End Metallophobia (previously named 'Fear of a metal planet')

They are one band who have been up there (and pretty much no 1) in my list of favourite bands and are one band, for many years, have been highly controversial. They are highly respected for many reasons: They have been around for a long time, since the early 1970s; They have many classic albums (see (1) below), though some 'cheesy' ones too (like Turbo for instance); They have survived in the face of many 'trends' including Punk, Disco, Rap and Dance, and many 'trends' within Heavy Metal itself (like Glam, Thrash, Death, Black and Nu Metal).  In other words, they have stood the 'test of time'; They have also survived in the face of many 'knockers' and naysayers, and have successfully defended themselves (in most instances) and their genre from all the outside (ie non-metal) forces, as well as those 'knockers' from withing who have accused them of being 'gay' or lame (cos they like something more 'brutal' or 'true...

By Phillip Mlynar, Wed., Aug. 4 2010 @ 9:00AM Comments (5) Categories: EL-P, Fat Joe, Featured, Joell Ortiz, Phillip Mlynar, Prince Paul, Tanya Morgan Image via Darrell Bell ​Hip-hop is the world's most brazenly capitalist genre of music. If Jay-Z's not talking about playing Monopoly with real cash, then Kanye West's tweeting about the cherub-motifed Persian rugs and golden goblets he's just scored at Fishs Eddy. But while certain rotund rap types would have you believe they were running extensive criminal enterprises before they decided to pursue a career in rhymed verse, the truth is more mundane. Most rappers suffer the rite of working demoralizing dead-end jobs while attempting to jump-start their careers and clock up music industry cash, whether it's the Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man greeting tourists at the Statue of Liberty, Biggie bagging groceries at a Met Foods supermarket, or Kanye's mush-mouthed rapping friend Consequence ringing up monochroma...

Basically talks about that *really* hideous fashion, the 'saggy pants' look. This fashion (if you could call it that), has been around since the early 1990's, when jeans were 'supersized', and they fell down to show one's buttocks and underwear.  They were originally worn by hip hop/rap artists and fans, but were also adopted by skaters, some grunge artists, and (sad to say) some headbangers (particularly those who like death metal/grindcore and nu-metal).  Here is the run-down on the history of 'saggy pants' by Janice Breen: Early 1990s Hip-hop artists adopt pants like ''one-size-fits-all'' prison garb worn by ''brothers'' home from jail. The ''homeboy'' look fits with post-prison six-packs and hot underwear brand Calvin Klein. Mid-1990s Saggy pants slip into mainstream fashion. Waistbands drop each year. By early 2000s, almost the whole boxers are on show, crotches drop to knees. Rumours the look is ...

Article Review: Took, K, J and Weiss, D, S (1994), ‘The Relationship between Heavy Metal and Rap and Adolescent Turmoil: Real or Artefact? In Adolescence, Volume 29, Number 115, Fall 1994 ; pages 613-621 This journal article illustrates the relationship between preferences for Heavy Metal and/or Rap music, and difficulties during adolescence. Both the teenaged subjects and their parents were interviewed, and the teenagers were asked about their current 'psychosocial functioning' and their music preferences. The group of subjects who liked Heavy Metal and Rap were compared to a group of adolescents who liked other types of music. The focus of concern was the increasingly explicit references to drugs, sex and violence, and Heavy Metal and Rap have come under the most scrutiny from religious, political, parents' and medical groups, which were likely to affect the minds of children and young people. Heavy Metal music (a particular type of hard rock) often attracted concern ...

Binder, Amy: Constructing racial rhetoric: Media depictions of harm in heavy metal and rap; American Sociological Review; Dec 1993; 58, 6; ABI/INFORM Global; pg. 753 This article refers to the depictions of Heavy Metal and Rap in the Media, framed in terms of cultural beliefs. In other words, the portrayal of both music genres by the media is negative, and much of the moral panic surrounding the music has been generated by groups such as the PMRC (Parents' Music Resource Centre) and Moral Majority in the USA.  For those of you old enough to remember, the whole fiasco began in the mid-1980's when a group of politician's wives, who called themselves the PMRC, attended the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.  Their objective was to reveal the 'sexually explicit' content in many rock lyrics, and most of these were Heavy Metal lyrics.  Their position was that such music filled young peoples' ears with violence and pornography, and glori...