Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!lfcs!hans
From: hans@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Hans Huttel)
Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.metal
Subject: What else do people listen to ?
Message-ID: <1647@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 16 Jan 90 15:44:54 GMT
Reply-To: hans@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Hans Huttel)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U
Lines: 69


- before this newsgroup degenerates to alt.flame MK II I want to
introduce another, (and I hope) less destructive topic. What else do
you listen to, besides /\/\etal ? 

I got into metal relatively late. When punk and new wave finally
reached Denmark around 1981 I became interested in rock music at a
more serious level and I began listening to bands such as The Jam, The
Clash, Echo & The Bunnymen, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode, U2, Joy
Division/New Order etc. (i.e. mainly `British gloom') For a while I
was also quite fond of Talking Heads, and a year ago or so a kind soul
mentioned REM in my presence. Punk also indirectly introduced me to
reggae. As for mteal, I felt for a long time that metal was a
relic from the early 70s, music with played by old men. 

My interest in metal began when I moved to Britain in 1988 and
discovered thrash/hardcore. By that time I felt that most of the
interesting bands of the early-to-mid 80s were now heavily commercial,
starting to became to a new generation of dinosaurs, not unlike the
dinosaurs that punk tried to overthrow. The UK `indie' scene circa
1990 is uninspired and uninspiring.  Stone Roses, House of Love,
Wedding Present etc. - nothing to write home about. The `goth' bands
(The Mission, Sisters of Mercy etc.) are/were just doing the old Led
Zeppelin stuff one more time. (If you ask me, I'd say that the last
interesting new band was Jesus & Mary Chain.) Thrash has the best of
punk circa Dead Kennedys: It's fast, it has
political/weird/you-name-it lyrics, there's slamdancing and 
stagediving at gigs. And it's about the only really controversial kind
of music left today !

I still don't listen to `mainstream metal' a whole lot. One exception
is The Cult, I guess that is because they happen to be an old Joy
Division-style `gloom' band from the mid-80s... Another exception is
Living Colour (one of the most intelligent & ARSE-kicking bands
around IMHO). 70s bands such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden etc. don't
mean an awful lot to me. Nor do the pretty-boy US types or the
appalling Guns'n'Poses. 

I still listen to all the punk/new wave stuff. I also listen to
reggae, `world music', and classical music (Schoenberg, Mahler, Ravel,
Satie). I think it's important to listen to different kinds of music
so that you don't become some intolerant idiot who spends his/her
time muttering that `there hasn't been a good band since...'  or `why
can't they play songs like ...'

BUT this is January 1990 and thrash and hardcore (Anthrax, Bad Brains,
Metallica, Nuclear Assault, VoiVod etc.  etc.)  are heavily
represented in my record collection (PUN!!! - please laugh) `cos
that's where it's at now. I just hope thrash won't produce too many
dinosaurs (though it probably will). And I hope the DIY spirit of punk
& hardcore doesn't drown in loads of 70s-inspired pointless
fingerboard masturbation a la Malmsteen...

BTW, I was also disappointed when some people walked out at a recent Bad
Brains gig in Glasgow when the Brains did a reggae song. 

OK, enough intellectual rubbish for now! Now I'd like to hear from
YOU. What else do you listen to besides metal ?????

Send me a reply by e-mail instead of posting and I will post a summary
in a week or two !

"I'm caught in a mosh"

Hans
| Hans H\"{u}ttel, Office 1603     JANET: hans@uk.ac.ed.lfcs
| LFCS, Dept. of Computer Science  UUCP:  ..!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!hans
| University of Edinburgh          ARPA:  hans%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
| Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, SCOTLAND ...  Ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more!