Cinematic Arias

So remember when I said I was looking for more things to blog about? I found another topic. It came after watching a documentary at work, followed by three sleepless night.

At some point during my insomnia, I realized that 1991 was a monumental year both for the music industry and for myself as a fan of music.

Actually, “fan” isn’t strong enough of a word. I not only love music, it’s my lifeblood, it’s my high, it’s my most blogged about topic, but I digress.

In remembrance of what happened twenty years ago in music, I picking out some key events and reflecting on how they affected me then and now. I’ll try and do one of these every Monday until the end of the year.

Enough with the preamble, on to the main event.

1991 would be the last year I was a true metal head. When I used to go to a few metal shows a month, after 1991 I’d go to one or two a year, if that. I was about to completely change my musical identity. Why? This was one of the big reasons.

Although I was a kid, I had been following Metallica for a while and they represented everything that was cool: they were outsiders, they didn’t need a music video to sell out a stadium, they didn’t need to make radio friendly songs, they didn’t need to please an industry.

I saw them twice when they toured for “…And Justice For All” and I owned all their albums and every single that had an unreleased b-side (“Breadfan” still rocks).

And then the Grammys happened. There was a brand new “Best Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album” category. Metallica was nominated and they were gonna play just before the award was given out. All signs pointed to Metallica winning this award.

And then Jethro Tull won.

A band that hadn’t been relevant in twenty years (DING!) beat out the most breath taking, innovative band in metal. What the fuck? Was the music industry sending Metallica a message? “You can’t work outside the industry and expect to win an award.” Who knows, but this set a new course for Metallica and for yours truly.

Metallica didn’t take losing well. First they burned all their “We Won A Grammy” t-shirts (but I hear some are still floating around). Next they dumped the guys that had recorded/mixed/engineered all of their previous albums and hired the hit-maker du jour, Bob Rock. Finally, the decided to make an album full of short, radio friendly metal. They made “The Black Album“.

I bought that album and tried to convince myself that Metallica was still awesome, that they were still rebels, but my inner bullshit detector was pegging the needle. Something was different. This wasn’t my Metallica. After seeing them in support of this album, I knew in my heart of hearts that I would never buy another Metallica album. Yes, I know a lot of you first got into metal because of this album but when once these were the cool kids that I looked up to, they were now doing tricks in the back alley in the hope that more people would like them.

And so twenty years ago was the beginning of the end for Metal Head Me.

Next week: one dying fist pump for hard rock. Until then, have a great week.