Heavy

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What makes music 'heavy'? Is any music heavy if you turn the volume up enough?

― Tom, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Absence of counterpoint.

― dave q, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Power chords and drop D or is it E? tuning...

― james, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Heavy music= music in which there's a lot to listen to and not abt volume.

I think a band like Ascension are heavy not because they are 'loud' but because there plenty of twists and turns to listen to when Jaworzyn and Tony Irwing are playing (though it is best if this music is listened to when the volume is up).

― Julio Desouza, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ohm's Law: V=IR -- r=heaviness. Turning the volume up is like multiplying both sides by 4.

― Kris, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bass has something to do with it.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think the absence of counterpoint, and the bass thing are both good calls. I'd disagree with Julio's comment about heavyness meaning density. For example, early Napalm Death and Godflesh are equally busy in terms of sound but I think Godflesh are heavier. I'd imagine it has something to do with space. Godflesh allow a lot more space to let their crushing walls of guitar noise really pummel you, whereas Napalm Death sound more like a pointless blur of noise. The other connotation that heavyness has is a certain kind of mood. When I think of heavy, I think of something dark and moody. I don't think a tune can be heavy and happy at the same time...

― James Annett, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Music isn't always heavy if you turn the volume up. Sometimes it's just piercing and annoying. I've always equated "HEAVY" with distortion introduced into the signal, whether it's an analogue source like a guitar or an electronic source from a keyboard. I think really prominent bass can certainly help add to the heaviness, but it's not necessarily all that's required, unless it too is distorted. I know there are some exceptions, but I would think heavy is the trinity of distortion, volume and good mix (prominent bass and/or drums in addition to the distorted instrument).

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Though on second thought, density and volume together can make a relatively clean signal sound heavy as well...I'm thinking classical music here, like Wagner perhaps. Perhaps this requires more research.

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Techno Animal, Hellfish, Shizuo/Shizor, now that's heavy.

― Alacrán, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Momentum and optimal use of the lower register.

― Alacrán, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Certain kinds of sluggish or otherwise unusual rhythms help.

― Josh, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sluggish, yes. The feeling that the music is playing against something, rather than just waltzing along. Viscosity.

― Kris, Saturday, 27 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

May be slightly off-topic (sorry)...

A fellow volunteer (necessary bio. info. - I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan, see Introduce Yourself thread for etc.) has what he describes as "anger management issues," which have apparantly gotten worse since moving to Kazakhstan. It's gotten him into a lot of trouble here. As an example, he yelled at and gave "the finger" to a car that almost hit him when he was crossing the street a few months ago. The car hit the brakes, went into reverse, and this time actually DID hit him (ran over his foot, in fact).

The reason I mention this is that last time I talked to him he had decided to take steps to defuse his anger a bit, to avoid creating even more problems for himself. Step one in his program was to get rid of all of his "angry music." I was at first sort of surprised by this declaration. What exactly is angry music? I mean, I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, and had never really thought of any of it as being characterized solely as "angry." "Oh you know, heavy stuff like Limp Bizkit..." I'm honestly not familiar enough with Limp Bizkit's lyrics, etc. to say if they're angry or not. Certainly they're loud, and "heavy." But is this a common equation, ie heavy = angry? I actually sort of pressed the point with him, switching to bands I was a little more familiar with (mostly metal and punk bands), and was even more surprised by his justification for this opinion "well, they scream a lot, why would they scream if they aren't angry?"

― Matthew Cohen, Sunday, 28 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm...Limp Bizkit are alot of things, not all of them bad, but 'heavy' isn't one of them. Whereas stuf I think of as 'heavy' (Electric Wizard, Sab, Funkadelic) doesn't make me angry at all - it's more like being underwater, or under massive gravity, or swimming in cough syrup. Therapeutic, in fact. Why not buy your angry friend 'Maggot Brain' or Eyehategod's 'Dopesick'?

― dave q, Sunday, 28 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I laughed out loud upon reading an electric wizard review that said that their album was "the heaviest album ever - with no fast songs at all"... That concept surprised me cos i alwas equated them together.

― dog latin, Sunday, 28 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Re: anger management thru changing one's listening habits - maybe a wise decision. Please correct me if this is totally off track, but I do seem to notice a lot of guys who.. rather than force themselves to consider what they're angry about & how they could do something constructive, hide out and vent w/'angry music', the result being.. a pattern of more bottled-up aggression, I think. I mean, I don't know how many times I almost crashed my poor car when driving around w/Big Black in the tape deck; I finally switched to hip hop radio when faced with Washington DC rush hour every day, for my own sanity's sake. It does make you more aggressive, reckless, angry. I think angry music tends to have more of a pounding, jackhammer kind of beat, repetition, no intricate percussion please - the Roland did a good job of making Big Black so effective that way.

― Daria Gray, Sunday, 28 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave Q is winning me over here - there is a difference too, plainly, between 'heavy' and 'hard'. Fast music often aspires to 'hard', slow music often aspires to 'heavy'. It is possible of course to be both or neither.

― Tom, Sunday, 28 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

are Low heavy?

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Sunday, 28 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes.

― Josh, Sunday, 28 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nineteen years pass...

I'm listening to Fun House and considering, despite the relatively thin production, that it might be the heaviest album ever made - without being entirely sure what I mean. 1) it's definitely a sonic thing - not thematic but b) how would you objectively measure it as a phenomenon? So, thirdly) is this a subjective, non-starter of a conversation and iV) is it even interesting?

I offer Fun House, Yabby You's Jesus Dread comp and I feel like I need some doom/sludge so maybe Llenandose de gusanos by Corrupted.

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 23 September 2021 13:40 (four years ago)

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