*on soapbox*
All rock music with loud guitars is "metal" its only the annoying 8 year old mini metallers who specify it as spearate styles of music, the kind of person who'd say Busted & McFly were pop and Blink 182 and Good Charlotte were punk rock, actually from a musical point of view, their songs are very similar, and they all write and perform their own music. Therefore it comes down to image. Many such people would classify Marilyn Manson as "hard" whereas actually to those in the "know" manson is about the softest "metal" you can listen to, probably with Cradle of Filth being higher, and bands which you can't even vaguely get any lyrics or music other than thrashing and screamng as more credible still - its madness. "Emo" bands are playing very similar music in substance to many band who aren't classed as emo, its just down to personal preferance and beliefs to classify such similar bands into little categories, many of which boil down to the kind of clothes they wear, what record label they release on or what guitars they play. If you have a band with 2 or more people, writing and performing their own music, with electric guiatars and drums based upon "rock" origins, its "metal", regardless of them how society seems to try and split them appart as to whats exceptable by different social groups. Its comparable to rappers from LA shooting at rapper from NYC because their music is better, or Take That fans fighting with Boyzones fans. All equally stupid, regardless of whether its about "cool" music or otherwise. Do what I do, listen to everything and make up your mind what is good without listenning to other's opinions - judging it on the quality of the lrics, musicianship and how original it is, NOT on whether it clasifies as one type of music or another - you'll enjoy a wider spectrum of msuci that way, and won't get stuck with social groups who think one bunch of people "suck" and others "rock" - it makes no sense at all, people are entitled to like what they want to. Thats coming from me, a professional music producer with years of experience in and around the industry, with many, many different styles of music surrounding me constantly and who personally listens to about everyting except boybands who only do covers of old ballads. And even then, if they do it well enough and do the original justic, I can still accept that people are entitled to like it
*offf soapbox*
