Global Metal Music and Culture: Current Directions in Metal Studies

by Andy R. Brown (Editor), Karl Spracklen (Editor), Keith Kahn-Harris (Editor)

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

370 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5.

An informative look into metal discourse. Some of the chapters were slightly dull, e.g. the ones on the demographics of metal listeners. However, I was very interested in the section on metal and gender. With this book being written 10 years ago now, I wonder if the results would be the same if similar studies were done.