MacNeil, G. (1997). An Analysis of the group, Metallica. S. Hamilton, MA: Center for Youth Studies.

OVERVIEW

Metallica is one of the enduring heavy metal bands—a genre involving violence, sex, the occult, and an occasional veneer of social justice issues. Being acquainted with this band provides the youth worker an opportunity to talk with those who are "into heavy metal"—a phrase suggesting the extent to which a sub-culture defines itself by the type of music it adopts. Being "into" a type of music hints at a way of life, an absorption, a deeply personal identification with a mode of expression which somehow says something about who one is.

Metallica is a four member band including two guitars (the lead guitar is supported by the driving rhythm of the lead singer’s guitar), a bass guitar, and drums. Currently, of the four players, two are original members (lead singer James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich). The other two positions have a history: the present lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett, replaced Dave Mustaine, who replaced the original Lloyd Grant (the only black person to be a member of the band); the present bassist, Jason Newsted, replaced Cliff Burton after his death in an 1986 on-tour accident. Burton had replaced the band’s first bassist, Ron McGovney.

As the primary writers, Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield mold Metallica’s music and image. Their childhood stories illustrate underlying factors influencing their contemporary adolescent development. Lars Ulrich, born in 1963, was a classic "hurried child", to use David Elkind’s terminology for the have-it-all, be-it-all, and wait-for-nothing child-rearing practices of affluence. Lars, the son of Danish tennis pro (and jazz club entrepreneur) Torben Ulrich, was rigorously groomed to pattern Dad’s career in tennis and became a ranked junior player. As Chris Crocker states in his portrait of the band, "Listening to rock-n-roll was Lars’s only escape from an eight-hour-a-day tennis regimen, his only rebellion against his strictly ordered life." Extensive touring, a major relocation from Copenhagen to Los Angeles at age 14, and a growing passion for drums marked Lars’s young life. In California he dabbled in pot-smoking, jamming, and the heavy metal scene; this is where he met James Hetfield.

James Hetfield, also born in 1963, had quite a different childhood. Hetfield’s father was a Nebraska trucker, and his mother was a singer. The family were strict Christian Scientists; they asserted legal exemption from certain medical practices, such as immunization, medicine, and health education dealing with symptomology and medical treatment. This reportedly imposed on James a sense of isolation from his peers and, perhaps, a secret longing for forbidden knowledge. James’s brother, David (ten years older), belonged to a band which practiced in their garage. As a child, James was fascinated with horror movies, the occult, and the music group, Black Sabbath. His disapproving mother forced him into piano lessons. James’s parents separated before he began high school, and his mother died while James was a teenager.

While Lars Ulrich exemplifies the "hurried child," James Hetfield offers the paradigm of alienation. In a Rolling Stone interview, Ulrich commented that it is only in the later years of the band’s success that James has opened up to Lars and discussed some of the painful issues of his childhood: being raised in Christian Science, his parents’ separation, his mother’s death, and the resulting anger burning within James. Such anger and chronic aloofness are wholly consistent with this writer’s personal experience and the reports of others who have left Christian Science after being raised in it. Christian Scientists, desiring to separate themselves from materialism, are encouraged not to discuss negative thoughts and feelings; they are in fact trained away from psychological analysis.

The elements of rebellion and alienation which these young men lived have not only shaped their musical expression but have magnetized others who are alienated, defiant, and in pain. The young people (mostly white, mostly male) attracted to heavy metal are likely unable and unwilling—as James Hetfield—to process their experiences of pressure, confusion, and emotional starvation. Such inner conflicts and contradictions are revealed in many of the enigmatic names that heavy metal groups have adopted—Iron Butterfly, Angel Witch, Quiet Riot, and Blue Cheer—as well as in that of the Hell’s Angels, whose lifestyle and appearance heavy metal types find so seductive. Behind the stereotypical, tribal appearance formed by black leather, tattoos, wild long hair, chains, and other jewelry, hides the hunger for identity and community.

For the most part, the music appeals to males more than females, and it often degrades women. It is also an affluent, white phenomenon. The discussion leader should be particularly sensitive to the fact that the dominating emotion in this music is anger, and that issues of gender, race, and class are pegs are targets of such anger. This does not imply that racism and sexism should be ignored, but intiallly and primarily focusing on these issues may be counterproductive.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Questions which may facilitate discussion are those which infer that the young person is the expert and the youth worker is asking to be educated: "Tell me why this record speaks to you?" "Do you have to be in any particular type of mood when you listen to this music?" "If you see someone wearing a Metallica T-shirt, would you be interested in talking to him or her? What would you talk about?"

IMPLICATIONS

First, establish a relationship; when anger is such an important dynamic, the person being approached needs to feel safe from being put down. The youth worker’s attitude needs to be of interest and caring.