The Origins of the 'Metal' Genre

The music genre of 'metal' actually originated in the factories of industrial cities such as Birmingham, UK. The distinct sound of the metal genre was inspired by the heavy 'crunching' and 'whirring' of factory machinery. It is also common that these bands were formed by young, angry men who worked difficult, long and tiring hours. The reason why Metal is such an angry genre is because during the 1930's the majority of factories closed due to The Great Depression. This meant that unemployment within the UK rose from approximately 1 million to 2.5 million. In the Northen region of the UK unemployment reached staggering hieghts of 70%. The men who worked in these factories felt disenfranchised and useless since the role of a man in those times was to be the 'bread-winner' i.e. to put food on the table and supply for their families.

Another instance of mass redundancy that caused uproar in the UK is when Magaret Thatcher closed 25 mines by 1985. In 1992 there was 97 mines that had been closed down. This resulted in the loss of 20,000 jobs. It destroyed communities because there were entire towns built on mining.
This all relates to Abraham Maslowes 'Hierarchy of needs' (pictured below). The basic idea behind this is that a human being needs each layer to survive and live a sane normal life. Without one of these one simply cannot live.

In the second layer (red layer) one of the categories is 'employment'. By taking away this you are practically taking away someones identity. The reaction to this from the young men was anger. This is why Metal is such an angry genre. As well as this it is also a rather sexist and racist genre. Notice that there are very few female metal bands. This is because the origin of metal was formed by young men and this tradition has continued to contemporary metal music.
The reason why Metal is a racist genre is because from the origins of slavery and immigration, jobs were being taken from others who were British origin. Again the reaction to this was hatred and anger thus this is the content of a lot of Metal songs.

A film produced in 1960 and directed by Karel Reisz was 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' starring Albert Finney. A link is posted below to the YouTube clip. This is the typical view of a middle class factory working young man. He is what is known modernly as a 'blue collar worker'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAeb0wiQjA



At 1:22 the voiceover states the phrase "Dont let the bastards grind you down". This saying was very common to hear during the Second World War especially when General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell used it as his motto. It could be argued that whoever invented this phrase was using play on words due to the 'bastard file' which is a type of file used since the 17th century.

I take English Literature and Language and have to study a book written by Margaret Atwood named 'The Handmaids Tale'. This same quote is used in 'The Handmaids Tale' but it is given its Latin translation. This being 'Nolite te bastardes carborundorum'.

A film which focuses on the white collar, middle class demographic is Anton Corbijn's 'Control'. It was released in 2007. There is one iconic image from this film posted below.