Testosterone Therapy: SATCHMO Waxes Nostalgic on 80's Glam Metal

SATCHMO · 12-13-2011, 02:24 AM

So the origin of this thread has come about from two main influences.

The first, and undoubtedly most important influence is that for the past 2 years music in general has become less and less of an important part of my life, and the degree to which I've found that truth to be unsettling has grown commensurately with my waning interest. Music has been an integral part of life for as long as I can remember. I spent 10 years working in the music industry in varying capacities and even though I quickly became disillusioned about the nature of the business, it didn't do anything to water down my passion for music itself. What did cause my interest to wane? Well, I have a few ideas, but my best theory is this:

I was a teenage metalhead.

And while such an confession seems hardly scandalous in the grand scheme of things, I certainly spent the latter half of my life treating it as if it were. It would be one thing if I was born a decade-- or even a few years later, when metal had evolved away from it's apex of kitsch, but through fate's hand I seem to have been born at just the perfect time for the advent of early 80's hair metal to coincide with the massive influx of testosterone that was causing tremendous upheaval to my body and mind. In my opinion, the world will never come up with a better soundtrack to the onset of male puberty than 80's glam metal. If a girl asked me what the experience was like, I'd put on Def Leppard's High n' Dry album and quietly leave the room. And while my taste in metal did evolve in complexity as the genre did as well, when the haze of puberty began to lift, my natural trajectory seemed to be one of moving away from this obviously ridiculous and confounded sub-genre of music that would go on to be so harshly lambasted by critics and cultural revisionists that for many, save for the most die hard fans, the music itself was relegated to a shoe box full of cassettes stashed away in the closet.

All of this, while true, was something that I rarely thought about until I recently read Chuck Klosterman's book Fargo Rock City, a memoir of his coming of age in rural North Dakota as a heavy metal fan in the 80's. While I didn't grow up in North Dakota, I did grow up in a very rural area of upstate New york, and everything about Klosterman's experience resonated with me in a way that no other non-fiction book, especially a memoir, ever has. I began to ask myself why I kept my musical past at such an arms length if this music was something that I genuinely appreciated. There are a multitude of answers to that question, but the quintessential truth is that I've been exploring all the diversity that the world of music has to offer. It's been a lot of fun and I plan on doing much more of it, but before I do, I feel like it's necessary to explore a little more of my roots, and that's what this journal is about.

Two points of interest:

Keep the genre splicing at a minimum. I use the terms metal and glam metal very loosely at times. Metal and electronica fans have one thing in common in that they are the most notorious in asserting that a given artist is, in fact, not this sub-genre, but that sub-genre. My answer to this? I don't care. I will definitely be including bands/artists in here that won't qualify as metal by many people's standards, or glam metal by most. Deal with it. The thread is about my life's experience as it regards music, not a Wikipedia entry.

I'll almost certainly at varying points be throwing some quotes from Fargo Rock City in here, as it would be almost unjust not to. It's too relevant to the topic of the thread. Yes, his book was an impetus for my journal, and if any similarities between the book and my journal entries exist, it's because huge similarities exist between Klosterman's account of his life experiences and my own life experiences.

So without further ado...

I'm going to bed.

12-13-2011, 02:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
SATCHMO Al Dente Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 4,847	Testosterone Therapy: SATCHMO Waxes Nostalgic on 80's Glam Metal So the origin of this thread has come about from two main influences. The first, and undoubtedly most important influence is that for the past 2 years music in general has become less and less of an important part of my life, and the degree to which I've found that truth to be unsettling has grown commensurately with my waning interest. Music has been an integral part of life for as long as I can remember. I spent 10 years working in the music industry in varying capacities and even though I quickly became disillusioned about the nature of the business, it didn't do anything to water down my passion for music itself. What did cause my interest to wane? Well, I have a few ideas, but my best theory is this: I was a teenage metalhead. And while such an confession seems hardly scandalous in the grand scheme of things, I certainly spent the latter half of my life treating it as if it were. It would be one thing if I was born a decade-- or even a few years later, when metal had evolved away from it's apex of kitsch, but through fate's hand I seem to have been born at just the perfect time for the advent of early 80's hair metal to coincide with the massive influx of testosterone that was causing tremendous upheaval to my body and mind. In my opinion, the world will never come up with a better soundtrack to the onset of male puberty than 80's glam metal. If a girl asked me what the experience was like, I'd put on Def Leppard's High n' Dry album and quietly leave the room. And while my taste in metal did evolve in complexity as the genre did as well, when the haze of puberty began to lift, my natural trajectory seemed to be one of moving away from this obviously ridiculous and confounded sub-genre of music that would go on to be so harshly lambasted by critics and cultural revisionists that for many, save for the most die hard fans, the music itself was relegated to a shoe box full of cassettes stashed away in the closet. All of this, while true, was something that I rarely thought about until I recently read Chuck Klosterman's book Fargo Rock City, a memoir of his coming of age in rural North Dakota as a heavy metal fan in the 80's. While I didn't grow up in North Dakota, I did grow up in a very rural area of upstate New york, and everything about Klosterman's experience resonated with me in a way that no other non-fiction book, especially a memoir, ever has. I began to ask myself why I kept my musical past at such an arms length if this music was something that I genuinely appreciated. There are a multitude of answers to that question, but the quintessential truth is that I've been exploring all the diversity that the world of music has to offer. It's been a lot of fun and I plan on doing much more of it, but before I do, I feel like it's necessary to explore a little more of my roots, and that's what this journal is about. Two points of interest: Keep the genre splicing at a minimum. I use the terms metal and glam metal very loosely at times. Metal and electronica fans have one thing in common in that they are the most notorious in asserting that a given artist is, in fact, not this sub-genre, but that sub-genre. My answer to this? I don't care. I will definitely be including bands/artists in here that won't qualify as metal by many people's standards, or glam metal by most. Deal with it. The thread is about my life's experience as it regards music, not a Wikipedia entry. I'll almost certainly at varying points be throwing some quotes from Fargo Rock City in here, as it would be almost unjust not to. It's too relevant to the topic of the thread. Yes, his book was an impetus for my journal, and if any similarities between the book and my journal entries exist, it's because huge similarities exist between Klosterman's account of his life experiences and my own life experiences. So without further ado... I'm going to bed.