Is metal anti-hippie?

Metal is anti-hippie

Disturbing, but quite possibly true. Hippies alienate a lot of people.

 

Black Sabbath is a rather bad example in this subject. Although their anti-war songs are generally typical metal in the sense they just point out how terrible war can be, they also make lots of songs with positive, pro-peace vibes and even very clear antiwar messages in their lyrics (Warpigs, Wicked world), where metallyrics often kind of indulges in the joy of slaughter and massacre.

The Wizard:

"Misty morning
Clouds in the sky
Without warning
A wizard walks by
Casting his shadow
Weaving his spell
Flowing clothes
Tinkling bell

Evil power disappears
Demons worry when the wizard is near
He turns tears into joy
Everyone's happy when the wizard walks by

Sun is shining
Clouds have gone by
All the people
Give a happy sigh
He has passed by
Giving his sign
Left all the people
Feeling so fine"

Into the void:

"Freedom fighters sent out to the sun
Escape from brainwashed minds and pollution.
Leave the earth to all its sin and hate
Find another world where freedom waits.

Past the stars in fields of ancient void
Through the shields of darkness where they find
Love upon a land a world unknown
Where the sons of freedom make their home.

Leave the earth to Satan and his slaves
Leave them to their future in their graves
Make a home where love is there to stay
Peace and happiness in every day."

And maybe the most hippie-ish lyrics of Sabbath, Children of the grave:

"Revolution in their minds
The children start to march
Against the world in which they have to live
And all the hate that's in their hearts
They're tired of being pushed around
And told just what to do
They'll fight the world until they've won
And love comes flowing through.

Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sunrise of tomorrow bringing peace in any way
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?

So you children of the world, listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in spread the word today
Show the world that love is still alive you must be brave
Or you children of today are children of the grave."

 

I think it would be foolish to say that metal as a whole is anti-hippie.

Music as a whole is but a form of expression, what bands choose to express is entirely up to them. Sure, not a whole lot of metal songs indulge in the topic of love, at least not in line with a hippie point of view, but there's a helluva lot of anti-war, and relatively peace-embracing lyrics found in many metal lyrics.

I think if one were to try to generalize a genre as hippie / anti-hippie, you'd be best off trying to narrow it down to sub-genres. Grind, hardcore, thrash, death and black metal are probably some of the least likely to embrace hippie culture, though a fair amount of psychedelic and stoner metal bands probably fit the hippie idealisms fairly well.

 

Yes, but they form genres because of similarity in sound and meaning... do you think metal sounds very hippie?

Quite.

 

Well there is a difference between not sounding hippie and being anti hippie, I think calling metal anti hippie is fairly ignorant its to broad a genre to classify like that, now as for black sabbath being anti hippie you ever seen pictures of ozzy from the 70's ive got live stuff from one of their concerts and there is a fuckin rainbow behind them lol cant get much more hippie than that and if you missed it read what asmodean put up thats more than enough proof I'd say.

 

Actually, I don't think so.

Black Sabbath have stated they wanted their music to oppose the delusional flower power stuff going on around them.

Whether they periodically sounded like hippies, or looked like hippies, doesn't make them agreeing with hippie ideals, which are hippiedom in itself.

I mean, isn't this obvious?

 

metal is not anti hippie at all. lots of metal is rebellious and anti government. they make music that gets rid of anger. and they all just want a better place to live in.

 

So you acknowledge the idea of a genre, and sub-genre, and then go forth in grand generalizations again. Metal as a whole doesn't sound very hippy, though neither does classic rock. Is rock music very hippy? How about punk? Country? ...

Its not about the sound coming from the instruments, so much as it is the lyrics and ideals behind it.

 

Well put /\

I think you really need to go out and actually listen to some music rather than go off some misinformed notations of this is that and that is this, there is alot of shades between black and white.

 

HA! Ok, this is where the "hippy genre" comes in. Ok, there is no such thing as "hippy music" There sure are hippies, for being a hippie is a lifestyle. To say a musical genre being "anti-hippie" is some what true. Most metal music now a days isn't too happy (NOTE there are a lot of bands out there in the genre of metal that are relatively uplifting in meaning) and the music is pretty opposite to the meaning of being a hippie. I just don't think when the people that make that music are actually doing that shit, like destroing the environment or whatever hippies like...peace love and psychedelics... I think metalheads are hippies.

 

Think about it, If some of the metal bands that are around today were making music in the late 60's/early 70's: im sure they would be labeled hippies.
The same goes for, if old hippie bands were around today, many of them would be making metal.

 

Tough subject. On the whole, I think most bands from any subgenre will tell you they are anti-hippie if you'd ask them, but then I doubt most of those musicians are as brutal or evil as they try to portray themselves. There are of course bands that deal intensively with certain topics that were popular among hippies as well, such as spirituality, fantasy, nature, drugs, anti-conformity etcetera, but of course that hardly makes them hippies, then again there will always be a few bands that are neutral or positive toward large parts of the hippie "ideology".

 

HAHA! Very well put, and I want to turn your signature into a bumper sticker XD

 

Of course, you're focusing on musicians and not metal itself. I wouldn't say that because some of those who make it may have certain beliefs that it would render metal to be anti-anything.

 

I would pay attention to the lyrics of the best metal bands.

That will tell you what they believe.

 

All the best metalbands?

 

Well, you would expect these personal beliefs to be of influence on the music and lyrics itself, consciously or subconsciously. Because when people create art, which includes music, they do so to express those things that they know, feel, believe in, care about, etcetera. I would say that if (and I say if) there is anything that would make metal anti-hippie, it's this! The fact that metal is an especially expressionist music style is also the very reason that it's generally harsh, loud and negative. I don't think you can see the music apart from the musicians in this context.

But you're right in saying in your initial reply to this thread that metal as a whole doesn't have a defined set of ideals, so as a whole it can't really be anti-hippie.

 

Hippies are pluralistic, meaning that reality can be whatever you want it to be.

Metal is about reality as it is, which is where it gets the "heavy" part.

 

lots of metal has nothin to do with reality as it is and can be infact quite the opposite and it gets the heavy part from early bands like black sabbath and the heavy sounding riffs they used, where are you pulling all this miss informed shit from.