What sentiment analysis doesn’t tell you.
Intro
This combines 2 of my favourite things - R and Metallica. I’ll call this a meta(l) analysis, comparing the sentiments of YouTube reactors to the sentiments of the song they are listening to. The video is titled ‘Metallica “Master of Puppets” Best of Reactions Compilation - How To Make A Metalhead’, compiled by Derek Brooks and is ready for watching here. For several months, I’d been planning to go through selected individual reaction videos and do this exercise, and then this compilation magically appeared, and made my job much easier. You may think the idea of watching people listen to a song for the first time to be complete nonsense, as indeed I used to. But if you know the song yourself, it’s actually really entertaining seeing someone else go through what you went through however many years ago. The song starts with 4 power chords, which takes first time listeners by surprise. Altogether now: Duh! Duh-Duh-Duh!
The main riff
Almost immediately, the main riff kicks in, setting the tone for what’s to come. It’s a complex riff, with some stacatto cymbal crashes highlighting the slightly off beat tempo. That’s no problem for our brave reactors though, who are straight in with their thoughts - these are ever so slightly positive
The drums
The drums finally kick in at around 30 seconds in, and we are off and running. No actual song lyrics at this point so we can all just sit back and enjoy the ‘Classic’ Metallica lineup in it’s finest hour. Already, we have some positive reactions - air drumming, giggling, and comments on the incredible riffs. The only perceived negative comment is from No Life Shaq, and even then, it’s simply a lament that he cannot move his head in time quick enough. He’s enjoying it really
Initial reactions
No one has anything to say at this point. The lyrics themselves, (not posted due to copyright reasons) are deemed to be slightly negative at this point. Some ‘reactors’ place great store in seeing the lyrics at the same time as hearing the music, others just seem to want to focus on the music itself. There are some who specialise on the vocal performance, and others who are just there for an overall experience - looking at you, Mr Video
What is this about?
At this point our intrepid reviewers are starting to wonder what this song is actually about.Some are already focussing on the lyrics, and picking up on the themes of control and drugs. Some others…aren’t. One thing I learned from this bit is that this song has ‘bars’…and that’s a good thing. We finally get to the chorus - some are already joining in
The penny drops..
During verse 2 the penny drops for a few more listeners as they grasp what it’s about. Then the song takes a complete left turn. The fast , driving rhythm has stopped, and some beautiful melodic guitars take centre stage. Will our intrepid reactors spot what is going on? Some do, but others, need to take a pause, because, in the words of Ryan and George over at ‘Lost in Vegas’ - ‘it’s a lot to take in’
James’s guitar solo
James’s guitar solos are usually melodic affairs - and this one is right up there, leading to what I can only describe as breakout of general ‘vibing’ in the local area
Building back up to the bridge
After the solo, its back to the instrumental section. All vibes have to come to an end, and we are now building back up. The drums are pounding, the riffs are getting heavy, and it all adds up to the feeling that something special is about to be unleashed
Time to melt faces with Kirk
Here comes the face melter from Kirk Hammett..here is how it looks when you expose a non-metalhead to this for the first time. No lyrics here of course, so sentiment analysis is useless. The only way to judge how this is going over is to look at the reviewer’s faces. They seem quite happy actually:
Stank-face time
After the solo - it’s back into solid riffing. The 2 bars or so immediately after the end of the solo are glorious, and stank faces abound. The sentiment analysis does not pick up that in this context ‘Whoo, yeah, they’re killing this’ is in fact a totally positive statement
Finishing off
There’s no time to recover, we’re back into the main riff as before for the final verse.
The aftermath
Maybe certain genres of music lend themselves to sentiment analysis. But not hard rock, and definitely not Metallica. There is nothing in sentiment scores of the lyrics that can account for the emotions and feelings that the music causes. Look at the comments - ‘blown away’, ‘wow, what a great track’, ‘one of the greatest [redacted] things I’ve heard in a while’.
This track does indeed take you on a journey.It starts off hard, then gets unexpectedly mellow, then takes you right back up to the top of the rollercoaster and sets off again. At the end, you’re left sitting there, breathless, thinking ‘what the heck was that? And why was it so freaking awesome?’ Nothing in there prepares you for this.
So what have we learned? Probably not a lot, other than sentiment analysis of song lyrics cannot possibly infer what the music itself will do to you. And that prime era Metallica is every bit as great now as it was when it first came out.
