Did You Start Listening to Harder Music During Covid?
#FreedomMusicFriday: In This Moment and Devilskin
Over the last few years, it seemed to me that a lot of conservatives and libertarians I know got into heavier music. Of course, people in my generation (Gen X) were raised on rock and roll of all sorts, so this isn’t necessarily that much of a stretch. Still, I definitely got the impression that people I know were listening to more metal and other music with aggressive guitars and beats. (I recognize that such observations are anecdotal and unscientific, so take this for what you will.)
I believe that this was a mechanism for coping with our descent into neo-totalitarianism. It began roughly in mid-2015, when social media censorship began creeping in, and intensified over the next few years as the phenomenon became more obvious and frustrating. This censorship drastically changed the landscape—it restricted conversations among people on the right, and ruined or severely hampered the online careers of conservative and libertarian content-creators (including mine, at the time).
Then, the statist-leftist propaganda, lies, and narrative fabrication—which had always been there, but a little more subtly—became totally obvious and Orwellian.
And then COVIDTALITARIANISM happened. I certainly don’t need to rehash how shocking and infuriating that was—how it changed our views of America, the world, and the people in it.
Heavy music helped in two ways.
First, we were righteously angry, and heavier music is good for both channeling and echoing that feeling.
Second, we’re not the types to just lay down and take it, but at the same time, we were enervated and somewhat isolated. You may be proud to be a lion among sheep, but eventually, you just want the company of another lion. It’s exhausting to be the only one in Walmart not wearing a mask—to be on edge, ready for an argument at any moment…and to know that it might even come to blows (as it nearly did for me in a liquor store here in town). For my part, I refused to wear a mask even when it was 100% mandatory, which meant conflicts with store managers and receptionists in addition to cowering customers.
(If you still do not know why masks are 100 percent useless and making us wear them was, at the highest levels, a massive compliance-oriented psyop, then we need to have a separate conversation. I know it seems to some that refusing to wear a mask was just being contrarian, but it wasn’t. It was the most principled stance anyone could take, and the fact that more people did not take it has only emboldened those who wish to see us cowed and under their control.)
It was agonizing to watch almost everyone bend the knee so easily. I once believed that the impulse towards freedom, and the antibodies against tyranny, ran through the bloodstream of the American psyche. To find out how wrong that was was deeply disillusioning.
In the midst of all this, hard music just started to feel right. It gave us energy. The lyrics, the guitars, the drums, the rhythm—it all conveys a feeling of defiance. The left has kind of ruined the word “empowerment,” so instead, I will say that the music gave us strength. It woke us up. It reminded us that we are still lions, and that that’s a good thing to be.
During this period, I discovered a lot of music that fit this bill nicely. Most of it isn’t what I’ve been calling “homegrown”—self-consciously freedom-oriented in a political sense. Instead, it was music I adapted for the purpose. A snippet of lyrics…the overall aggressive vibe… these things were good enough for me to treat them as freedom music, no matter how the artist may have intended them.
The two songs below fit this description. Both gave me a feeling of power and liberation when I needed them. Both scream—Get up and be strong. Get pumped.
The songs below are more hard rock, and by no means are they the hardest these bands have to offer, but the messages are clear.
“Even in these chains you can’t stop me/Even in these chains, you won’t break me” was message enough in Big Bad Wolf, though if you look deeper, you will find other conservative messages of strength, and of personal improvement through ridding oneself of inner demons.
And the message in Start a Revolution is pretty obvious.
Often enough, hard guitar is enough for me to get the vibe. But the messages in these at very least qualify them for our “adapted” category.
So how about you—did you start listening to harder music, or at least start enjoying it more, over the last few years?
(Note to my religious readers: I know some of you may be disturbed by profanity, dark imagery, the band name “Devilskin,” etc. I understand, but I do not share, this concern. Acknowledging the darkness does not mean that one wishes to be dark. People dressed up as ghouls and goblins on Halloween not because they wanted to be those things, but because they had a respectful fear of them. I believe we can get things from observing the dark without living in the dark, if that makes sense. But I do apologize if this sort of thing is not your cup of tea.)
I didn't change my listening habits. But i certainly got a lot more edgy in my online discourse. That hasn't changed either. I guess that makes me a Heavy Metal Dissident. 😈
Whether we like or not, there is no returning to "normal." We may be able to resist the "new normal" though i have my doubts, but there's no going back. It's either we take the "new" that's forced on us or shape a new future.
Was I the only one who played The Wall (Pink Floyd) non-stop these past few years?