Will+R’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech

=Metal= The music genre of metal seems to be very misunderstood outside of the metal community (which I must say is mostly a bad community sadly.) I have lost count of the times that people try to "imitate" the death metal genre by just yelling and making awful sounds. I have learned to ignore it, and yet in the back of my mind it still makes me angry. Why is it that people enjoy making fun of a music genre that so many other people enjoy? There are many musical genres that I can criticize heavily and yet I don't. Instead I explore it and see exactly what it is about. If it is not my thing then I move on, and yet people do not take the time to explore the many forms of metal and actually listen to them. There are dozens of metal genres and sub genres that exist and yet people still always think that metal is just harsh vocals and "yelling". There is the same amount of metal with clean vocals as there is with harsh vocals. Power metal is one genre that has clean vocals that can beat most singers that are praised as amazing in the public eye, and yet they are ignored or not even listened to by most people. Some of these talented vocal artists are comparable to great operatic singers such as Luciano Pavarotti. I do not care if you don't like the band or the singing, but at least don't diminish a vast type of music just because of one sub genre that you do not fancy. People also enjoy mocking harsh vocals from genres such as black metal and death metal. It is not just yelling, it takes skill and practice to be good enough to gain the respect of Black Metal or Death Metal fans. For instance, black metal vocals actually have range and require heavy usage of the diaphragm, and yes there are actual lyrics that after listening to harsh vocals for long time, you can easily understand. It takes incredible skill in order to do black metal vocals for a 1 hour live set or even just a studio recording and not mess up your voice or hurt yourself. These vocal artists have to sing while also distorting their voice. I have tried many times embarrassingly home alone in my room, and yet I still have not been able to even do it decently. This ignored talent does not sadly stop at vocals. There are purely mind blowing guitarists, bassists, and drummers that are often overlooked because of the genre they are in. [|Jari Mäenpää]is the guitarist for the melodic death metal band Wintersun, and he is extremely talented on the guitar. Not only does what he play require immense speed and precision, but also requires extreme talent and skill to preform correctly. Or Steve Harris from the classic heavy metal band Iron Maiden, who has incredible bass riffs and makes the bass the center of attention when listening to any iron maiden song. I truly do not understand how people can do this. Just by listening to a couple songs by slayer or Metallica and basing the whole metal genre off of them is ludicrous, seeing as you barely scratched the surface of metal. I could care less about the criticisms, it's the ignorance that really pisses me off. Ignorance is what I truly hate. This is not necessarily about how people judge the metal genre, but how people decide to criticize things they remain ignorant about. I am also not saying all metal is good, seeing as I dislike many genres and bands because they are just awful. I want to grow up in an America where people are less ignorant about topics they don't understand. Where instead of judging what people enjoy based off of stereotypes, they take the time to explore what it is that they are criticizing.

=Cite Your Sources= A good documentary on a few Depressing Suicidal Black Metal one man bands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQl6PzXU4cQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ziAsMTs9sg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTYHYglem-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh6QPg5BGsE