Prompted by the emergence of Serbian black metal supergroup Gavranovi and their two singles released in 2020, this article offers an interdisciplinary and intertextual reading of this project. In this article, collaborative efforts of musicology and ethnomusicology are employed in interpreting the new readings of Serbian epic tradition in the context of extreme metal, as well as its positioning in the history of Serbian extreme metal scene in general. By using the gusle, a traditional instrument, as well as the postulates of Serbian epic poetry, Gavranovi participate in contemporary remediation of tradition, which will be examined through the lens of (inter)textual analysis.
{"title":"Black (metal) epics: Remediation of tradition in the case of Gavranovi from Serbia","authors":"Danka Lajić Mihajlović, B. Radovanović","doi":"10.1386/mms_00076_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00076_1","url":null,"abstract":"Prompted by the emergence of Serbian black metal supergroup Gavranovi and their two singles released in 2020, this article offers an interdisciplinary and intertextual reading of this project. In this article, collaborative efforts of musicology and ethnomusicology are employed in interpreting\u0000 the new readings of Serbian epic tradition in the context of extreme metal, as well as its positioning in the history of Serbian extreme metal scene in general. By using the gusle, a traditional instrument, as well as the postulates of Serbian epic poetry, Gavranovi participate in contemporary\u0000 remediation of tradition, which will be examined through the lens of (inter)textual analysis.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47276564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Metal music has a signifying visual aesthetic or so-called visual code. In this article, I examine the significance of four primitive visual properties that characterize the code. I propose that the propensity for visual artefacts of metal music to depict low luminance, low colourfulness, redness and angular shapes is because these properties can act as subtle threat cues. As metal music has a preoccupation with threatening themes and sounds, these four properties provide concordant visual information about the affective attributes of the genre. After reviewing the supporting psychological evidence, I conduct a quantitative test of this proposal by comparing album covers from extreme metal bands to those from children’s music, two genres that are opposed to one another in their embrace of a threatening atmosphere. The results indicate that extreme metal album covers are darker, less colourful, redder and feature more angular shapes compared with their children’s counterparts, which suggests that these properties are relied upon to communicate a clear threat signal.
{"title":"Threat cues in metal’s visual code","authors":"Nicholas Watier","doi":"10.1386/mms_00075_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00075_1","url":null,"abstract":"Metal music has a signifying visual aesthetic or so-called visual code. In this article, I examine the significance of four primitive visual properties that characterize the code. I propose that the propensity for visual artefacts of metal music to depict low luminance, low colourfulness,\u0000 redness and angular shapes is because these properties can act as subtle threat cues. As metal music has a preoccupation with threatening themes and sounds, these four properties provide concordant visual information about the affective attributes of the genre. After reviewing the supporting\u0000 psychological evidence, I conduct a quantitative test of this proposal by comparing album covers from extreme metal bands to those from children’s music, two genres that are opposed to one another in their embrace of a threatening atmosphere. The results indicate that extreme metal album\u0000 covers are darker, less colourful, redder and feature more angular shapes compared with their children’s counterparts, which suggests that these properties are relied upon to communicate a clear threat signal.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44960558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Into the Never: Nine Inch Nails and the Creation of The Downward Spiral, Adam Steiner (2020)Guilford: Backbeat Books, 296 pp.,ISBN 978-1-61713-731-0, p/bk, $24.95
{"title":"Into the Never: Nine Inch Nails and the Creation of The Downward Spiral, Adam Steiner (2020)","authors":"Ross Hagen","doi":"10.1386/mms_00080_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00080_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Into the Never: Nine Inch Nails and the Creation of The Downward Spiral, Adam Steiner (2020)Guilford: Backbeat Books, 296 pp.,ISBN 978-1-61713-731-0, p/bk, $24.95","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46532176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ethnographic fieldwork is a core method of anthropological, sociological and cultural research, characterized by a lengthy stay in an area or among a social group that is being studied. In the best-case scenario, a researcher becomes an insider through fieldwork. This method, however, has experienced heavy criticism for its exploitative origins and traditions that, among others, maintain a strong focus on Global North gazes and give little back to studied communities, especially those located in the Global South. Metal music studies have seen fieldwork-based research in both the Global North and South; and although a productive method in this field of research, it has not yet been considered in emerging critical reflections on methodology in its body of publications. This article aims to make such a contribution by reflecting on lessons from metal research in the Global South. Building on experiences in Latin American and African countries, we seek to explore how fieldwork-based research on metal, in general, can be informed by situated experiences in these regions by means of four distinct elements: (1) the importance of multiple subjectivities and epistemologies, (2) the principles of positionality and communality, (3) the confrontation and dismantling of privilege and (4) the diversification of fieldwork methods in terms of data collection and sharing.
{"title":"Lost in the field: Lessons from metal music studies fieldwork in the Global South","authors":"Didier Goossens, N. Varas-Díaz, Edward Banchs","doi":"10.1386/mms_00073_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00073_1","url":null,"abstract":"Ethnographic fieldwork is a core method of anthropological, sociological and cultural research, characterized by a lengthy stay in an area or among a social group that is being studied. In the best-case scenario, a researcher becomes an insider through fieldwork. This method, however,\u0000 has experienced heavy criticism for its exploitative origins and traditions that, among others, maintain a strong focus on Global North gazes and give little back to studied communities, especially those located in the Global South. Metal music studies have seen fieldwork-based research in\u0000 both the Global North and South; and although a productive method in this field of research, it has not yet been considered in emerging critical reflections on methodology in its body of publications. This article aims to make such a contribution by reflecting on lessons from metal research\u0000 in the Global South. Building on experiences in Latin American and African countries, we seek to explore how fieldwork-based research on metal, in general, can be informed by situated experiences in these regions by means of four distinct elements: (1) the importance of multiple subjectivities\u0000 and epistemologies, (2) the principles of positionality and communality, (3) the confrontation and dismantling of privilege and (4) the diversification of fieldwork methods in terms of data collection and sharing.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45374913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Gear Acquisition Syndrome: Consumption of Instruments and Technology in Popular Music, Jan-Peter Herbst and Jonas Menze (2021)Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield Press, 282 pp.,ISBN 978-1-86218-184-7, p/bk, £25.00e-ISBN 978-1-86218-185-4, Open access (https://unipress.hud.ac.uk/plugins/books/27/)
{"title":"Gear Acquisition Syndrome: Consumption of Instruments and Technology in Popular Music, Jan-Peter Herbst and Jonas Menze (2021)","authors":"R. Kopanski","doi":"10.1386/mms_00079_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00079_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Gear Acquisition Syndrome: Consumption of Instruments and Technology in Popular Music, Jan-Peter Herbst and Jonas Menze (2021)Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield Press, 282 pp.,ISBN 978-1-86218-184-7, p/bk, £25.00e-ISBN 978-1-86218-185-4, Open\u0000 access (<uri xlink:href=\"https://unipress.hud.ac.uk/plugins/books/27/\">https://unipress.hud.ac.uk/plugins/books/27/</uri>)","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41889356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lea Jung, Daniel Suer, Franziska Kaufmann, Melissa Arkley
The workshop ‘Feminism and Metal’, 15 June 2021, took place online and was hosted by Rosemary Lucy Hill (University of Huddersfield) and Florian Heesch (University of Siegen). The workshop consisted of seven presentations of research projects in different stages as well as a panel with the Chaos Rising collective, thereby extending beyond academic boundaries. The workshop report provides an insight into the projects presented and the subsequent discussions, and draws out central topics of the workshop.
{"title":"‘Feminism and Metal’, Hosted by Rosemary Lucy Hill and Florian Heesch, online, 15 June 20211","authors":"Lea Jung, Daniel Suer, Franziska Kaufmann, Melissa Arkley","doi":"10.1386/mms_00078_7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00078_7","url":null,"abstract":"The workshop ‘Feminism and Metal’, 15 June 2021, took place online and was hosted by Rosemary Lucy Hill (University of Huddersfield) and Florian Heesch (University of Siegen). The workshop consisted of seven presentations of research projects in different stages as well\u0000 as a panel with the Chaos Rising collective, thereby extending beyond academic boundaries. The workshop report provides an insight into the projects presented and the subsequent discussions, and draws out central topics of the workshop.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49341702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Metal music emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s and progressively developed into a vast number of subgenres. Several dozens of subgenres have been described but their taxonomy appears inconsistent from one study to another. Existing taxonomies are mostly the results of subjective decision-making. The main purpose of this study was to establish an objective taxonomy of metal subgenres highlighting their degree of proximity by analysing quantitative features extracted from the website Encyclopaedia Metallum. We scraped the website data that contained at the moment 147,248 bands providing among others their musical subgenre and lyrical themes. We have extracted from these labels two musical features (hybridization between subgenres [HBS]; hybridization between subgenres and non-metal musical genres) and one thematic feature (lyrical themes inclination). These features were studied separately and combined in order to build a distance matrix between a selection of 27 widely recognized metal subgenres. A phylogenetic tree and a t-SNE plot were computed from this distance matrix displaying the degree of proximity between these 27 metal subgenres. Six clusters grouping together closely related subgenres were also defined. Despite its methodological differences, our taxonomy shows some common points with previous literature on the topic. The results could guide further metal music studies in order to enhance their reproducibility and interpretability. Further investigations are needed to refine and confirm the results especially by studying more features from different sources.
{"title":"Establishing a taxonomy of metal subgenres based on quantitative musical and thematic features","authors":"G. Friconnet","doi":"10.1386/mms_00074_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00074_1","url":null,"abstract":"Metal music emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s and progressively developed into a vast number of subgenres. Several dozens of subgenres have been described but their taxonomy appears inconsistent from one study to another. Existing taxonomies are mostly the results of subjective\u0000 decision-making. The main purpose of this study was to establish an objective taxonomy of metal subgenres highlighting their degree of proximity by analysing quantitative features extracted from the website Encyclopaedia Metallum. We scraped the website data that contained at the moment 147,248\u0000 bands providing among others their musical subgenre and lyrical themes. We have extracted from these labels two musical features (hybridization between subgenres [HBS]; hybridization between subgenres and non-metal musical genres) and one thematic feature (lyrical themes inclination). These\u0000 features were studied separately and combined in order to build a distance matrix between a selection of 27 widely recognized metal subgenres. A phylogenetic tree and a t-SNE plot were computed from this distance matrix displaying the degree of proximity between these 27 metal subgenres. Six\u0000 clusters grouping together closely related subgenres were also defined. Despite its methodological differences, our taxonomy shows some common points with previous literature on the topic. The results could guide further metal music studies in order to enhance their reproducibility and interpretability.\u0000 Further investigations are needed to refine and confirm the results especially by studying more features from different sources.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42959113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the context of a process of return of religion to the public sphere, this article deals with Christian discursive strategies in public struggles against selected metal concerts and festivals since 2013 in highly secularized Czechia and in Slovakia with a close connection of religion (especially the Catholic Church) to the state. Membership categorization analysis identified three main categories used in the construction of metal as an enemy: ‘religious struggle’, ‘danger for society/state’ and ‘danger for morality and health of individuals’. Christian opponents of metal use in their discourse sets of rhetorical tactics with both religious (i.e. fight against Satan) and secular pieces (i.e. supposed extremism of some bands) to mobilize Christian community and also to attract politics and the public. In Czechia it was targeted mainly to the Christian minority and local politics, while in Slovakia religious actors were able to mobilize broader networks against metal concerts/festivals, including nation-wide politics.
{"title":"Against the devil’s metal: Christian public discursive strategies against metal concerts and festivals in Czechia and Slovakia","authors":"M. Vrzal","doi":"10.1386/mms_00077_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00077_1","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of a process of return of religion to the public sphere, this article deals with Christian discursive strategies in public struggles against selected metal concerts and festivals since 2013 in highly secularized Czechia and in Slovakia with a close connection of religion\u0000 (especially the Catholic Church) to the state. Membership categorization analysis identified three main categories used in the construction of metal as an enemy: ‘religious struggle’, ‘danger for society/state’ and ‘danger for morality and health of individuals’.\u0000 Christian opponents of metal use in their discourse sets of rhetorical tactics with both religious (i.e. fight against Satan) and secular pieces (i.e. supposed extremism of some bands) to mobilize Christian community and also to attract politics and the public. In Czechia it was targeted mainly\u0000 to the Christian minority and local politics, while in Slovakia religious actors were able to mobilize broader networks against metal concerts/festivals, including nation-wide politics.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41328209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Niall Scott, Nelson Varas-Díaz, Nedim Hassan","doi":"10.1386/mms_00070_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00070_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47231161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Ujung Berung (Bandung, Indonesia) death metal scene arguably peaked in the years 2009‐13. Based on personal interviews and conversations with musicians, we identify four factors adversely affecting the scene at present: (1) decline in community nongkrong/relocation of Serak store at Jalan Cihampelas; (2) those left behind ‐ the disillusionment of the older second-division bands; (3) the new generation’s attitude and perspective and (4) the turn towards religion. We also explore whether Indonesian masculinity is in crisis, because of young Indonesian men’s subordinated place within global capitalism and the threat that capitalism poses to traditional hierarchies. Hypermasculine death metal culture inspires because it is western in origin but not bourgeois ‐ it is a mysterious mix of signs, symbols, sounds and mythologies, which attracts by its very obscurity; it quietly challenges, in its indirect way, the power of Indonesian hegemonic identities such as ‘pious Islamic family-man’ and ‘businessman’.
{"title":"Masculinity and underground music scene participation across time: A case study from Indonesia","authors":"K. James, R. Walsh","doi":"10.1386/mms_00065_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00065_1","url":null,"abstract":"The Ujung Berung (Bandung, Indonesia) death metal scene arguably peaked in the years 2009‐13. Based on personal interviews and conversations with musicians, we identify four factors adversely affecting the scene at present: (1) decline in community nongkrong/relocation\u0000 of Serak store at Jalan Cihampelas; (2) those left behind ‐ the disillusionment of the older second-division bands; (3) the new generation’s attitude and perspective and (4) the turn towards religion. We also explore whether Indonesian masculinity is in crisis, because of young\u0000 Indonesian men’s subordinated place within global capitalism and the threat that capitalism poses to traditional hierarchies. Hypermasculine death metal culture inspires because it is western in origin but not bourgeois ‐ it is a mysterious mix of signs, symbols, sounds and mythologies,\u0000 which attracts by its very obscurity; it quietly challenges, in its indirect way, the power of Indonesian hegemonic identities such as ‘pious Islamic family-man’ and ‘businessman’.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43743318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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