Yellum Notnef

Thanks but no thanks.
Bede is very busy correcting world history for the betterment of mankind. I doubt he could find the time to respond to my simple query.

He added me to his "headbangers to ignore" list quite a while ago. If I remember correctly he claimed that I had made it to the list in record time. An honor that I cherish to this day.

Btw,
I too have always associated headbangers with heavy metal music. There was even a weekly metal show on MTV a few years ago called "headbangers ball".

Pantera

Is "headbangers" a popular term used to describe idiots in England?

Well, I haven't actually heard it much since leaving Glasgow, but that is pretty much what it means up there, particularly (though not exclusively) applied to loud aggressive types with more brawn than brains. I don't know the derivation, but I suspect that the term might be older than heavy metal music, so it's not necessarily related to mad dancing.

mecca777

I suspect I know where the earlier deriviation comes from. My wife works with adults with learning disabilities - autistic spectrum disorders, that sort of thing. At one place she's worked before, there's a woman who has literally been a "headbanger" since she was a child.

If allowed, she repeatedly bangs her head against hard or pointed objects, to obtain the "stunned" sensation that she enjoys. Walls, radiators, table corners. She literally has to be watched 24/7 or she would kill herself (unintentionally), and her room has the padded walls that are traditionally (and incorrectly) associated with mental health treatment.

Insofar the term applies to people who are insane, incapable of changing their behaviour, aggressive, stubborn, dangerous, whatever, I assume it comes from cases of people with mental health problems who practise extremely violent self-harm.

As a former teenaged heavy metal fan, however, I still associate the term with Warlock.

Amen-Moses

Interesting question, I haven't seen any evidence to suggest he does though.

Amen-Moses

Talon

The term "head bangers" refers to the motion of upper body of "heavy metal" (I hate that phrase) and hard rock fans when listen to the music they enjoy. Typically, hard rock and the like. When one watches a group of these "fans" it appears as though they are trying to "bang their heads". It was a popular phrase in the 80's and has since fallen out of use. Nowadays, these same fans resort to the "mosh pit" to release their angst.


TALON

Shake

Bang your head!
Mental health'll drive you mad!
Bang your head!

-Quiet Riot

Evil Milkman

Mmmm... panties...

I'm sorry, what were you saying?

Oolon Colluphid

When was somewhat younger, headbanging was rather fun. (Specifically, Donington in �88 with Guns �n� Roses, Megadeth, Dave Lee Roth, Kiss and Maiden -- Yay!!) It requires long hair to not look a total tit though, so when poodle-perms went out and grunge came in, it seemed to peter out. (I'd discovered Neil Young and Richard Thompson by then though -- real guitar gods! .)

It was best done whilst playing one�s air guitar: nodding in time to the bassline, while erm, �strumming� one�s, erm, �instrument�...

It may or may not be related to or derived from the odd arms-on-hips waggle dance beloved of Status Quo fans.

My quasi-scientific explanation of the attraction of it is that shaking the head causes the release of some brain chemical or other (serotonin?), producing a mildly euphoric state. If so, it links to various other ecstatic dances, and even goes back to the frolics of the ancient Greek Dionysian maenads.

Cheers, DT