จาก ‘เฮฟวี่’ ถึง ‘เมทัล’: นักดนตรีเฮฟวี่เมทัลไทยจาก ‘วัยรุ่นมืออาชีพ’ สู่ ‘ผู้ใหญ่มือสมัครเล่น’, 1970-2010

Abstract

This article seeks to find out the transformation of economic condition of heavy metal music making in Thailand. After the music first imported to Thailand since the beginning of the 1970’s, it created the first generation of Thai heavy metal, or more precisely underground, musicians existing to entertain the American soldiers by playing the exact cover of foreign songs in pubs near the camps. Through different factors in 1980’s, heavy metal musicians, or just heavy, had become part of newly established Thai music industry, though at the margin. The career prospect ceased in mid 1990’s when heavy metal losed popular appeal, both in Thailand and the USA where its popularity was imported. At the same time more and more heavy metal musicians in harder form, commonly called underground metal, extreme metal or just normally metal, started to released their self-produced albums or EPs and organize their own shows. In early 2000’s, some of them are lucky enough to finally get the record contract which is the only way to make money with this kind of music, since there is no venue hiring extreme metal musicians. However, due to economic pressure of the recording industry all heavy metal bands contracted end up in playing softer form of heavy metal, or mostly not heavy metal at all. Finally, late 2000’s is characterized by virtually lack of professional heavy metal bands of any kind, with some exceptions, and the existing heavy metal musicians nowadays are producing their own works organizing their own show as a serious hobby with no monetary motivation. These current relatively musical activities are possible due to development of various underground musical institutions and various technological developments that decrease the cost of musical production and distribution to the extent that it is affordable by individual producers, or more precisely bands.