Totally True Tune Tales: Community Debate

In the metal community, for many years above and beyond the Internet, the debates have raged: Metallica sucks. Megadeth sucks. Chimera sucks, Pantera sucks, Cradle of Filth sucks. In modern message boards, any one of those statements is likely to spark a battle lasting pages upon pages of argument where typically any points regarding the actual music at hand are tossed aside after the first five minutes.

In the world of hip hop, insults usually run the range from insulting skill and ability to community rivalry and “stable wars,” as it were. It’s a careful craft, picking on one’s choices in rhymes and flow while simultaneously hitting below the belt. This is the more sophisticated argument, while many times it all boils down to where you came from and who you hang with.

Indie (meaning: alt-rock, emo, punk, and rock-experimental) snobs often battle over whose tastes are more refined. You’re a simple child if you listen to Promise Ring or Dashboard Confessional; anyone on a major label is a sellout; and the most important thing is how long one has been listening to a band. Considering many indie bands are so sonically similar that debating nuances is the only debate to be had, it’s almost exclusively a battle to be cool.

And let’s not even talk about the universe of electronica. Your house partiers, your jungle crazies, your trance visionaries, and your stompy counterparts are generally so diametrically opposed in tastes that they don’t bother to intersect so much as block out anything that doesn’t fit into their narrow preference. Although rarely confrontational or argumentative about the music itself, they segregate and form communities of like-minded tastes.

Meanwhile, in the land of country music? Well, some people like the new stuff. Some like the old stuff. Some eschew pop influence, some rally their American heritage, and others just want to dance. But aside from those who take extreme stances, such as the Dixie Chicks or Toby Keith, it’s all country to them.

So, why the differences and disparity between community comraderie in these genres?

Country music is easy to explain, as for years there have been Nashville country-only songwriting practices for years supporting harmony within the genre and creating a distinct sound which is never mistaken for anything but country. And at that point, why would anyone argue subtle differences?

Enter the indieheads. Be it subject matter, a different lyrical poetic style, slightly different instrumentation, use of tempo and time signature, atmosphere, and what color socks they wear, those who search the most obscure of labels for the bands they love most will give you a list eighteen pages long about why one band is completely different from another. While many on the outside are perfectly happy to throw Modest Mouse and Snow Patrol into the same category, don’t tell that to the alt-rock aficionados. You’re likely to learn more than you ever wanted to know about subtle texture, and then have to endure a lecture about caving into the mainstream and how much better they were five to ten years ago.

The difference, really, is culture: country music fans as a whole are not interested in music as a status symbol. It’s like comfort food, mashed potatoes and gravy. They can dance to it, they can relate to it, and they don’t have to sit for three hours analyzing lyrics for hidden allusions to Dante’s Inferno. Country music is entertainment, for the most part, pure and simple.

Indie fans, as a whole, are college-educated to some extent and look for challenge as much as a mood. The aim is to find brilliance, not “it has a good beat and I can dance to it.” Not only that, but they want to maintain that personal connection to the music; they worked hard to discover it and don’t want to share it with the mindless masses who don’t care about its intricacies.

Hip-hop, on the other hand, remains an odd little community, where the socially conscious and composition-appreciative sit in the background with their preferred performers, refusing to bow to stereotype. The flipside is all the general public sees, with repetition facilitating dance, but the music takes a backseat to the culture. Gossip reigns over skill, and tempers flare not because of the music at all but because of personal beefs. The only fans you’ll see actually appreciating the art of the genre fit the first group, yet you’ll rarely see them get defensive or argumentative over which musicians are better than which. Those with skill are rewarded with respect, often times regardless of one’s personal taste.

Meanwhile, techno subgenres are almost the polar opposite. Appreciation is based on energy and mood, and you’ll rarely see any arguing at all. If one person likes this and another likes that, it’s fine; if you don’t like it, you don’t buy it, you don’t dance to it. Everyone has favorites, but beyond that, as long as the proper mood is maintained, there’s no reason for complaint.

Which brings us back to the metal fans. You’ll find those who are devoted to the old school, those who are devoted to one specific sub-sub-genre, and those who just like to bang their heads. Because of the “bad-ass” nature of metal, often music debate turns into a cockfight. It has nothing to do with the intelligence of the group; proclaiming love for one band is seen as an open target to be knocked off as King Of The Mountain. In the end, it’s healthy for the community, as metalheads are an extremely passionate bunch and fight hard for the survival of their music as well as respect from the masses. Hence also why metal debates turn personal very quickly, as it’s often difficult to differentiate how exactly one band is better or worse than another, yet “your band sucks, you suck” is the easiest transition one can make.

The odd thing is that for each of these groups, they remain united because of music, no matter how much they disagree within their respective genres. Country’s a big ol’ family, indie is an elite-fest, hip-hop is a quest for respect and credibility, all subgenres of electronica unite through energy, and metalheads are a big group of brothers who beat the crap out of each other for fun. What is absolutely ridiculous in one group is perfectly acceptable in another and vice versa. But the important thing is that regardless of how far discussion deviates from the original point, they’re still gathered together to discuss music. When that stops, that’s the real time to worry.

Music makes the people come together,

–gloomchen