I blogged a while back here and here about the book 'All Known Metal Bands'. Now thanks to Brian Hickam (who doesn't have a blog so I can't link to him), I've found out about another, even more ambitious metal art project - the boringly titled The History of Metal:
The History of
Metal (T.H.O.M.) is a large scale visual art project detailing the
origins, growth, and breadth of heavy metal music. I will attempt to
identify every heavy metal band that ever existed, identify different
subgenres within metal and their relationships to one another, and
create a collection of artworks that represents metal’s place in
history, the world, and in popular culture.
I've been a
fan of heavy metal music since I was a teenager, but until now I
haven't taken the time to delve into the history and genealogy of
this unique music genre. I took on this project largely to educate
myself and others about heavy metal, as well as to bring attention
to what I consider to be one of the most complex and enduring facets
of musical culture.
When
I originally came up with the idea for T.H.O.M., it was to be a single
drawing - a giant timeline that contained every heavy metal band from
the 1970's to present day, organized by subgenre. It has since evolved
and expanded to include several "peripheral" pieces that investigate
heavy metal's cultural presence. The project as a whole currently
consists of four pieces - three drawings and a interactive Flash
presentation:
- The Timeline Study:
A snapshot, if you will, of how the timeline drawing is being
constructed. This drawing is the first of many tests to determine the
ideal configuration of bands on a timeline.
- The Metal Map:
The Metal Map is a hand drawn and painted representation of the
concentration of metal bands in countries throughout the world. Each
country has been assigned a color based on how many heavy metal bands
have originated there throughout history, with amounts ranging from 0 -
9,396. The map reveals correlations between the popularity of heavy
metal and political, racial, and economic climates throughout the world.
- Subgenre Interactive:
An interactive Flash presentation that allows users to explore the
different subgenres within heavy metal, and listen to samples from
bands that represent those subgenres.
- Metal Subgenre Popularity Index: A large drawing showing the growth and popularity of each of the 14 main heavy metal subgenres from 1970 to 2008.
It's well worth checking out. I love the idea of trying to identify and nail down the entirity of a genre in a piece of visual art. On the one hand it's as futile as trying to nail jelly to a wall. On the other, it's a suitably mythic monument to a scene that is obsessed with making its own mythology. It'll be interesting to see how the project develops.
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