POP MUSIC : Commentary : Punk and Metal: Partners in Rebellion?

Take an out-of-town visitor with an untrained eye on a tour of scenic Melrose Avenue and he probably won’t be able to distinguish one tribe of skulking delinquents from the next. Punk, heavy metal--they both dress in black, have weird hair and a bad attitude, so what’s the difference?

As is revealed in two films by Penelope Spheeris, “The Decline of Western Civilization,” and “The Decline Part II: the Metal Years,” there’s quite a bit of difference.

Released in 1981, Spheeris’ first “Decline” examined L.A.’s then burgeoning punk scene, while “Part II,” which opens Friday, explores the world of heavy metal. Given a cursory viewing, both films take us on a high-speed ride through two wild subcultures espousing teen-age rebellion, and they appear to have a lot in common. Like punk, metal thumbs its nose at the Establishment, espouses aggressively assaultive music, and comes equipped with an unorthodox code of fashion.

But in fact, metal embodies all that punk was out to destroy.

Roundly denounced as a menace to society, punk was surely one of the most misunderstood episodes in the history of pop music. An angry response to the failure of the Love Generation, punk was rooted in a bitter idealism, and though devotees of the style talked tough and looked tougher, punk tended to attract unusually intelligent and politically informed kids.

Whereas punk was born as a political movement bent on an anarchistic restructuring of society, metal is a cosmetic revolution better described as a life style. Punk was out to torch an American Dream based on consumerism, but metal has no quarrel with society as it exists, and simply aims to jimmy a window and sneak into the Dream under disguise of heavy makeup.

References to high finance, expensive cars and down payments on condos crop up repeatedly in “The Metal Years.” The guitarist with the group Seduce goes so far as to announce, “I may have long hair but I’m a businessman.” Metal’s devotion to “making it” is equaled only by its dedication to partying; the goal seems to be to reap the spoils of society and drink as much beer as possible in the process.

Making it is, of course, all about lookin’ out for Number One, and this cold--and highly conservative--attitude reaches critical mass in metal’s stone-age approach to sex. The kind of lurid bragging that most boys outgrow by age 16 is rampant among the grown men of metal, all of whom are heavily into male bonding.

“I like sluts,” declares one musician, “and chicks don’t get in the house unless they have a sack of groceries.”

“Girls aren’t taken seriously on this scene--and I don’t know why that is,” observes Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilminster. The bulk of the musical numbers performed in “The Metal Years” deal with the theme of sexual conquest, while with the exception of X’s “Sex and Dying in High Society”--hardly a celebration of the subject--the topic is virtually absent from the punk world of Spheeris’ first film.

Male metal-heads may be exploiting their womenfolk, but both the men and the women of this scene fall victim to the star system--a system metal seems eager to perpetuate. Whereas one of the central goals of punk was to dismantle the tyrannical myth of stardom, metal wanna-bes aspire to be larger-than-life gods, worshipped and adored by millions.

While punk introduced some reasonably new, and rather unpopular ideas into the culture--sex isn’t particularly interesting, mass media is a form of fascism--metal is about entertainment rather than ideas and is very much a product of show-business tradition. Because metal’s fundamental appeal lies in its evocation of a primitive mob ritual, originality isn’t particularly important; hence, it’s acceptable to recycle the same riffs, smoke-pots and mascara ad infinitum.

Spheeris’ film does showcase one major exception to these generalizations about metal: Megadeth, which she presents as the concluding band in her film.

“Megadeth is a speed-metal band and I present them last because they’re the bridge between the two films,” the director explained in an interview.

“Speed metal grew out of punk--in fact, Megedeth does the Sex Pistols’ song ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ on their album. I also presented them last because I see them as the hope of metal--and of rock ‘n’ roll. Their music is very progressive and they have the kind of intelligent attitude rock needs in order to evolve. They’re serious musicians and are very much against the cliche, decadent rock life style.”

In criticizing the ideology of metal one can’t help wondering exactly how pure the punk movement actually was. Most of the bands in Spheeris’ first film are now defunct; did they disband because they refused to sell out--or because they couldn’t figure out how to sell out?

“Punk rockers were children of the media,” Spheeris maintained. “They were acutely aware of the posture of performing, they performed for my camera, and were as much into being stars as the kids in metal bands are. The bands from the first film that are no longer around didn’t quit for idealistic reasons--they quit because they couldn’t figure out how to sell albums. And you don’t have to sell out to sell albums.”

Now there’s a comment guaranteed to separate the idealists from the cynics.