How Can You Not Love Metal?

One night about a week ago, I came across VH1's show The 40 Greatest Metal Songs. Yes, I was intrigued. Growing up, I wouldn't have ever really considered myself a metal fan. Perhaps I saw some difference between the sub-genres of metal. I always felt that the music I listened to was hair metal. Some of my favorites during the time: Cinderella, Extreme, Ratt, Guns n' Roses, Trixter, Slaughter, Skid Row, and Motley Crue. Although I favored the ballads, I wasn't afraid to rock out to the heavier songs. When I saw this show (and I absolutely adore these types of shows, who doesn't?), I wondered if any of my favorites would be on the Top 40. I started watching around the top 30's...and so I'm going to list the Top 20. Perhaps some of your favorites are on here too.

20. I Wanna Rock- Twisted Sister
19. Man In The Box- Alice In Chains
18. Slave To The Grind- Skid Row
17. Live Wire- Motley Crue
16. Walk- Pantera
15. Bulls On Parade- Rage Against The Machine
14. Toxicity- System Of A Down
13. Rainbow In The Dark- DIO
12. Bring The Noise- Anthrax and Public Enemy
11. Peace Sells- Megadeth

10. Ace of Spades- Motorhead
9. Crazy Train- Ozzy Osbourne
8. Reign In Blood- Slayer
7. Number Of The Beast- Iron Maiden
6. Detroit Rock City- KISS
5. You Got Another Thing Coming- Judas Priest
4. Back in Black- AC/DC
3. Master Of Puppets- Metallica
2. Welcome To The Jungle- Guns N' Roses

1. Iron Man- Black Sabbath

An interesting list. I found myself thinking of all sorts of questions while I watched. Throughout some of the interviews, I heard various genres mentioned: pop metal, hair metal, heavy metal, glam band, thrash metal. I had no idea there were so many different forms- as well as I was curious about where the line is drawn. There are certainly some on this list that I didn't consider to be "heavy metal" but rather the aforementioned loves of my adolescent life.

I also started thinking about how masculinity is constructed within this subculture. I know this is not intuitive, because the issue of gender is so "in-your-face"- such as the clothes, the make-up, the groupies...There are constant contradictions in how we define gender, in particular for men. Certainly, I started to also think about sexuality- specifically in watching Judas Priest perform.

As I reminded myself of some of my favorites, I also started to think about some additional folks that I'd like to interview for my book project. There is one individual who is at the top of my list- that I hope to be able to contact. Any suggestions, please post. Marc Metcalf. The nerd, the teacher. What a performance.