Heavy Metal Music and the Communal Experience

by Nelson Varas-Díaz Florida International Uni (Editor), Niall W.R. Scott University of Central Lan (Editor), Esther Clinton (Contribution by), Brian Hickam (Contribution by), Kathryn Jezer-Morton (Contribution by)

Overview

It is common to hear heavy metal music fans and musicians talk about the “metal community”. This concept, which is widely used when referencing this musical genre, encompasses multiple complex aspects that are seldom addressed in traditional academic endeavors including shared aesthetics, musical practices, geographies, and narratives. The idea of a “metal community” recognizes that fans and musicians frequently identify as part of a collective group, larger than any particular individual. Still, when examined in detail, the idea raises more questions than answers. What criteria are used to define groups of people as part of the community? How are metal communities formed and maintained through time? How do metal communities interact with local cultures throughout the world? How will metal communities change over the lifespan of their members? Are metal communities even possible in light of the importance placed on individualism in this musical genre? These are just some of the questions that arise when the concept of “community” is used in relation to heavy metal music. And yet in the face of all these complexities, heavy metal fans continue to think of themselves as a unified collective entity.

This book addresses this notion of “metal community” via the experiences of authors and fans through theoretical reflections and empirical research. Their contributions focus on how metal communities are conceptualized, created, shaped, maintained, interact with their context, and address internal tensions. The book provides scholars, and other interested in the field of metal music studies, with a state of the art reflection on how metal communities are constituted, while also addressing their limits and future challenges.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498506380
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	08/03/2016
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Nelson Varas-Díaz is professor of social-community psychology at the Florida International University.

Niall Scott is senior lecturer in ethics at the University of Central Lancashire.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Heavy Metal and the Communal Experience – Nelson Varas-Díaz and Niall Scott
Part 1: Entering the Communal and Conceptualizing Collectiveness
Chapter 1: Communities of Metal: Ideal, Diminished and Imaginary - Deena Weinstein
Chapter 2: Absurd Communities of Misanthropic Paradox Destruction: You Play and We’ll Destroy the House! - Niall Scott
Chapter 3: Talking Metal: The Social Phenomenology of Hanging Out - Esther Clinton and Jeremy Wallach
Part 2: Strengthening Community
Chapter 4: Ride between Hell and Paradise: Imaginaerum as Mental Anchoring Place for the Global Nightwish Fan Community - Toni-Matti Karjalainen
Chapter 5: “We’re in this Together and We Take Care of our Own”: Narrative Constructions of Metal Community Told by Metal Youth - Paula Rowe
Part 3: Communities in Contextual Interaction
Chapter 6: Porous Communities: Critical Interactions between Metal Music and Local Culture in the Caribbean Context - Nelson Varas-Díaz, Sigrid Mendoza and Eric Morales
Part 4: Tensions within the Communal Experience
Chapter 7: Exploring the Language and Spectacle of Online Hate Speech in the Black Metal Scene: Developing Theoretical and Methodological Intersections between the Social Sciences and the Humanities - Vivek Venkatesh, Bradley J. Nelson, Tieja Thomas, Jason J. Wallin, Jeffrey S. Podoshen, Christopher Thompson, Kathryn Jezer-Morton, Jihan Rabah, Kathryn Urbaniak and Méi-Ra St. Laurent
Chapter 8 : What Did the Norwegians Ever Do For Us? Actor-Network Theory, the Second Wave of Black Metal and the Imaginary Community of Heavy Metal - Karl Spracklen
Part 5: Expanding the Community beyond Previously Thought Borders
Chapter 9: Do Metal Scenes Need Retirement Homes? Care and the Limitations of Metal Community - Keith Kahn-Harris
Chapter 10: A Shared Madness: The Joint Ownership of Heavy Metal History and Studies - Brian Hickam

Editorial Reviews

Heavy Metal Music and the Communal Experience adds to the growing number of excellent metal scholarship being produced each year. The editors have included chapters which examine the various roles community plays in Metal music and culture—though they are the first ones to put so much together in one place. I plan on using this book in my course on Metal Culture and History!

Bryan A. Bardine

Heavy Metal Music and the Communal Experience is a brilliant collection of essays by luminaries in the field of metal music studies. The collection is both interdisciplinary and global in subject, and provides a primer on the important topic of community formation in metal scenes. It will become a classic text in the discipline.

Amber Clifford

This volume is proof, if proof was needed, that Metal Studies is now a thriving, diverse, and intellectually engaging area of global academic inquiry.  Drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the conceptualization and investigation of metal as community – from the ideal to the mythical, 'glocal' scene studies, age and identity, and culture and politics – this collection not only demonstrates the passion and commitment of metal scholars to produce work adequate to the growing complexity of its subject of inquiry but also that metal scholars themselves are a community that is growing in confidence and expertise.

Andy R. Brown