Editing Heavy metal music (section)

===Fan subculture===
{{Main|Heavy metal subculture}}
It has been argued that heavy metal has outlasted many other rock genres largely due to the emergence of an intense, exclusionary and strongly masculine subculture.<ref>Weinstein, pp. 103, 7, 8, 104</ref> While the metal fan base is largely young, white, male and blue-collar, the group is "tolerant of those outside its core demographic base who follow its codes of dress, appearance, and behavior".<ref>Weinstein, pp. 102, 112</ref> Identification with the subculture is strengthened not only by the group experience of concert-going and shared elements of fashion, but also by contributing to metal magazines and, more recently, websites.<ref>Weinstein, pp. 181, 207, 294</ref> Attending live concerts in particular has been called the "holiest of heavy metal communions".<ref>Julian Schaap and Pauwke Berkers. "Grunting Alone? Online Gender Inequality in Extreme Metal Music" in ''IASPM Journal''. Vol.&nbsp;4, no.&nbsp;1 (2014) p. 105</ref>

The metal scene has been characterized as a "subculture of alienation" with its own code of authenticity.<ref name=JQS>"Three profiles of heavy metal fans: A taste for sensation and a subculture of alienation", Jeffrey Arnett. In ''Qualitative Sociology''; Publisher Springer Netherlands. {{ISSN|0162-0436}}. Volume 16, Number 4 / December 1993. pp. 423–443</ref> This code puts several demands on performers: they must appear both completely devoted to their music and loyal to the subculture that supports it; they must appear uninterested in mainstream appeal and radio hits; and they must never "[[selling out|sell out]]".<ref>Weinstein, pp. 46, 60, 154, 273</ref> [[Deena Weinstein]] stated that for the fans themselves, the code promotes "opposition to established authority, and separateness from the rest of society".<ref>Weinstein, p. 166</ref>

Musician and filmmaker [[Rob Zombie]] observed, "Most of the kids who come to my shows seem like really imaginative kids with a lot of creative energy they don't know what to do with" and that metal is "outsider music for outsiders. Nobody wants to be the weird kid; you just somehow end up being the weird kid. It's kind of like that, but with metal you have all the weird kids in one place."<ref name="Sam Dunn">Dunn, "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" B000EGEJIY (2006)</ref> Scholars of metal have noted the tendency of fans to classify and reject some performers (and some other fans) as "[[poseur (music)|poseurs]]" "who pretended to be part of the subculture, but who were deemed to lack authenticity and sincerity".<ref name=JQS/><ref>Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen (1996). ''Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation''</ref>