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Our Home Page addresses why this organization was founded, this section looks at the details of when it began and how it operated before the web. Although the World Metal Alliance opened its first website in the year 2000, the organization was actually founded 8 years earlier in 1992. Determining the exact date of birth is easy from a legal standpoint - February 27, 1992, 9:47AM is time-stamped on the government document officially registering it as a music organization. But determining its date of birth from an ideological standpoint is not as concrete.
In the Fall of 1991, the concept of metal unification originated in a casual conversation. By December of 1991, the casual conversation had given way to meetings to refine its purpose, standards and method of operation. By January 1992, the concept had a name and an emblem. In February 1992, the appropriate paperwork was filed and the name officially went on the books on the 27th, as mentioned above. During March 1992 the first recruitment flyer was written. And in April 1992 the newly registered trade name and trademark were copyrighted and printed for the first time on flyers and membership cards as shown below:
While many of these dates could be considered the beginning, the date that has always been observed as the date of birth is May 1st, 1992, the day when these recruitment flyers were handed out to the public for the first time during a large metal concert in Philadelphia, about 2 months after the legal date of birth. The reason this day has been observed over all others is evidence of the core principle which has governed the WMA since the beginning, to be an unbiased outlet for the combined voice of the members. Before that day the World Metal Alliance was simply a concept, a legally registered trade name, and an emblem on a printed page. After that day it became a living entity.
Within a week after those first recruitment flyers were distributed we began to receive completed membership applications. The response was far beyond expectations. A massive network of metal fans from across the nation had already existed and was just waiting to be awakened. At the time word of mouth had been only way to obtain information on metal due to its blacklisting by the media and it turned out to be a strength which had been developed under much adversity.
Each new member was sent a membership card and a blank recruitment flyer to copy and distribute to others. Both the card and flyer were stamped with their assigned member number in order to track recruitment and honor those who excelled in recruiting others in future publications. The message spread across the nation and eventually the world, as members responded, joined and spread the message by recruiting more members in ever growing numbers.
Between 1992 and 1994 membership grew to exceed 1,000 and included members from nearly every state in the country as well as Australia, Canada and several countries in Europe. This was accomplished entirely through word-of-mouth and the spread of the recruitment flyers from friend to friend without any endorsement or recognition by the media.
Now that you know the organization began 8 years before our first website, you may wonder how it operated before going online. The function of the WMA back then was nearly the same as it is now, only much slower. Essentially everything we do now, we did then. Only it was done using the printed page and conventional mail. We recruited members, sent out polls, surveys and petitions and published the results along with the many letters we received from members around the world in a quarterly newsletter. The members voted, participated and spoke in written word, and we published it.
Below are 2 samples of our newsletters, the first edition published in 1992, and the last edition published in 1994. If you look at the enlargement, you'll see the majority of the content was from the membership including their comments, questions, suggestions, and the results of polls they voted in. The remaining content from the administrators of the organization included stats, recognition of outstanding members and sometimes an article to provoke discussion between members in the letters section.
The first edition, shown below, was 4 pages long and produced using 1 sheet of 17" x 11" paper, copied on both sides and folded in half. Later editions would have a higher number of pages, depending on how much mail we received from the membership during each preceding quarter.
By 1994 the rising cost of postage and growing number of members made it financially impossible to continue to communicate by conventional mail and we were forced to discontinue the newsletter. The final edition of the Quarterly Report, which brought this early era of the organization to a close, is shown below.
By 1996, four years after its formation, and 2 years after the last newsletter the flow of new members began to decrease. There are several theories for this decline including the rise of grunge and the lessening threat against metal. Regardless of the reason, at the time it seemed the tide had been turned. Metal was finally recognized by the music industry and organized opposition was fading away. Although the World Metal Alliance continued to accept new members and remained a legally registered music organization, all other operations ceased and the WMA would remain silent for the next four years.
Then, in 1999, we began to receive requests from the membership to reactivate the WMA as a website. It became obvious that the technology of the web was a perfect match for all the past functions of the organization. With the help of a pre-web member's expertise in HTML, the first World Metal Alliance website was created and went online in the Spring of 2000. Examples of these early works can be seen in our Site Archive. While technology may have changed the rate of transfer of communication from months to less than a tenth of a second, as you can see in the above printed documents, the purpose, function and governing principle of the WMA hasn't changed since it's beginning in May of 1992.
A WMA salute and thanks to Doomsday, a pre-web WMA member and TSAC for suggesting that we include some of the early history of the WMA.
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