philicon wrote:
What a generalization... Every rock or metal concert you will definitely find the Maloik... just recently at Rammstein everyone used the Maloik... now yes maybe it is becomming used by the wrong people like Rhianna, and that might likely lead to it's misinterpretation, but it is a symbol that brings metalheads together and has been for many years. It is not about status or all that, in every musical , religious or whatever culture people use symbols to in one simple term communicate their passion and dedication. It is inevitable for certain clicks of people to develop trends, you know the saying "Birds of a feather"
As we have seen it's use in popular music predates metal by some years. And find out where Ronnie James Dio got that hand gesture from and what it was being used for. It has connotations of satanism and black magic - being variously used for laying on or warding off of curses.
It may be harmless and appropriate in certain contexts, but it has wider connotations and you can't just ignore those. It's like wearing a swastika - you might be seeing it as an old indo-aryan symbol or you might associate it with Rudyard Kipling, but it has another connotation as well and you'd have to be doff to not understand that and expect the reaction that it will provoke.
The maloik might be appropriate and harmless at heavy metal concerts, but in a wider concert it might be considered offensive and divisive.
So yeah in a sense it is a trend, but one that represents people's passion for heavy music... and it is the music that brought the trend... lets not forget that.
Well the swastika might just represent people's passion for WW2 memoribilia, but maybe one needs to take some responsibility for the symbols one uses and try to see them in a broader context.
It probably hasn't escaped your attention that this is not actually a heavy metal forum or even, more broadly, a "rock" forum.
