How Many Tears have they cried?
A dedication to the world of Rock & Metal.
What do the music critics of 3 decades ago mean in their words when they labelled early rock & heavy metal bands of the 70's, 80's & 90's as "hair bands"? Was it due to those musicians wore hair-bands whilst performing? Or was it the musicians wore wigs instead? It stumped me for a bit there as I searched for the meaning of "hair bands".
I was only 9 when the Malay Archipelago's airwaves were shaken & rocked to the bottom by bands of Malaysia & Singapore origins delivering rock hits & rock ballads in Malay. It was a time when the local Malay parents criticize the young's rockish lifestyles & the youth's choice of rock & metal music was faced with interventions. This then adds-up the denial of our neighbouring country's acceptance of rock & metal musicians appearing on national t.v. with sweeping long hairs. Nevertheless, the era of Rock swept into the region in mid-80's just like the avian flu of today's millenium times. That was in the 80's then.
Majority of the people in those years loathe the heavy music and
objected to their kids having made adaptations to Rock - its music,
its fashion, its paraphernalia and its lifestyle. Hey, surprisingly, the
bits & pieces of Rock - its music, its fashion, its paraphernalia and
its lifestyle - are still a stronghold front till today, 56 years after its
first beginning from the western world. Rock & Metal music, its
fashion & lifestyle knocked on the doors of our region's shores way
much earlier since the early 70's, at that time I was still running
around in shorts.
If you could've remembered the early Malay rockers of band Sweet Charity began recording rock songs that were your mums' & dads' favourites, the actual rock evolution has gained immense popularity in our region ever since the four rock apostles John, Paul, George & Ringo formed up The Beatles and Mick Jagger rivals the UK rock band with his own satisfaction in The Rolling Stones. There - from as early as our grandaddies' time there have been the super substyles of heavy metal, punk, alternative, grunge, emo and others, all originating from the genre of rock.
The subject about "hair bands" - as you might've known, Malay rock band Sweet Charity adapted to having long locks of hair as an image to upbring the music that they love & play. Then comes in the mid-80's Malay rocker musicians of rock bands Search, Lefthanded, Wings, Sofea, Febians, Bumiputra Rockers, Rockers, Rusty Blade, The Unwanted, Helter Skelter - to name some percentage of the "hair bands" in Malay rock. Each of these bands and musicians are well varied in their musicianship skills of course, in spite of being labelled as "hair bands". The bigger "hair bands" of the 70's & 80's that have hatched far more frenzied followings among rock & metal music listeners the world over are the ones coming from the west. Long, long locks of hair, frizzled & drizzled bangs and pretty curls adorned the heads of band members from
the likes of Def Leppard, Jon Bon Jovi, Guns N Roses, Firehouse, Helloween, King Diamond, Motorhead, Deep Purple, Dio, Rainbow, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Sepultura to even the make-up adorning bands and musicians of either Kiss, Twisted Sister or Alice Cooper. The eastern world does make rock & metal music advances as well and they're not to be left out cold in the scene as well, when even Japanese rock band Loudness breaks in the market within the excellent period of the hot rocking era of the 80's.
"Hair bands" lived well enough in the mainstream market through to the mid-90's and sooner as the millenium rushed in, more of the "hair bands" have acquired age and hence concentrated on road tours and what do you know, the critics have at least stopped jabbing at the "hair bands" at all. I think the reason why many critics would label long-haired musicians as being in "hair bands" is probably because these critics thought in their own opinion these musicians' music lustre isn't as brilliant as they look and to top the cream of their opinionship, the musicians' extravagant rock lifestyle thus invoked much of the critics' judgements. And then there are the drugs and booze. Which then escalated as much of the parentals' objections to their kids having adapting to rock & metal music and its lifestyles. A big chunk of miscalculated judgements have brought about the young listeners and followers to being involved in misthought situations and then it became one big issue of a social problem of the youths. The underground music scene that was making its way around the world snaked through the lives of youths who in hope of barricading parents and social workers away from their lifestyle of music & listening choice. Sad as it looks, good bands are being misjudged by the controlling authorities even till present day. Save the mainstream and commercial bands that were more acknowledged, many metal music are still under the heavy scrutinizing of the controlling agencies in many countries. This then have brought about numerous independent labels to cater recording to the underground metal music around the world. Many subtypes of metal music was thought to have its affiliations to satanism, blood-sucking rituals, gory murders, sex, drugs, booze and the sorts. The same 'doctrines' was connected to the rock music of the 70's and 80's "hair bands", by firm beliefs of some worldly mortal religious leader who sits in Rome who says the music is a decaying form of destruction for the people. The most important thing to point out about passing out doctrines are to evaluate the more relevant issues. The famished and starving world is a bigger attention to pay to rather than having to blame music for all of life's negative causes.
Even as we listen, learn & valuate the music of rock & metal of the 70's, 80's, 90's and the present day, we should already be understanding the quality of contents in the lyrics that each of the musicians are putting out to the listening audience. In actual form, the lyrics of Metallica's Creeping Death depicts the story about Pharaoh's killings of baby sons in early times Egypt and Metallica's music arrangements are what made the essence of their songs be well-received by metal fans the world over. We may even be pleased to know about Iron Maiden's lyrics raises more meanings about historical happenings, life, death, afterlife and the Creator. Save the images of monsters, Djinns and other beings on their CD sleeves, many of the metal genre music are showcases of excellent music styles and good musicianship discipline with good music writing. In the example of Sepultura who originated from Brazil, the musicians wrote numerous songs about freedom, racial discrimination, territorial fights and the social issues the country faced.
In the larger numbers of many good songs written by many metal bands are in fact in light of current world happenings and words or suppression and repression. Are we to say that certain rules and guidelines have come short of one thick line that separates them from the music world? That this music of the rock & metal genre have thus gained extra popularity over the years as it progresses and it has become the center of a multi-billion dollar global industry! So I'd say Big Bollocks to critics of the rock and metal music world, be them the world media, the bickering musicians themselves or even any Harry, Tom or Dick-faced lads in the music scene.
Things have since changed from the 80's till now, the current 2006. The word Rock had actually become more of a fad for many who've shunned rock & metal music before now. Who's to know what Korn is or who Nirvana are even if it means putting on a t-shirt with Korn or Nirvana inscribed on its shirt front without even having the knowledge and that actually hurts rock & metal music scene real deep, by having the wearer or the user not knowing the vast roots of the music itself. Most recent times have we seen many new brands of young musicians sprucing up freshly from somewhere. A number of them are good, if not excellent. And no disrespect must be shown to the new breaths as these are kids who've actually learnt music in arts institutions and there are some whom are self-taught to goodness are going to be the continuing chain to rock & metal music either locally or globally. So long as they tend to remember the roots of this music and acknowledge the fact that without the old legendary rock & metal there will not be newer generations now to create fresher sounds of the future.
To support the idea of my subject, here I've included Helloween's metal hit song from their album 'Walls Of Jericho', titled How Many Tears. Read at how the German metal band indicates the world's sufferings. A good thing to ponder about rather than just having terrorism be the subject of all discussions, day in day out!
How Many Tears
[Weikath] / Helloween
A lot of things occur each day
We've got to live with on our way
There's so much misery on the screen
With commercials in between!
And the Russians won't be so late
Uncle Sam don't wanna wait
No matter if you're black or white
You never ever had a right!
And look up to the eternal skies
See warfare even there
What once has been a paradise
Now destruction and despair
In other worlds the children die
Lacking food ill from a fly
Oppressed by troops to tame their land
It's all the same again!
If any man is free on earth
Then tormentors steal his birth
They slam gun butts in his face
And leave his woman choked in mace!
So stand up for our human rights
Push back this pest of hate
Raise your voice pass on the light
Unite! it's not too late
How many tears flow away
To become a sea of fears
How many hearts are torn apart
Till another torment starts
But before the world
Turns into a sun
All the cruelty and violence
On earth will be dead and gone
So stand up for our human rights
Push back this pest of hate
Raise your voice pass on the light
Unite! it's not too late
