I was listening to my favorite radio station the other day, although they play entirely too much Heavy Metal. One song that strikes me as stereotypical is Alice In Chains’ song “Here Comes the Rooster”, a plodding song about being on the battlefield with buddies dying all around.
I thought to myself, just like country music is all lyin’ & cryin’ & dyin’, Heavy Metal is all Sturm und Drang. And then I thought to myself, what the hell does “Drang” mean. I took German a million years ago, so I know what “Sturm” meant. So I looked it up in my dictionary. It said something like:
“literally: storm and stress. From Sturm und Drang (1776), a drama by Friedrich von Klinger. A late 18th century German literary movement characterized by works containing rousing action and high emotionalism that often deals with the individual’s revolt against society.”
I thought to myself. Oh – in other words, Heavy Metal. So I wonder if we have Mr. von Klinger to blame for Heavy Metal. If von Klinger had not his thing, would we have Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson porn tapes now?
Actually, Jolt, sturm und drang has been used to describe a lot of other art before it was used on Heavy Metal. Wagner’s more ear-busting operas got the S&D label, as did some early German cinema. I’ve heard it used to describe some particulary scenery-chewing speeches (and I don’t just mean A. Hitler). Heavy metal is the just the latest to get pigeon-holed.
Alice In Chains a Heavy Metal band? Well, they have tendencies to rockin’ out, and one man’s pornography is another man’s art… But still, I would call 'em a rock band and nothing more…