Black Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal

Some people capitalize certain metal subgenres: Black Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal. These are strictly internal designations. Non-metalheads would have no reason to use them.

Capitalization implies three things. The first is reverence. Majuscules elevate words beyond mere common nouns – hence, capitalized Biblical pronouns. The second is definition, or more strongly, demarcation. “Black Metal” implies that there is a finite thing (Thing?) called “Black Metal.” The word gains a corpus. The third, which flows from the second, is exclusion. “Black Metal” implies that there are things that aren’t “Black Metal.”

I’m trying to understand why people use such capitalization. Other genres don’t do this. One doesn’t see Techno or Jazz, or subgenrewise, Minimal or Bebop. Even in metal, one doesn’t see Grindcore or Thrash Metal. Why are black metal, death metal, and heavy metal special? Is capitalization insufferably pompous?

Perhaps I can understand the reverence. I don’t subscribe to it, though. I have problems capitalizing deities that supposedly created the universe. Western music forms that arose in the last few decades hardly constitute religions to me.

Still, “Black Metal,” “Death Metal,” and “Heavy Metal,” as they’ve been used, evoke concrete things. Black metal obviously has religious/anti-religious elements. I’m not surprised that modern-day people who wear hooded robes want to capitalize things. “Death Metal” is more specific than “death metal.” The caps carry atmosphere, old-school connotations. Nominon is “Death Metal,” but Cryptopsy is probably only “death metal.” “Heavy Metal” is likewise. Manilla Road is “Heavy Metal” – but is Blaze Bayley-era Iron Maiden?

What makes things Black Metal, Death Metal, and Heavy Metal?