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This book defines the key ideas, scholarly debates, and research activities that have contributed to the formation of the international and interdisciplinary field of Metal Studies. Drawing on insights from a wide range of disciplines including popular music, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and ethics, this volume offers new and innovative research on metal musicology, global/local scenes studies, fandom, gender and metal identity, metal media, and commerce. Offering a wide-ranging focus on bands, scenes, periods, and sounds, contributors explore topics such as the riff-based song writing of classic heavy metal bands and their modern equivalents, and the musical-aesthetics of Grindcore, Doom metal, Death metal, and Progressive metal. They interrogate production technologies, sound engineering, album artwork and band promotion, logos and merchandising, t-shirt and jewellery design, and fan communities that define the global metal music economy and subcultural scene. The volume explores how the new academic discipline of metal studies was formed, also looking forward to the future of metal music and its relationship to metal scholarship and fandom. With an international range of contributors, this volume will appeal to scholars of popular music, cultural studies, and sociology, as well as those interested in metal communities around the world.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Global Metal Music and Culture and Metal Studies Andy R. Brown, Karl Spracklen, Keith Kahn-Harris, and Niall W.R. Scott 2. Reflections on Metal Studies Deena Weinstein Part 1: Metal Musicology 3. Iron and Steel: Forging Heavy Metal’s Song Structures or the Impact of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest on Metal’s Musical Language Dietmar Elflein 4.‘It’s like a Mach piece, really’: Critiquing the Neo-classical Aesthetic of 80s Heavy Metal Music Gareth Heritage 5. The Distortion Paradox: Analysing Contemporary Metal Production Mark Mynett Part 2: Metal Music Scenes 6. Voracious Souls: Race and Place in the Formation of the San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Scene Kevin Fellezs 7. The Unforgiven: A Reception Study of Metallica Fans and ‘Sell-Out’ Accusations Eric Smialek 8. Use Your Mind?: Embodiments of Protest, Transgression, and Grotesque Realism in British Grindcore Gabby Riches Part 3: Metal Demographics and Identity 9. The Numbers of the Beast: Surveying Iron Maiden’s Global Tribe Jean-Philippe Ury-Petesch 10. The Social Characteristics of the Contemporary Metalhead: The Hellfest Survey Christophe Guibert and Gérôme Guibert 11.Un(su)Stained Class? Figuring Out the Identity-Politics of Heavy Metal’s Class Demographics Andy R. Brown Part 4: Metal Markets and Commerce 12. Tunes from the Land of the Thousand Lakes: Early Years of Internationalization in Finnish Heavy Metal Toni-Matti Karjalainen and Eero Sipilä 13. Death Symbolism in Metal Jewellery: Circuits of Consumption from Subculture to the High Street Claire Barratt Part 5: Metal and Gender Politics 14. ‘Getting My Soul Back’: Empowerment Narratives and Identities among Women in Extreme Metal in North Carolina Jamie E. Patterson 15. Gender and Power in the Death Metal Scene: A Social Exchange Perspective Sonia Vasan 16. Masculine Pleasure? Women’s Encounters with Hard Rock and Metal Music Rosemary Lucy Hill Part 6: Metal and Cultural Studies 17. Retro Rock and Heavy History Simon Poole 18. Transforming Detail into Myth: Indescribable Experience and Mystical Discourse in Drone Metal Owen Coggins Part 7: Metal Futures 19. The Future of Metal is Bright and Hell Bent for Genre Destruction: A Response to Keith Kahn-Harris Tom O’Boyle and Niall Scott 20. A Reply to Scott and O’Boyle Keith Kahn-Harris
About the author
Andy R. Brown is Senior Lecturer in Media Communications at Bath Spa University, UK.
Karl Spracklen is Professor of Leisure Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University , UK.
Keith Kahn-Harris is honorary research fellow and associate lecturer at Birkbeck College, UK.
Niall W. Scott is Senior Lecturer in Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.
Summary
This book defines the key ideas, scholarly debates, and research activities that have contributed to the formation of the international and interdisciplinary field of Metal Studies. Drawing on insights from a wide range of disciplines including popular music, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and ethics, this volume offers new and innovative research on metal musicology, global/local scenes studies, fandom, gender and metal identity, metal media, and commerce. Offering a wide-ranging focus on bands, scenes, periods, and sounds, contributors explore topics such as the riff-based song writing of classic heavy metal bands and their modern equivalents, and the musical-aesthetics of Grindcore, Doom metal, Death metal, and Progressive metal. They interrogate production technologies, sound engineering, album artwork and band promotion, logos and merchandising, t-shirt and jewellery design, and fan communities that define the global metal music economy and subcultural scene. The volume explores how the new academic discipline of metal studies was formed, also looking forward to the future of metal music and its relationship to metal scholarship and fandom. With an international range of contributors, this volume will appeal to scholars of popular music, cultural studies, and sociology, as well as those interested in metal communities around the world.
