I dont understand heavy metal music

I still love my 70's and 80's heavy meatal music but I do like some of the new stuff. Besides when you are doing a hrad run, would you rather be doing it to Metallica, Nickleback or someone like that or gutting out the last 3 miles of a hard run and on your ipod pushing you home is Lady GaGa (who I like by the way).

I went to music school in the late 80's in Hollywood and was kind of part of that whole scene out there.

So I pretty much grew up on metal music and what first attracted me to it was the songs about parting, girls, and hanging out with your buds. Also as a teen especially in the 80's if you liked hard rock music, you were kind of different so a lot of the songs were about standing up even though you were different and joining together to stop being a cast off... remember "were not gonna take it" by twisted sister. Also there are a lot of bands that are political in nature that have subjects that bring attention to social issues.

Also heavy metal music tends to push the boundries of music and thinking. IF you look back over the past 30 years  and you think of all of the music you heard and said to yourself "WTF is that kind of crazy music", those are the bands that really changed the way we listened to music and how music was created. Think... Metallica, Korn, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Slipnot, Kiss, Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Nirvana, and even bands today like Mastadon, and Dragonforce... These bands changed rock history, you dont get that in pop music, country, maybe in rap... But can you name one pop artist that everyone said WTF when you first heard the song and then they changed history???

When I really started being in bands and playing the music, I learned how complexed the arrangments are and how developed the musicians had to be to play the music. Heavy metal uses a lot of strange times signatures and chordal voiceings similar to what you would find in jazz music; plus there are maybe a bizillion different scales for soloing that you had to learn. I think at one point I knew 45 different scales and how to find them anywhere on the guitar neck and could play them in any key, in 3rd, 5ths, and minor 7ths if needed.

A lot of heavy metal music have very complexed themes and subject matters, as well as whole albums that are conceptial in nature and tell a story. A LOT different than 3 chord songs and pop songs that sings about being a Genie and having someone rub you the right way.

I still love my 70's and 80's heavy meatal music but I do like some of the new stuff. Besides when you are doing a hrad run, would you rather be doing it to Metallica, Nickleback or someone like that or gutting out the last 3 miles of a hard run and on your ipod pushing you home is Lady GaGa (who I like by the way).

Plus you have bands that are just friggin fund to watch and really push the envelope. Bands like GWAR that shoot fake blood in the audince, WASP that used to throw meat, Alice Cooper cuts his own head off with a gullitine, and I am sure there are many other examples. So sometimes it is just fun...