The introduction breaks down what will be discussed in the book and the general themes coincide with those that were featured in Sam Dunn's film, "A Headbanger's Journey"; stereotypes regarding dress and style, race and socioeconomic background, links to classical and American blues music, as well as the reasoning behind band names and the use of the power chord are topics mentioned straight from the beginning. Although metal music has unifying features, such as sound distortion, many metal fans love one band yet may hate another band, even though it is within the same genre. Because of this characteristic of metal fans, the Monster of Rock concert of 1988 was a unsuccessful because the organizers failed to recognize this quality. Walser also goes on to discuss the wide variety of metal bands and how some of these bands infused aspects of other genres which allowed them to have appeal to a greater audience.
Discussion question: Which of the bands or songs mentioned in Walser's text did you not expect to see considered as metal music and why?
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