Metal Music Studies 5.3 'Metal and Musicology' Editorial (original) (raw)

Metal music studies at the intersection of theory and practice

Metal Music Studies, 2021

Welcome to this special issue arising from the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice held at the University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom) in September 2018. As a joint conference arranged by four popular music studies research organizations, 1 including the International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS), it aimed to integrate different disciplines and professions, promoting interdisciplinarity and collaborative work. A total of 272 speakers from 26 countries presented 131 papers over five days, thirteen of which were directly related to metal. The central requirement for acceptance was that a presentation had to engage with topics relevant to more than one organization, namely popular music studies, metal music studies, electronic dance music and record production. Although this requirement was a political decision of the conference committee, it encourages reflection on the development of metal music studies in general. There is a broad consensus that while research on metal music

Amalgamated anecdotes: Perspectives on the history of metal music and culture studies

Metal Music Studies, 2014

Metal music and culture studies has witnessed rapid growth since its first international scholarly conference in 2008. Six years later, there are regular conferences and symposia; the International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS); a refereed journal; archives of primary sources; a comprehensive bibliography; and robust scholarly communication. This article examines the history, status and future of metal studies. Through interviews with several key players, the story of 'how' and 'why' this new field of study emerged is illustrated. introduction 'Through stories, the complexities of human interactions are portrayed.' (Calvert 2007: 606) For many of us in the metal music and culture studies arena, we have reached the state where the number of dissertations, theses, monographs, journal

Global Metal Music and Culture

2016

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 and Drone metal, Death metal, and Progressive metal. They interrogate production technologies, sound engineering, album artwork and band promotion, logos and merchandising, t-shirt and jewelry design, and the social class and cultural identities of the 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, while 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, social psychology and sociology, as well as those interested in metal communities around the world.

Medievalism and Metal Music Studies: Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Medievalism and Metal Music Studies: Throwing Down the Gauntlet, 2019

Metal Music Studies has grown enormously over the last eight years from a handful of scholars within Sociology and Popular Music Studies to hundreds of active scholars working across a diverse range of disciplines. The rise of interest in heavy metal academically reflects the growth of the genre as a normal or contested part of everyday lives around the globe. The aim of this series is to provide a home and focus for the growing number of monographs and edited collections that analyse heavy metal and other heavy music; to publish work that fits within the emergent subject field of metal music studies; that is, work that is critical and inter-disciplinary across the social sciences and humanities; to publish work that is of interest to and enhances wider disciplines and subject fields across social sciences and the humanities; and to support the development of Early Career Researchers through providing opportunities to convert their doctoral theses into research monographs.

Review of Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge. By Keith Kahn-Harris. New York: Berg, 2007.

This is an unpublished review I wrote in 2007 when Kahn-Harris’ now famous book had just been released. Looking back now, I think I would be less critical and idealizing. I now recognize more value in different disciplinary orientations and priorities (re: sonic transgression). I also sympathize more with the pragmatic constraints of travel costs (re: North American scenes). Now also, I think the wealth of metal studies that explore power imbalances with respect to gender and race have made me more cognisant of the identity politics that I originally called into question at the end of the review. Reflecting ongoing cultural changes more generally in society writ large, it seems that extreme metal scenes are indeed becoming gradually more open to marginalized identities in ways that Kahn-Harris originally predicted. I leave my original criticisms in the review as something of a time capsule. I hope my reaction at the time shows how Kahn-Harris’ book challenged readers at a pivotal time, just prior to metal studies becoming an internationally recognized phenomenon.