Global Metal Music Trends

Global Metal

• Brazil:

  • Spread: Brazilian drums, deep purple performance, guys dressed in glam/goth, visual k music.
  • Unique: End of dictatorship, Brazilian drum influence.
  • Aspects Shared: Escape from pressure & daily life stress, freedom of speech.

• Japan:

  • Spread: Metallica's first performance.
  • Unique: Long hair to represent power, martial arts (example of unique Japanese expression).
  • Aspects Shared: Expressing dark emotions, globalization.

• India:

  • Spread: Through Bollywood.
  • Unique: None specified.
  • Aspects Shared: Nonconformity, outlet from an oppressed society, having your own identity by identifying with metal.

• China:

  • Spread: Sharing of Western cultures, modern music learned in schools, CDs
  • Unique: None specified.
  • Aspects Shared: Expressing dark emotion, globalization.

• Indonesia:

  • Spread: Metallica's first performance.
  • Unique: Singing about political, religious, and social issues/voice of hatred.
  • Aspects Shared: Expressing anger of social and unfair poor status, identity.

• Israel:

  • Spread: Metallica played, deep purple performance.
  • Unique: None specified
  • Aspects Shared: Freedom of speech, escape from pressure & daily life stress..

• Iran (via Dubai):

  • Spread: Internet and MP3 downloading, western culture.
  • Unique: People from other countries connected, speaking out about anger and war in a positive way.
  • Aspects Shared: Fought for the right to love metal (a unique aspect).

Ska

• Hybridity: Combination of multiple musical styles/genres.

• Musical Precursors: Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and R&B.

• Alpha Boys School: Founded by nuns in 1880, orphanage and industrial school, Sister Mary Ignatius Davies, a music lover, teacher; graduates became professional musicians.

• Sound Systems: Enlarged for outdoor crowds, liquor stores and dancehalls, lucrative and competitive, toasting.

• Jamaican Independence: August 6, 1962; Ska as Jamaican national music; NY World’s Fair (1964): Skatalites vs. Byron Lee, authenticity vs. image.

• 2Tone: English record label, merging ska, reggae, punk, and pop; founded by Jerry Dammers of the Specials with Chrysalis Records; racial and social unity, stage invasions, skank dance, British pop with ska elements.

• Ska in Different Regions:

  • UK: Ska to white British youth (rebellion/message-oriented), nationalism and socialism.
  • Latin America: Massive appeal, related to Caribbean and Latin elements, same working-class struggles (unemployment, depression, lack of opportunity).
  • US: Comics-style album art, zines, themes of racism, greed, war (spies instead of rude boys/girls).

• Ska's Rise: Cultural and Spiritual Influences: Jazz (1920-1940), tourism, US military bases, radio, Charlie Parker, R&B, radio and tenement yards, variety shows, Rush Brown.

• Artists and Songs:

  • Sonia Pottinger: Leading Jamaican music producer, record labels, and musical celebrities.
  • Theophilus Beckford: Jamaican pianist, pioneer of Jamaican ska from R&B.
  • Skatalites: Jamaican ska band, solidified ska as a genre; many were alpha boys
  • Millie Small: First international Ska hit, "My Boy Lollipop", combined Jamaican and British flavors, message-oriented
  • The Specials: Promoted unity among British youth, Jamaican musicians, "Gangster" (1979), "Al Capone" by Prince Buster inspiration, stage invasions, the skank, rude boys/girls image.