The two distinguishing features of hard music are distortion and intensity. Distortion is most apparent in the vocals and the guitars, though it occurs in the drums also, in the form of heavy rhythms.
Distortion, when applied in an intense manner, has the effect of extremifying the music. Thus, hard music is not an offshoot of "rock'n'roll", but a world of genres unto itself. It is all music--extremified. Heavy metal is the extreme version of rock and blues. Hardcore is the extreme version of punk, reggae, and hip-hop. Hard industrial is the extreme version of soul and techno. Thrash, death, black, progressive, and doomdeath bands often play extreme versions of classical, folk, jazz, and other kinds of music. Thus, hard music is a self-contained musical world.
Since it is self-contained, hard music obviates the need for all other music. The non-extreme versions of music are still legitimate, but they cannot claim any relation to hard music, either of superiority or inferiority. "Crossover" between the two worlds is futile and meaningless.
Extremification has aesthetic significance. The choice of hard music is indeed a matter of personal taste, but personal taste does not arise within a vacuum. There are several characteristics accompanying the taste for hard music: individualistic independence, defiance, and vitality chief among them.
Independence is a characteristic of the taste for extreme music because extremism sets apart. Hard music arose from soft music, achieving existence only after the invention of the modern electric guitar. Thus, one who enjoys hard music has done so through choice: the "state of nature" for our tastes is to enjoy various sorts of soft music. Choosing to enjoy hard music is then a definite shift, an act of independent will. Also, individualism, exemplified in resistance to authoritarian structures or systems, is a common theme in metal music. Even speed metal romanticizes the individualist ideal (cf. Metallica's "Master of Puppets").
An offshoot of the individualist streak in hard music is the tendency to glorify defiance. Because hard music overthrows entrenched aesthetic notions, it also tends to favor the overthrow of establishments in other areas. For example, punk bands tend to favor overthrow of government. Various (especially black) metal bands favor the overthrow of traditional morality and religion. However, I should point out that the individualism inherent in hard music does not necessarily lead to the view that traditional morality or governmental systems should be overthrown. One may make the case that overthrowing traditional morality will lead to even more despotic collectivism than currently exists. Such arguments are well beyond the scope of this essay, but the trend holds that defiance toward established institutions is a natural characteristic of hard music, and perhaps one that should be lauded.
Vitality is a characteristic inherent in the taste for hard music because of the stark nature of all hard music. Extremification causes the different natures and sorts of music to become brighter and sharper-edged. Music is fuller, louder, and more headstrong. The soft-music taste prefers to look obliquely at music, through a glass darkly, but the hard-music taste revels in the fullness and all-encompassing nature of extremified music.
Take for example a speed metal riff. The riff is chunky, full, and vibrant. With several repetitions and variations it establishes a mood of intensity. Then add a guitar solo. The guitar solo transcends the intensity. It represents escape, liberty. It represents an ascent into the ethereal. This way is only one of many in which different types of hard music express vitality.
I am by no means arguing that a taste for hard music renders unjustifiable different tastes within hard music itself. On the contrary, because hard music is self-contained, there should be different tastes within it; otherwise, one would be enjoying all music equally (for to enjoy all hard music equally is to enjoy all music equally, because hard music incorporates the whole of music and extremifies it).
In fact, whole genres of hard music may be justifiably disliked by a hard-music fan. Not only does talent within the music of specific genres distinguish between "good" and "bad" music, but the qualities of those genres can define entire genres of hard music as "good" or "bad" within the realms of personal taste.
I prefer progressive and traditional metal to the newer trends in hardcore, alternative, and industrial. Progressive music incorporates greater harmony, more intricate melodies, and more virtuosity in performance than does alternative music. As such, it is fuller and more meaningful to my taste, thus fulfilling the essential characteristics of hard music even more. For example, progressivism tends to prevent commercialization and formulaic songwriting, qualities which are directly contrary to the hard-music spirit of independence.
Also, speed metal appeals to me for its progressivism (whether intended or not) in rhythm. Through use of crunchy rhythm-guitar sounds, the speed-metal rhythm folds over onto itself, creating a sense of greater intricacy, fullness, and wonder, not to mention what it gains in aggressiveness.
Of course, many will argue in opposition that progressive and traditional metal are not aggressive and raw enough. Such is the way of personal taste. It is entirely subjective, and no one is necessarily right or wrong.
In my next article, I will analyze the particular ethos of heavy metal in its more technical and progressive forms. In particular, I will demonstrate that the general ethos of extremification, which includes individualism, defiance, and vitality, interacts with the Romanticist ethos imported into hard music by heavy metal.
In closing, I note that this discussion has been abstract and pretentious, but if metaphysical and existentialist philosophers may use such rhetoric, so may the musical philosopher.
EdNote: Please send in your comments. Constructive criticism and warranted attacks on philosophy are necessary and will be received. Look for my response to this, and your letters, next issue.