Working metal musicians: A case of transition in the long 1980s

Abstract

Although the connection between (heavy) metal and ‘class’ still is one of the most controversial research questions in ‘metal studies’, little historical research has been done on working metalheads and musicians. Therefore, this article explores the regional working biographies of metal musicians in the German Ruhr area and in Birmingham/ the Black Country to show how these occupational lives changed during the long 1980s and how they were related to the regional metal scenes and to the concept of ‘class’. Based on the latest and historical interviews with musicians, the article focuses on the ways in which work in the scenes and work out of the scenes developed in the massive structural changes, on the role the families played, and how these shifts can be contextualized in contemporary history. The findings suggest that metal musicians mattered as pioneers into a broader social transition from working biographies based on milieus to those based on lifestyles. Beyond that, especially in the form of the extreme metal underground, the scene’s attitudes towards work epitomized the beginning of a new subject culture that took shape as a result of the do-it-yourself mentality, of global communication and of broadened horizons of what to consider as possible for the future.