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Co-edited with Andy R. Brown, Karl Spracklen and Niall Scott

Global Metal Music and Culture: Current Directions in Metal Studies

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.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Global Metal Music and Culture and Metal StudiesĀ Andy R. Brown, Karl Spracklen, Keith Kahn-Harris, and Niall W.R. ScottĀ 2. Reflections on Metal StudiesĀ Deena WeinsteinĀ Part 1: Metal MusicologyĀ 3. Iron and Steel: Forging Heavy Metal’s Song Structures or the Impact of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest on Metal’s Musical LanguageĀ Dietmar ElfleinĀ 4.ā€˜It’s like a Mach piece, really’: Critiquing the Neo-classical Aesthetic of 80s Heavy Metal MusicĀ Gareth HeritageĀ 5. The Distortion Paradox: Analysing Contemporary Metal ProductionĀ Mark MynettĀ Part 2: Metal Music ScenesĀ 6. Voracious Souls: Race and Place in the Formation of the San Francisco Bay Area Thrash SceneĀ Kevin FellezsĀ 7. The Unforgiven: A Reception Study of Metallica Fans and ā€˜Sell-Out’ AccusationsĀ Eric SmialekĀ 8. Use Your Mind?: Embodiments of Protest, Transgression, and Grotesque Realism in British GrindcoreĀ Gabby RichesĀ Part 3: Metal Demographics and IdentityĀ 9. The Numbers of the Beast: Surveying Iron Maiden’s Global TribeĀ Jean-Philippe Ury-PeteschĀ 10. The Social Characteristics of the Contemporary Metalhead: The Hellfest SurveyĀ Christophe Guibert and GĆ©rĆ“me GuibertĀ 11.Un(su)Stained Class? Figuring Out the Identity-Politics of Heavy Metal’s Class DemographicsĀ Andy R. BrownĀ Part 4: Metal Markets and CommerceĀ 12. Tunes from the Land of the Thousand Lakes: Early Years of Internationalization in Finnish Heavy MetalĀ Toni-Matti Karjalainen and Eero Sipilä 13. Death Symbolism in Metal Jewellery: Circuits of Consumption from Subculture to the High StreetĀ Claire BarrattĀ Part 5: Metal and Gender PoliticsĀ 14. ā€˜Getting My Soul Back’: Empowerment Narratives and Identities among Women in Extreme Metal in North CarolinaĀ Jamie E. PattersonĀ 15. Gender and Power in the Death Metal Scene: A Social Exchange PerspectiveĀ Sonia VasanĀ 16. Masculine Pleasure? Women’s Encounters with Hard Rock and Metal MusicĀ Rosemary Lucy HillĀ Part 6: Metal and Cultural StudiesĀ 17. Retro Rock and Heavy HistoryĀ Simon PooleĀ 18. Transforming Detail into Myth: Indescribable Experience and Mystical Discourse in Drone MetalĀ Owen CogginsĀ Part 7: Metal FuturesĀ 19. The Future of Metal is Bright and Hell Bent for Genre Destruction: A Response to Keith Kahn-HarrisĀ Tom O’Boyle and Niall ScottĀ 20. A Reply to Scott and O’BoyleĀ Keith Kahn-Harris

Book cover of Global Metal Music and Culture: Current Directions in Metal Studies

Formats available: Hardback, Paperback, E-Book

First Published: April 8, 2016

Publisher: Routledge

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