“ Sad But True ”: Why Metallica ’ s Fans Continue to Fail Them ( and Not Vice Versa ) Twenty Years After the Napster Lawsuit
joy the music that they love�the music that is supposedly a core aspect of their very essence and being . After all , one of the greatest things about being a metalhead , aside from the music , of course , is the affiliation and goodwill that we feel towards one another , and most especially , for our beloved bands .
WHAT DOES HEAVY METAL HAVE TO DO WITH FILE SHARING ?
The underlying psychology behind the creation of the cassette tape ( as opposed to that of the mentality behind file sharing ) serves as the best evidence that the metal scene is one of group affinity and shared experience , as demonstrated by the authors who contributed to the book Heavy Metal Music and the Communal Experience . As evidenced by this and other academic treatises in the relatively new area of metal music studies , scholars who write in this realm claim frequently that one of the main defining characteristics of metal fans around the globe is a notion of communal affinity that “ can provide individuals with a sense of meaning and purpose that allows them to come together as a community ” ( Varas-Díaz and Scott vii ). In discussing what she terms the “ culture of the community ,” Deena Weinstein maintains that the first characteristic of a metal community is a shared set of values that “ define what is morally right and wrong , what is beautiful and ugly , and what is true and false ,” all of which dictate the codes of conduct within the particular community ( 10 ). Because metalheads are also notoriously characterized as having isolative and excessively individualistic behavior traits , these and other metal authors universally recognize the difficulty of precisely defining the complex metal community , since it is “ fraught with perceived paradoxical relationships , the most noteworthy being that of individualism juxtaposed with a strong sense of belonging and identifica-
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