system of a down 23 by Editorial Zone
Published Date: 29/09/06
System Of A Down
I am known in my circle, as someone who likes a wide range of music. I enjoy rock, jazz, classical, and people like Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley. I even like some punk, and I appreciate the song writing of Kurt Cobain. I have Metallica in my CD collection. Isn't your Mum cool! my son's friends would say. I do not have System Of A Down.
There is one genre that I have never warmed to, and that is the heavy metal of the 1990's. My son is also into lots of different music now, but he only listened to a certain type of metal band back in those days. His bedroom door would be ajar and the high decibel riffs of System Of A Down, Korn, the Deftones, and Cradle Of Filth would spill out.
There was the usual parent and teenager conflict about the level of noise, my son informing me that System Of A Down had to be loud to enjoy them properly. Posters of soccer players on the wall had been replaced by tattooed men with goatees giving the finger.
Optimistically, he tried to convert me to System Of A Down. I think he picked on that band because he knew my left wing political leanings would make me appreciate the lyrics at least. System Of A Down is known for its themes of social justice and defending the downtrodden. I knew this because he told me, not because I could actually make out a single word. So, he showed me the lyrics written down and it was a bit of an eye opener. Yes, they did live up to the explicit lyrics warning sticker, but they are actually good. They are imaginative, even poetic at times and do address social ills. When I told him I liked them, he grinned, thinking I'd been converted. I had to remind him, I still didn't like the music.
System Of A Down did teach me a lesson however, and that's not to dismiss something totally. Of course, I laughed like a drain at Spinal Tap, but I've learned there's often something good if you take the trouble to find it.
My son did his best to educate me about the different musical genres and where System Of A Down fitted in to it all. It was very confusing. There is nu metal, death metal, thrash metal and alternative metal. I still haven't grasped all the subtleties of the sub-genres.
Gradually, my son's musical tastes extended to reggae and ska punk. He started to borrow my Pink Floyd and Simon and Garfunkel. Although he doesn't play them much these days, I know there is still a place in his heart for System Of A Down and their ilk. Funnily enough, I feel a strange nostalgia for those bands that tried to shake us up out of our lethargy. Some of them had something to say. My favorite System Of A Down lyric is why don't Presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor? I guess that says it all.
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