Metal and Blues

Metal and Blues

This essay shall take a look at the history of the past 20 years in the life of metal, chronicling its importance socially and culturally, accessing the technological changes that have taken place as well as how the relevance of it as a tool for social disparity has changed. The essay will also take a look comparatively at the blues and how it also takes social issues by the horns and pours them out into song form.

1. How is aggression portrayed with the musical elements

On the surface aesthetic it is “obvious” that Metal music is of a more aggressive nature than blues. This is an easy misconception to make and in fact taking any kind of musical form by face value without considering the whole is quite misguided. To discover the true nature of music you must pull it apart into its different facets, these are universal to all types of music and can then be utilized in this comparison of genres. Tonality, texture, lyrics, tempo, melody and instrumentation. All these are variables usable and transferable to all genres.

Purely by looking at the name “Metal” it is easily read that this music is not of a tame nature. The whole idea of metal music is to take a look at rock music but from an extreme view point. The instrumentation of metal music is quite standard in terms of rock music. The typical set up for a metal band is, two guitars, a bass guitar, a drummer and a lead singer. This set up guarantees a huge sound and the ability to use both guitars for harmonious passages during songs, for rhythm and lead sections and usually frees the vocalist to sing without needing to concentrate on a guitar.

These guitars would usually be fitted with dual humbucking pick-ups. These pick ups are perfect for metal as they take both the low end sound and high end sounds and boosts them allowing control over rhythmic chunky sounds and lead solos alike. The main practitioners of these types of metal guitars have been ESP guitars and Jackson guitars. Characteristically metal music is set at blistering speeds, sometimes exceeding 200 bpm with the drummer accenting this with double bass fanatics. This chaotic speed spliced with equally chaotic guitar riffs make for enough aggression alone without the vocalist saying a word. A lot of the time with metal music and more recent evolutions of the genre(for example where there is no singing but screaming), the melody is not necessarily from the singer but in the guitars and their harmony or disharmony. For the most part there is textural imbalance between the band and the vocals. Classic metal from the 80s would usually have an almost operatic singer in terms of tenor range and soaring composition giving an epic operatic feel. People like Iron Maiden are known for this. Usually set in minor modal patterns or minor keys, metal anthems occupy a darker sonic niche. There are exceptions to this rule though, “hair metal” for instance appealed to masses with mostly major songs and easily listened to melodies that had an appeal to the masses far beyond the reaches of other metal. Sonically, metal music embodies chaos, desperate aggression not only seen through a lyrical portrayal.

The blues, developed in the southern states of the USA, takes on a more instrumentally calm arena. More of a minimalist movement a blues band can comprise of anything from a piano, double bass and drummer, to a solo guitarist/vocalist. Rooted in the black culture of the slave south the lyrical content of this genre is the most important aspect. Songs usually tell stories, stories of sorrow, lost love, hardship and solitude. This content is still at the core of this black originated format of southern music, even though it is played and enjoyed by all colors and races. The guitar or whatever instrument is being utilized usually is used to accent spaces where the singer isn’t saying something. A call and response form, like old negro-spirituals. The blues can be played within the 12 bar blues format which repeats over and over with different lyrics played sung over the top, or the blues scale can be used but the 12 bar structure doesn’t need to used. The blues scale is based on a minor pentatonic scale, for example the C minor pentatonic scale has all the notes within the C minor blues scale i.e C, Eb, F, G, Bb plus an added Gb, this is often called the “blue” note as it gives a blues scale that blues sound that is so unique. Due to the scale which the blues inhabits the somber subject of blues is already set in place without a word being said. By shouting or “hollering” the social outcry or message of the song over these chords it displays a completely different type of aggression that the chaos and speed of a metal tune could give. The blues is not as anthemic and epic as metal, yet closer to home, warmer sounding and therefore highlighting the disparity within aggression. Less of a call