Klosterman Blog #3

"This paradox is what I find so perplexing about the way young males perceive verbal messages in heavy metal. I'll never understand why music that only made me want long hair is the same product that made some kids want to die. Normal people don't care what Ozzy has to say about anything; however, it seems the handful of people who do care inevitably get confused and kill themselves. And since the mood of the music tends to be more persuasive then the actual lyrics-and since the words to most rock songs are almost impossible to understand-kids are forced to interpret heavy metal in any way they can. This is a substantial problem, because the kind of kids who truly love heavy metal evidently suck at artistic interpretation(47)."

The meaning, or interpretation, I took from this passage is some what comical (but with a rather dark sense of humor); unfortunately, there are teenagers that listened to this heavy metal music and decided that the next best thing for them to do was to kill themselves. Which, realistically, appears to be a complete misunderstanding. And although these poor kids comitted suicide because of, what seems to be, a musical misunderstanding, Klosterman slyly cops in humorous undertones. The people that care about this music don't seem to have the capacity to fully take in it. And, as Klosterman states, "...it seems the handful of people who do care inevitably get confused and kill themselves." Klosterman really controls the readers mindset. Meaning, the humor keeps the readers attention on the music analysis rather then allowing the readers thinking to veer off into the reasons that the music may or may not have influenced kids to kill themselves. By treating these suicides will little emotion Klosterman is allowing himself to talk more about the music and inevitably stay with his purpose, which is to explain to me (or just the reader) what heavy metal really is.