Music has always been a big part of my life. I remember as a kid I listened to my dad’s music. He was always a classic rock kind of guy, and my mom was all about disco music. I would say I’m well versed in their music genres. As I was growing up, I developed my own sense of music preferences. I also grew up in LA the main hub of all things entertainment which exposed me to a larger array of music. If I could narrow it down to a specific genre, I would say I was heavily influenced by rock music, and heavy metal.
I am a serious
Metallica fan I love their work, and they have made music that is now loved and
appreciated by new generations. Whenever I go to a Metallica concert I can see
now that it has become a family affair for many people. In a recent concert a
woman gave birth during a show. Metallica is so magnetic they have produced
music that has lasted a long time a perfect example is “Enter Sandman” with it's intensity pattern.
However, the song also includes some rhetorical messages. The song could have two meanings depending on the listener's point of view. The message behind Enter Sandman was inspired by Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The message is that children should say their prayers so that the Sand Man does not put anything in the child's eyes that will give them fear, terror, and sleeplessness. The positive spin of the song could be about the liberation of living a life entirely free of fear.
Anytime this song plays I can’t help but to feel pumped up. In
a recent interview with Masterclass.com the front man James Hetfield did not
think Enter Sandman was not all that great in the beginning. Lars Ulrich (the band’s drummer)
and the producer Bob Rock challenged Hetfield to keep working on the song and
in the end became a success. Enter Sandman will forever be an anthem for all
heavy metal fans and it has solidified Metallica’s fame.
Is there a song that you know that has withstood the test of time?
Being of the generation where I consider myself to be most in tune with what I call Metallica's "second wave" of music (Load, Reload), I also grew up with my brother, who was in the generation before me when Metallica became famous. I saw the impact it had on him and his friends, although they were mainly immersed in the grunge movement (we grew up in the Seattle area). That being said, metal had a major impact on them, and I often listened to Metallica (and Megadeth) in his car when he drove me around as a kid.
ReplyDeleteIn my blog post this week, I talked about the impact listening to songs can have when you have a deeper context of the meaning behind them. Learning more about Enter Sandman and SIDS on your blog post and giving it another listen did just that for me. I've heard that sound countless times throughout my life, but it just sounded different this time. And I appreciated that.
One of the things I love about Metallica is that they found a way to make metal approachable to the masses. You can obviously be a 'metalhead' and enjoy them, but you certainly don't have to be. I think this is what has provided them with longevity and cemented their formidable spot in music history.
When you talked about the family element at Metallica concerts, I automatically thought about our family tradition of going to Tom Petty concerts when he was alive. There are many songs of his that have stood the test of time, Free Fallin', I Won't Back Down, and Mary Jane's Last Dance being perfect examples. What I loved most about attending his shows was that his music had a way of getting fans riled up and created a larger sense of family amongst everyone who was there. To this day, I haven't been to a concert where I felt like almost everyone was singing along to most of the songs. It was magical, and I miss the experience dearly.