Thrash Metal: A Close Analysis of the Musical Influences Behind this Extreme Form of Music of the 1980s 6th edition revised and re-edited

By the mid-1970s, the sixties generation had ceased to exist as a driving force for change, in its place a self-centered, greedy, and excessive driven generation was born out of the disappointing mentality of the 60s youth. Besides fashion and the conglomeration of material things, music, the element that once served as a channel of communicating the message of protest and revolution had grown pretentious, going along with the indulging world of capitalist America. Whatever remained of the gospel of the anti-establishment of the 60s, would be picked up by a group of young Americans frustrated by the false doctrines of their sixties predecessors and the growing excess of America in the 70s. New York City and California once again would be at the vanguard of cultural and musical revolution. This subculture would be responsible for transmitting its message across the Atlantic and deliver it to Britain. Punk Rock, as it would be known, will develop into one of the most important counter culture movements that emerged from the underground world of music in the United States. Throughout the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, this culture will thrive, but it would not be free from media attention, fashion, and art aficionados whose capitalist influences would eventually lead to its decline. Whatever remained of the movement would be gathered again by a generation that considers themselves as a derivative of a decadent society, living for today and with no future in sight. History would once again make a U-turn. The sounds of Punk and the newly imported sounds of the New Wave of Heavy Metal would be put together by an angry generation of youngsters in the East and West Coast to create the 1980s Thrash Metal revolution. This new musical movement would prove to be more lethal than their previous predecessors, not only challenging the Status Quo, but also religious as well as family values and world politics, later on stirring senate controversy and hearings. In a close historical as well as anthropological analysis, this book takes a close look at the development of this 1980s sub-cultural musical phenomena and how its influence shape the minds and costumes of those who followed it through the decadent 80s till its eventual decline in the early 1990s.