Day 1, November 1st
In 1996, MTV was still huge. YouTube and Social Media didn’t exist and aside from Awards shows, mainstream wasn't interested in Metallica, (with the exception of Saturday Night Live, which featured them the following year). This meant that there weren't a lot of places for them to go where they could reach that large of an audience filled with potential new fans all at once. So of course, most bands just out of reach of those platforms interested in keeping their career going would jump at the opportunity to play on a show like the MTV Europe Music Awards. It was a great chance to impress viewers and kiss up to the network with the idea they would continue to show their videos aka help record sales. MOST bands.
There is a legendary story that Metallica were set to play “King Nothing” at the EMAs that year in an effort to promote their latest album at the time, “Load.” But being warned not to cuss and having their pyro nixed at the last minute rubbed them the wrong way (to say the least). As if abandoning their long headbanger manes for new short haircuts hadn’t caused enough silly controversy during that album cycle, they decided to take it to another level by defying the powers that be at MTV and instead play covers of the Misfits' “Last Caress” into Anti-Nowhere's “So What.” For those who don't know, these are two of the most lyrically violent, expletive-laden songs in their repertoire.
I had watched this video of their performance before and recognized it’s greatness. But something about my stressful day that left me feeling defeated lead me to find strength in watching people full on rebel. Especially against an institution people are afraid to go against. How could one not be motivated to seize their own day after watching this go down on television. Who cares if they were banned from MTV for years as a result. It didn’t matter. Later on, they got a whole tribute show from the network. And doing things like that is why.
Out of boredom, I decided to try an experiment. I loved this video so much and found it so inspiring that day. I wondered if I watched it every day for a week, if I’d notice any actual changes in myself. Would it just provide 4 minutes of entertainment? Prompt me to take action in my own life? End up boring me? We’ll see.
