Riff Rant: Why Devil Horns Have Lost Their Edge
Flipping the devil horns is no longer cool. It’s okay to say this. And, it’s okay if you haven’t gotten this memo yet. Perhaps you 
were rocking too hard to a Judas Priest album to see it slide across your table. But, it’s now time that we have a little talk.
For years, I was just like you. Whenever I was in a moment that rocked, the index and pinky fingers would go up, while the others would take a trip. Sometimes, even a Gene Simmons-like tongue would make an appearance. There are, regretfully, many photos of me out there striking this now clichéd pose.
There was a time when raising this symbol meant that you were a menacing soul. Or, at the very least, someone that shared the views of a like-minded menacing soul that put his two digits up first. Now, unfortunately, flipping the horns is just a thing people do.
If you’re a fan of punk rock and you see a prim and proper teenage girl wearing a t-shirt that says ‘punk rocker,’ you giggle, knowing that this is but a fashion statement, not at all a sign of someone whose spent many hours exposed to Rancid or The Clash. In many ways, devil horns have taken on a similar translation.
Sure, there are still those out there who do it and make you really believe that they and Satan are homies. But, I’d argue that 80% of the time these people are doing it as a way to appear slightly more interesting on Facebook, or because they don’t know what else to do with their free hand while being photographed.
I mean, the gesture just seems to have lost its pit-cred. Even Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t look cool or badass when he does it as a senior, yet still amazing, citizen. Put it this way, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback performs this gesture regularly, and aren’t we by default supposed to hate whatever he does on stage?
Perhaps it’s that co-oping nature of the gesture that has really taken away the appeal – it’s become too popularized by those who don’t get and those who do get it, but choose to overuse it for the sake of attempting to sell the badass nature in which they believe to possess.
By no means am I wanting to spoil anyone’s fun. The beauty about rock n’ roll is that it generally encourages people to do whatever the fuck they want, and be whoever the fuck they want. Yes, you can continue to use that notion as justification for flipping the horns, but wouldn`t you rather use it as reasoning for trying something new?
-Adam Grant
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