#I'm not gonna say how I feel about the whole W.A.S.P. thing

[attentionthisisarobbery]

Eddie Munson's Music Taste

So for anyone that isn't well versed in metal, I thought it might be helpful to take a look at Eddie's taste in music for anyone wanting to write fanfiction or make fan content of any kind.

First off, let's look at the bands we know Eddie listens to from costume design, set design, and the script.

Metallica and Black Sabbath are the ones we know about from the script itself. Looking at Eddie's battle jacket, we can add W.A.S.P., Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest, and Accept (from the pins), Motörhead, Iron Maiden, and Megadeth (from the patches), and Dio from the back patch. Then, if we look closely at Eddie's room in the trailer, we can see that he also likes Anthrax and Liege Lord. Now, a lot of these bands would be considered heavy metal:

Motörhead

Iron Maiden

Judas Priest

Mercyful Fate

Accept

Dio

Liege Lord

Black Sabbath

A couple would be considered Thrash Metal:

Metallica

Megadeth

Anthrax

But one straddles the line between shock rock, heavy metal, and glam metal (or as Eddie would have called it in the 80s, hair metal):

W.A.S.P.

So, Eddie likes heavy metal, thrash metal, and hair metal - in that order, right? Well, not necessarily. Anthrax actually prompted the creation of the term "thrash metal," after their 1984 song Metal Thrashing Mad, and as such, there weren't a ton of thrash bands on the scene in 1986. So, it may not be that Eddie prefers heavy metal to thrash; it may just be that heavy metal is a well established genre that he's been exposed to for a longer period of time.

Then there's W.A.S.P. - our little hair metal outlier. Hair metal, or as it's usually referred to today, glam metal, is actually a source of tension in the metal community to this day. The entire culture around metal as a musical genre is heavily based in nonconformity, with popular metal bands creating music that would be seen as less accessible to the general public, because they refuse to fall in line with the mainstream.

Metal is a form of protest on top of being a great musical genre. A part of what classifies different types of metal (thrash, black, death, etc.) is what the lyrics are protesting against. For instance, black metal tends to be very anti-Christian, and thrash metal, emerging in the 80s, tends to be anti-conservative, anti-establishment, anti-war, and anti-environmental destruction. Check out Disposable Heroes by Metallica for strong example of this.

Hair metal came onto the scene at about the same time as thrash metal, and boy did metalheads have a lot to say about it. Hair/glam metal is still metal, but it's more accessible, more pop-influenced, and as a rule, doesn't really protest much through lyrics. Instead, the songs were designed to be just mainstream enough that they could top the charts and make more money as a result. Think Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Dokken, Twisted Sister, and Bon Jovi. But for metalheads, this was a departure from everything they stood for. Metal couldn't conform to the mainstream's expectations and still be metal.

Now, W.A.S.P. is kind of a special case, because although their sound is very much based in hair metal - pop hooks and guitar riffs combined with a blend of heavy metal, hard, and punk rock, with songs starting off slow and building in tempo with the occasional shred guitar solo thrown in - nothing else about them was palatable for the mainstream.

Their lyrics were considered highly offensive, so much so that their first single, Animal (Fuck Like A Beast), was removed completely from their first album release in the US, so it could be sold in chain stores. Their live performances were equally shocking: this is why they are classified as "shock rock." They became known for cutting up meat with chainsaws on stage, and then throwing said meat into the audience, as well as very raunchy displays of partial nudity, S&M, and simulated sex acts. W.A.S.P. actually became quite controversial in later years for their misogynic lyrics, being accused of promoting abuse and sexual assault.

But forget the politics for now. What does this mean for Eddie? Well, by virtue of also being shock rock, W.A.S.P. gets a bit of a pass when it comes to the conformity of hair metal, since they were still completely unpalatable for a mainstream audience. But the thing I want to point out is that Eddie doesn't hate W.A.S.P.'s sound. He might actually enjoy other hair metal bands as well, but wouldn't feel comfortable advertising it.

This is all just food for thought. You can use this information however you like in your fanworks. Maybe Eddie's trying to keep up an image and secretly loves ABBA, who the hell knows? I just thought I'd share this for anyone who wanted a little extra insight in the character and his music taste. It also might be cool to note that throwing horns (see Eddie in the picture below) originated with Ronnie James Dio back when he joined Black Sabbath in 1979. He said that his grandmother had used the gesture to ward off evil.

ALSO, I have to add this last part because the vocabulary used by metalheads can be confusing to the uninitiated. So, 'metal' is an umbrella term for all kinds of metal music. 'Heavy metal' is ALSO an umbrella term for all kinds of metal music, but it can also refer to the specific musical style established by the bands listed above under 'heavy metal': Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Iron Maiden. So someone might refer to thrash metal as a subgenre of heavy metal, and then turn around and say that they prefer thrash metal to heavy metal. You just kind of have to use context clues to figure out how the words are being used.

ALSO ALSO, please stop calling Eddie a punk, goth, etc. Those are different things. If in your fanwork Eddie is actually a goth, then by all means, but as he exists in canon, he would consider himself a metalhead. (could be funny to see how he reacts to other characters mixing it up tho)