Heavy metal music has only been around for a handful of decades. Many attribute its start to Black Sabbath in the late 1960s along with Led Zepplin (Brunner, 2). While heavy metal has experienced criticism from the media throughout much of its history, the first surge in negative media coverage occurred as a result of court cases. Court cases have been the medium through which the news media has presented heavy metal to its audience. Court cases involving heavy metal were especially abundant in the mid 1980s and early 1990s with the likes of Jello Biafra, McCollum v. CBS, Vance v. Judas Priest, and Waller v. Osbourne (Brunner, 12-14). The most well known of all however was not even technically a court case, but rather hearings. This occurred in 1985 in the United State Senate. All of these had their fair share of news media coverage on a national scale and it was through this news coverage that people began to learn of heavy metal music and form their perceptions on it. Still to this day, heavy metal is portrayed in negative ways by the news media.
While many scholarly sources provide consensus to the negative portrayal of heavy metal in media, perhaps the best way to show the negativity however is through firsthand examples. Clips of newscasts and newspapers provide primary source evidence of the bias present in the news towards metal. Following a brief description of the event, either news clips from major networks will follow and/or newspaper articles related to the trial. Pay close attention to each clip and news article to see if you notice any bias in the reporting.
For an introductory example of the news media's view of heavy metal music in general, take a look at the first minute or so of this 20/20 clip:
While many scholarly sources provide consensus to the negative portrayal of heavy metal in media, perhaps the best way to show the negativity however is through firsthand examples. Clips of newscasts and newspapers provide primary source evidence of the bias present in the news towards metal. Following a brief description of the event, either news clips from major networks will follow and/or newspaper articles related to the trial. Pay close attention to each clip and news article to see if you notice any bias in the reporting.
For an introductory example of the news media's view of heavy metal music in general, take a look at the first minute or so of this 20/20 clip:
Video courtesy of YouTube