What I'm With isn't It
April 7, 2014 6:52 PM   Subscribe

Need sugqgestions for loud, aggressive, violent music that is contemporary (2014). I have a great back catalogue of stuff from ten and twenty years ago, but nothing from this decade.

Hello. I need some help with a scene I am writing. In it, there is a group of teenaged boys getting geared up to go do some major vandalizing for kicks (breaking windows, spray paint everywhere, a bit of arson). I want them to be listening to some music to pump themselves up.
The trouble is, I have no idea what they would be listening to. If this was set in my own adolescence, I would have no problem finding some appropriate contemporary tunes. However, I am so very far from being a teenaged boy that I don't even know where to start. Rap? Heavy metal? Punk? Is punk still even a thing? What are kids these days listening to that is aggressive, loud and/or has violent lyrics?
Any mefis out there who are teenagers? Have teenagers? Know teenagers?
Thanks
posted by sandraregina to Media & Arts (12 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Tyler the Creator?
posted by gumtree at 7:09 PM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Death Grips
posted by griphus at 7:18 PM on April 7, 2014 [4 favorites]


If this is for fiction, and meant to be contemporary, then you'd be better off just making something up. Any act you name will be dated as soon as you finish typing it.

Also, it's going to really depend on the background of the character what genre they listen to -- where did they grow up? Who are their friends? What's their relationship with their parents like? You might assume that because a kid is white and in the suburbs, that they'll listen to screamo or something, but maybe their parents are really racist, so they listen to violent rap music just to piss them off?
posted by empath at 7:43 PM on April 7, 2014


Best answer: I think it really depends on your characters and setting. There is plenty of angry violent music out there aimed at angry young men across all genres. I would say that rap would probably be the go to (If I were pumping myself up for some violence I would probably go with Killer Mike.), but plenty of angry kids are still into punk and metal.

What songs from your own adolescence would you pick?
Do we want something with a touch of politics to it, or just dumb meathead violence?
Something a little hip, or something mainstream?
posted by St. Sorryass at 7:48 PM on April 7, 2014


Also -- there's no reason kids can't also, listen to music from 10 years ago, if that's what you're familiar with. When I was a teenager and listening to heavy metal in the late 80s, I was really into black sabbath and zeppelin, too. It would not surprise me at all to find out that a moody 15 year-old is right now listening to The Downward Spiral on repeat.
posted by empath at 7:49 PM on April 7, 2014 [5 favorites]


Insane Clown Posse, hands down. I feel like I'm committing a misdemeanor just writing this answer.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:54 PM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


some, like, Epic Dubstep? youtube it

(ugh i hate dubstep.)
posted by citron at 10:21 PM on April 7, 2014


I think you're better off writing in what you know and what you would've listened to.

Don't underestimate kids today. Some of them listen to top 40 crap, but I'm continually amazed by how much respect there is for 70s and 90s rock, for example. None of the great "grunge" bands of the 90s have died in popularity yet. The kids still love Alice in Chains and Nirvana.

I doubt kids will stop listening to the Descendents or the Dead Kennedys or Minor Threat any time soon, either, especially in the day and age of Spotify where you can pull up almost any album you can think of, and listen to it back to front as long as you can put up with the occasional shitty ad.

P.S. it'll happen to you...
posted by Old Man McKay at 11:09 PM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Harsh noise--or even better, power electronics.

How about Cut Hands, Bloodyminded, or Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck (my top recommendation for seriously angry, disaffected youth...)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:32 PM on April 7, 2014


Best answer: More Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck.

I should also mention Macronympha.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:36 PM on April 7, 2014


Response by poster: Death Grips is perfect, though Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck, Macronympha and Killer Mike are also useful.
Thanks for the suggestions to use 'classic' anger music, but in this case I am deliberately looking for stuff I don't know. Expand my repetoire. This is nothing that will ever be published, so I don't care if it gets 'dated'.
posted by sandraregina at 4:20 AM on April 8, 2014


Cage9.
posted by vignettist at 8:59 AM on April 8, 2014


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