Heavy metal subculture

Fans of heavy metal music have created their own subculture which encompasses more than just appreciation of the style of music. Fans affirm their membership in the subculture or scene by attending metal concerts–an activity seen as central to the subculture, buying albums, in some cases growing their hair long, wearing leather jackets and t-shirts with band names and logos and most recently, by contributing to metal websites. Metal fans may also write or take photos for metal zines.

Some critics and musicians have suggested that the subculture is largely intolerant to other musical genres. The metal scene, like the rock scene in general, is associated with alcohol and drug use as well as riding motorcycles. While there are songs that celebrate drinking, drug use and partying, there are also many songs that warn about the dangers of alcohol and drug addiction. The metal fanbase was traditionally white and male in the 1970s, but since the 1980s, more women fans have developed an interest in the style, while popularity and interest continue to grow among African Americans and Latinos.

Heavy metal fans go by a number of different names, including metalhead, headbanger, hesher, mosher and heavy, with the term thrasher being used only for fans of thrash metal music, which began to differentiate itself from other varieties of metal in the late 80's. These vary with time and regional divisions, but "headbanger" and "metalhead" are universally accepted to refer to fans or the subculture itself.

Heavy metal fans have created a "subculture of alienation" with its own standards for achieving authenticity within the group.Deena Weinstein’s book Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture argues that heavy metal “…has persisted far longer than most genres of rock music” due to the growth of an intense “subculture which identified with the music”. Metal fans formed an “exclusionary youth community” which was "distinctive and marginalized from the mainstream” society. The heavy metal scene developed a strongly masculine “community with shared values, norms, and behaviors”. A “code of authenticity” is central to the heavy metal subculture ; this code requires bands to have a “disinterest in commercial appeal” and radio hits as well as a refusal to “sell out”. The metal code also includes “opposition to established authority, and separateness from the rest of society”. Fans expect that the metal “…vocation [for performers] includes total devotion to the music and deep loyalty to the youth subculture that grew up around it…” ; a metal performer must be an “idealized representative of the subculture”.

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