I don't really get/like metal...

[ogreboy88]

all these people

Welcome to the party Ellery! ...But it's still just me. Lame party right?

I believe that says a lot more about the people posting the rhetoric than it does about the headbangers they are jabbing at.

Yes, all my rhetoric has been very explicitly aimed at myself, the headbanger who I am jabbing at. I may cut you, but I have no desire to escape the knife.

Oh so salty chad bro, have some tendies on me.

I have all the tendies in the world for you sigterm. The others may have given up on you, but I will not. Please come back to us. We need you and we love you bro. I'm so sorry that the world is like this.

 

[Funky Ghost]

I am on the outside looking in on a few genres yet still manage to find a few things about them that are interesting or at least less hard to endure Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Karlson541]

...but if, as the research suggests, liking metal has a strong correlation to low self-esteem and feelings of maladjustment (which is scientist-speak for "I feel fundamentally different from 'normal' people and that is often frustrating and painful"), then a lot of metalheads will be very sensitive to statements that might be read as dismissal or rejection. The innocent phrase "I don't get metal" will start shading towards "Everyone else in the world will never get YOU."

As a 40 year old who loves metal, I find myself rankling at the

post. I have to make a concerted effort to remind myself that there is truth to this... Feelings of low self-esteem and maladjustment are more prevalent among early adolescents. It's just that a lot of those kids manage to adapt themselves to the demands of mainstream culture without the cathartic outlet of activities like listening to metal. I can stand around with the other dads at soccer practice and pretend to care about the weather and cars and football and lawncare, but you better believe I'm gonna listen to a song about mass murder and arson afterward to keep myself sane.

Indeed, there are a whole bunch of metalheads reading this right now, thinking "You don't represent me! Stop trying to categorize me in your neat little box!" To whom I will reply: If you had to choose between 'normal' society and a passionate tribe of freaks and weirdos... I don't even need to finish that do I?

All of which is to say: If you want them off your back, you should say something like "Even with all your examples and suggestions, I still don't get it, but I'm kind of jealous because it looks like a lot of fun!"

If you can convince a metalhead that you love their difference, even if you don't share it, they will be yours for life.

Like this:
Link Removed

Normal is not a positive quality in it self, it just tells what the norm happens to be.

Maybe it's not all that bad not feeling normal and comfortable in a world where war, violence and manipulation seems to set the grand scheme of things, where the average IQ is around 100, and irresponsible politicians supposed to lead their people keep accumulating power and money for their own personal gain and do nothing about the increasing poverty and pollution despite our civilization and the world as such heading directly toward the edge of a total breakdown with increasingly haste.

All which seems to define the norm.

Perhaps it's even a healthy reaction to feel sick in a sick world.

 

[FilterFunk]

I haven't read this whole thread, so someone else might have essentially said this already, but...

What if the OP had titled the thread "I'm getting a kick out of watching this drummer play," then included the part about not getting/liking metal in the post? Would it make a difference?

 

[Herrick]

@glocke1When you begin a thread with “I don’t like or hate _______” you are going to offend anyone who likes that. This is usually interpreted as a troll post, because it incites retaliation rather than constructive commentary.

If one is an adult, they shouldn't be offened when a name on their computer screen doesn't like the music they like.

 

[HaphAsSard]

If one is an adult, they shouldn't be offened when a name on their computer screen doesn't like the music they like.

Hm. Replace his "anyone" with "some" and you're both right. Adults definitely shouldn't be offended, but the net and anonymity bring out the inner child in your average internaut. Which thread openers usually know; crying sacrilege at the OP is exaggerated, suggesting they did it on purpose much less so.