There are underground metal scenes in the Muslim world, in spite of disapproval from officialdom that the music is anti-religious. Those in Lebanon and Iran have been well covered, for example. Often its afficionados speak of the supposed universality of metal, and certainly don’t see it as bound to European paganism, so that alone doesn’t seem to explain its failure to connect with those of Afro and Caribbean heritage.
I would instead point to the fact that you can't really dance to metal. Music-making in West Africa and in its diaspora is strongly connected to dancing socially (and maybe getting your freak on), which has never been a priority of metal.
> There are underground metal scenes in the Muslim world, in spite of disapproval from officialdom that the music is anti-religious. Those in Lebanon and Iran have been well covered, for example. Often its afficionados speak of the supposed universality of metal, and certainly don’t see it as bound to European paganism, so that alone doesn’t seem to explain its failure to connect with those of Afro and Caribbean heritage.
That is an interesting point. I am struggling to find a good way of explaining my thinking on this but if you listen to rap music you will see here and there lip service paid to their Christian faith (liner notes thanking God, lyrics mentioning God in some form) even as they talk about "slapping bitches" and shooting rivals. So even in their rebellion they don't openly rebel against their faith.
I suspect that it could be down to differences in what people are rebelling against. If you are a kid living a comfortable middle class white existence then if you want to rebel then you will rebel against the stifling conformity. Black kids, especially in America, live under a very different reality and tend to spend their energy rebelling against being harassed by the police and against the system that keeps their communities in poverty rather than against religious faith and the like.
I so disagree. You can totally dance to metal. First, there's headbanging and moshing which are absolutely kinds of dance, as is air-guitar playing (a kind of... interpretive dance; I guess?).
These may not be what most people think of when they think of dance, but most people also don't think of growling when they think of singing, and yet growling is a form of singing - and in fact one that is connected to traditional forms of singing like the Kargyraa technique in Tuvan throat singing [1] or the Sufi zikar [2].
And if I had a penny for every time I've been told "that's not music" for any metal band I liked to listen to, I'd be a penny gazzilionaire.
I digress. You also can dance-dance to metal. Why not? It's got rythm to spare. If we don't see anyone dancing-dancing to it it's only because metalheads are ... to be kind, self-conscious.
> I so disagree. You can totally dance to metal. First, there's headbanging and moshing which are absolutely kinds of dance, as is air-guitar playing (a kind of... interpretive dance; I guess?).
I completely agree with you here. I used to dance to metal bands frequently when we were allowed to go out and dance.
Well, you got balls. My old friends would have tarred and feathered anyone who dared shake their body to the beat, unless it was from the neck up, or from the waist down.
They were good kids deep down. Don't judge them too harshly.
But I'm a blithering idiot and a senile old fool even. I wonder what will happen when I'm actually old and losing my mind.
African heavy metal refers to the heavy metal music scene in Africa, particularly in East African countries such as Kenya and Uganda, and Southern African countries including Namibia, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
I spent some time digging through youtube videos of those folks, when I discovered them. Crazy, crazy people who go around in full leather attire in Kenya! I remember interviews with some who had found a very Christian like message of love and brother/sisterhood in metal, gods know where. Or maybe they're in a more pure, young phase of metal, like I was in high school, when I felt a connection with every other metalhead in the entire world (which went away after I actually met a few near at home ha ha).
The fans in that scene I believe go out and dance-dance, not just headbang and mosh, if they do that at all. I vaguely remember a video in a night club with people dancing and a black metal band (see what I did there) playing on stage. I'll see if I can dig it out.
Anyway, yeah, black people can totally dig metal en masse. There is no incompatibility. It's just the culture in some places in the world that stops it, I guess, places where black folk are not the majority. But where they are, they have no reason not to embrace metal.
Edit: also, that supports what I said above, that metal is the true music of the people. Take that, pop.
Edit 2: Actually, the scene I had seen before, with the black-leather clad fans, is the one in Botswana not Kenya. Here's some pics:
Thanks for sharing. I had no idea about the African heavy metal scene. Some very cool pictures. It's nice to see people who look a bit more like me enjoying metal.
I am not the biggest heavy metal fan I have to admit. There is some metal I absolutely love and then a lot that I can't stand.
Last year, bored during lockdown, I was reading a Rolling Stone 100 greatest metal albums article and decided I would try to listen to every album in the list and write a short review of what I thought of it. It was a long, and sometimes tough, journey but I managed to make it. I definitely had a better idea of what I do and don't like in metal after that lol
I have been going to blues, rock, and metal gigs around London (plus some festivals) for about 20 years now and it's fairly rare to see anything other than white faces.
Obviously, when I said "you can't dance to metal", I was referring to dancing as traditionally pursued by those populations. They probably don't want to switch from the dancing they are used to to headbanging and moshing.
I get it, but I think the only reason why you don't see people dancing-dancing to metal, rather than heabanging and moshing, is tradition, not the music itself. The music itself has eminently danceable components, particularly oodles of rythm.
To give a few examples, I can imagine, in my head, wild rock 'n' roll dancing, of the kind you'd see young folks of the '60s dancing to Great Balls of Fire and the like, but this time under the sweet sounds of Motorhead or ACDC and it doesn't look out of place at all.
Anyway, I don't think modern dance is much closer to traditional dances either.
I would instead point to the fact that you can't really dance to metal. Music-making in West Africa and in its diaspora is strongly connected to dancing socially (and maybe getting your freak on), which has never been a priority of metal.