Normally when a singer/actor/etc passes away I dont feel huge amounts of shock, but the recent death of Wayne Static has actually hit home really hard. Not in a personal way, more in the sense of how sudden it was. Static X (and Wayne) were/are often maligned by music listeners and rock/metal enthusiasts for what they are and what they represent, and in truth they never really recaptured the height of their success after their debut. Static X were not exactly innovative, nor were they sophisticated in their delivery of their material, and they were often criticised for this. That isnt what Static X were about. They were about energy and enthusiasm, and simply having fun while making the music they loved. Wayne personified this with his drive and dedication to Static X and his other side projects and collaborations, persisting with the brand of metal that in the eyes of many became stale and irrelevant in the new wave of heavy metal that has arisen in the past 5 years. Thats what Music should always be about. Waynes death also has another facet that makes it so notable. In terms of music at least, he was one of the musicians that a generation grew up listening to. My generation. For many people of my age who listened to heavy metal, Wayne was one of the main figures. What his death represents is an entire generation understanding the concept of mortality in a more contextualised way. We see death all the time. On TV, in video games, films, everywhere. However, we never grow attachment to these characters because they dont seem to be real to us. When it is some one who played something of a part in your early formative years, it changes everything. Waynes death is of course the loss of a single person like anyone else, but it also represents the loss of our own youth and our own ideas that we and our icons are immortal. On the scale of celebrity (and I shudder to use the word but cant think of anything else to use), Waynes death as a person is barely a ripple. However, to many like myself it shows us something deeper that we are now, in our late 20s/early 30s, finally starting to face up to. Goodbye Wayne. https://youtube/watch?v=2vObp0vBDOY
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 01:59:06 +0000
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