Music Therapy

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster blends music therapy and Gracyk's idea of the ontological status of rock. Gracyk's only real distinction between "Rock" and "Rock and Roll" is that the former is centered on recording, while the ladder is all about the performance. Metallica showcases their recording style as well as their unconscious fears and restraints through this documentary. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster would have been a great addition to Gracyk's book Rhythm and Noise because of the way it portrays a perfect example of rock but still blends the ontological status of rock.

By allowing filmmakers to record the recording process, Metallica already began to blend the lines of rock. Gracyk stays true to the argument that rock musicians record music, rock and rollers perform. Through the process of making a documentary, Metallica is doing both. They are recording their music but performing for the camera. Gracyk says ontology is "what a musical work is in rock music opposed to what it is...in jazz...Rock is a tradition of popular music whose creation and dissemination centers on recording technology" (1). Metallica begins their recording process by recording their jam sessions - much like jazz musicians. Again, they have blended the ontological lines of rock. Instead of recording bits and pieces, or knowing what they were going to play before they started, Metallica starts playing together as if they were a high school garage band. As for the second part of Gracyk's definition of rock, Metallica is an established group, even if they had just lost a bass player. They were already a perfect example of rock before making St. Anger or Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. However, while making this album and documentary they took on Napster, battling illegal downloads of their music. Metallica was creating new music while fighting to keep their old music theirs. In an interesting battle of forgery versus original, Metallica blended the lines once more. Gracyk hovers between points in Rhythm and Noise, knowing there is not a clear answer but wanting to argue the aesthetics of rock; Metallica: Some Kind of Monster fits into many of his examples and would have given him evidence to support the gray areas he avoids.

The most important area Metallica blends is music therapy and the creation of music. It is a known fact that music is therapeutic, whether one is making it or listening to it. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster shows the therapeutic side to music by documenting the band's therapy while they record their album. The unconscious in every player comes out in their music, often times making it difficult for them to continue. The anger and desperation James feels over his alcoholism can be felt and heard in his voice before he checks himself into rehab. While watching Metallica: Some Kind of Monster the audience can hear Lars' control issues come to life on his drums before he voices them to his father. While he is struggling with control with James he is also struggling with the beat on his drums. As the band starts to work out their issues outside of the recording studio, they began to produce more recordable songs in the studio.

A song that serves as a prime example of their blend of rock and the ontological status of rock, as well as their mix of music therapy and the creation of music, is the song that ends the film. As the band is about to perform for the first time, scenes of the crowd, the stage being set up and the musicians psyching themselves up backstage are shot in close succession. James begins a vocal warm-up exercise that he learned a few years back and admits was skeptical about. On the surface, the fact that the lead singer of Metallica is backstage running scales like an opera singer is yet another blend of the ontological status of this rock band. James' vocal exercises blend with the crowd noise which is mixed with the song Lars played his father earlier, the song that was created while James was struggling with alcoholism and Lars was battling with control over his fear of rejection. James' vocal exercises plus the crowd noise becomes a chant similar to that in tribal music. The drums take on a jungle-like rhythm, pounding out a beat that Gracyk's naysayers would call sexual. The guitar enters on a high major scale that is reminiscent of a Hollywood western, with the hero riding into town to save the day. All of these sounds combine together to open a Metallica concert and end Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. This song that opens their concert and ends their documentary blends what rock is in relation to what it is not; it is difficult to name what genre of music this song would fall into. This song also is a combination of the therapy that the band has gone through while producing St. Anger. By mixing what it means to be rock as well as the individual unconscious fears and restraints of each band member, this final song challenges and encompasses Gracyk's Rhythm and Noise.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is a film that challenges most viewers' idea of rock music, especially the type of rock music Metallica produces. Lars says at the end of the film that they have proved they can make aggressive music without negative energy. Although it can be seen as an ironic statement to those who did not directly experience it, since the majority of the time someone was negative about something, Lars believes his statement to be true. To him, he has created legitimate rock music in all its ontology and has come out the other side positive. By creating St. Anger the band members were allowed to disperse their negative energy and create rock music. Through the creation of Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Metallica revealed that rock music is created through recording but the way it is recorded does not always have to follow the rules.

Works Cited

Gracyk, Theodore. Rhythm and Noise. Duke University Press. 1996.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Dir. Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Perfs. James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich. Radical Media, 2004.