Metal music - still in the thought stage

[Spud]

Music is one of the absolutes for any deployment (for me anyway) music is the opportunity to create a bit of personal space. All of my trips have a soundtrack of sorts that if I hear the song now it immediately makes me think of that trip or an aspect of it. It's also interesting that the introduction of MP3 players vs tapes and CD's means that on recent trips it’s far more eclectic and personal. The opportunity to throw in some headphones and zone out vs listening as a group is getting to be more important as I get older.

Timor in '99 was Santana's Supernatural (it was the only bloody CD we had for about 3 months).
Iraq '04 was a bit of a mix ... some Aussie rock, Green Day's American Idiot, Spiderbaits Greatest Hits and Boxcar Racer's self-titled album. It remains dominated by the music on AQ propaganda clips though as I spent far too much time going over those bloody things.
Iraq '05 funnily enough is summed up in one song .. Timo Mass' First Day. It was on high rotation on the UK version of Armed Forces Radio during a job we were doing ... I even bought the album when I got back.
AFG '06 ... I must be getting old ... Sitting out in the sun on a Sunday morning with a couple of smokes, a cold can of Pepsi giving my gat a thorough going over listening to Sarah Brightman (opera). That and whatever the Shakira song is that has the film clip where she pours sump oil all over herself ... I didn't go a to a single CJSOTF brief that didn't start with that clip with the boys all singing along in Spanish.

The team at the POTF had a range of stuff they'd throw on the loudspeakers when we tasked them ... most of it was Arabic/Pasthu/Dari but when they got the ####s with it it usually reverted to AC/DC (thunderstruck and Highway to Hell were always nearby), Drowning Pool (as highlighted above) and one of the speaker monkeys seemed to always find a copy of Outkast's Bombs over Baghdad (this was usually quickly shut down by one of his SGTs who preferred C&W)

Australian Artist (if you can call him that) George Gittoes did a program that is now available on DVD that supposedly covered the soundtrack to the war in Iraq ... most of it is young US kids rapping so not really my style but may interest you.

http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/produc...oductid=730844

[Surferbeetle]

Music is one of the absolutes for any deployment (for me anyway) music is the opportunity to create a bit of personal space. ... Sitting out in the sun on a Sunday morning with a couple of smokes, a cold can of Pepsi giving my gat a thorough going over listening to...

A simple and true pleasure when one is downrange...snarfing the local 'tika day judge' with tomatoes on the side would do much for my morale as well

[Xenophon]

Before an op: Metal. The harder the better. Gets the blood flowing. Slipknot, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Drowning Pool, etc. Personal fav: Metallica's "The Four Horseman"

After an op: country

[Bodhi]

Before an op: Metal. The harder the better. Gets the blood flowing. Slipknot, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Drowning Pool, etc. Personal fav: Metallica's "The Four Horseman"

After an op: country

Xenophon, absolutely on target with the before op music selections. However, my before op and after op selections were identical--country makes me break out in hives. Tough to ever beat Metallica, Black Label Society, Megadeth, Pantera, Godsmack, Disturbed, Alice in Chains, GNR, Sabbath, Ozzy, and other guitar-fueled music...but that's just one man's opinion...
Semper Fidelis,

[Steve Blair]

Metal tends to run as a constant pump-up music in both combat and sports. I use it for writing myself, which isn't quite what Marc's asking about....

I think there's mention of music in many of the books written about Gulf War II. Pretty sure it comes up on more than one occasion in Generation Kill, for one.

[marct]

Metal tends to run as a constant pump-up music in both combat and sports. I use it for writing myself, which isn't quite what Marc's asking about....

Actually, it is - sort of . There's been a lot of work done on how controlling rhythm can manipulate states of consciousness, mainly by changing heart rate and, sometimes, blood pressure. There's been much less work done on how keys and chord structures manipulate perceptions - most of it observational and/or pre/descriptive rather than something solid like MRIs.

You use Metal for writing? Hunh! I use stuff like Charpentier's Messe pour Quatre Choeurs and Handle's Dixit Domine (actually, the conquesabit section is sort of like Baroque metal now that I think about it; all that chopping off heads...).

[Steve Blair]

Actually, it is - sort of . There's been a lot of work done on how controlling rhythm can manipulate states of consciousness, mainly by changing heart rate and, sometimes, blood pressure. There's been much less work done on how keys and chord structures manipulate perceptions - most of it observational and/or pre/descriptive rather than something solid like MRIs.

You use Metal for writing? Hunh! I use stuff like Charpentier's Messe pour Quatre Choeurs and Handle's Dixit Domine (actually, the conquesabit section is sort of like Baroque metal now that I think about it; all that chopping off heads...).

Actually I will use a mix. Iron Maiden tends to get my thoughts flowing, but I also use Stan Getz, Parker, and classical on occasion. But Maiden's always a trend-starter for me. Also been known to use the Eagles from time to time... but now I'm just hijacking the thread....

[Vic Bout]

on all three trips...pre-op was loud, hard and chaotic...Disturbed, Dope, Metallica... (and me at 50, listening to angry white-boy music...shaking head and tsk-tsking). I really believe the guys liked it because they viewed it as the sound track for the movie about us...and we had all grown up believing we were stars in our own movies, hadn't we?
"They make movies about guys like us." was a favorite saying amongst the team, especially in flight, pre-assault...

And generally afterwards, when we were scribbling OPSUMs and detention packets (and shamelessly breaking GO#1) we listen to some crazy irish (Drop Kick Murpheys; Shipping Out to Boston..."and I lost my legs!") and wonder at the irony of it

[marct]

Hi Vic,

on all three trips...pre-op was loud, hard and chaotic...Disturbed, Dope, Metallica... (and me at 50, listening to angry white-boy music...shaking head and tsk-tsking). I really believe the guys liked it because they viewed it as the sound track for the movie about us...and we had all grown up believing we were stars in our own movies, hadn't we?
"They make movies about guys like us." was a favorite saying amongst the team, especially in flight, pre-assault...

Really? A movie soundtrack? Now that is interesting! Did they mention any particular movies (or video games)? I'm wondering because of what Ranger94 said about Ring of Fire and the Johnny Cash DVD...

And generally afterwards, when we were scribbling OPSUMs and detention packets (and shamelessly breaking GO#1) we listen to some crazy irish (Drop Kick Murpheys; Shipping Out to Boston..."and I lost my legs!") and wonder at the irony of it

I'm getting the feeling that irony plays a major part in a lot of this .

Marc

[Uboat509]

After an op: country

Each to his own I guess. There's just something I find unappealing about listening to music that makes me dispeptic and possibly suicidal, particularly after an operation.

Personally, myself and few others also listened electronic (techno to the uninitiated heathens) pre-op. I didn't often get much chance to listen to music post-op, too much to do. It tends to have similar physiological effects to metal. Punk also has that effect but also tends to have leftist ideologies all through it which isn't neccessarily condusive to preparing for war.

SFC W

[marct]

Hi Uboat

Personally, myself and few others also listened electronic (techno to the uninitiated heathens) pre-op. I didn't often get much chance to listen to music post-op, too much to do. It tends to have similar physiological effects to metal. Punk also has that effect but also tends to have leftist ideologies all through it which isn't neccessarily condusive to preparing for war.

How important are the lyrics for you? I mean, I know I focus on lyrics because I'm a singer (which is one of the reasons I have problems with early metal - damn hard to hear the lyrics!).

[Uboat509]

I keep picturing Ken humming the latest hits by the Andrews Sisters and Vera Lynn as he prepared for war.

SFC W

[marct]

I keep picturing Ken humming the latest hits by the Andrews Sisters and Vera Lynn as he prepared for war.

You mean you didn't know ? Ken is famous!

[Stan]

You mean you didn't know ? Ken is famous!

Say, you didn't tell us Ken could dance I mean I understand where he learned to bust a good tune on the bugle...Corporal Randolph Agarn at F Troop

And to think I thought he was "On Top of the World"... Carpenters that is