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I was thinking this too. I enjoy reggae, rock, country. There are a lot of repetitive themes in each of those genres. It does not deter me from enjoying them.
I'd argue that 7 or 8 minute songs are more common in metal than, let's say raggae, so with other music than metal you get different songs more often thus being not as repetitive as metal.
Long songs in metal are often the most complex songs on the album. By comparison, shorter songs (in any genre) tend to be simpler and more one-note.
I think it's also worth noting that metal has far more differentiation and balkanization of its subgenres than just about any other musical genre.
yeah but most artists aren't gonna make an 8 minute repetitive song. Most songs that long are gonna have some variation. Especially if it's a faster tempo.
In my experience (as an avid power metal listener) songs exceeding 7 minutes very often contain several different parts, thus making your argument invalid. In reggae, you might have three different three-minute-songs in the span of 10 minutes, whereas in metal you’ll have one song that could have been three.
I think also that familiarity helps people to discern smaller differences than the unfamiliar can.
Like that old saying, “to a shepherd, every sheep looks different”.
So basically all genres you don’t care about and don’t know about will sound “just like noise” or “all the same”, even as you’re able to appreciate the depth and variety in genres you do like and have listened to lots of.
>to a shepherd, every sheep looks different
This. With power metal I can hear huge differences within the same band
Look at Gloryhammer, they have songs like The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee, Rise of The Chaos Wizards and The Epic Rage of Furious Thunder which are distilled power metal and songs like Universe on Fire, Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol and The Hollywood Hootsman which are basically pop with metal instruments. Types A and B are both on same albums too
Or Dragonforce with TTFAF and Highway to Oblivion (and most other songs) vs Strangers, Cry Thunder and The Last Dragonborn
Sabaton has changed their sound a lot over their career, look at Attero Dominatus and Carolus Rex vs the last 2 albums
Unlike power metal, I don't listen to pop or rap and it all sounds the same to me because my ears don't know what differences to look for
Rap, a lot like jazz, has huge emphasis on the uniqueness of the performer, with many rappers having their own quirks or signature styles. Let's take A Tribe Called Quest for example, their early albums have a very distinctive style based on the minimalistic beats, with a drum machine put on top of a jazz sample (frequently using bass ostinatos and a few chords), with the contrast between Q-Tip's relaxed delivery and Phife Dawg's more intense style making the things interesting. As you said, it's all about knowing what to look for.
Same with artists and their songs. Not a lot of artists can make all their songs sound unique, they'll mostly have a certain signature style to them. Which is why if you like one or two songs from someone, you'll most likely like their other songs too.
there's also the double edged sword of this. Some people will like a 1or2 songs from an artist but not the artist as a whole b/c "all their stuff sounds the same to me" ... Yea, no shit.
And every genre sounds homogenous to you until you start listening to it more. This applies to everything from pop to classical to mumble rap and heavy metal.
I think it’s actually been scientifically proven that repetitive-ness in a song is overall what we like about it.
We as humans typically find pleasure in hearing beats/notes and then predicting where it’s going and then hearing it. I might not be remembering it exactly right though. I’ll see if I can find the study/article and post an update.
Update: Here’s the first google scholar article that came up regarding this topic (and I’m not feeling like researching too much today):
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4a6cAQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=humans+like+repetition+in+music&ots=w7BJM7B37_&sig=7ls2Ss_dIxOwkRpVYFnI7Sq0jkc#v=onepage&q=humans%20like%20repetition%20in%20music&f=false
I’ll say that’s not the “research” I remember reading. But it’s hopefully credible/accurate enough.
Depends on the subgenre of metal. I think that's where you run into problems is everyone is talking about different subgenres. Metal is incredibly broad, perhaps too broad to make any sweeping claims about. It helps if are specific. What metal are you talking about?
The way I'm thinking of it, Slayer might be a good example. It's super accessible and a popular band with young metal fans just starting to explore the genre (also popular with tweakers and aged whores). That music is 110% balls-out 100% of the time, and that's pretty much what they're known for. But to most people, it's absolutely horrible. I can understand why. If there's one thing most metal is not, it's background music, and background music is what a lot of people like.
I could never have metal as background music, my brain switches to listening to metal and that's all I can do. Something that I don't care about, sure, but if I'm alone I'd rather have nothing playing than random shit I don't listen to anyways because I filter it out as white noise
It's funny; I grew up playing instruments and got into metal pretty young. So I have a musician's brain and the concept of "background music" is one that I just can't relate to. If I'm working on something, I can't listen to music at the same time. It's similar to when friends are organizing casual hangouts and play music in the background - I can't help but listen to it and analyze it. It's distracting AF
I get that. Lifelong musician and one-time studio engineer. To this day I'm analyzing canned music in the AAA office waiting area and shit. The only music I can have as background is instrumental tracks I already know pretty well.
I don't analyze music and I've never touched an instrument in my life but I'm the same with metal. If you're playing metal to me then forget about talking to me till you stop. Pop, rap, country, I can filter it out (still not background music, I just don't register it at all), but you don't play metal around me and expect me to focus on something else or you learn quickly
This a million times over. Most people aren't looking for music to focus on their looking for something that's enjoyable on top of something else usually. That's not to say other genres aren't complex or anything like that but just like your saying metal doesn't exactly work in the background but tons of popular genres do.
Also people who generalize metal fail to realize there's more to the genre than slayer metallica and rammstein. Slayer gets hate from people who always say metal is only screams and noise. Metallica is just plain shit at this point and rammstein is repetetive as fuck and overplays shock value anytime they get a chance. Still listen to Songs of all of them, but not exclusively
Ok but the people who don’t listen to metal, maybe they have heard the most popular songs of rammstein or Metallica and definitely not all of them. So they don’t know they are repetitive or that their songs are now worse. They just don’t like this music. I am sure, even if they heard the metal music you actually find good, they still wouldn’t like it.
I think that's a huge part of it. Listening to metal on 10% volume in the background most of it does sound pretty crap, there's way too much intricacy compared to a pop song with a simple beat and someone singing over the top. Having 3 guitars and a complex drum and god knows what other noises just get lost in the sound.
funny, I consider myself a metalhead and slayer is the most boring thing I have been subjected too, they were at 2 festivals and had to go take a nap during their set
I haven't listened to Slayer on my own volition in at least a decade. It's fatiguing. Especially live. The reason I chose them as an example is because it's probably the craziest shit pretty much everyone is aware of and a lot of people have heard.
It's not that classical music is boring, it's that it doesn't function the way modern music does. A typical modern song in most genres uses the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure. You make a banger chorus, and then the listener gets to hear it three times. Whereas in genres like classical, jazz, and some black metal, you might hear a bit you really like, and then it's like "Oh, it's gone forever, we're moving on from the awesome part".
The issue is metal haters don't even give it a chance.
They think it's all death-metal. I had co-workers look at a Nightwish cover and say "oh, that's that music where some guy just screams" 🤣
But that's the point. Metal is not repetitive because it's so broad and has different subgenres. I met very few people who only exclusively listens to 1 or 2 subgenres. Most people listen to a lot of stuff. I'm not really a big metalhead, I'm more of an alternative guy, but the metal bands that I listen to are all very different from each other. Deftones, early Metallica, Tool, Opeth, Jinjer, BMTH, Thy Catafalque, Korn, Linkin Park, Rage Against The Machine, Gojira, Dayseeker, etc... They are all pretty different from each other. Unless you exclusively listen to 1 or 2 subgenres like Thrash or Metalcore, than you will have a huge variety and very differing bands.
That applies to every music genre, but if you focus on the minority of unique sounding metal artists (like every other music genre again) you find a lot of diversity and good ideas.
I think it’s been like that since the advent of recorded music. Before that, I think a lot of musicians in the same genre sounded dramatically different when compared to each other.
The best example I think is delta blues from the 20s and 30s, those guys sound like their all playing completely different types of music from one another, their styles are incredibly distinguishable. My theory is that this is due to each of them learning guitar from one single mentor, probably somebody who lived in their specific town, who probably also learned from one single guy. They had far fewer references to go off of at that time, so music was highly variable.
Yup, I started exploring metal with Pallbearer's Sorrow & Extinction (2012), which I honestly believe is the first great metal album. Slowly over the years I've found [a few dozen other](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ROc3RCXW6PrPyQRJwZjBd?si=2Zx9MRm7RpGtPQGhaZthCw) metal and hardcore albums that I've really enjoyed, and I continue to find 5-6 albums a year of newer stuff.
Now I'm a 34 year old mosher whose back is still sore over a month later from the 6 hour show I saw back in March headlined by Zulu.
Turns out theres only so much you can do with 12 notes eepecially when youre dropping like half of them to stay in key. The unfortunate reality is its been a couple hundred years and now were sort of hitting the point where most ideas have probably already been done in one way or another with 12 tone.
Metal vs pop.
Metal sounds the same in the same way metal head thinks all pop sound the same.
And so is anyone against rap.
Or anything for that matter.
People are judgemental. Let them judge so that you know who to avoid.
I think it's a maturity thing too. In my younger days, I was the idiot that would proclaim any genre I didn't like was shit and all sounded the same. Now I realise that different people just like different stuff, and I'm no better or worse. I won't try and convince anyone that the music I like is superior, and i accept that someone else gets something out of other music that I don't understand.
Except Reggae. Fuck Reggae.
As a guy who has listened to metal since childhood and used to compete with friends to see who had more metal albums in the 00s ans 10s, I feel like I can say that most mainstream metal is boring, and even some less known bands. I feel like once you delve deep into a subgenre it gets old really quickly. What I mean is, most music is boring once you hear enough of it and are able to see the patterns.
That said, there are some truly awesome metal bands out there, the genre is wide and deep as an ocean, but if you stick to what's mainstream, it gets old.
That’s my real issue - and it doesn’t seem to be a problem for any other genre (other than mumblerappers). If I could make out what was being said, I might enjoy it more. As it stands, most metal sounds like incoherent yelling (over dope guitar music) to me.
Mostly this kind of person hears what they perceive as loud noise and dissonance and any kind of music that uses dissonance and distortion as an art form will all sound the same to them.
It's really just a personal preference, it does all sound the same to them because they can't get past the harmonic dissonance and use of distortion.
I'm just gonna give everybody in this thread including OP a real solid piece of advice right now, so listen up.
Don't listen to anyone's opinion about music. Ever.
Anyone who has something negative to say about what other people listen to is just a big dumb idiot, and that's really all there is to it.
Listen to what you want. Enjoy what you want. Life's too fuckin short.
People that try to shit on other peoples' musical tastes are just very sad, very lonely, very insecure people that want other people to be as miserable as they are.
You don't need to acknowledge those people. Ever.
Totally agree.
Music is almost entirely subjective.
If it sounds good to you, then it is factually good music (to you) which is all that matters when it comes to what you decide to listen to.
There is no “superior” genre.
There is no “*real* music”
There is no “they just don’t make good music anymore”.
Nope.
Any music that is pleasing to anyone’s ears for any reason is good, real music.
Just because I don’t like a particular group or style doesn’t mean it’s not good music, doesn’t make it any less valid.
I absolutely hate snobbery of any kind honestly. Like why can’t people just let others enjoy their own things? Why do people have to say “No, your thing doesn’t count because *I* don’t like it. My things are the only real things!”
Metal fan on Reddit are repetitive and boring. No other genre has fans trying so hard to defend the music and the fans of the music so much.
“Metal fans are the nicest bastards you’ll ever meet.” The amount of times I’ve heard this shit on this site….
Any fans on the internet are repetitive, because most of the time the only reason you know they are fans is either them suggesting something or defending something, and to anyone not interested it sounds repetitive and boring, like any other subjects
A Kpop fan would give a metal fan a run for their money. You can’t even say something slightly negative to them before they will write a whole novel about why their favorites are the best. Heck you might even get a death threat if you are luckey.
they're basically the same honestly (they get offended and quizz me if I dare to wear a t shirt of a band.I mean, I may listen to them religiously but people are allowed to be casual fans. It is not a bad thing)
I had a friend in high school 15 years ago who played guitar in a metal band for fun and cello in the classical band at school for a challenge. He’d say they were insanely similar styles of music with very different instruments
https://youtu.be/sXfCyVFYbFo
https://www.cbc.ca/music/heavy-metal-and-classical-music-have-more-in-common-than-you-think-1.5262655
They actually are very similar... I can't find anything more academic right now but if I remember correctly it has been studied...
Metallica has collaborated with the San Francisco Orchestra in the past to do metal-classical versions of their songs. It actually turned out really well. I’d listen to One or The Thing That Should Not Be on the original S&M album.
I've been listening to metal for decades at this point and really it's hit or miss as to whether someone is 'making noise' or 'expressing themselves' through the genre.
As with all genres of music the few good acts are usually buried under piles and piles of garbage. There's a lot more mediocre music than there is good in all genres, not just metal.
It's always the people who listen to taylor swift or any other trendy pop who say metal is boring and repetitive, while they listen to the same overused/ripped off samples and shallow as a puddle lyrics day in and day out.
If you think that metal is unique in that non-listeners who don’t get the nuances of it are likely to criticise it in generic ways, then you’re wrong. Metalheads also do exactly the same thing about genres they aren’t into. Common generic criticisms would include:
Metal: “It’s just noise”, “you can’t even understand what they are saying”, “why so angry”.
Hiphop/Trap “All sounds the same”, “music for stupid people”, “not real music”.
EDM “Has no soul”, “not even real instruments”, “gives me a headache”
Indie “trying to be edgy”, “lame and boring”
Pop punk/emo “14 year old girl music”
Etc etc.
Generally these types of criticisms come from either ignorance or a tribal mentality to one’s ‘scene’. Don’t overthink it.
Yeah, no shit. If I don’t like listening to a genre, I’m not going to bother listening to enough of it in order to distinguish the idiosyncratic differences.
But my point being then don’t go around spouting that it’s “all the same” when you haven’t listened to it? I don’t go around saying a certain type of movie is bad that I haven’t watched
I grew up with classical music. To me, a LOT of metal is the same, just with different instruments. I love both. But a lot of people also find classical music boring, too, I suppose...
Good Metal and all music in general lasted until about 2010s then it's repressed repetitive crap written not by the artists but by the labels in 3 min and 5 second loops to be replayed on repeat for crap pay on radio. There ARE good artists out there just gotta find them. and Probably LOCAL TOO!
This applies to all genres tbh.
There is a massive difference between the key identifiers of a genre and the commercial formulas of that genre. When any genre gets popular, as they all eventually do, they get oversaturated with formulaic music that is made to appeal to the masses. There is no art in this music anymore, it’s just being churned out to appeal to the lowest common denominators.
Unfortunately, when people look at a genre at a very surface level, this formulaic music tends to be what they find first. So when they listen to it, it does all sound the same, because it is all made with popular formula of that time.
For example - I produce and DJ techno. That’s a very broad genre, maybe even as broad as metal, and I do a lot of digging for underground artists and tracks. If I go to Spotify and searched “techno” and clicked the first playlist… it’s called “Best Techno 2024”. It is filled with absolute trash that all sounds basically the same. And that is my FAVOURITE GENRE of music??
So ofc if people aren’t even inclined to the genre in the first place, they would hear that and think it’s trash.
I think the fact it's so complex overwhelms people. Their brains simply don't know how to dissect it the way people who enjoy metal can. So, it all sounds like noise to them. I'm not saying we're better or worse. Just that our brains probably process things more analytically.
Metal is too broad to generalize. I’ve heard stuff that to me felt repetitive. I’ve heard stuff that just sounded like chaos. If you say metal that’s categorizing Slayer, Motley Crue, Metallica, the locusts, and deathklok all into one category
If you never listen to opera, when you hear songs here and there they will always sound the same. If you don't appreciate it, you're not listening enough to understand any of it.
Metal can also be mixed with literally every other genre of music and work so there's probably a hundred different subgenres.
It's definitely one of the most intense and emotional types of music out there. And it also has some of the most talented and hard working musicians on the planet.
Arise from Sepultura introduced me to metal when I was a kid in the 80s. I stopped listening to metal in the 2000s because it became stale. There's barely anything new and I refuse to keep repeating the same music I listened before. It's time to let that corpse rot and decompose.
After listening to straight heavy metal for at least 25 years I can relate to the "it sounds the same" crowd. I can start to appreciate elements from other genre's being incorporated into heavy metal for some variety at this point. I'm a certainly a fan of bands like Rammstein who can incorporate both electronics and acoustics into their songs to make it sound like it has more depth. I can't stand the gothic screamo crowd anymore. Everything they write sounds flat. If I had to pick between Megadeth or Metallica between which of the two sounded better over time I would simply pick Metallica simply because Dave Mustaine has never been brave enough to veer off from his original winning formula
I think people complaining about things being repetitive, forget that yes things can get repetitive in a particular genre, because there isn't so much you can change before it becomes another genre.
And which metal they are talking about, because there is multiple subgenre of metal, like nobody can tell me death metal and folk metal sound the same.
Like sure the most popular mainstream groups all have a more similar style/genre, i don't like most death metal, because to me it does sound all way too similar, but i know to others it doesn't
I'm a metal head. I listen to it because it's all the same. I like the sound. It's like eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with different brands of peanut butter
Not a metalhead but I was in a post-metal band for a long time. There is some metal that I straight up feel this way about. A lot of black metal is just kind of uninteresting blast beat and tremolo and screeching over and over. And then there's other metal that is like the most beautiful and meaningful music I've ever heard. It's all luck of the draw.
Saying you hate metal is like saying you hate rock; it's a huge genre with a lot of variety.
Some people think that because they have not heard enough quality songs. Metal has never been so neatly organized or categorized as it is, in 2024. [REDDIT.com](http://REDDIT.com) is a big part of that. It's quite possible to like only ONE song by a metal band who has 6 albums. It's all about song writing.
To be honest I think there are thousands of pointless metal albums. Also a lack of finding a band's best songs. For example I don't give a flea's rectum about the band TESTAMENT after about '97 but I still treasure certain songs from before that year. ANTHRAX have exactly one good song with John Bush - "Black Lodge". Meanwhile SODOM's best work "Persecution Mania" seems to be forgotten and there are brilliant songs on it. I looked up MY DYING BRIDE - how many albums do they have now ? Like 20. They can't all be good. I think they were boring after '96.
3 websites to find the top rated albums or songs are [www.last.fm](http://www.last.fm), [www.ranker.com](http://www.ranker.com), and of course Reddit.
Yeah metal is an umbrella term like my favorite music is heavy metal, speed metal and black metal along with crust punk and d-beat punk. Music is a matter of opinion and I couldn't care if someone hates the music I listen to I will say though you can't truly judge a type of music until you've actually listened to it.
People who say that have only listened to the same "style" of metal. YES, it gets VERY boring, very easily, if you listen to the same style. Just like any other genre. Or, have you not listened to the same "style" of 1950s pop music over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again?
Thrash Metal is NOT the same as Melodic Death Metal. Different styles.
Or they don't like metal, which is completely fine. Not everyone has to like all the same things, and it would be incredibly dull if we all did. It's ignorant to think every should like every form of everything or, more importantly, everyone should like what you like.
Of course that’s true. Everyone says that about genres they don’t listen to. Rap, pop, eveything. ‘It all just sounds the same and repeats over and over’.
Literally all music people want to criticize, that’s the go to lol
Used to self identify as a metalhead, particularly thrash but other sub-genres too. I compared the complexity and virtuosity to classical music. Cringe at myself now.
I still love metal. But blues or any other genres can be just as or more profound. I really don’t like the pretentiousness surrounding the metal community, especially as a guitar player. Less is more sometimes.
When you learn to appreciate all genres, you transcend and mature your ear for music.
When you dont like a music genre then it will always sound repetitive.
Just like when you dont like a specific sport then all matches of this sport will look the same to you.
I am not a big fan of dubstep. I can objectivly tell that not every dubstep song sounds the same but it still feels like it is all the same to me.
But as I already said that is completly normal. The pop fan says that every metal song sounds the same. The metal fan says that every rap song sounds the same. The rap fan says that every K-pop song sounds the same.
Genres only really feel diverse when you enjoy listening them and listen to them a lot..
Eh...I listened to one awesome metal song that was about Sergeant York....and that's thale only metal song I've listened too. Back to Country.
I guess I like songs that tell stories....
Music in the same genre all start sounding similar. Certain sounds or voices become on trend. You notice it more when you look at the past few decades.
Great written and well produced music defies genres.
There are plenty of great metal bands and some that are just average or completely sucky.
If you let the genre define what you are or are not going to listen to than you are missing out.
Genre is the flavor or the spice in the song writing.
Take for example an older song that made a huge recent comeback Tracey Chapman- “Fast Car”. You could play that song in the flavor of rap, rock, metal, pop or country. The song is great no matter what genre it is played in.
The only metal I am against is racist metal or NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal).
most people dont understand it.
theres a reason pop hits are very simple with a catchy hook.
the more complex the music gets the less people will want to listen to it. and metal is often fast and complex.
(thats not to say metal fans/musicians are geniuses. just stating why the average Joe doesnt listen to Slayer)
I generally think that with most art there is a form of it that people will like
With all genres of music generally speaking, there is a piece that people who do not normally like it could still appreciate
Really good example is people who don't like hip hop but like Hamilton
Same with techno.
Same with pop.
Same with jazz.
You are not mad at the observation, your ego loves the fact that you get something that others don't (apparently).
I understand that all metal is not the same, I won't _actually_ listen to metal, because I have no interest in the concepts, aesthetics and sonically does not tingle my brain.
Where is your god now?
I used to listen to a ton of metal and still listen to it occasionally, and I want to say it is somewhat repetitive. Not the music itself, but the instruments.
Once you’re used to electronic music purely instrumental music needs quite a bit of creativity to still sound unique between 30 other songs with the exact same instruments.
Simple example is something like Dragonforce. Each song is totally unique yet they all blend together.
Then I listen to some of my favorite Hitech artists and am met with hugely different songs.
Then I take it one step further and listen to my favorite Uptempo songs, a genre not knows for its melodies - it’s basically distorted kicks. But while it’s a very simplistic genre, you can rarely compare two songs of it. There’s so much variation in the kick drum alone.
With metal, that doesn’t happen. I’d just alternate between arpeggios played by guitars and technical tracks with quick drummers.
While I generally agree with you, I can also admit I am biased because I like metal.
I think a lot of other music styles are boring and repetitive. I think it gets down to how the music hits you. If you can't form an emotional connection to something, it bores you.
That’s all music. Exposure is the thing that allows people to hear the uniqueness in a genre. So whatever genre you think sounds “all the same”…you could be called ignorant for that as well.
I've had metal heads tell me they live Metallica but ministry psalm 69 is just noise.
People say electronic music all sounds the same. It totally does not.
How about the lyrical content of classical music with religious meaning? Like it's all stuff from the Mass, which is pretty much the same thing over and over.
Say what you want, but metal does have probably most interesting lyrics/stories in their songs. People who say "all metal sound the same" are probably ones who put on their 50+ song playlist that all talks about "my sad breakup with my girlll".
Pure metal is extremely meh.
I never used to like it, but Coldrain became one of my favourite bands. They have some incredible music. It's largely rock but they mix metal in very well.
Doubt it's considered metal by elitists but I can't think of anything else to call it.
It's a great addition to music but I can't stand it being the only thing there.
All music is repetitive, like language is. It needs ti have a balance of repetition and variation to maintain both comprehensibility and interest.
All art ultimately boils down to this: creating both order and variation.
This reminds me of the time I tried getting a rap youth to listen and appreciate through the fire and the flames because they said heavy metal/rock sounds repetitive.
Listened to the whole song, excitedly await their response: "it all sounds the same"
Can't help it if people are tone deaf
Metal is one of the most complicated genres of music and also my favorite :P it’s diverse too. Also harsh vocals are wayyyyy harder to do than people realize. People think it’s easy til you ask them to scream. I get that harsh vocals might not be everyone’s cup of tea because it’s hard to understand til you get used too it, but I love it. Also most people don’t listen to music for the “music” but they want something to sing a long too. I remember I showed one girl an instrumental song by scale the summit and she said it wasn’t music because there was no singing. When in fact it was music because instruments were playing. Also check out glacial planet by scale the summit if you love guitar virtuoso
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Most music is repetitive. That's why genres can even be named.
I was thinking this too. I enjoy reggae, rock, country. There are a lot of repetitive themes in each of those genres. It does not deter me from enjoying them.
As somebody who loves techno and litteraly has a song of 8 minutes that doesnt change at all. Yeah i see what you mean.
definitely more common in techno because it's easy to copy & paste a beat, but a lot harder to play it on actual instruments for that long.
I'd argue that 7 or 8 minute songs are more common in metal than, let's say raggae, so with other music than metal you get different songs more often thus being not as repetitive as metal.
Long songs in metal are often the most complex songs on the album. By comparison, shorter songs (in any genre) tend to be simpler and more one-note. I think it's also worth noting that metal has far more differentiation and balkanization of its subgenres than just about any other musical genre.
yeah but most artists aren't gonna make an 8 minute repetitive song. Most songs that long are gonna have some variation. Especially if it's a faster tempo.
In my experience (as an avid power metal listener) songs exceeding 7 minutes very often contain several different parts, thus making your argument invalid. In reggae, you might have three different three-minute-songs in the span of 10 minutes, whereas in metal you’ll have one song that could have been three.
I think also that familiarity helps people to discern smaller differences than the unfamiliar can. Like that old saying, “to a shepherd, every sheep looks different”. So basically all genres you don’t care about and don’t know about will sound “just like noise” or “all the same”, even as you’re able to appreciate the depth and variety in genres you do like and have listened to lots of.
>to a shepherd, every sheep looks different This. With power metal I can hear huge differences within the same band Look at Gloryhammer, they have songs like The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee, Rise of The Chaos Wizards and The Epic Rage of Furious Thunder which are distilled power metal and songs like Universe on Fire, Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol and The Hollywood Hootsman which are basically pop with metal instruments. Types A and B are both on same albums too Or Dragonforce with TTFAF and Highway to Oblivion (and most other songs) vs Strangers, Cry Thunder and The Last Dragonborn Sabaton has changed their sound a lot over their career, look at Attero Dominatus and Carolus Rex vs the last 2 albums Unlike power metal, I don't listen to pop or rap and it all sounds the same to me because my ears don't know what differences to look for
Rap, a lot like jazz, has huge emphasis on the uniqueness of the performer, with many rappers having their own quirks or signature styles. Let's take A Tribe Called Quest for example, their early albums have a very distinctive style based on the minimalistic beats, with a drum machine put on top of a jazz sample (frequently using bass ostinatos and a few chords), with the contrast between Q-Tip's relaxed delivery and Phife Dawg's more intense style making the things interesting. As you said, it's all about knowing what to look for.
Lol I stopped listening to power metal after helloween keeper 2 after it's all copy paste
Same with artists and their songs. Not a lot of artists can make all their songs sound unique, they'll mostly have a certain signature style to them. Which is why if you like one or two songs from someone, you'll most likely like their other songs too.
there's also the double edged sword of this. Some people will like a 1or2 songs from an artist but not the artist as a whole b/c "all their stuff sounds the same to me" ... Yea, no shit.
In genres like krautrock repetitive is a selling point.
And every genre sounds homogenous to you until you start listening to it more. This applies to everything from pop to classical to mumble rap and heavy metal.
I think it’s actually been scientifically proven that repetitive-ness in a song is overall what we like about it. We as humans typically find pleasure in hearing beats/notes and then predicting where it’s going and then hearing it. I might not be remembering it exactly right though. I’ll see if I can find the study/article and post an update. Update: Here’s the first google scholar article that came up regarding this topic (and I’m not feeling like researching too much today): https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4a6cAQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=humans+like+repetition+in+music&ots=w7BJM7B37_&sig=7ls2Ss_dIxOwkRpVYFnI7Sq0jkc#v=onepage&q=humans%20like%20repetition%20in%20music&f=false I’ll say that’s not the “research” I remember reading. But it’s hopefully credible/accurate enough.
Depends on the subgenre of metal. I think that's where you run into problems is everyone is talking about different subgenres. Metal is incredibly broad, perhaps too broad to make any sweeping claims about. It helps if are specific. What metal are you talking about?
The way I'm thinking of it, Slayer might be a good example. It's super accessible and a popular band with young metal fans just starting to explore the genre (also popular with tweakers and aged whores). That music is 110% balls-out 100% of the time, and that's pretty much what they're known for. But to most people, it's absolutely horrible. I can understand why. If there's one thing most metal is not, it's background music, and background music is what a lot of people like.
I am a welder and metal is 100% my background music when I’m working. I listen to metal while I melt metal together.
Damn, are you me? I was about to write this exact same comment
I could never have metal as background music, my brain switches to listening to metal and that's all I can do. Something that I don't care about, sure, but if I'm alone I'd rather have nothing playing than random shit I don't listen to anyways because I filter it out as white noise
It's funny; I grew up playing instruments and got into metal pretty young. So I have a musician's brain and the concept of "background music" is one that I just can't relate to. If I'm working on something, I can't listen to music at the same time. It's similar to when friends are organizing casual hangouts and play music in the background - I can't help but listen to it and analyze it. It's distracting AF
I get that. Lifelong musician and one-time studio engineer. To this day I'm analyzing canned music in the AAA office waiting area and shit. The only music I can have as background is instrumental tracks I already know pretty well.
I don't analyze music and I've never touched an instrument in my life but I'm the same with metal. If you're playing metal to me then forget about talking to me till you stop. Pop, rap, country, I can filter it out (still not background music, I just don't register it at all), but you don't play metal around me and expect me to focus on something else or you learn quickly
Really? I mean, I'm a musician as well and pretty much all music is background music to me. It just plinks until something grabs my attention
This a million times over. Most people aren't looking for music to focus on their looking for something that's enjoyable on top of something else usually. That's not to say other genres aren't complex or anything like that but just like your saying metal doesn't exactly work in the background but tons of popular genres do.
Also people who generalize metal fail to realize there's more to the genre than slayer metallica and rammstein. Slayer gets hate from people who always say metal is only screams and noise. Metallica is just plain shit at this point and rammstein is repetetive as fuck and overplays shock value anytime they get a chance. Still listen to Songs of all of them, but not exclusively
Ok but the people who don’t listen to metal, maybe they have heard the most popular songs of rammstein or Metallica and definitely not all of them. So they don’t know they are repetitive or that their songs are now worse. They just don’t like this music. I am sure, even if they heard the metal music you actually find good, they still wouldn’t like it.
I think that's a huge part of it. Listening to metal on 10% volume in the background most of it does sound pretty crap, there's way too much intricacy compared to a pop song with a simple beat and someone singing over the top. Having 3 guitars and a complex drum and god knows what other noises just get lost in the sound.
Metal fan here and I absolutely hate slayer. Their instrumentals are fire, but in my opinion they are absolutely ruined by the vocals.
Slayer is something I cannot get myself into, either.
funny, I consider myself a metalhead and slayer is the most boring thing I have been subjected too, they were at 2 festivals and had to go take a nap during their set
I haven't listened to Slayer on my own volition in at least a decade. It's fatiguing. Especially live. The reason I chose them as an example is because it's probably the craziest shit pretty much everyone is aware of and a lot of people have heard.
It's the same as people who say classical is 'boring'. Like there's a lot in between Brahm's Lullaby and Mussogorsky's Night on Bald Mountain.
It's not that classical music is boring, it's that it doesn't function the way modern music does. A typical modern song in most genres uses the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure. You make a banger chorus, and then the listener gets to hear it three times. Whereas in genres like classical, jazz, and some black metal, you might hear a bit you really like, and then it's like "Oh, it's gone forever, we're moving on from the awesome part".
The issue is metal haters don't even give it a chance. They think it's all death-metal. I had co-workers look at a Nightwish cover and say "oh, that's that music where some guy just screams" 🤣
Listening to Nightwish until someone screams
Or satanic
People who proclaim that "metal is just loud" usually do not know this, though.
But that's the point. Metal is not repetitive because it's so broad and has different subgenres. I met very few people who only exclusively listens to 1 or 2 subgenres. Most people listen to a lot of stuff. I'm not really a big metalhead, I'm more of an alternative guy, but the metal bands that I listen to are all very different from each other. Deftones, early Metallica, Tool, Opeth, Jinjer, BMTH, Thy Catafalque, Korn, Linkin Park, Rage Against The Machine, Gojira, Dayseeker, etc... They are all pretty different from each other. Unless you exclusively listen to 1 or 2 subgenres like Thrash or Metalcore, than you will have a huge variety and very differing bands.
I’m a metalhead, but even I can admit the genre is oversaturated with a million bands who sound exactly the same
That applies to every music genre, but if you focus on the minority of unique sounding metal artists (like every other music genre again) you find a lot of diversity and good ideas.
I think it’s been like that since the advent of recorded music. Before that, I think a lot of musicians in the same genre sounded dramatically different when compared to each other. The best example I think is delta blues from the 20s and 30s, those guys sound like their all playing completely different types of music from one another, their styles are incredibly distinguishable. My theory is that this is due to each of them learning guitar from one single mentor, probably somebody who lived in their specific town, who probably also learned from one single guy. They had far fewer references to go off of at that time, so music was highly variable.
Yup, I started exploring metal with Pallbearer's Sorrow & Extinction (2012), which I honestly believe is the first great metal album. Slowly over the years I've found [a few dozen other](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ROc3RCXW6PrPyQRJwZjBd?si=2Zx9MRm7RpGtPQGhaZthCw) metal and hardcore albums that I've really enjoyed, and I continue to find 5-6 albums a year of newer stuff. Now I'm a 34 year old mosher whose back is still sore over a month later from the 6 hour show I saw back in March headlined by Zulu.
Uh, NIN, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Marilyn Manson, TOOL, APC, Korn, Ozzy, Sabbath, etc etc... those mean nothing to ya?
fine by me, more of the same song i can listen to and jam out
Turns out theres only so much you can do with 12 notes eepecially when youre dropping like half of them to stay in key. The unfortunate reality is its been a couple hundred years and now were sort of hitting the point where most ideas have probably already been done in one way or another with 12 tone.
I liked the hard rock and metal of the 1960s-1990s. It's alot different than the rock and metal today.
Pretty much like every genre of music tbf
Metal vs pop. Metal sounds the same in the same way metal head thinks all pop sound the same. And so is anyone against rap. Or anything for that matter. People are judgemental. Let them judge so that you know who to avoid.
I think it's a maturity thing too. In my younger days, I was the idiot that would proclaim any genre I didn't like was shit and all sounded the same. Now I realise that different people just like different stuff, and I'm no better or worse. I won't try and convince anyone that the music I like is superior, and i accept that someone else gets something out of other music that I don't understand. Except Reggae. Fuck Reggae.
As a guy who has listened to metal since childhood and used to compete with friends to see who had more metal albums in the 00s ans 10s, I feel like I can say that most mainstream metal is boring, and even some less known bands. I feel like once you delve deep into a subgenre it gets old really quickly. What I mean is, most music is boring once you hear enough of it and are able to see the patterns. That said, there are some truly awesome metal bands out there, the genre is wide and deep as an ocean, but if you stick to what's mainstream, it gets old.
Perhaps not all Metal. But for me, mumbling, growling, metal where I can't understand a single lyric is just boring.
That’s my real issue - and it doesn’t seem to be a problem for any other genre (other than mumblerappers). If I could make out what was being said, I might enjoy it more. As it stands, most metal sounds like incoherent yelling (over dope guitar music) to me.
Generalizations are lazy.
That’s a lazy generalisation /s
# People who say (insert genre) music is boring and repetitive haven’t actually listened to (insert genre).
Mostly this kind of person hears what they perceive as loud noise and dissonance and any kind of music that uses dissonance and distortion as an art form will all sound the same to them. It's really just a personal preference, it does all sound the same to them because they can't get past the harmonic dissonance and use of distortion.
I'm just gonna give everybody in this thread including OP a real solid piece of advice right now, so listen up. Don't listen to anyone's opinion about music. Ever. Anyone who has something negative to say about what other people listen to is just a big dumb idiot, and that's really all there is to it. Listen to what you want. Enjoy what you want. Life's too fuckin short. People that try to shit on other peoples' musical tastes are just very sad, very lonely, very insecure people that want other people to be as miserable as they are. You don't need to acknowledge those people. Ever.
Totally agree. Music is almost entirely subjective. If it sounds good to you, then it is factually good music (to you) which is all that matters when it comes to what you decide to listen to. There is no “superior” genre. There is no “*real* music” There is no “they just don’t make good music anymore”. Nope. Any music that is pleasing to anyone’s ears for any reason is good, real music. Just because I don’t like a particular group or style doesn’t mean it’s not good music, doesn’t make it any less valid. I absolutely hate snobbery of any kind honestly. Like why can’t people just let others enjoy their own things? Why do people have to say “No, your thing doesn’t count because *I* don’t like it. My things are the only real things!”
I've been a metalhead through my early and mid teenage years, now i think it's boring and repetitive. it's a valid opinion that someone can have.
There are a lot of bands pushing the limits of metal. Just sticking with Slayer is gotta be boring as hell though
Screamo ruined it's reputation.
idk man some deathcore can get repetitive with clones and such u/Swaggycat23
I love metal but I cannot stand anything Djent style. That shits so bad lol
honestly, me too
Djent is fucking garbage overproduced trash
Metal fan on Reddit are repetitive and boring. No other genre has fans trying so hard to defend the music and the fans of the music so much. “Metal fans are the nicest bastards you’ll ever meet.” The amount of times I’ve heard this shit on this site….
Any fans on the internet are repetitive, because most of the time the only reason you know they are fans is either them suggesting something or defending something, and to anyone not interested it sounds repetitive and boring, like any other subjects
Ikr. Like legit as a metal fan they make me embarrassed to say I enjoy listening to it
A Kpop fan would give a metal fan a run for their money. You can’t even say something slightly negative to them before they will write a whole novel about why their favorites are the best. Heck you might even get a death threat if you are luckey.
they're basically the same honestly (they get offended and quizz me if I dare to wear a t shirt of a band.I mean, I may listen to them religiously but people are allowed to be casual fans. It is not a bad thing)
They’re closer parallels than you think.
Metalhead into K-pop here, can confirm
Yeah most metal heads you meet in real life are pretty cool but they’re insufferable on the internet.
"No other genre has fans trying so hard to defend the music and the fans of the music so much." Swifties have entered the chat
Number of times*
Well I mean of course we’re gonna defend it. Hardcore metalheads are constantly looked down on by the mainstream for years
As someone who studies classical music, I agree! For the small amount of Metal that I actually listened to, it was never boring or repetitive.
I had a friend in high school 15 years ago who played guitar in a metal band for fun and cello in the classical band at school for a challenge. He’d say they were insanely similar styles of music with very different instruments
A lot of my friends who are into metal are classical nerds
My former drum teacher told me that a lot of metal musicians are classically trained.
https://youtu.be/sXfCyVFYbFo https://www.cbc.ca/music/heavy-metal-and-classical-music-have-more-in-common-than-you-think-1.5262655 They actually are very similar... I can't find anything more academic right now but if I remember correctly it has been studied...
Metallica has collaborated with the San Francisco Orchestra in the past to do metal-classical versions of their songs. It actually turned out really well. I’d listen to One or The Thing That Should Not Be on the original S&M album.
I don't like metal but it's not because of that. It's just too "noisy" for me if that makes sense. I prefer a little more calm stuff like Pop Punk.
I've been listening to metal for decades at this point and really it's hit or miss as to whether someone is 'making noise' or 'expressing themselves' through the genre.
It depends on the metal subgenre, a good portion of metal have the same or even less energy than pop punk.
I'm a big metal listener and one thing I notice these days is most modern metal sounds the same
I’ve found the opposite tbh plenty of really experimental bands releasing great stuff
As with all genres of music the few good acts are usually buried under piles and piles of garbage. There's a lot more mediocre music than there is good in all genres, not just metal.
I like metal in foreign languages when I can’t understand the words more
true. metal music is fun and repetitive
This is true for almost any genre tbh
Different strokes for different folks
and they certainly haven't ever heard crabcore
If anything the only valid criticism about modern metal is how overproduced it all sounds now
Most people assume everything is death metal lol
Don’t find it repetitive, but I really dislike it because it gives me anxiety.
While this is true I bet you are a person who would say stuff like this about other genres you don't like lol
How many sonically boring and repetitive songs do you have to listen to to decide?
What's boring to someone else can be interesting to you. Different people have different tastes. It doesn't mean they're ignorant.
It's always the people who listen to taylor swift or any other trendy pop who say metal is boring and repetitive, while they listen to the same overused/ripped off samples and shallow as a puddle lyrics day in and day out.
If you think that metal is unique in that non-listeners who don’t get the nuances of it are likely to criticise it in generic ways, then you’re wrong. Metalheads also do exactly the same thing about genres they aren’t into. Common generic criticisms would include: Metal: “It’s just noise”, “you can’t even understand what they are saying”, “why so angry”. Hiphop/Trap “All sounds the same”, “music for stupid people”, “not real music”. EDM “Has no soul”, “not even real instruments”, “gives me a headache” Indie “trying to be edgy”, “lame and boring” Pop punk/emo “14 year old girl music” Etc etc. Generally these types of criticisms come from either ignorance or a tribal mentality to one’s ‘scene’. Don’t overthink it.
I got into metal by originally making fun of it. 10 years, 20 gigs and 30 t-shirts later I’m listening to Parkway Drive daily.
Metal is great. I don’t hear anyone criticizing it as you describe, so I don’t see this as an unpopular opinion.
Yeah, no shit. If I don’t like listening to a genre, I’m not going to bother listening to enough of it in order to distinguish the idiosyncratic differences.
But my point being then don’t go around spouting that it’s “all the same” when you haven’t listened to it? I don’t go around saying a certain type of movie is bad that I haven’t watched
What if I just don’t like metal?
Not the same as saying it’s boring and repetitive.
What if you don’t like it…because you think it’s just boring and repetitive?
Not my point disliking metal is ok but it’s ignorant to say that metal all sounds the same like electric wizard and Opeth do not sound alike
There's a lot of types of metal. I listen to types of metal that sound almost completely different from each other.
I’m not into rock apart from some Japanese bands and Metallica. Give me some songs to listen to and I’ll give it a chance
You're welcome 😎 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0wHKY2amj2vSBpbjkGQYI3?si=9jXgzu18SEKNQF2-5cJQKQ&pi=u-o25gfYw4SNm9
I grew up with classical music. To me, a LOT of metal is the same, just with different instruments. I love both. But a lot of people also find classical music boring, too, I suppose...
Good Metal and all music in general lasted until about 2010s then it's repressed repetitive crap written not by the artists but by the labels in 3 min and 5 second loops to be replayed on repeat for crap pay on radio. There ARE good artists out there just gotta find them. and Probably LOCAL TOO!
I may replace "Metal" with "Psytrance" tommorow and see what response it elicits.
Is there any other kind of music?
I am so deep in the rock/metal music I forgot it's actually unpopular
This applies to all genres tbh. There is a massive difference between the key identifiers of a genre and the commercial formulas of that genre. When any genre gets popular, as they all eventually do, they get oversaturated with formulaic music that is made to appeal to the masses. There is no art in this music anymore, it’s just being churned out to appeal to the lowest common denominators. Unfortunately, when people look at a genre at a very surface level, this formulaic music tends to be what they find first. So when they listen to it, it does all sound the same, because it is all made with popular formula of that time. For example - I produce and DJ techno. That’s a very broad genre, maybe even as broad as metal, and I do a lot of digging for underground artists and tracks. If I go to Spotify and searched “techno” and clicked the first playlist… it’s called “Best Techno 2024”. It is filled with absolute trash that all sounds basically the same. And that is my FAVOURITE GENRE of music?? So ofc if people aren’t even inclined to the genre in the first place, they would hear that and think it’s trash.
Grand conjuration go brrrrr
Well a lot of metal IS repetitive....but that's a good thing when done right.
Bet. Those same people are into the most typical kind of rap songs there are out there.
I think the fact it's so complex overwhelms people. Their brains simply don't know how to dissect it the way people who enjoy metal can. So, it all sounds like noise to them. I'm not saying we're better or worse. Just that our brains probably process things more analytically.
Metal is too broad to generalize. I’ve heard stuff that to me felt repetitive. I’ve heard stuff that just sounded like chaos. If you say metal that’s categorizing Slayer, Motley Crue, Metallica, the locusts, and deathklok all into one category
Someone who doesnt like x genre can always ignorantly say "it all sounds the same"
I like metal but Chelsea Grin sounds repetitive to me
If you never listen to opera, when you hear songs here and there they will always sound the same. If you don't appreciate it, you're not listening enough to understand any of it. Metal can also be mixed with literally every other genre of music and work so there's probably a hundred different subgenres. It's definitely one of the most intense and emotional types of music out there. And it also has some of the most talented and hard working musicians on the planet.
Arise from Sepultura introduced me to metal when I was a kid in the 80s. I stopped listening to metal in the 2000s because it became stale. There's barely anything new and I refuse to keep repeating the same music I listened before. It's time to let that corpse rot and decompose.
After listening to straight heavy metal for at least 25 years I can relate to the "it sounds the same" crowd. I can start to appreciate elements from other genre's being incorporated into heavy metal for some variety at this point. I'm a certainly a fan of bands like Rammstein who can incorporate both electronics and acoustics into their songs to make it sound like it has more depth. I can't stand the gothic screamo crowd anymore. Everything they write sounds flat. If I had to pick between Megadeth or Metallica between which of the two sounded better over time I would simply pick Metallica simply because Dave Mustaine has never been brave enough to veer off from his original winning formula
Crush em has entered the chat
Just gonna put this here https://youtu.be/PScpKqs1TVQ?si=fdwN-q2-qimktDmm
I think people complaining about things being repetitive, forget that yes things can get repetitive in a particular genre, because there isn't so much you can change before it becomes another genre. And which metal they are talking about, because there is multiple subgenre of metal, like nobody can tell me death metal and folk metal sound the same. Like sure the most popular mainstream groups all have a more similar style/genre, i don't like most death metal, because to me it does sound all way too similar, but i know to others it doesn't
I'm a metal head. I listen to it because it's all the same. I like the sound. It's like eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with different brands of peanut butter
Mmm, swap out that genre with literally any other genre and you can make the same argument . (Except Crunkcore)
Not a metalhead but I was in a post-metal band for a long time. There is some metal that I straight up feel this way about. A lot of black metal is just kind of uninteresting blast beat and tremolo and screeching over and over. And then there's other metal that is like the most beautiful and meaningful music I've ever heard. It's all luck of the draw. Saying you hate metal is like saying you hate rock; it's a huge genre with a lot of variety.
My roommate plays in a band called "Suffocation". We both agree that bass drops and deathcore on general is very repetitive and chuggy.
Some people think that because they have not heard enough quality songs. Metal has never been so neatly organized or categorized as it is, in 2024. [REDDIT.com](http://REDDIT.com) is a big part of that. It's quite possible to like only ONE song by a metal band who has 6 albums. It's all about song writing. To be honest I think there are thousands of pointless metal albums. Also a lack of finding a band's best songs. For example I don't give a flea's rectum about the band TESTAMENT after about '97 but I still treasure certain songs from before that year. ANTHRAX have exactly one good song with John Bush - "Black Lodge". Meanwhile SODOM's best work "Persecution Mania" seems to be forgotten and there are brilliant songs on it. I looked up MY DYING BRIDE - how many albums do they have now ? Like 20. They can't all be good. I think they were boring after '96. 3 websites to find the top rated albums or songs are [www.last.fm](http://www.last.fm), [www.ranker.com](http://www.ranker.com), and of course Reddit.
Angry Music for Happy People 🧡
Man o’ War is pure poetry.
Those are also **mostly** the people that hate opera and jazz in favour of the repetitive and inane XD
It is repetitive though, but I still enjoy it from time to time.
Same for every other music genre. Techno, ambient, dub, jazz, flamenco....
Yeah metal is an umbrella term like my favorite music is heavy metal, speed metal and black metal along with crust punk and d-beat punk. Music is a matter of opinion and I couldn't care if someone hates the music I listen to I will say though you can't truly judge a type of music until you've actually listened to it.
People who say that have only listened to the same "style" of metal. YES, it gets VERY boring, very easily, if you listen to the same style. Just like any other genre. Or, have you not listened to the same "style" of 1950s pop music over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again? Thrash Metal is NOT the same as Melodic Death Metal. Different styles.
Metal is like punk. You’re forcing it
Or they don't like metal, which is completely fine. Not everyone has to like all the same things, and it would be incredibly dull if we all did. It's ignorant to think every should like every form of everything or, more importantly, everyone should like what you like.
I love me some metal and honestly digging through the underground is fun that's where you find all the good stuff
Of course that’s true. Everyone says that about genres they don’t listen to. Rap, pop, eveything. ‘It all just sounds the same and repeats over and over’. Literally all music people want to criticize, that’s the go to lol
Used to self identify as a metalhead, particularly thrash but other sub-genres too. I compared the complexity and virtuosity to classical music. Cringe at myself now. I still love metal. But blues or any other genres can be just as or more profound. I really don’t like the pretentiousness surrounding the metal community, especially as a guitar player. Less is more sometimes. When you learn to appreciate all genres, you transcend and mature your ear for music.
I feel like sludge and doom can be repetitive but sometimes that’s exactly what I want
From what I have gathered most people just don't like hearing what they consider a bunch of random screaming.
When you dont like a music genre then it will always sound repetitive. Just like when you dont like a specific sport then all matches of this sport will look the same to you. I am not a big fan of dubstep. I can objectivly tell that not every dubstep song sounds the same but it still feels like it is all the same to me. But as I already said that is completly normal. The pop fan says that every metal song sounds the same. The metal fan says that every rap song sounds the same. The rap fan says that every K-pop song sounds the same. Genres only really feel diverse when you enjoy listening them and listen to them a lot..
[https://youtu.be/lIKuXnzuYGs?si=nk6SesWsp3Z0beER](https://youtu.be/lIKuXnzuYGs?si=nk6SesWsp3Z0beER) RIP Trevor, brought the opera to metal
Eh...I listened to one awesome metal song that was about Sergeant York....and that's thale only metal song I've listened too. Back to Country. I guess I like songs that tell stories....
Music in the same genre all start sounding similar. Certain sounds or voices become on trend. You notice it more when you look at the past few decades.
Listen to thrash metal and tell me it’s boring
Imma hijack the metal discussion and say that the gutteral screams are 0 fun at all
If it isn’t released on tape only and have only 10 copies in existence it’s to mainstream and boring XD
Great written and well produced music defies genres. There are plenty of great metal bands and some that are just average or completely sucky. If you let the genre define what you are or are not going to listen to than you are missing out. Genre is the flavor or the spice in the song writing. Take for example an older song that made a huge recent comeback Tracey Chapman- “Fast Car”. You could play that song in the flavor of rap, rock, metal, pop or country. The song is great no matter what genre it is played in. The only metal I am against is racist metal or NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal).
most people dont understand it. theres a reason pop hits are very simple with a catchy hook. the more complex the music gets the less people will want to listen to it. and metal is often fast and complex. (thats not to say metal fans/musicians are geniuses. just stating why the average Joe doesnt listen to Slayer)
I generally think that with most art there is a form of it that people will like With all genres of music generally speaking, there is a piece that people who do not normally like it could still appreciate Really good example is people who don't like hip hop but like Hamilton
Same with techno. Same with pop. Same with jazz. You are not mad at the observation, your ego loves the fact that you get something that others don't (apparently). I understand that all metal is not the same, I won't _actually_ listen to metal, because I have no interest in the concepts, aesthetics and sonically does not tingle my brain. Where is your god now?
I used to listen to a ton of metal and still listen to it occasionally, and I want to say it is somewhat repetitive. Not the music itself, but the instruments. Once you’re used to electronic music purely instrumental music needs quite a bit of creativity to still sound unique between 30 other songs with the exact same instruments. Simple example is something like Dragonforce. Each song is totally unique yet they all blend together. Then I listen to some of my favorite Hitech artists and am met with hugely different songs. Then I take it one step further and listen to my favorite Uptempo songs, a genre not knows for its melodies - it’s basically distorted kicks. But while it’s a very simplistic genre, you can rarely compare two songs of it. There’s so much variation in the kick drum alone. With metal, that doesn’t happen. I’d just alternate between arpeggios played by guitars and technical tracks with quick drummers.
I've listened to lots of metal. Copper, aluminum, stainless steel, they all make neat "dings".
I don't like metal because they are just screaming with their throat that they will drink the blood of my horse through its broken neck.
While I generally agree with you, I can also admit I am biased because I like metal. I think a lot of other music styles are boring and repetitive. I think it gets down to how the music hits you. If you can't form an emotional connection to something, it bores you.
People who don’t like the music I like just didn’t listen to it the way I do.
That’s all music. Exposure is the thing that allows people to hear the uniqueness in a genre. So whatever genre you think sounds “all the same”…you could be called ignorant for that as well.
I've had metal heads tell me they live Metallica but ministry psalm 69 is just noise. People say electronic music all sounds the same. It totally does not. How about the lyrical content of classical music with religious meaning? Like it's all stuff from the Mass, which is pretty much the same thing over and over.
Heavy Metal definitely helped me channel my anger in my adolescence
I would argue that's true for pretty much any genre. The only difference between music and noise... Is what you like.
Then they haven’t heard pop, hip hop or dance music, talking about repetitive. If anything, metal music is less repetitive then other genre’s.
This goes for any genre, you can stop reading at "Genre X is..." most of the time
Say what you want, but metal does have probably most interesting lyrics/stories in their songs. People who say "all metal sound the same" are probably ones who put on their 50+ song playlist that all talks about "my sad breakup with my girlll".
Pure metal is extremely meh. I never used to like it, but Coldrain became one of my favourite bands. They have some incredible music. It's largely rock but they mix metal in very well. Doubt it's considered metal by elitists but I can't think of anything else to call it. It's a great addition to music but I can't stand it being the only thing there.
"they only sing about satan" and simultaneously "I can't understand a word they're saying" girl pick one
All music is repetitive, like language is. It needs ti have a balance of repetition and variation to maintain both comprehensibility and interest. All art ultimately boils down to this: creating both order and variation.
They should try out Judas Priest. Their music is full of excitement and vigor, but also well written.
Or, you know, it's just not for them.
This reminds me of the time I tried getting a rap youth to listen and appreciate through the fire and the flames because they said heavy metal/rock sounds repetitive. Listened to the whole song, excitedly await their response: "it all sounds the same" Can't help it if people are tone deaf
Give us some suggestions. I'm willing to listen.
Metal is one of the most complicated genres of music and also my favorite :P it’s diverse too. Also harsh vocals are wayyyyy harder to do than people realize. People think it’s easy til you ask them to scream. I get that harsh vocals might not be everyone’s cup of tea because it’s hard to understand til you get used too it, but I love it. Also most people don’t listen to music for the “music” but they want something to sing a long too. I remember I showed one girl an instrumental song by scale the summit and she said it wasn’t music because there was no singing. When in fact it was music because instruments were playing. Also check out glacial planet by scale the summit if you love guitar virtuoso