# Class conflict in heavy metal



## Conservationist (Apr 5, 2007)

> [I grew up in a] liberal environment without censorship or such things. There was no religious disapproval or anything like that. But early 80s metal didn't fit in this milieu, not so much for ideological reasons as for cultural reasons. The over the top imagery and sound of early 80s metal, its blue-collar earthiness, was a world away from the aspirational, educationally-minded, relatively abstemious environment of British Jewry.
> 
> Esoteriic: Interview with Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris, aka "Metal Jew"


I think we should not read too much into the religious/cultural/ethnic angle that is Judaism, and focus on the idea of rising middle classes including professional classes. Is metal too blue-collar for them? Dr. Kahn-Harris here states what most metalheads are afraid to bring up because it divides everyone by class: metal has mostly been relegated to the blue-collar world because the middle classes want to climb socially and fear they lose social status by listening to metal.

From death metal blog.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

metal is blue-collar? nah. it's no-collar if anything.

dj


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## mindsmoothie (Aug 5, 2009)

I'm starting to think this forum just needs a universal METAL sticky. Way too many metal threads.

No, my family is upper-middle class, my dad owns a company, and I listen to metal. My parents don't mind at all, they're glad I have a style of music I enjoy. My friends, who are at the same level socially, have parents that listen to metal and listen to metal themselves, and I've never seen any fear of it preventing their rising up to a higher class. I can see how it would make sense, though.


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2009)

Conservationist said:


> I think we should not read too much into the religious/cultural/ethnic angle that is Judaism, and focus on the idea of rising middle classes including professional classes.


*Does that mean you want to discuss music and not mention anything Jewish??*


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## nickgray (Sep 28, 2008)

Uhhh... Metal Jew? 

The whole dividing by class and the "fear of losing it" is a complete idiocy. I wouldn't want to have anything to do with a person that believes he will somehow "lose" that "class" thingy if he listens to a particular type of music.


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## Conservationist (Apr 5, 2007)

nickgray said:


> I wouldn't want to have anything to do with a person that believes he will somehow "lose" that "class" thingy if he listens to a particular type of music.


I think it's probably more common that one might think.

Kahn-Harris' writings on Judaism and metal are worth reading in their own right; with this excerpt, it's worth setting that aside to focus on the class analysis.


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