Heavy metal: The sound and the fury

This year marks the [50th anniversary]( of the founding of Black Sabbath, considered by many to be the first heavy metal band. The exploits of Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, [both real and perceived]( remain imprinted on the music. Half a century is a long time, and the genre has evolved considerably, giving birth to [myriad subgenres along the way.]( Granted, much of heavy metal still comes with a generous helping of gore, demons, and sub-Lord of the Rings fantasy faffery. The music though, is not so easily dismissed. Like jazz, metal has become a “[canonized art music]( and in the words of one critic, “a style you need to know if you want to be in the know.” So let’s get in the know, shall we? 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Heavy metal July 12, 2019 A heavy half-century --------------------------------------------------------------- This year marks the [50th anniversary]( of the founding of Black Sabbath, considered by many to be the first heavy metal band. The exploits of Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, [both real and perceived]( remain imprinted on the music. Half a century is a long time, and the genre has evolved considerably, giving birth to [myriad subgenres along the way.]( Granted, much of heavy metal still comes with a generous helping of gore, demons, and sub-Lord of the Rings fantasy faffery. The music though, is not so easily dismissed. Like jazz, metal has become a “[canonized art music]( and in the words of one critic, “a style you need to know if you want to be in the know.” So let’s get in the know, shall we? 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( AP Photo, file Origin story It began in Birmingham --------------------------------------------------------------- Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Napalm Death, and a host of other seminal metal bands [all come from Birmingham, England](. In the 1960s, musicians in the gritty, working-class manufacturing hub had little in common with hippies of the time and the cosmic psychedelia they made popular. The industrial city in the Midlands served as the backdrop for a much bleaker and more foreboding sort of music than what prevailed on the pop charts. Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi [credits a welding accident]( with the creation of the band’s signature sound. A machine at the factory where he worked as a teenager chopped off the tops of two of his fingers, which could have ended his guitar-playing days. But he fashioned thimbles with plastic and leather and put lighter-gauge strings on his guitar, down-tuned so they were looser and easier to play. The low, sludgy riffs he went on to write set the tone for metal music to this day. Brief history [1968:]( The Polka Tulk Blues Band forms in Birmingham, England. The following year, it renames itself Black Sabbath, after a [horror movie]( starring Boris Karloff. [1974:]( Judas Priest releases its debut album Rocka Rolla which helps define the sound becoming known as heavy metal. [Late 1970s:]( Bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead revitalize the genre with a stripped-down, sped-up, punk-influenced approach, dubbed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). [1981:]( Metallica, Anthrax, and Slayer are founded in the US, progenitors of a brutal, frenetic offshoot dubbed thrash metal. [Mid-1980s to early 1990s:]( Bands like the UK’s Venom, Sweden’s Bathory, and Norway’s Mayhem come to define bone-chilling black metal. The Scandinavian groups, in particular, embrace explicitly Satanic motifs. [1989:]( The Grammys add a category for hard rock/heavy metal, and infamously award the first one to British fantasy-folk rockers Jethro Tull over Metallica. [Late 1990s:]( Nu-metal becomes a thing (think Limp Bizkit), and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. [2006:]( Black Sabbath is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Sponsored by Envision Virgin Racing Watch live --------------------------------------------------------------- For electric vehicle inspiration, look to the racetrack. Join the Envision Virgin Racing Formula E Team in Brooklyn for their Innovation Summit, where global business figures and leading sustainability experts will debate how best to tackle climate change.[Click for more.]( Department of jargon Nobody knows exactly why it’s called “heavy metal.” In the non-metallurgical sense, it can be traced to novels by William S. Burroughs in the early 1960s, in which the phrase was used as a metaphor for drugs (natch). Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, and their ilk were often described as “heavy” by critics in the 60s, and Steppenwolf’s 1968 song “Born to Be Wild” included the term in a lyric (“heavy metal thunder”), although that was about a motorcycle. The first critic to combine “heavy” and “metal” around that time was either Lester Bangs or Mike Saunders, depending on who you believe. Whatever the case, “rarely has any genre of popular culture had such a powerful name,” writes sociologist and rock music scholar Deena Weinstein in [a comprehensive investigation]( into the origins of the term. Fun fact! Much of metal music makes liberal use of the tritone, otherwise known as the “[devil’s interval]( This dissonant note in the scale was considered inherently evil by music theorists in the Middle Ages. AP Photo/Keystone, Urs Flueeler The way we 🤘now The thinking person’s music --------------------------------------------------------------- When fans of metal listen to the music, they don’t feel rage, anger, or despair, but “power, joy, peace, and wonder,” according to [research published last year](. In fact, a [huge survey]( in 2010 sought to categorize people by their musical tastes, and found a significant overlap between metal and opera fans, who shared “similarly creative and gentle personalities.” (For more on heavy metal’s intellectual underpinnings, check out the [Metal Music Studies Journal]( surely the rockingest peer-reviewed journal out there.) Anthropologist Lindsay Bishop has toured with metal bands in the UK for her [research on identity and community](. She found that, “far from the popular perception of ‘angry teenage males,’ heavy metal is culturally inclusive, with a rich and varied audience—including many women and older adults—that embraces an array or religions, sexual orientations and political leanings.” There’s Freddy Lim, a [rising star]( in Taiwan’s parliament, who still records with his band, Chthonic, one of Asia’s top metal groups. Last year, Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person elected to a US statehouse, and [probably also]( “the first member of a thrash metal band elected to a such a prominent governing body.” Actor Christopher Lee, who played a Bond villain, Tolkien wizard, and Star Wars sith lord, recorded a series of melodramatic metal albums in his 80s and 90s. “It’s very important,” [he said]( at age 92, “to show people that even now I can still surprise my audience.” Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Heavy metal? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – AP Photo/Matt Dunham Pop quiz! Which of these is not an actual heavy metal subgenre? Funeral DoomMathcoreHellscapeDeathgrind Correct. At least, it’s not a subgenre that we know of. Incorrect. Nope, that’s a thing. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. By the digits: Metallica edition [134 million:]( Metallica’s global album sales to date [11.6 billion:]( Number of times Metallica songs have been streamed on Spotify and YouTube [$70 million:]( Metallica’s gross revenue for [its latest tour]( for dates played between November 22, 2018 and May 22, 2019 [$2.1 million:]( Metallica’s average gross revenue per concert in 2018 [509 weeks:]( Time that Metallica’s 1991 self-titled album has spent on the Billboard 200 chart, one of [only four albums]( to surpass 500 weeks [10 hertz:]( Bottom range of the Metallica stage show subwoofers [20 Hz to 20 kHz:]( Normal range of human hearing REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen This one weird trick Know your hand gestures --------------------------------------------------------------- The most common sign of approval among metalheads is throwing up [the horns](. The origins of the two-finger gesture, as it relates to heavy metal, are murky, but many credit Ronnie James Dio (who took over from Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath in the late 1970s) with popularizing it. He says he picked it up from his Italian grandmother, who made the [superstitious corna sign]( to ward off evil spirits. The devilish undertones helped make it cool. Now used to acknowledge anything that rocks, in music or in life, the horns gesture has firmly established itself in popular culture. In 2015, it became an official [emoji](. 🤘 Quotable “I do wanna point out that Finland has perhaps the most heavy metal bands in the world per capita and also ranks high on good governance. I don’t know if there’s any correlation there.” —US president Barack Obama at a [Nordic summit in 2016]( AP Photo/George Brich Extra credit! Which of these is an actual metal band? Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs PigsPigs Pigs Pigs Pigs PigsPigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs PigsPigs Pigs Pigs Correct. Rock on! PigsX7, as they are also known, is an ultra-heavy group from Newcastle. Incorrect. What a silly name that would be! If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Person of interest The font of all evil --------------------------------------------------------------- The visual iconography of heavy metal is one of its most instantly recognizable traits: It seems like every band has some variation of the same scratchy, spiky logo. Part of the reason so many share a similar approach is because they all go to the same guy for designs. Christophe Szpajdel has created thousands of band logos, [collected in the book]( Lord of the Logos. Some of his greatest hits include the iconic script for Emperor, the “[Nike Swoosh of Black Metal]( For fun, Szpajdel sometimes turns his distinctive pen to other groups, giving a metal edge to unlikely characters like cuddly cartoon duo Wallace and Gromit, reimagined as a “[slamming guttural death metal band]( Watch this! For a taste of early Sabbath, check out this rendition of “War Pigs” from a December 1970 concert in Paris. This famous bootleg footage has long circulated among fans, which “[captures young Sabbath at their most vital]( AP Photo/Felipe Dana Playlist Listen to a rifftastic [playlist]( of doom metal favorites compiled by Jason Karaian, Quartz finance editor, which he queues up to create a spooky ambience for delving into financial footnotes or wrestling with spreadsheets. (There are also a few [yacht rock]( hits sprinkled throughout, as periodic palate cleansers.) [Listen on Spotify]( Poll How metal are you? [Click here to vote]( A life without blast beats is not worth livingI like Metallica’s balladsDoes Steely Dan count? 💬let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [cricket]( 43% of you said that you are cricket-curious, while 32% said it sounds too time-consuming to love, and 25% of you are already fans. 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20heavy%20metal&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Jason Karaian]( and edited and produced by [Annaliese Griffin](. The correct answer to the quiz is Hellscape. The correct answer to the quiz is Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States [Share this email](