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What
These days, metal is often thought of as Korn and Limp Bizkit, or the hair metal bands of the '80s like Poison. But metal music is extremely diverse and ranges from the radio-ready to the obtusely experimental. What makes metal metal is its POWER: heavy, intense and meant to be heard at maximum volume. Chances are that if it's not LOUD or doesn't become LOUD at some point, it's not metal.
When
The '70s saw British metal take center stage: there were the slow, doom-filled grooves of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden's glorious baroque epics and Led Zeppelin's aggressive, bluesy sound. Through the years, metal music has evolved and multiplied: there are ultra-heavy styles like grindcore (Napalm Death), black metal (Cradle of Filth) and death metal (Morbid Angel); '80s glam or hair metal (Motley Crue); industrial metal (KMFDM, NIN); Sabbath-influenced Christian doom metal (Trouble); intricate styles like progressive metal (Metallica; Meshuggah) and funk metal (Primus); fast and tinny styles like speed metal (Slayer) and power metal (Helloween); and today's popular faves: rap metal (Korn, Coal Chamber, Limp Bizkit) and alternative metal (Kittie, Slipknot, Tool), and many more.
Who
While rockers like Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper and the Who laid the groundwork for metal in the mid-'60s, the actually term "heavy metal" was coined in 1968 from a line from Steppenwolf's song "Born to be Wild." "Heavy metal thunder" referred to the roar of a motorcycle and became associated with the loud, fierce music that was emerging from the psychedelic, blues-heavy rock of the '60s and early '70s, when rockers took the "roll" (blues, swing) out of rock 'n' roll and focused on the "rock" (volume and power).
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For a more in-depth survey of metal styles, go here. For more about women in metal, visit webzines Endemoniada and Metal Maidens.
