Ok, so i was trying to educate someone in the history of Metallica's discography by presenting to the person in question audio from each era. Having already presented Black Album and Load material, the inevitable came...I had to show them something from the 80s era.
And what better thing than the pop(ular) song "master of puppets"? so i find a video of it on youtube and i'm looking through the comments, and i see some idiot put some statement that pop-singer lady gaga was better than metallica, and that they should take music lessons from her because they suck so much.
Now, though i'm sure all of you would agree with that person that you think metallica sucks, it is nothing short of BLASPHEMY what that person said!
1) Metallica has been around since before she was even born, therefore they have tremendous amounts of experience over her.
2) Lady Gaga can only play one genre - dance pop. Kill 'Em All through And Justice were Thrash Metal, the Black Album Heavy Metal, Load and ReLoad Hard Rock, one might even suggest that S&M could be a type of Symphonic metal, St. Anger a variation of thrash and Death Magnetic old school thrash metal. That's five genres!
3) Though the "mother monster" is a pop-star and therefore has a great deal of mainstream recognition, she also has her share of hatred from people both in and out of the pop genre (why else do they call her a hermaphrodite?) Metallica, on the other hand, has had to endure shite worse than this since 1984, when people called Ride The Lightning a sell-out because of the slow, acoustic intros to "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Fade To Black" (in addition to losing a cherised band-member to a fatal accident). I can go on listing every single album, and all the reasons that "fans" have called it a sell-out, but I'm hoping that you know at least enough to get at what I'm getting - Metallica has had to endure 26 years of people saying that they a) sold out b) are mainstream "hair metal" c) are washed up d) none of the members are competent musicians e) they all should have checked out at 1986 rather than Cliff Burton f) though Robert Trujillo is obviously the better bass-player, he is belittled because he was with Ozzy (whom you also hate) and because you feel sorry for Jason Newsted - believe me, if he had been accepted, like Rob was, you'd have hated him.
4) Lady Gaga can play two instruments - her voice and piano. James Hetfield can not only sing and play guitar, but has had some experience on the drums (live performance of "Am I Evil?" with Lars on vocals), Trujillo not only can play bass but a rather decent guitar, and Kirk Hammett also has skill with both guitar and bass (Am I Evil? again). Lars...he's only good at drumming - but that's five instruments compared to her two!
5) There's nothing innovative or new about Lady Gaga except the weird clothing she wears (and even there other artists have surpassed her before). James' singing (post-Black Album) is unique because it blends traditional thrash vocals with southern rock singing. Though criticized for over-using the wah-pedal and whammy bar, these techniques give a unique sound to Kirk Hammett's guitar playing. Cliff Burton turned his bass into a solo-playing instrument like never before, and Robert Trujillo is better than Jason in that, like Cliff, Rob can play the faster songs with his fingers.
6) Some could say that Lady Gaga is a big influence - only on this current culture. Metallica has been around much longer and have influenced many bands throughout the ages (Corrosion of Conformity, Mastodon and Machine Head just to name a few).
7) To say that Metallica needs lessons in music from her is absurd! Cliff Burton knew classical music, which he incorporated into his bass playing and tried to get the other members to be more a part of (and btw, classical music has been around longer than pop AND metal combined, and therefore is superior to both). James adopted the "spanish guitar" technique for some of the softer songs, such as "The Unforgiven".
In conclusion, even the genres that you despise (like Nu Metal and Metalcore are better than Lady Gaga. Even if you hate the band, you must not deny that to say an over-rated pop sensation is better than a tried-and-true heavy metal band!