People's reaction after finding out you like metal

I wasn't sure where to put this topic, so feel free to move it if need be.

I had an experience this evening (which I'll go into in a moment) that made me wonder what sort of reactions everyone else around here has had from people after they discover that you're a fan of metal. Not other metalheads but other people who don't know much about metal and even what they think they know is probably wrong. People like the 'public' as portrayed in this:



Now then personally speaking aside from wearing the odd bit of band merch I don't actively advertise that I like metal. I'm not one to try to push my opinion on unwilling ears, though I don't hide what I like if asked.

This evening I went out for some pre-Easter drinks with some uni friends before we all headed back home for the holiday period. Our break actually started on Monday, but some of us had stuck around to finish some group work. We ended up getting together with another group from the same uni (different course) who'd done the same. Topics varied but eventually came around to music. So at some point amongst the name drops of whoever's big right now in the pop world (I wasn't really paying much attention to be honest) I said I liked metal.

Conversation totally dead in the water, at least for a moment until one of the other group said: "You actually listen to all that goth shite?" which pissed me off more than it probably should have done. A couple of the girls in the other group were even s[^&%!]ing about it. I guess most if not all of my lot knew already so I didn't get any such reactions from them and I could tell that a few of them were actually just as pissed off as I was even though they didn't like metal themselves. The atmosphere between our two groups was pretty tense after that and we left soon after.

So there you have it, my liking metal turned what had previously been a pretty affable evening sour.

I haven't had many negative responses when I tell someone I like metal, the only time I can think of was several years ago. One of my old childhood friends was into electronic music, and when I brought up metal he just dismissed it as "frikin' screamo". Eventually I was able to get him to realize that metal isn't screamo thankfully and at one point he actually liked Rammstien, don't know if he still does though as we don't really talk anymore. 

I used to have the long hair, which sort of advertised the fact. Most of the ribbing I ever got/get was pretty good humoured, but I'm from New Zealand, which is pretty laid back.

I did have a New Life Christian tell me he could hear the "evil" in AC/DC's music back in the 80s. It was sooooo tempting to play him some Slayer! Conversely, when I was living in South Korea, two Korean girls asked me if I wanted to go to church with them. I politely declined their invitation. They didn't recognise the significance of the Morbid Angel t-shirt I was wearing, with the cover of Altars of Madness on the front and a verse from the song Blasphemy on the back...

Unitron wrote: I haven't had many negative responses when I tell someone I like metal, the only time I can think of was several years ago. One of my old childhood friends was into electronic music, and when I brought up metal he just dismissed it as "frikin' screamo". Eventually I was able to get him to realize that metal isn't screamo thankfully and at one point he actually liked Rammstien, don't know if he still does though as we don't really talk anymore.

I think calling metal screamo is probably the most ignorant thing a non-metalhead can do. That really makes my blood boil.

^That's awful, I can't comprehend why someone would go out of their way to do all that because of something as small as liking different music.

Kingcrimsonprog wrote: That was a small, backwards town full of racists, homophobes and general idiots anyway though.

The racists, homophobes and general idiots where I went to school were all in to Guns n Roses and AC/DC, so there was a little bit of common ground, although they all shaved or buzz cut their hair, so I used to get called gay for having long hair, a connection which I could never understand. Long hair has never been a common denominator in any of the homosexuals I've ever known.

Kingcrimsonprog wrote: Nowadays as an adult, people just look at me like 'Why?'

My mother still asks this, and thinks I'm going through a phase, which I'll grow out of. She's been asking since I was 15. I'm now 43. She's nothing if not optimistic...

 

Kingcrimsonprog wrote: Recently, one of my co-workers noticed a motorhead pin on my backpack, and decided to throw the horns at me instead of greeting me for the next month or so, but not in a mean spirited way.

I started throwing the horns at one of the guys at work, and he used to do it back. He then taught a Japanese student working on the farm to do it too. She had no idea what it meant, but it looked funny.

The worst I've ever gotten is, "Oh yeah? Hm." I was a bit of an oddball in school because the "cool" kids always say on their ghetto blaster playing "Back in Black", "Shout at the Devil" or Led Zeppelin I while I wore Venom T-shirts and Celtic Frost pins. Later I got into seventies proto-metal and people just didn't seem to get me except my English teacher because he used to play in a Nazareth cover band.

Now I'm in Japan where metal still has a strong following and BURRN magazine. It's pretty cool. Ha! One of my former ESL students told me she partook in the riot at the Budokan when Deep Purple didn't do an encore. That was cool to know.

Well I used to attend a Catholic primary/secondary school and my German teacher who was a devout Catholic with loads of children (I think she had 5 or something like that), didn´t really feel comfortable that me and my Brother came to school wearing denim vests covered with Metallica, Slayer, and Motörhead marks. She would often speak of the "anti-christ" and other hilarious Things, but she could do nothing about it, and I don´t recall my parents ever being contacted. Later on people are always wondering why someone as mellow as me listens to metal, but I guess they often don´t know me that well . Apparently I appear mellow IRL .

666sharon666 wrote: My favourite reaction though, from one of the women where I used to work: "Oh, so you don't want to come see Take That with us then?"

You should have said yes so long as they all came with you to see Iron Maiden.

I guess you could've also explained about all the subgenres of metal and explained how the gothic part can only be ascribed to a couple of categories. I mean there's so much to heavy metal these days you could offer it as a course at college.