Metal and Old People

[Jonny]

Been thinking about some things and one of them was "Is there a correlation between Metal and the Age of Listener"?

I can understand Rock and Roll, and the older generation because simply that sort of sound was first heard in those times and potentially imprinted a greater impact on the person than say rap has to the current generation. In my opinion, I hope I'll still like Metal in my older years but sort of can't imagine it at all.

Unfortunately are stereotypes for Metal, and none of them are 'older' for lack of a better term.

Opinions? Just one of those "I'm revising, but I'm taking a break and I just happened to think about this stuff" times.

[Davey]

just look at ben.. he's a hundred fifty eleven and still likes metal  :P

[Jonny]

My estimate of his age wasn't that far off after all!

[Denim n Leather]

The Ancient Of Metal is not pleased ... =P

[nfe]

The majority of the punters at the festivals we put on are probably 22-35. And probably as many older than that as there are younger.

I think the more extreme the music the older the listeners get, in terms of metal. Extreme music tends to have listeners that get rather dedicated and stick with it for a long, long time, in my experience. Plenty guys that got into grind as teenagers in 1987 still turning up to plenty gigs.

[dave_mc]

i think that's just a stereotype put about by people who don't like metal. or people who thought they liked metal (or liked it to be cool) but then realised they didn't.

[FELINEGUITARS]

I still listen tomost of the bands that I did when I was 16 as well as many other newer bands
In fact I'm just off to see KISS tonight

What I listened to was called metal back in it's day as well as hards rock
Maiden, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Rainbow, MSG, Scorpions, Kiss, Queen, Van Halen, Ozzy, Motlety Crue etc etc

Think the name still applies although it may seem a bit slow and tame to some modern metallers
And I'm old now - soon to be 45

Anyway - off for a mosh at Wembley - see ya later

[Philly Q]

In my opinion, I hope I'll still like Metal in my older years but sort of can't imagine it at all.

I think you'll probably still like the metal you like now, but perhaps you won't like whatever they're calling "metal" by the time you're old.

The music I like best is still the stuff I started listening to in the late '70s and early '80s, and I can't imagine a time when I will suddenly "go off it".  I also kept up with a certain amount of new music in the '90s and '00s, and I like that too, but it doesn't mean as much.  If anything, I've delved further back into the '70s to find stuff I missed when I was young.

I know nfe will say there's lots of great new music out there if you make the effort, but I've reached a point where I no longer hear much new "metal" that I either like or can relate to.  I think it's partly because I'm at least 20 years older than the people making the music, partly because I'm "set in my ways" - that does happen as you get older.

So, when I'm old(er) I think I'll still be listening to Black Sabbath but I won't be listening to Crepuscular Anal Putrefaction or Blood Inside Cat's Vulva.  QED.

[nfe]

I know nfe will say there's lots of great new music out there if you make the effort, but I've reached a point where I no longer hear much new "metal" that I either like or can relate to.  I think it's partly because I'm at least 20 years older than the people making the music, partly because I'm "set in my ways" - that does happen as you get older.

My point when I say this usually that whatever you are into, there will be new bands making it, and making it well. Not just that there's a lot of good totally new sounding music about.

The majority of what I listen to falls loosely into grindcore, black metal, crust and doom. And whilst they've all changed a bit (black metal particularly) a lot of the bands (and most of the best ones) still sound a lot like Napalm Death did in the 80's, or Darkthrone in the early 90's, or Doom in... etc etc. So recent bands like, say, Blood Ceremony, are a fantastic new act making music that sounds like 1976, y'know? :lol:

[Philly Q]

The majority of what I listen to falls loosely into grindcore, black metal, crust and doom. And whilst they've all changed a bit (black metal particularly) a lot of the bands (and most of the best ones) still sound a lot like Napalm Death did in the 80's, or Darkthrone in the early 90's, or Doom in... etc etc. So recent bands like, say, Blood Ceremony, are a fantastic new act making music that sounds like 1976, y'know? :lol:

Yeah, I've heard some Blood Ceremony and quite like it (very Herschell Gordon Lewis! :P ).  I take your point about many new bands sounding like their influences, and I have checked out a few of them (I love Spiritual Beggars, for example, and to me they're a "new" band).  But on the whole they tend to sound like inferior imitations, so I just go back to the originals....

[dave_mc]

yeah, philly, i mean what i consider metal is the 80s stuff. I like a little bit of the newer stuff like killswitch engage (inb4 all the troo guys start saying it's not metal, I don't care, and to the average person in the street it's metal), but mainly i like the older stuff.

[Antag]

I'm with nfe on this.

At 38, my tastes are more extreme than in my teens.  I first got into metal when I listened to Iron Maiden & Kiss at 12.  I was slightly later than many of my friends getting into Thrash (seeing Anthrax & Testament in 1987 was probably the first time I really "got" it & thereafter Exodus became my absolute all time favourite band).  Found early Napalm Death a bit too extreme at first (my guitar teacher taught at same school as Shane Embury), Death too (the band, not the genre).

But my tastes took a lurch to the extreme around 1990 with Obituary, Bolt Thrower, Cancer, Morbid Angel, Godflesh.

I'm fairly convinced that had Meshuggah released "Chaosphere" in 1988 as opposed to 1998 I wouldn't have liked it.

Yes, I do feel comfortably the oldest person in the room when I go to an extreme metal gig nowadays.  On the flip side, when I went to see Rush last time, there were men in suits in their 50s in the audience & I would guess I was in the younger half of that crowd :lol: (a crowd which, incidentally, lifted the roof off the place when the band took the stage...)

[JDC]

One thing I noticed about getting older and metal is I seem to get through albums quicker, the only new band I've got into in the past year or 2 has been Scar Symmetry. When old favourites release a new album I always think the old stuff is better, but if the new stuff was the was the old stuff and visa versa then I think I'd like whatever was released first

I do wonder if I'll ever hit a stage where I stop listening metal and get an urge to play 80s rock like some folk seem to.

[tomjackson]

Looking a bit further into the future you'll all be into Jazz anyway 8)

[Philly Q]

Looking a bit further into the future you'll all be into Jazz anyway 8)

That seems..... unlikely.  :lol: