Abstract: Rock and roll music was a national youth obsession for more than ten years before the first rock critics began writing seriously about the form. Rock was dismissed by adult cultural authorities as empty, degraded, and even dangerous. However, to its fans, rock was an important form of personal expression, a source of group identity, and a mode of political discourse. Rock critics understood its cultural and political power. In their work, they explained its importance to the American public.
In 1966, the first rock critic, Richard Goldstein, began writing about rock and roll in a weekly column in the Village Voice called “Pop Eye.” In it, he asserted that rock and roll was an art that deserved the same recognition and protections afforded to other art forms. By 1967, The New Yorker hired Ellen Willis to write about rock in a regular column called “Rock, Etc.” She brought an intellectual sophistication to the genre that would resound long after her career as a rock critic ended. Later in 1967, Rolling Stone debuted; it would become the most visible and influential source of rock criticism for the next fifty years. Editor Jann Wenner’s tastes and approach would affect the way rock was perceived in his own time and for decades after. Finally, in 1968, Lester Bangs debuted onto the scene, writing artful reviews for publications like Creem and Rolling Stone, explaining the changes that were taking place as rock music splintered into subgenres like punk and heavy metal.
The quality of these rock critics’ thought and the influence of their writing makes rock criticism an important and under-studied branch of Sixties literature. Each of the rock critics addressed in this dissertation explained to the public what rock music meant and why it mattered. By placing rock in its social, political, and cultural context, they demonstrated that it was far from the empty form cultural authorities thought it was. Their work permanently changed perceptions of popular music, proving that it was substantial enough to stand up to the same kind of critical treatment as other art forms.

Abstract: <<Metalbands stehen auf gewaltigen Bühnen, vor Verstärkertürmen und Tausenden wilder Fans. Sie trinken kübelweise Bier, rauschen in Tourbussen durch die Nacht und besingen Sex, Drogen und den Tod. Ihr größtes Ziel: Wacken. Alle Metalbands? Nein!
Eine kleine Metalband tingelt seit zwei Jahrzehnten über Dorffeste, Vereinsfeiern, Hochzeiten, Vernissagen und durch Geburtstagspartys. Sie hat keine Verstärker, keine Plattenfirma. Sie liefert annähernd CO2-neutralen Metal wie Pizza auf Bestellung und hätte einmal beinahe Angela Merkel beschallt. Sie singt nur übers Wetter und spielt im Sitzen, gediegen gekleidet und teetrinkend. Sie richtet sich gleichermaßen an Bildungsbürger, Mutbürger, Spießbürger. Ihr Name: Malmzeit. Ihr Genre: Kammermetal. Ihr Motto: Make Metal Small Again!
Tauchen Sie ein in die völlig irre Bandbiographie der kleinsten Metalband der Welt, verfasst von den Musikern selbst. Ein Buch voller bizarrer Ereignisse, das komplett erfunden sein könnte, wäre nicht jedes Wort wahr!>>
[Metal bands stand on huge stages, in front of amplifier towers and thousands of wild fans. They drink beer by the bucketful, rush through the night in tour buses and sing about sex, drugs and death. Your biggest goal: Wacken. All metal bands? No!
A small metal band has been playing at village festivals, club celebrations, weddings, openings and birthday parties for two decades. She has no amplifiers, no record company. It delivers almost CO2-neutral metal like pizza to order and once almost gave Angela Merkel sound. She just sings about the weather and plays while sitting, dressed dignified and drinking tea. It is aimed equally at educated citizens, courageous citizens and philistines. Her name: Malmzeit. Her genre: chamber metal. Their motto: Make Metal Small Again!
Immerse yourself in the completely crazy band biography of the smallest metal band in the world, written by the musicians themselves. A book full of bizarre events that could be completely made up if every word wasn't true!]
//
<<Produktbeschreibung: Ende der 1960er Jahre entwickelte sich der Hard Rock weiter zu noch härteren, schnelleren Klängen. Die ersten Alben von “Black Sabbath” gelten gemeinhin als die Geburtsstunde des Heavy Metal. Obwohl wiederholt totgesagt, ist diese Musikrichtung bis heute ungemein erfolgreich und hat sich in mehrere hundert Subgenres ausdifferenziert. Einst drückte die laute und aggressive Musik den Unmut der sozial Abgehängten am gesellschaftlichen Rand aus, doch inzwischen hören auch viele Akademiker und Wohlhabende Metal. Heute wie damals geht es für die eingefleischten Metal-Fans längst nicht nur um die Musik, sondern vielmehr um ein Lebensgefühl. Und so wird noch immer der Mythos vom Outlaw zelebriert, während die Szene schon längst mitten in der Gesellschaft angelangt ist, denn allein in Deutschland hören Millionen von Menschen diese Art Musik. Als globales Kulturphänomen zieht Heavy Metal mittlerweile mehr und mehr Aufmerksamkeit auf sich und entwickelt sich in Richtung Popkultur. Gleichzeitig beschäftigt sich die Szene oft mit Themen, die in der modernen Konsumkultur verdrängt werden. Themen wie etwa Gewalt, Angst und Tod. Jörg Scheller bringt es in der NZZ (06.07.2018) auf den Punkt: “Metal ist hart, weil das Leben hart ist und der Ponyhof nie weit entfernt vom Schlachthof. Dieser Sound fordert die Konfrontation mit der dunklen Seite, aber auch persönlichen Einsatz und Verantwortung. Erkenntnisse und Entscheidungen nimmt er niemandem ab. Stets muss Metal decodiert, interpretiert, diskutiert werden. Wie moderne Kunst ist er offen in der Bedeutung. Und genau deshalb umstritten.”
Insofern ist es keine Überraschung, dass dieses Phänomen auch an den Universitäten bereits seit mehreren Jahrzehnten von diversen Disziplinen erforscht wird. Eine Unzahl hochinteressanter Studien sind das Ergebnis. Allerdings werden diese meist ausschließlich in wissenschaftlichen Fachbüchern publiziert. Hier setzt unsere Reihe “Metalbook” an, die sich ganz gezielt an ein Sachbuchpublikum wendet und spannende Themen und Phänomene aus der Metal-Szene behandeln möchte.
Höchste Zeit also, die “Metalbooks” in unsere Buchläden zu bringen ...
>>
[Product description: At the end of the 1960s, hard rock continued to develop into even harder, faster sounds. Black Sabbath's first albums are generally considered to be the birth of heavy metal. Although it has repeatedly been declared dead, this style of music is still extremely successful today and has differentiated itself into several hundred subgenres. The loud and aggressive music once expressed the discontent of those left behind on the social margins, but now many academics and wealthy people also listen to metal. Today, as then, for die-hard metal fans it's not just about the music, but rather about an attitude to life. And so the myth of the outlaw is still celebrated, while the scene has long since reached the heart of society, because in Germany alone millions of people listen to this type of music. As a global cultural phenomenon, heavy metal is now attracting more and more attention and developing into pop culture. At the same time, the scene often deals with topics that are suppressed in modern consumer culture. Topics such as violence, fear and death. Jörg Scheller sums it up in the NZZ (July 6, 2018): "Metal is hard because life is hard and the pony farm is never far from the slaughterhouse. This sound demands confrontation with the dark side, but also personal commitment and He doesn't take responsibility for insights and decisions from anyone. Metal always has to be decoded, interpreted and discussed.
In this respect, it is no surprise that this phenomenon has been researched by various disciplines at universities for several decades. The result is a multitude of highly interesting studies. However, these are usually published exclusively in scientific textbooks. This is where our “Metalbook” series comes in, which is aimed specifically at a non-fiction audience and aims to cover exciting topics and phenomena from the metal scene.
So it's high time to bring the “Metalbooks” into our bookstores...]
(Source: https://shop.kohlhammer.de/)