@Stoney: "Everyone wants to stand out, everyone wants to say they listen to complicated things, but no one wants to commit to listening. [...] Black and almost all other genres pretend to be niche, but in the end, they offer immediate and appealing things (in a single word, as someone mentioned above, 'cool') that are easily grasped, but dressed up as if they were something exceptional, so you understand them right away and perhaps even believe you've educated yourself about something." As far as I'm concerned, I don't think this is my case, since I'll listen to any CD handed to me as long as it's not the usual glossy crap like Tokio Hotel or something like that. What I know and what I think—my opinions, my beliefs, and even my philosophical orientation—are not due to a musical genre. They're due to me because I took a personal interest in studying certain topics, picked up books, and got to work, period. Then, if while sorting through all musical genres I find that even in black there are some who tackle rather particular themes that generally aren't found around the corner, then great, I read them while listening to the music and may find satisfaction, not because "it’s niche," not because "there's double bass or really heavy riffs," but because it attracts me for what it is and because I like channeling the sensations it can convey. I couldn’t care less if something is "evil/mean/good/happy/generic/margi nal/syrupy/whatever," the fundamental question is: does it communicate emotions to me? If yes, then great; if no, then I toss it all, even if it’s "truefuckingnorwegianblablabla." It seems obvious to me that no one can develop a solid culture just by listening to black metal; I would be very careful in saying that. I just say that often I find that many lyrics can be better than others, and so maybe even the music. Then, if there's someone who truly believes they can educate themselves with one specific genre, they've misunderstood, because to really educate yourself takes a lot of effort and several books open on the desk, certainly not a little song that can be as deep as you want, but if it were truly that useful, it would have been included in school books or else. "I believe that no matter how much one delves into philosophical aspects, the reasons why a blackster buys CDs of this music are unfortunately the painted faces, the double bass, the really heavy riffs, and that's it." It depends far too much on the cases; it’s all too relative because not all blacksters are like that. You probably have only encountered blacksters/metallers who think that way, but I know quite a few who don’t just see the double bass and the heavy riff... Not all of us are like that. We're not all closed-minded, much less so childish as to judge a specific musical genre based on how much double bass is in it. There are those who think: 'double bass + heavy riff = oh, how much it spakkkkaaaaa' and there are those like me who say 'music + experienced emotions = it's beautiful and I like it.' "Satanism, paganism, all the rest are things that serve to give it a more dignified dimension and an aura of seriousness that otherwise it wouldn’t have." This is likely, but like every musical genre (be it popular or not) has its more frequent themes to address, which can be appreciated or not; that very often there's an abuse of satanism and paganism to glam up the genre and make it more 'worthy' is beyond doubt, but there are always those who explore much different things regardless of the treated context and mainstream possibilities. There are always exceptions, and it’s wrong to generalize too much... "It’s purely a matter of exterior, of form, of appearance, and especially of provocation, and that, there’s plenty of." Most people might indeed think like you said, but I assure you there are many who consider what they listen to very simply "music to live by." Then, if you hate black metal and those who listen to it, there's really nothing I can do about
