There was an article in Style Magazine with The Sunday Times today that is about understanding the subcultures of today's young people. It's an interesting article all round, but, as someone who wrote their a-level Sociology dissertation on the affects of subcultures on the youth, I would have liked it to be a bit more in depth.
The topic in general fascinates me, and I intend to blog about that more in future. Today I'm focusing in on the section titled 'Metalhead'. I think metalheads get a bit of a raw deal. But then I would say that, since if I had to pick a subculture label for myself, it would be that one. It was only a short piece, so this is it transcribed:
The Look: Heavy-metal T-shirts, skinny black jeans, black leather, Dr Martens and tattoos (roses, skulls angels, and, erm, machinery), plus black lips, eyes and nails and an Alice Dellal-style shaved head are now passable in polite circles. A deeper immersion includes corseted Victorian Gothic gowns (restraint is big - for girls and boys) and DIY dresses customised with punk studs, chains, crucifixes and band logos. Also silver jewellery, depicting animals and fairies, preferably attached to the metalhead's many piercings.
The Back Story: Metal has grown up - no longer is it about adolescents enjoying alienation and violent fan clashes. Bands and fans have become softer (and more female).
The Music: Alice Cooper, Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne. Moshing has been all but outlawed, though the boys still head bang to show off their long hair.
The Attitude: They're still angry, though not at us, but at social issues such as racism and poverty.
The Lifestyle: Instead of drink, drugs and fights, metalheads now have successful relationships and careers (and not only as tattooists). Their dark side takes them from philosophy and Freud to poetry and art (they even design their own tats).
The No-Nos: Pink frosting.
Quote: VJ, 27, says "It's easy to make us cry - we need this mask of protection."
Much of this resonated with me strongly. I felt a strange sense of acceptance when I read this. Like it's finally been confirmed that being a metalhead is a legitimate subculture in today's patchwork quilt of subcultures that creates our thankfully varied society. I've felt for sometime now a pressure to 'grow out' of this 'phase', but haven't wanted to. It's a subculture that helped me make sense of who I am, it gave me an identity and a sense of belonging when I felt most cut adrift from both myself and the world around me. Although I know I'm much much more than the subculture I mostly identify with, and labels are largely very destructive, it's a label I've not wanted to give up.
Having said that though, I have often found myself apologising for it. If people ask about my music taste my response is often along the lines of "If I had to pick just one type of music, then I'm really sorry but my first love is metal". Don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of being a metal fan, I'd defend the merits of the genre to my dying breath. But rather, I'm apologising for still identifying so much with metalhead-ism if that makes sense. Largely because I think people think of it as being a subculture for long haired 17 year old boys.
This article took me out of my own paranoid view on how people see me though. It declares that us metalheads may have tattoo's (check), piercings (check), a penchant for silver jewellery (check) and chains (check), but we also have careers (check) and are passionately unwilling to accept injustice in this world (check). So if that's what being a metalhead is comprised of, then I'm fucking proud to say I am one.
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