
‎	‏The classification of Popular Music has grown over the past‭ ‬100‭ ‬years to include so many genres that it is difficult to definitively list them all. Complicating matters,‭ ‬most if not all genres—rap,‭ ‬rock,‭ ‬country,‭ ‬jazz,‭ ‬folk,‭ ‬just to name a few—have spawned multiple sub and sub-sub genres within their domain.  Arguably the sub-genre of Heavy Metal rock has become one of the most diverse and expressive genres of all popular music in the past‭ ‬40‭ ‬years. It is expressive because it displays a wide range of emotions,‭ ‬although they tend to lean toward the darker side of the spectrum. It is diverse in that quite soon after the beginnings of the genre,‭ ‬people started to realize that it had real flexibility and started to take advantage of it to create their own sub-genre,‭ ‬which then was followed by sub-sub-genres,‭ ‬and the chain continues until today. 

Today we have reached a point in the heavy metal movement where there are so many niches of groups that it is hard to determine what exactly heavy metal is. It has grown to incorporate so many themes from other genres,‭ ‬but like everything else,‭ ‬it spawned from somewhere. In order to properly understand the metal music that exists everywhere today,‭ ‬one must first understand what the metal movement is,‭ ‬and why it’s a movement rather than just a genre.

‎	‏Metal is,‭ ‬in many ways,‭ ‬a movement defined by darkness. Metal can be considered a‭ “‬music of more‭”—‬more bass,‭ ‬more volume,‭ ‬more violence,‭ ‬more theatricality. Less primitivism,‭ ‬more chops‭; ‬people in metal bands really know how to play their instrument,‭ ‬and it comes through in the music. Metal is also—although it may not come as a surprise—a movement that is heavily drug induced. There was a psychedelic drug boom in the mid-70‭’‬s that led to people getting crazier,‭ ‬leading to them to make crazy,‭ ‬other-worldly records,‭ ‬using the drugs as a scapegoat for their creation. It possesses many dark,‭ ‬visceral qualities,‭ ‬which was very new to the music scene because a large amount of popular music had qualities that weren’t true to the darker side of the emotional spectrum. Also,‭ ‬later generations of metal have taken some of their influence from the dark,‭ ‬visceral qualities that were so present in the Romantic Era. Lyrics such as the following express the darkness that is such a staple of the movement:‭ (‬Byrne‭)‬


	
These lyrics from Helter Skelter display the darker side of the Beatles. It exhibits an up and down,‭ ‬supposedly that of drugs. This song is considered by some to be one of the first Heavy Metal songs. It was a response to a Rolling Stones song that was also on the heavier,‭ ‬darker side. The Beatles wanted to prove that they could be just as heavy as the Stones,‭ ‬so they put that song on‭ ‬The White Album.