Heavy Metal

 Greetings and welcome to the Heavy Metal blog of J. Ozz Cooper. This is my endeavor to offer my perspective on the music, the bands, and the ethos of Heavy Metal.

   Unlike many art forms, music is the subject of continuous debate as to how things fit into genres. The obvious problem is that a musician doesn't feel the need to conform his art to one specific category. Before there was any real definition of heavy metal (HM), the artists commonly ranged all over the landscape of rock 'n roll. So, just what is it?

   Simply put, HM is power chords. It's also an attitude. Furthermore, it's a style. Basically HM is difficult to fit into any one easy definition. It can be many things, and often, we know it when we see it.  

   In the posts to come, I will discuss the what, the who, and even the why of this type of music. For me, the why is that I have loved 'metal since I first listened to the radio. The late 70s were a good time to be a metalhead, with such a great variety of sounds to be had. One of my first memories was of a Black Sabbath/ AC/DC weekend on the local rock station. It didn't get any better than that.

   So, off we go. The history of the music, the bands, the songs, timelines of great events, and in-depth discussions of  the how the genre breaks down into a whole tree full of categories. Rock on.