Apologies, generalizations ahead.

[green_freak]

OK, so I lost my notes on what I wanted to write tonight. I'll be sure to elaborate later.

• The Metal community is elitist. So much so that I believe it to be similar to pop music or the pseudo-punk music that dominates the pop genre in today's top 40.
• It seems to me that the metal community/subculture is dominated by consumerist ideals. 99% of the patrons of tonight's metal fest were individuals wearing apparel promoting one band or another. It was like living a four hour commercial for the subculture itself, as well as the many bands that I was beaten with.
• Alright, so if Helene cixous holds ground then these people are what they wear, their bodies are their esels... which are painted with band-propaganda, ideological concepts pertinant to their subculture and community, and the like. So why is it that metal and metalheads want to function against dominant paradigms when they adhere to most of them so firmly? so many of the ideologies from pop subculture are adhered to in the metal subculture and I don't get it. I'm not saying it's bad, I just don't get it... yet.
• What of headbanging? I saw many bald men tonight headbanging beside individuals throwing their hair around as is the headbanging tradition. Curious ritual it is
• And the homosocial aspect. Three men in front of me in the pit tonight had their arms wrapped around each others' shoulders headbanging in unison. I thought to myself, how many homosexuals are there in the metal community? and what significance does that resulting statistic hold? Espescially considering the cultural elitism of most metalheads.
• Concerning the elitism, I've heard from numerous people in the metal community that "metal is the new classical". After shuddering for a while at the thought that Amon Amarth is being compared to individuals like Beethoven and Stravinsky I thought to myself: "this subculture is creating a high culture for themselves in order to distinguish themselves from the phillistine non-metal community... it reinforces the elitism that I'm thinkin is indoctrinated into the subculture's members through rigirous rituals of tradition and adherence to a set paradigm of music.

OK, there will be much more later, and much more refined writing.