Why is metal (music), called metal?

It started off with early Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin/Whitesnake/Def Leppard/Deep Purple and other bands being called hard rock. read more

Since the music relied heavily on over-driven and amplified guitar sound for most of the rhythm section, it was called rock. The prefix 'hard' latched on because most of the rhythm played was on the lower notes of the guitar and with distortion they sounded "metallic" opposed to full chords that involved the higher notes on the guitar. read more

In 1979, lead New York Times popular music critic John Rockwell described what he called "heavy-metal rock" as "brutally aggressive music played mostly for minds clouded by drugs", and, in a different article, as "a crude exaggeration of rock basics that appeals to white teenagers". read more