# Heavy Metal and those fun-loving Germans **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 1999, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288 "1999-07-28T21:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288/1 "1999-07-28T21:27:00Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288/2 "1999-07-28T21:48:00Z")
I think you have Mars Bonfire to thank. And Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson aren’t so bad. It could have been Rosanne and Tom Arnold, eh? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288/3 "1999-07-28T22:16:00Z")
that’s horible ,SLY, for the sake of the neighbors I sure hope Roseanne is a moaner’n’groaner and NOT a screamer ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288/4 "1999-07-29T13:35:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288/5 "1999-07-29T15:48:00Z")
Hey, Jolt. According to my German/English dictionary Drang means: urge,rush,pressure or impulse. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 1999, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288/6 "1999-07-30T14:58:00Z")
> [@](#): > > that’s horible ,SLY, for the sake of the neighbors I sure hope Roseanne is a moaner’n’groaner and NOT a screamer Well, she sure ain’t a spinner! * * * “Owls will deafen us with their incessant hooting!” W. Smithers ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 1999, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-and-those-fun-loving-germans/2288/7 "1999-08-03T00:29:00Z")
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… * * * Brian O’Neill CMC International Records [www.cmcinternational.com](http://www.cmcinternational.com) ICQ 35294890 AIM Scrabble1 Yahoo Messenger Brian\_ONeill