Descend into the Maelstrom

A break from politics.  Both to maintain my sanity and yours, and also to keep my loyal readers happy.  I think this is an interesting subject and I want to hear your opinions about an inexplicable phenomenon.

One of the coolest things about Youtube, in my opinion, is that you can easily spend an entire Saturday afternoon watching a smorgasbord of music videos without having to spend a single cent, on demand, whenever you want it.  I can look up my favorite bands, live concert footage, or even wander into international territory and pick up Arabic, Hindi, or Tamil songs that I grew up listening to.  You can let the music play in the background while doing something else, such as homework or, as I’m doing now, writing something.  In an hour you can listen to 10 different songs of 10 entirely different styles.

Or you can listen to the same song over and over and over again in an endless loop.  I often do this when I fall in love with a song for the first time.  But at some point it becomes a bit unreasonable to not want to listen to anything else but the same song, right?  I am going through this right now.  For well over a month, possibly close to two months, I have been playing the same song on youtube non-stop and not really listening to any other music at home.  It’s called "Wait and Bleed: Original Cut" by a thrasher band from Iowa called Slipknot.  Here’s the link, if you care to watch the video that I have probably played 300 times in the recent past: Wait and Bleed by Slipknot.

I’ll be the first to admit the following:

1) It’s a good song, not a great song.  If you’re over 35, you probably think it’s just a lot of noise.
2) Slipknot is energetic, but not a great band.  In fact I only know three of their songs, including Wait and Bleed.
3) The gimmick- 8 dudes who wear scary masks and jumpsuits while singing or playing instruments, loses its luster in perhaps 10 minutes.
4) The lyrics make no sense besides being an intense display of anger.  The main refrain that is oft-repeated, "I felt the hate rise up in me/ Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves/ I wander out where you can’t see/ inside my shell I wait and bleed." can be seen to have some deeper meaning that truly connects with someone’s soul.  Or you could look at it from my point of view: I don’t get it, don’t really identify with it, except perhaps the bit about pent-up anger felt by adolescents and those of us on extended adolescence well into their 30’s.
5) The video is entertaining- the masked dudes beating the crap out of one another, the crowd going apeshit- but not enough to watch repeatedly without getting bored of it.  Right?

So I am trying to dig deeper into WHY.  This piece is an effort toward that end.  If you’re a psychologist and have something to say, I’m listening.

To be honest, I don’t feel enough anger in daily life to connect with the passion in the song, which I am guessing must be rooted in some sort of childhood trauma.  Certainly nobody in my life has done anything to me, nor have I self-flagellated myself enough to cause this anger.  And in fact, I don’t feel anger when listening to the song.  It calms me down.  While it’s true my favorite band, Rage Against the Machine, is known for its unrivaled passion for the music and political causes, Slipknot does not even come near that category.  Yet I haven’t listened to a Rage song in several months.

Obviously I do connect to the melody.  The singer has a range- from sing-song, high voice to unadulterated yelling and screaming.  One must admit that he’s got real talent, as is evidenced by his singing on other Slipknot songs as well as in another band, Stone Sour. 

I think the masks are cool.  They tell the audience a bit about each musician’s personality, because they are custom-made to their preferences.  Their personality is admirable, because they are out there in outlandish attire that few people, musicians or otherwise would be willing to perform in.  They don’t seem to care what people think- an individuality that I have always respected.  On the other hand, musical critics have pointed out the more cynical view: that the masks are a cheap marketing gimmick.

In my soul-searching I have come up with an explanation I believe is more compelling.  I believe that Wait and Bleed, as much as perhaps any song, makes me feel good about rock and roll, about America, and even myself.  Here are 8 dudes from the midwest, who probably came from a place similar to the midwestern towns I lived in, who developed a clownish personality, real musical talents, and decided at a young age that their purpose in life would be to ROCK.  In my opinion most recent popular music is horrible, especially in two American genres I truly care about, hip hop and rock.  Music has been corrupted by an industry that wants to churn out ten trashy pop-tart hits a year written in record company meeting rooms by clueless executives.  A band like Slipknot comes along and gives the executives the middle finger with an organic sound that the young people can relate to.  And they are continuing to tour and make good music. 

On the other hand, do I simply listen because there is no explanation for some things?  Is it possible that one doesn’t ever know why an idea pops into your head, why you feel like ordering #13 on the Chinese takeout menu today instead of #6, why you chose to wear the red tie on any given morning, and why I picked tea instead of coffee this morning?  Did God put each of these ideas in our heads for a reason, as part of his larger master scheme? 

I’m not sure how long I’ll continue listening to Wait and Bleed.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up and not feel like hearing it ever again.  And maybe I’ll never find out why I had a temporary Wait and Bleed fetish for several months of my life at age 28.