.
[The metal audience is primarily white and working-class men]
[Metal is a folk music. It unites a community, expresses that community’s values to itself and represents them to the outside world, and it passes those values and core philosophical concepts on to successive generations of metalheads.]
Again, I agree with previous comments that the repeated association of metal with primarily working-class culture is tenuous. There are certainly plenty of metal fans and bands that are suburban and well-educated. I find the assessment of metal as a 'folk music' tiresome and typical of academic analysis in music. I am not necessarily against the idea of metal as a folk music, but if it is on these terms, so is nearly everything else, which is mostly the problem with using such arguments. However, I am more against assessing metal as a folk music on the principle that language such as this, especially delivered in conferences or symposiums, ultimately appears patronising toward its subject. It reminds me of the UK's Health Secretary making a dodgy comment against raising taxes on cigarettes because for many poor people, it's the only source of enjoyment they have left in life. It seems wrong to decide that metal is a vital form of protection for working-class people (or rather, men), especially when I would argue there are many working class people who are not metalheads.
[Metal is psychological armor, a bulwark between metalheads and a hostile world.]
[metal builds canons, and who’s locked out is almost more important than who gets in.]
[The meaning of my T-shirts, and the T-shirts of my fellow metalheads, is not for outsiders to hijack. They’re badges of honor to be earned, and people who try to short-cut that process by swinging through Hot Topic on a Saturday afternoon at the mall, or by throwing on a shirt their stylist handed them, need a smack in the face.]
[If you’re wearing an Iron Maiden shirt and you can’t name five Iron Maiden songs, you deserve a beatdown, is the way metalheads tend to see it.]
I do think it's pretty silly for anyone to wear a band's shirt of which they're not a fan. But this is not as worrisome as the language of hostility and paranoia running through much metal and much of this article. As much as it supports metal's struggle against those on the outside, the barely-mentioned converse is how it keeps itself inside. It is not merely the assumed loathing from people outside metal that creates barriers between them and metalheads, but also the sustained mentality of agression and angst within the music scene itself. When your music, your 'uniform', and even papers delivered at conferences are sustaining the idea that you are abject, why should you try thinking otherwise? This is a greater social issue than that of yet another pop culture rip-off.
And on a personal note:
[Metalheads are bonded not only by their love of metal, but by the loathing with which the rest of the world greets them. It’s 2005, and wearing a metal shirt to high school in the wrong part of the country might still get you home suspended, and that could be the least of your worries. Ask the West Memphis Three about the glories of being a metal fan in fuckhead redneck America.]
Being from said city in 'fuckhead redneck America,' I thought necessary to point out that there are many metalheads in Memphis who could easily be called 'fuckhead rednecks' (if one wanted to use that language). They make their presence well-known at metal concerts, where their T-shirt – if wearing any shirt – doesn't seem to figure large in their sense of identity in relation to class politics.
Southerners are bonded not only by being from the South, but by the loathing with which the rest of the country greets them. : ) And plenty of metal bands come from the South, such as the 'obscure but well-regarded' EyeHateGod (New Orleans). Metal doesn't hide in corners in the South. It's pretty damn huge. Serious bands (Black Sabbath, Rush, Metallica, Alice In Chains), party bands (Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Kiss, Aerosmith), they're all good and they all end up on the same darn radio stations.
M
post #3!
Sorry, my italics didn't carry through all parts, but all quotes are also in brackets.
M
Posted by: michael rodgers at April 26, 2005 3:45 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................