I recently went to a Bullet for my Valentine concert about a week ago. Bullet is a metal core band that actually does some singing instead of screaming the whole time. All of the members of the band had extremely long hair, wore tight pants, and displayed black shirts of other metal bands of the past (Metallica, Iron Maiden, etc.). Both of the guitar players had black flying v Jackson guitars, and the bassist was playing a standard black fender jazz bass. While they were playing they would shake their heads back and forth, causing their hair to go forwards and backwards, but only when they weren't singing or screaming. All of these descriptions fit the image that most metal bands strive to achieve. Each band puts its own spin on the metal aesthetic, but they are all very similar. Their "dark" image reflects the nature of the music that they have chosen to pursue. Bullet's music consists of loud distorted guitars with melodic harmonized interruptions, fast guitar solos, repeating guitar riffs, screaming during verses, and then singing during choruses. Drums have a lot of double bass and are very uptempo and the singing has raspy quality that nicely complements the screaming. Songs are all in minor keys, and some may start out soft and then increase in volume. The nature of metal as a genre of music that is loud, sad, and testosterone driven probably leads to the need for bands to dress in black, wear eyeliner and look like they are at a funeral except with more normal clothes. Ironically, this testosterone driven music leads to feminine qualities of dress as well that become "metal" in the context of the music: tight pants, long hair, eyeliner, etc. In a way, the image that Bullet tries to convey seems to be partially about sexual ambiguity. Their music stretches social confines to fit a testosterone driven image with feminine qualities, all adhering to the nature of the music. Metal may be fast, loud, and raucous, but it has a lot of sad emotion as well. Emotion is often correlated with femininity, so these traits manifest themselves in Bullet's visual image. Image of a band is important in the context of music, just as dance ceremony is important in most of the music that we study. Music isn't just about sound, it is about culture. This can be applied to a metal show or an indigenous tribal performance and everything in between.