“Viewers see behavior that’s definitely juvenile and often illegal. But is it really rebellion or simply a desperate performance? What’s the value of performing rebellion?”
“the concertgoers are performing rather than practicing radical behavior”
“More than subversion, Heavy Metal Parking Lot often projects a feeling of stagnancy and middle-class malaise. While the documentary endures because of its humor and the nostalgia it breeds for heavy metal, it also endures because of its paradigmatic portrait of American adolescence in the 1980s — of radical ambitions circumscribed unknowingly by the stifling realities of corporate control.”
“Roaming through a suburban American parking lot, Krulik and Heyn film a stalled dialogue, lacking the array of voices”
“Instead, the parking lot is kind of an echo chamber, one in which everyone not only speaks the same, but looks the same: Judas Priest T-shirts, long hair, white skin.”
“Here, their rebellion was (and is) symptomatic of a media system that, through news clips, music videos, etc., outlines semi-acceptable modes of defiance — from partying suburban teens to student revolts at elite universities — that ultimately expose local hierarchies of race and class.”
“In the heavy metal parking lot, the constituents are “radical” partly at the expense of black, immigrant, and low-wage labor. Their self-defined difference reveals itself to be more and more uniform as we hear more and more variations of “heavy metal rules”; teenage rebellion begins to look less exciting, more confining — and more representative of the larger systems that enable such public “rebellion.””
“The song does speak to Judas Priest’s overall artistic presentation, though. Whereas Iron Maiden’s lyrics tend toward fantastical narratives, and Black Sabbath’s toward Satanist poetics, Judas Priest’s have, throughout the band’s existence, fixated upon earthly images of sex, violence, and individualized rebellion — images that are projected on the bodies and minds of their fans.”
“No matter how “rebellious” though, Judas Priest, moving millions of albums and selling out stadiums, is a tightly crafted product of the entertainment industry.”
“Rather than circulating discrete identities, the fans serve as avatars acting out the band’s behavior. If heavy metal serves as their means of “differentiated” — in actuality, programmed — cultural expression, the theoretical chasm between brainwashed and rebellious expression becomes harder and harder to locate.”
“there was money to be made from rebels who were also consumers.”
“Behind the illusion of freedom was the alienated modern consumer.”
“While amusing and carefree, Heavy Metal Parking Lot’s subjects also come across in the end as stuck amid the physical and ideological architecture that surrounds them.”
“Rebellion — like adolescence itself — is a fleeting thing, a performance that, as Helvey notes, will soon end. Caught in the homogeneous, corporatist system that Studio of the Streets sought to unsettle, the subjects of Heavy Metal Parking Lot bring into view an image of teenagerism that’s stagnant, even portentous.”
“Krulik and Heyn’s highlights the extent to which American culture had turned itself into a closed loop.”
“Proffering images of mainstream-approved rebellion, these American teenagers lie on a path not toward “living on the edge” (per Judas Priest’s “Leather Rebel”) but toward giving up and feeding deeper into the system (i.e., joining the Air Force). “Kids will be kids,” yes, only before embracing the realities of American adulthood.”
“The effects of teenage rebellion aren’t embodied within one particular movement; they take over slowly, simultaneously within and against the confines of contemporary corporate frameworks. Recognizing that “It sucks shit!” isn’t radical in itself, but it can be a valuable first step.”