Annonymal is the first Heavy Metal band to sing about Bitcoin history, philosophy and goals. Bitcoin was designed to fix money itself, but the way to do it faster might include impacting the culture in broader terms, and heavy metal can play its part on this.

The Beatles were the highest pinnacle of pop culture, and started a complete social revolution in the music industry that affected the whole world.

Since then however, the music industry has gone through big changes in almost every imaginable way. Is it still possible for music artists to make their own revolution and impact society as strongly as The Beatles did?

Here Comes Bitcoin 

In the eighth year of the twenty-first century, bitcoin was born. The revolution was not to be sung, but to be coded, downloaded, and used by those tired of leaving their money, and even the monetary system itself, in the hands of third-parties. And the musical taste of these early adopters was not of great concern in this process.

I really enjoy imagining that Satoshi Nakamoto was a headbanger and a metal head, listening to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Death while building Bitcoin. 

But the fact remains that it doesn't matter at all. 

The only thing that really matters is that we now have a rock solid digital money that is scarce, censorship resistant and decentralized. The network has been fully operational for more than 13 years and has never been hacked, although the greatest minds in the computing field keep trying to do it 24/7.

Bitcoin is the product of broad evolution in computational and cryptographic science — it has the internet as its home, and that creates a lot of possibilities for building culture around it.

Anarchy far Beyond the UK

The Beatles started a movement that allowed the emergence and popularization of many other musical styles, including punk rock, with its anarchic political and social provocations.

The Sex Pistols preached "anarchy in the UK", focusing on the reality immediately around them. Bitcoin sees the need for political anarchy and freedom from government's monetary policies in every country in the world.

The only prerequisite for that becoming a reality is people that are willing to adopt and use bitcoin.

Metal up Your Ass!

Heavy Metal was one of the musical styles that inherited the torch lit by the Beatles, and that was later carried on by bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.

The metal movement mixed and transformed the musicality of such bands with that of the punk rock groups, and that exploded into an avalanche of music that defied societal values and practices in numerous directions — especially in terms of sexual liberation and anti-religious feelings.

Because of this, the movement faced several backlashes from religious groups.

Bitcoin up your Ass!

Bitcoin, as a movement, also has similarities to Heavy Metal.

Starting with the early cypherpunk movement focused on privacy and changing the world, Bitcoin became this internet-native asset that was put at the center of huge political and economical discussions. Bitcoin's anarchic message keeps instilling mixed emotions and reactions in different sectors of society, fascinating some and terrifying others.

In reality Bitcoin is inevitable and antifragile, which poses a huge problem for those who would prefer that it simply didn't exist. Just like parents didn't want heavy metal to exist, so their kids would not listen to it. These people and institutions have a strong reaction to the Bitcoin version of the metal slogan highlighted above, but they cannot make Bitcoin disappear.

Every day more and more people are learning about Bitcoin, and start to interact with it. We currently see an uptrend in Bitcoin awareness all over the world, but as we also see, that does not yet reflect on Bitcoin price measured in fiat currencies.

Towards Mass Adoption!

Because of its scarcity, bitcoin prices measured in fiat currencies tend to rise when more people create more demand for the asset. Also, network effects and disastrous Central Bank monetary policies contribute to the rise of Bitcoin prices and utility, helping to spread its message even further. But to reach the global masses, Bitcoin must be spread by every imaginable means, and music is one of the most powerful of them all.

Emily Cheston says that music is the "perennial time capsule of culture" and "has historically been a partner of social change". That being said, it is almost impossible that music stays apart from Bitcoin success. Then it becomes obvious that if we want mass adoption we must also use music to spread the bitcoin message to the masses.

When you take a look at Bitcoin related songs, most of them reflect the Internet's meme culture. The most used styles of music in Bitcoin right now is hip-hop and rap, and there are many parodies of well known songs that create Bitcoin messages appealing to people who know and love the original versions of these songs.  But is there a place for heavy metal in all of this? Isn't this style of music dead by now?

How Popular is Heavy Metal?

Heavy Metal went mainstream when Metallica released the so-called "Black Album" in 1991. Those times are not coming back anytime in the near future, but that doesn't mean metal is dead, far from it. According to a 2019 report from TuneCore, it seems that not only is heavy metal a very popular style, but it’s the most popular genre amongst streaming services.

Heavy Metal is a very flexible music style that contains in itself an almost infinite variation of musical aesthetics, from heavy and aggressive music like "Sad but True", to soft and singable ballads like "Nothing Else Matters", both from Metallica's black album to use the same reference we talked about before.

Annonymal

Annonymal is the first Heavy Metal band in the world to sing exclusively about Bitcoin history, philosophy and goals. The band released their first single on 31 oct, 2021 (that you can enjoy at the top of this article) and is working to release their first full length album in the near future.

The whole idea of the project is to present Bitcoin to heavy metal fans and bring them to know and use BTC through the songs and related materials. There are hundreds of millions of heavy metal fans all over the world, and Annonymal aims to educate and entertain them with bitcoin related content that revolves around the heavy music universe. 

Some bitcoiners will love the concept of using Heavy Metal to push Bitcoin further, but some will dislike the idea or think it's complete nonsense. On the heavy metal side of things, it will be the same. Some will love it and some will hate it for different personal reasons.

It’s impossible to please everybody, but Annonymal's goal is to find the right public amongst bitcoiners and heavy metal fans, those who will be able to enjoy the initiative, have fun with it, to learn about Bitcoin or even to celebrate its existence through heavy music.