Why do we care so much about the cultural appropriation of metal?

Whenever sites like Metal Injection share articles about mainstream celebrities like the Kardashians wearing metal merchandise, the comment sections blow up like no other.

People go wild!

They all seem to have inside knowledge of the music tastes of these people because “how can she wear a Slayer t-shirt! She is obviously not a metal fan!”

Oh and the best one of all: “I bet she won’t be able to name 3 songs of {NAME THE BAND%}, because that is the obvious denominator of whether someone is a fan or not.

(I have listened to Metallica my entire life. If you’d put me on the spot to name three songs from the Kill ‘em All album, however, I’d probably screw up.)

So, why do we care so much about what shirt someone is wearing?

What we are talking about here is the appropriation of metal as a culture - this is where the mainstream adopts traits of the metal culture without being part of said culture.

It has been happening for years if not decades.

You walk into the H&M or any other mainstream clothing store and most likely you will find T-shirts with some metal band logo on them. It is mostly non-metal fans who buy these shirts since actual metal fans would not rely on these kinds of stores to get their merch.

Non-metal fans buy these shirts because…well, not sure why. The shirt probably looks cool, so they buy it, regardless of whether they know the first thing about the band that is featured on it. That is the appropriation of the metal culture.

And metalheads get pissed about that.

In my humble opinion, rightfully so.

What I am about to say might come across as elitism or gatekeeping, which I actually hate about our culture. Believe me, however, when I say it is neither.

This is not about elitism. This is about how cultural appropriation of metal feels like an attack on our very being.

For us, metal is not just music. Many of us live metal. It is ingrained in how we identify ourselves and how we position ourselves in the world.

Metal has always been a counter-reaction to the norm, to conformity, to the mainstream. For most metal fans, the music and its culture are a refuge. A sanctuary where we can be ourselves, talk with like-minded people and get the thrill and energy we can not get anywhere else. It is a fringe culture for those who feel they don’t belong to mainstream society and want to escape its laws.

At the same time, as Andrew O’Neill accurately points out in his A History of Heavy Metal, “being a metalhead is sometimes in itself alienating.” We are often looked down upon because of how we dress and act. We are made fun of, heckled, and mocked. Our music has rarely been taken seriously by the mainstream.

As a teenage metalhead, I admit, I was bothered by that. It made me feel insecure about myself. And yet, I never abandoned metal. Now, as I am in my thirties, I couldn’t give a single fuck about how people look at my tattoos, band-shirts, and generally black apparel. This is who I am. Accept it or not.

Metal is not trying to be cool.

Metal is truly our choice of life.

So, seeing others appropriating something that is so personal to us, something we feel very protective of, just to be “cool”, pisses us off.

Again in the words of Andrew O’Neill, “people who don’t like metal, have all the rest of culture. Metalheads mainly just have metal. It’s like owning a massive hotel asking if they can sleep in your bed.”

That’s how important this is for us.

Some may say we probably shouldn’t give two shits about what t-shirt someone is wearing. There are more important things in life. And yet, we do.

I don’t believe in God. So it would be odd if I would wear an “I love Jesus” t-shirt just because I like the design, right?

So, to wrap it up: don’t wear metal band shirts if you are not equally invested in its culture. It is disrespectful to those who do identify with it.

The end.