The Rivethead

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Okay , so , since some people are lazy to do a simple search about this , I'll lay it down to you ...

A rivethead is a person associated with the industrial music scene .

The dress style is typically militaristic/post-apocalyptic .

Footwear : combat boots , tanker boots , knee-high military boots , steal-toe boots , or anything that can be used for STOMPING !

Pants : cargo pants or BDU ( battle dress uniform ) pants . Usually , but not always , camouflage or black , tucked in the boots , rolled at the bottom cuffs or as cut-off shorts .

Tops : industrial bands T-shirts , black wifebeaters , flight jackets , bulletproof vests , trenchcoats , etc.

Hair : it can be either medium-long , partially shaved ( undercut ) , shaved , mohawk , bihawk , deadhawk or even with cyber-dreads .

Headgear & facegear : gasmasks or respirators , goggles , contact lenses , etc.

Other accessories : finger-less gloves , BDU-style or spiked leather belts , spiked/studded collars/chokers , dog-tags or any jewelry that incorporates the industrial aesthetics

Body Mods : piercings , tattoos , etc.

The industrial subculture is probably not known for being philosophical or profound . Is there any real depth to music which largely consists of distorted noise and the sounds of jackhammers and beating on scrap metal ? However you can be both a rivethead *and* hold some intelligent theoretical ideas about the state of the world . This is based on these ideas :

* People in the World are slaves to capitalism . You get a job ( well , maybe ... ) just for the money , not because it's your "vocation" in life any more . That job takes up most of your time and dictates your whole lifestyle , pretty much . People are therefore enslaved by the chains of industrialised society . When their bosses say jump , they ask how high . The sounds of the mass production line becomes the soundtrack to their lives . Everyone is dancing to the beats of industrial machinery . Rivetheads just take this idea literally , as well as metaphorically .

* Expanding on this idea , basically we're powerless to change our position in life . Sure , we can quit one crappy job in a burger bar and get another one in telesales , but basically life sucks and there's not a lot we can do about it . We're all just little cogs in a big machine . Any cog who bitches about it gets replaced straight away with another cog . You can reflect this idea by wearing cogs as jewellery . If anyone asks you why you're such a cheap ass that you made your jewellery out of scrap metal , instead of kicking the crap out of them you can actually make a profound statement about this and feel all superior in doing so . And then kick the crap out of them XD

* Plus of course plenty of bands who get labelled as industrial do often have a very philisophical and/or political slant to their lyrics and themes . Even those that don't appear to be particularly profound and/or musically gifted , especially the earlier pioneers of industrial music , are still very relevant too , because basically making "anti-music" is a nice big "fuck you !" gesture to the music industry which likes to churn out one manufactured pop star after another . The music industry is a very big part of the money grabbing capitalist system mentioned above , so subverting and resisting their ideas of the music we should be buying and listening to is basically fighting against the bigger system . OK , so no one's really gonna take any notice but still , it's better than passively lapping up the crap they want to feed us .

Resist the system !

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