Is Metal Trashy?

[Vincent Vega]

By Metal, I mean strictly the late '80s-early '90s Hair Metal/Glam Metal/Sleaze Metal scene. Not earlier Metal or Heavy Rock. What I'm talking about is the kind of scene that produced bands like Warrant, Poison, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, and yes, GN'R. I just find a lot of the fans of that scene fall into what I'd call "Florida White Trash"--Tattoed, bandana wearing people with multiple piercings who still rock out to the old music. I'm talking mainly about the American scene, Europeans seem more refined. Like, it just seems kind of patehtic and a lot of those bands, GN'R included, seem really cheesy and juvenile as I'm getting older.

I mean GN'R was better than most of that lot, but still, they had their moments of cheesiness or really cringeworthy juvenile lyrics (Paradise City's chorus or Shotgun Blues or Get in the Ring, anyone?).

I can't explain it, it's just as I get older, I find a lot of the stuff from the late '80s-early '90s, that whole scene (the ripped jeans, big hair, the tattoos, the piercings, bandanas, etc) to be really cringeworthy, trashy, utterly dated and like...just really cheesy and cheap. Like white trashy redneck stuff. I don't include like Iron Maiden or Metallica or Queenrsyche in any of that; a lot of their music isn't just about fucking and doing drugs and having a good time.

More and more my tastes are going to old music--Doo Wop, old R&B, Motown, early Rock, Rockabilly, Blues, Jazz, Pop....And my rock tastes are becoming more restricted to like Classic Rock (Stones, Zep, etc), early Metal, Grunge, Progressive Metal, and Punk. I just find the whole Glam Scene to have been utterly fucking BANAL.

[Gordon Comstock]

Hold up, glam was trashy!? Alert the presses!

Seriously though, late 80's glam metal is the equivalent to mainstream hip-hop nowadays. 4th and 5th generation regurgitated, uninspired shit. Bandanas and tattoos were the bling and chains of rock-stardom (or, y'know, getting played once on MTV).

The only bands that managed to come out of that scene and still have a reasonable draw today, if you don't group GNR into that scene, are Motley Crue and Poison.

GNR had moments of glam on AFD, but I don't think that's the case on UYI. For the Illusions they replaced glam cheese with straight up cheese (Get in the Ring, Shotgun Blues, Back off Bitch).

[Vincent Vega]

Hold up, glam was trashy!? Alert the presses!

Seriously though, late 80's glam metal is the equivalent to mainstream hip-hop nowadays. 4th and 5th generation regurgitated, uninspired shit. Bandanas and tattoos were the bling and chains of rock-stardom (or, y'know, getting played once on MTV).

The only bands that managed to come out of that scene and still have a reasonable draw today, if you don't group GNR into that scene, are Motley Crue and Poison.

GNR had moments of glam on AFD, but I don't think that's the case on UYI. For the Illusions they replaced glam cheese with straight up cheese (Get in the Ring, Shotgun Blues, Back off Bitch).

But even the subculture associated with it, as you've mentioned, it just reeks of fucking trash and it comes off looking more dated than the '50s artists. I mean leather pants, ripped jeans, denim, tattoos, mullets, hockey, the whole scene just comes off banal and dated.

And those bands only have a draw amongst the now near middle aged or middle aged people who want to relive their youthful glory days or younger fans who just want to see a "legendary" band.

I was drawn into that scene for a long time out of a sense of nostalgia but it really is shitty. I just find like those people who have tattoos all over or wear bandanas today in 2013--and there are people who do--and wear ripped jeans and shit to be pretty trashy and lame looking. It reminds me too much of like Randy the Ram from The Wrestler.

And with AFD, WTTJ, PC and SCOM are pretty glammy and cringeworthy today, perhaps because they've been so overplayed and I've come to associate them with soccer moms rocking out to the songs. the UYIs moments of cheese is just fucking wretched and truly cringeworthy. Get in the Ring is one of the most pathetic songs ever written and Shotgun Blues is the most juvenile shit ever.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Vincent Vega

[Gordon Comstock]

I dunno man, maybe I just don't care as much about what other people wanna do? I mean yea it looks dated and has that sorta stigma to it but like, I've worn black jeans with patches all over them to Crue and GNR concerts I know people gave me looks like "what the fuck man? " but I don't care.

The people you're talking about now are the same people you'll be talking about in 20 years, "Oh that ancient fucking scene where everyone had fuckin' #YOLO tattoos on their necks? Yea that's embarrassing now, luckily there's only a few of those folks left...."

It was a scene, they were a part of it, if they wanna re-live it, whatever.

You have some "outside the box" tastes yourself, maybe you should be less critical No need getting bent outta shape over a group of people you aren't apart of and don't like...

[Vincent Vega]

I dunno man, maybe I just don't care as much about what other people wanna do? I mean yea it looks dated and has that sorta stigma to it but like, I've worn black jeans with patches all over them to Crue and GNR concerts I know people gave me looks like "what the fuck man? " but I don't care.

The people you're talking about now are the same people you'll be talking about in 20 years, "Oh that ancient fucking scene where everyone had fuckin' #YOLO tattoos on their necks? Yea that's embarrassing now, luckily there's only a few of those folks left...."

It was a scene, they were a part of it, if they wanna re-live it, whatever.

You have some "outside the box" tastes yourself, maybe you should be less critical No need getting bent outta shape over a group of people you aren't apart of and don't like...

Thing is, I was a part of it. I dressed the part, listened to all that crap, grew up in it, and as I'm reevaluating a lot in my life in the last couple of weeks I'm really like, throwing a lot away.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Vincent Vega

[Gordon Comstock]

Yea but, you're still into things like Clark Gable movies and shit that was more than just a "phase". For me, GNR will always be more than just a phase, at this point they've been a large part of my life for over half my time on this planet. If I stopped listening to them tomorrow they'd still have been a large part of my life, y'know? I guess the same applies to those people. If Axl plays a venue near me when I'm 40, I'll likely go see him to relive what I guess I'm living now.

[Vincent Vega]

Yea but, you're still into things like Clark Gable movies and shit that was more than just a "phase". For me, GNR will always be more than just a phase, at this point they've been a large part of my life for over half my time on this planet. If I stopped listening to them tomorrow they'd still have been a large part of my life, y'know? I guess the same applies to those people. If Axl plays a venue near me when I'm 40, I'll likely go see him to relive what I guess I'm living now.

It was a decade long phase for me though. I was into GN'R BIG, always talking them up to everyone, trying to get people to like 'em, from I was 11/12 until the last few months or so.

For me the Clark Gable and classic directions is more just how I'm becoming as I'm getting older.

[Dazey]

Thing is, I was a part of it. I dressed the part, listened to all that crap, grew up in it, and as I'm reevaluating a lot in my life in the last couple of weeks I'm really like, throwing a lot away.

But you weren't in the same way you weren't a part of the "gritty" New York scene of the 70's or any other era you've had no personal experience of. You don't become part of a scene by listening to a few albums and dressing a certain way in your bedroom. All you know about any of the scenes you talk about all the time are what you've read on the Internet or seen on TV. That's why people don't take you seriously.

[Vincent Vega]

Thing is, I was a part of it. I dressed the part, listened to all that crap, grew up in it, and as I'm reevaluating a lot in my life in the last couple of weeks I'm really like, throwing a lot away.

But you weren't in the same way you weren't a part of the "gritty" New York scene of the 70's or any other era you've had no personal experience of. You don't become part of a scene by listening to a few albums and dressing a certain way in your bedroom. All you know about any of the scenes you talk about all the time are what you've read on the Internet or seen on TV. That's why people don't take you seriously.

I'm not saying I was literally a part of the 80s and 90s. I'm saying I hung out with people who were fucking Metalheads, went to metal clubs, basically the remnants of that scene or the younger generation of it. Most of my friends in HS were exactly this. And a great majority of the people I grew up around were in the original scene and had a lot of influence on me. You know nothing of my experiences or even my life as a whole. I never said I was a part of gritty 70s New York, only that I liked it from what I'd seen and heard about and done my research on it. Never said I experienced it.

But I guess, you're only allowed to have an opinion on something if you directly had experience of it. You were born in 1979 so any opinion you might offer on Hendrix or The Beatles or late 70s Punk is totally invalid and bullshit and we can't take you seriously, sorry.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Vincent Vega

[izzygirl]

By Metal, I mean strictly the late '80s-early '90s Hair Metal/Glam Metal/Sleaze Metal scene. Not earlier Metal or Heavy Rock.

Oh... thanks for the explanation. I was going to say you're crazy cos metal is fuckin' great (Lemmy for president!)

Yep, those bands were... let's say...funny. But still, not all of them were that bad. I saw Bon Jovi in Rock in Rio a couple of years ago and it was a nice surprise.

[MB.]

Metal as you described is trashy, and funny.

But I don't think GNR and Bon Jovi are part of that. Actually GNR and Bon Jovi always have attracted a large variety of fans, that's why they were so big. So you don't have to belong to any kind of 'scene', to enjoy the music. You shouldn't take life and it's people so serious.

Edited March 18, 2013 by MBRose

[wasted]

Are you saying Warrant arent classy?

[Randy Lahey]

What's more American than cherry pie?

[Guest Len B'stard]

All rock n roll music is trashy.

[DieselDaisy]

I sort of agree. As I have become older I have found the whole GNR experience - tattoos, bandanas, top hats - comepletely lame. The one redeeming thing about GN'R is Izzy Stradlin. He has style, an authentic style. But yes, the rest of them. I mean Alder was an outright hair-rocker. A full on cheesy rocker. Axl and Slash were sort of, in between hair-rock and metal. Duff was great as well but he had that awful peroxide hair. But I remember wearing ripped jeans in the late 90s and I looked like such a wanker.

And music. The music is mostly genuine - this is why gnr were head and shoulders over every other band at that time - but they are a couple of moments which dip into the hair metal genre.

You have not included Metalica and metal I notice. You have to remember that the ripped jeans/tattoo look was just a part of Metal as of hair rock.

[Guest Len B'stard]

It's sort of meant to be though innit?

[Vincent Vega]

You have not included Metalica and metal I notice. You have to remember that the ripped jeans/tattoo look was just a part of Metal as of hair rock.

The trappings were similar but musically/lyrically Metallica and other metal bands like Iron Maiden IMO have always been greater, a little less juvenile, a little less trashy somehow.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Vincent Vega

[dalsh327]

By Metal, I mean strictly the late '80s-early '90s Hair Metal/Glam Metal/Sleaze Metal scene. Not earlier Metal or Heavy Rock. What I'm talking about is the kind of scene that produced bands like Warrant, Poison, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, and yes, GN'R. I just find a lot of the fans of that scene fall into what I'd call "Florida White Trash"--Tattoed, bandana wearing people with multiple piercings who still rock out to the old music. I'm talking mainly about the American scene, Europeans seem more refined. Like, it just seems kind of patehtic and a lot of those bands, GN'R included, seem really cheesy and juvenile as I'm getting older.

I mean GN'R was better than most of that lot, but still, they had their moments of cheesiness or really cringeworthy juvenile lyrics (Paradise City's chorus or Shotgun Blues or Get in the Ring, anyone?).

I can't explain it, it's just as I get older, I find a lot of the stuff from the late '80s-early '90s, that whole scene (the ripped jeans, big hair, the tattoos, the piercings, bandanas, etc) to be really cringeworthy, trashy, utterly dated and like...just really cheesy and cheap. Like white trashy redneck stuff. I don't include like Iron Maiden or Metallica or Queenrsyche in any of that; a lot of their music isn't just about fucking and doing drugs and having a good time.

More and more my tastes are going to old music--Doo Wop, old R&B, Motown, early Rock, Rockabilly, Blues, Jazz, Pop....And my rock tastes are becoming more restricted to like Classic Rock (Stones, Zep, etc), early Metal, Grunge, Progressive Metal, and Punk. I just find the whole Glam Scene to have been utterly fucking BANAL.

Some of It's "good time party" music meant for cruising in the car. Metal encompasses a lot of area, some of it's brainy, some of it's moronic.

It also comes down to bringing the global audience together, keep it simple so a kid who doesn't speak English can still sing along to it, put it at the beat that a girl shakes her ass to.

My taste in music has always been all over the place, and just think when there's too much of the same thing going on, it kind of starts blending in and like wallpaper at some point.

[Guest Len B'stard]

You have not included Metalica and metal I notice. You have to remember that the ripped jeans/tattoo look was just a part of Metal as of hair rock.

The trappings were similar but musically/lyrically Metallica and other metal bands like Iron Maiden IMO have always been greater, a little less juvenile, a little less trashy somehow.

Metal is pretty much the definition of trashy. I mean, i dunno when long hair, Special Brew and tattoos became like, a sign of class but yeah, Metal and Metallers are like...pretty much trash personified. And thats about the only good thing i got to say for Metal is that, whatever else it may be, at least it's got some kinda edge.

Trashy when it comes to music is a good thing, rock n roll is trashy, punk is trashy, trashy is good, i mean Christ, who the fuck wants clean cut rock n roll?

[MB.]

You have not included Metalica and metal I notice. You have to remember that the ripped jeans/tattoo look was just a part of Metal as of hair rock.

The trappings were similar but musically/lyrically Metallica and other metal bands like Iron Maiden IMO have always been greater, a little less juvenile, a little less trashy somehow.

Metal is pretty much the definition of trashy. I mean, i dunno when long hair, Special Brew and tattoos became like, a sign of class but yeah, Metal and Metallers are like...pretty much trash personified. And thats about the only good thing i got to say for Metal is that, whatever else it may be, at least it's got some kinda edge.Trashy when it comes to music is a good thing, rock n roll is trashy, punk is trashy, trashy is good, i mean Christ, who the fuck wants clean cut rock n roll?

Well said, trashy is fun, it makes me laugh.

Maiden not trashy and juvenile? Eddie is so classy right

Edited March 20, 2013 by MBRose

[Gordon Comstock]

You have not included Metalica and metal I notice. You have to remember that the ripped jeans/tattoo look was just a part of Metal as of hair rock.

The trappings were similar but musically/lyrically Metallica and other metal bands like Iron Maiden IMO have always been greater, a little less juvenile, a little less trashy somehow.

Metal is pretty much the definition of trashy. I mean, i dunno when long hair, Special Brew and tattoos became like, a sign of class but yeah, Metal and Metallers are like...pretty much trash personified. And thats about the only good thing i got to say for Metal is that, whatever else it may be, at least it's got some kinda edge.

Trashy when it comes to music is a good thing, rock n roll is trashy, punk is trashy, trashy is good, i mean Christ, who the fuck wants clean cut rock n roll?

Well, I dunno, I mean there's so much music that can get called "metal", some of it is trashy and all but then you have stuff thats carefully put together, it's almost like classical music in how its arranged, tons of technical skill in the music, and it's not for everyone but it's a stark contrast to like Metallica. That doesn't make it clean cut, though.

I wouldn't really consider myself a metalhead, but most people assume I am, I look the part, I wear jeans and t-shirts, long hair n' a tattoo, but that doesn't mean I'm *just* into metal. I could say that people who call eachother "bro", wear bright tank-tops and plastic glasses, listen to electronic music and drink Jagerbombs are trash personified, but it's just another scene, like metal, isn't it?

[moreblack]

"classy" rock doesn't sell.

[GivenToFly]

Stereotypes aren't good.

[DieselDaisy]

If you look at the type of people who liked GN'R, trailer white trashy people, they are usually similar to the type of people who like Metallica.

[MB.]

If you look at the type of people who liked GN'R, trailer white trashy people, they are usually similar to the type of people who like Metallica.

I am european, so maybe different. But there was no stereotype of people who liked GNR, certainly not after the UYI albums. And more people liked Bon Jovi and Aerosmith as well, not a whole lot who loved Metallica actually. Well maybe only the black album, but that one is different.