Heavy Metal is the best genre of music.

Many thanks to my opponent, for this most engaging debate. I'm going to talk about the resolution, and then rebut my opponent. He's making the claim, therefore he's got the BOP. Simple enough, right? Brilliant, let's get started. We're gathered here today, to debate this resolution: "Heavy Metal is the best genre of music." If heavy metal is the best, then it's got to be better than all others, right? That being said, if any musical genre is as good or better than heavy metal, then my opponent's lost this debate. It's his burden to prove that heavy metal trumps every other kind of music out there. Simply saying that it's awesome, and it might be, isn't enough to affirm the resolution -because being awesome by itself isn't enough to say that it's "the best." Savvy? Right, then. Onto my opponent's case! Righteous. PRO begins by asserting that "despite extreme popular belief, heavy metal is often very meaningful" but never directly establishes 'meaningfulness' as his criterion for "best" genre ever. But, let's assume that he did. My opponent's right that there are some really meaningful heavy metal songs, from Staind, Distrubed and above all, the Ozzman. But, there are meaningful songs in almost every genre. Examples of other meaningful songs might include: A Change Is Gonna Come, by Sam Cooke, which explored individual struggles to overcome racial adversity. http://www.youtube.com... Nights in White Satin, by The Moody Blues, which explored the pain of unrequited love, and ongoing passion. http://www.youtube.com... My Heart Will Go On, by Celine Dion, which gave voice to the pain of love lost. http://www.youtube.com... Something to be Proud Of, by Montgomery Gentry, which reframes our perspective of what it means to live a meaningful life. http://www.youtube.com... Beautiful Day, by U2, which gives us hope and encourages us to persevere through our darkest moments and our hardest struggles. http://www.youtube.com... And there are so many others... none of which could even remotely be classified as within the heavy metal genre. So, even if being meaningful was, by itself, a sufficient criterion for "best ever" then heavy metal music cannot be described as being better than all others, because there are other songs from other genre's that are at least as if not more meaningful than any of the ones my opponent listed, or could list. But, "meaningfulness" is a difficult standard to uphold because it's necessarily subjective -which we can know because meaningfulness varies from person to person. What is meaningful to me, for example, can and very likely will differ from what is meaningful to my opponent, because we are different people, with different thoughts, feelings, sentiments, values, experiences and accounts of ourselves. My opponent's second argument is that heavy metal is the best genre ever because it "opens a great way to express anger and vent." And for some people, it might. But for others, like old people or fundamentalist Christians, it might actually cause anger. So, even if for some heavy metal might be a healthy venting outlet, the fact that it could cause the very problem that my opponent says it's purposed to alleviate at once negates the possibility that having the capacity to vent anger is a good or sufficient standard, or that even if heavy metal music may do that for some people, that it's the best genre ever in any objective sense. My opponent's final idea is that heavy metal "can often serve as a wake-up call" meaning that it "warns us of how humans are destroying the world." In principle, my opponent is measuring a specific heavy metal song's value by evaluating the quality and depth of their sociocultural message -which I can appreciate. But, that doesn't mean that heavy metal is the best genre ever because not all heavy metal songs have such a deep or valuable meaning and even if they did, there are other songs from other genres which serve as even more compelling harbingers of tragedy's onslaught. For example: Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" issues a foreboding warning of a myriad of horrors the United States faced during the Vietnam War. Among them, the draft, dangerous foreign policy, the risk of collective doom in the wake of America's fighting communism, social powerlessness in response to political injustice, racial inequality and the like. http://www.youtube.com... Another example is found in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire," which nearly exhaustively charts the veritable litany of social, political, cultural, international, domestic and other problems/challenges/struggles/hurdles the faced by Americans during the Cold War. http://www.youtube.com... Neither Barry McGuire's nor Billy Joel's songs are heavy metal, but they do precisely what PRO is saying that heavy metal does, and probably better, too. That isn't to disparage heavy metal, but if warning humankind is how we're measuring "best ever" it doesn't make a whole lot of sense that heavy metal could be the best ever by that standard. But, again, I'm not sure that standard is sufficient either in that while it might appeal to particular individuals, not everyone wants to be warned of imminent doom. For example, in Thriving Ivory's "Angels on the Moon" (also, not heavy metal), the lead singer implores his subject: "Don't tell me if I'm dying, because I don't want to know." Implicitly, knowing about something imminently threatening might lower quality of life, especially if what's so ominous can't be changed. It might be, after all, that rather than being warned of something horrible yet to come, that it's better to just enjoy the days we have, and live our lives as best we can -in ignorance. Or, that might be the case for some people. But because that could be the case for some people, I think it's a bit too bold to be ok with PRO's standard in his third argument. http://www.youtube.com... In any case, there are some heavy metal songs that are really awesome. Even still, that doesn't make heavy metal the best genre ever. After all, we all know that the best song ever is One Direction's, aptly named, "Best Song Ever." If only the best genre could have the best song, and the "Best Song Ever" is not heavy metal, then heavy metal can't be the best genre ever. (jk, this was just to troll, sort of). http://www.youtube.com... Peace out.