noun a music genre, characterised by loud amplification, the primacy of electric guitars and simple, powerful – if occasionally lumbering – rhythmic patterns. The origin may be in military and munitions terminology but the popular and probable etymology is as follows: 'The term heavy metal was originally coined by Beat novelist William Burroughs in his Naked Lunch, reintroduced into the pop vocabulary by Steppenwolf in their hit "Born to Be Wild" ("heavy metal thunder") and subsequently redefined by rock critic Lester Bangs in the heavy metal fan magazine Creem.' (Rolling Stone Encyclopaedia of Rock & Roll, 1983). In fact, William Burroughs wrote of Uranium Willie, the Heavy Metal Kid, in Nova Express, 1946, 13 years before Naked Lunch was published. Lester Bangs was writing about the Yardbirds. In later use 'metal' takes over as the preferred abbreviation, creating a subtle differentiation understood by fans of heavy music US, 1999