The Lunxicon

Ayo, so i am very lax on updates these days. Damn this niche topic of mine! Anyway, on February 7, I was delighted and amazed when I got my daily e-mail from the Oxford English Dictionary Online proclaiming “head-banging” the word of the day! Check it:

1. a. Psychol. The action or process of shaking or banging the head, sometimes accompanied by violent rocking of the body, which is often unremarkable in young children but in adults is usu. associated with mental disorder.
1928 Arch. Neurol. & Psychiatry (Chicago) XIX. 865 The ‘explosive’ phenomena selected were infantile convulsions, breath-holding, head-banging and a miscellaneous group of periodic attacks. 1953 HINSIE & SHATZKY Psychiatric Dict. (ed. 2) 650/2 Head-banging, one of the many typical physical exertions..observed during a temper tantrum in small children. 1977 P. LEACH Baby & Child iv. 218 Head banging is a slightly worrying habit even if the baby only does it in her cot at night.

b. transf. and fig. Esp. the vigorous head-shaking engaged in by fans of heavy metal music.
1979 in K. HUDSON Dict. Teenage Revolution (1983) 97 This is where the fans keep in trim for concerts, practising the subtle art of headbanging. 1987 Washington Post 4 June C4/2 In time came AC/DC, which begat headbanging, and Van Halen, which begat teen-age boys across the land with two-handed hammer-on and pull-off techniques.

2. The action or process of establishing discipline or collaboration between uncooperative parties by, or as if by, ‘knocking their heads together’.
1975 Economist 6 Dec. 57/3 Perhaps the Russians, who did some head-banging of their own with the rival Communist leaders in Moscow earlier this year, can lend a hand.

Also {sm}head-banger n., one who engages in head-banging, esp. as a fan of heavy metal music; also transf. and fig.
1979 Melody Maker 31 Mar. 18/4 Their fans are long-haired headbangers. 1983 Daily Tel. 13 June 1/1 A solemn commitment from anybody in the leadership stakes that they will get rid of the head-bangers in the party, and by that I mean the extremists and the Militants. 1985 M. MUNRO Patter 32 Headbanger or heidbanger,..this is a popular term for someone considered crazy, especially if dangerous… This usage predates the contemporary alternative meaning of a heavy-metal enthusiast. 1986 Telegraph (Brisbane) 21 Aug. 22/1 Brisbane headbangers will have a chance to scream and wave their fists when Dio plays at Festival Hall. 1989 Observer 19 Feb. 13/7 In the European Parliament, they sit alone with a few Spanish and Danish head-bangers, while the main conservative grouping excludes them.

As a longtime fan of heavy metal music (except for hair metal, which is totally retarded), I was pleased to see one of my favorite pastimes of adolescence chosen by the lexicographers over at the OED. Why did they choose to hyphenate it, though? This is the first time I have ever seen a hyphen used in this case. Literary warrant would dictate that its usage for the action of banging one’s head to the thrashin’ riffs of Dark Angel or Prong, for example, would lack this conspicuous hyphen. But this is all just me picking some nits, as I am prone to do. It is also a product of my bias. When I hear someone talk about or read something about “headbanging,” I automatically think of myself as a long-haired 17 year old voluntarily pinching several nerves in my neck by thrashing my head wildly to Slowly We Rot (already a classic then, some 8 years after its release), not some stupid child with some dumb disorder doing it and giving us metalheads a bad name. (Death to Mutants!)

Now, this isn’t particularly relevant to language or anything, but getting this e-mail prompted a surge of nostalgia in yours truly. I dug out CDs from my past–some embarrassing (Machine Head), some not (Obituary)–and scoured the web to see what I’d been missing in my adult life. I would undoubtedly be seen as a poser by my younger self, so I felt it was time to get back in the game and see who is the best of the brutal best in 08. My research introduced me to a new subgenre of metal that I am still kind of confused about, but with which I am also completely fascinated: wigger slam.

I can see your fingers ready to type those four common characters: wtf? Yes, wtf, indeed! Google hasn’t really been my friend in my quest to learn more about this amazingly named style of metal. From what I gather, it’s basically death metal with mosh parts that is played by and listened to by people of the wegro variety. Bands include Dying Fetus and Internal Bleeding. Of course, Internal Bleeding have been around for some time, and I used to listen to them before I even knew what a gerund was, so I can’t be THAT much of a poser, right? Then again, I always thought Dying Fetus came out of the hardcore scene more than the metal one. So complicated!!! In any case, I have vowed to become extremely well versed in the wigger slam canon if for no other reason than I should like it. Why? Let’s look at the following check-list:

• Do I listen to hip hop–primarily New York hip hop from the early 90s? Yes
• Do I listen to hardcore bands that talk about beating dudes up for being shitty and have ridiculous mosh parts? Yes
• Do I use the terms “Yo,” “That shit is dope,” “That shit is wack,” “Yeah, son,” et al? Yes
• Do I like expensive sneakers? Yes (well some of them. Some of them are really stupid. And I am far too much of a cheapass to buy them for the most part.)

That settles it. I like metal. I like wiggerish things. (Although I suppose I’d only be half wigger–perhaps chwigger would be a more appropriate term. And even that would be pushing it. Let’s say I have chwiggerish tendencies.) Ergo, wigger slam should be listed as one of my top interests on any social networking site.

There you have it.

Also, dudes… a little FYI: wearing girls pants is totally NOT metal.

Final note: I first learned of “wigger slam” thanks to the AWESOME metal blog, metal inquisition. If you like metal enough to know who Glen Benton and Tom G Warrior are, and you don’t take yourself too seriously, you need to read that shit every day.