The fact that heavy metal started as a type of music to “evoke…power and potency” (Walser 1) illustrated that those who were into the culture had tastes that strongly contrasted what was mainstream; however, like most things that are so far away from what is mainstream, Heavy Metal got expanded to a more mainstream and accepting audience. By shifting its focus from “the exclusive domain of male teenagers…[the audience] became older…younger…and more female” (12-13.) This marks an interesting shift in how the music was listened to. While there was still the core basis of listeners that appreciated the music itself, Walser postulates that the genre became more preformative in the sense that the aesthetic factors were promoted just as much as the music itself, even by MTV, as it was “a natural for television…[with] its important visual dimension [which] could be exploited” (13.) This lead to it being broken up to appeal to multiple audiences, from thrashy punk metal to romantic hair metal.
While true that Heavy Metal had a significant influence on other types of music, this influence appeared to be mostly tactical. Eddie Van Halen’s “noisy, virtuosic solo” in Michael Jackson’s 1982 mega hit “Beat It,” it seems as if this was merely a way for a pop song to appeal to a mass audience, while still having an edge of “danger, intensity, and excitement” (15.) Can these sounds still be scary when sung by Jackson in a non-threatening way? I definitely think that there is potential; however, the metal took a back seat to Jackson and only went to make him look better, instead of the genre. By being unable to achieve a balance in the mixing of the genres, it appears that the mainstream will always overpower a subculture, in turn, making it appear as if it has sold out.
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