There was a minor firestorm on the internet this past Friday as the metal community reacted to a blog post written for MTV’s Guy Code titled “Why Are There So Many Cute Girls at Metal & Hardcore Shows Now?” As could be expected, it didn’t go over that well. Metal Insider contributor Russ Dobler went to Saint Vitus Bar, one of the featured bars in the article, this past Saturday (1) to take the pulse of the crowd and see what they thought of the article.
“That article was bullshit,” says Monica, as she and her boyfriend, Mike, wait for the opening band to take the stage at the Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, N.Y. She’s referring to an MTV Guy Code blog posted to the cable channel’s website on Jan. 29 entitled, “Why Are There So Many Cute Girls at Metal & Hardcore Concerts Now?” The semi-satirical piece attempts to answer the question and follows that analysis with tips on how to meet the ladies at these shows, stating, “It can be easy to pick up a woman at such a concert if you follow a few quick preparation tips.”
The television series Guy Code, devoted to recounting stories of the particular “code of conduct” that exists between men, debuted on MTV2 in November of 2011 and became the channel’s highest rated program ever in its second season. The success of the series has inspired the related spinoffs Girl Code and Guy Court, both of which premiered in 2013.
Despite the clout that comes with the name, Monica, who says she’s been listening to metal music since she was 13 years old, takes issue with the Guy Code blog’s suggestion that if a man simply brushes up on some heavy metal knowledge, he’ll be more likely to take a girl home. While she and Mike did meet at a concert, the annually held Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore, Monica says it wasn’t until their later phone conversations about the influential but obscure Welsh band Budgie that the two began to connect. “And that’s not even metal,” she says, “that’s hard rock!”
Attractive twentysomething Cindy came by herself to Saint Vitus this evening, the same location where “Guy Code” interviewed two women who jokingly said that ladies attend metal concerts because “they wanna meet dudes.” Cindy doesn’t see anything wrong with meeting people at concerts, but disagrees that it’s a woman’s main objective. “It’s beside the point,” she says. When asked if she came to the venue that night looking to hook up, her answer is an emphatic, “No!”
Industry insiders at Saint Vitus on this evening were similarly succinct in their rejection of the “Guy Code” blog’s premise. When shown the piece, the reaction of Anthony Capozzi, guitarist for the New Jersey-based band Thanatotic Desire, is to simply shake his head and say, “No.”
Chad Arnold, operator of the thrash metal news and information blog Global Thrash Assault, says he typically attends two or three metal concerts a month and hasn’t recently noticed a greater than usual female attendance. When asked what he’d say to someone going to a metal concert for the sole reason of “picking up a woman,” Arnold has some advice of his own. “You’re in the wrong scene, man,” he says.
