Abstract: This thesis focuses on the relationship between young people who affiliate with alternative subcultures and self-harm and/or suicide. Alternative subcultures can be described as groups that are distinct from 'mainstream' cultures. Affiliation with such groups can be broadly defined as having a strong collective identity to a group with specific values and tastes, typically centred around music preference, clothing, hairstyles, make-up, tattoos and piercings (Greater Manchester Police; GMP, 2013; Moore, 2005). Some alternative subcultures have also been associated with 'dark, sinister and morbid' themes, such as Goths, Emos, and Metallers (Young, Sproeber, Groschwitz, Preiss, & Plener, 2014). Self-harm can be defined as the deliberate act of harming oneself, with or without suicidal intent. This commonly involves cutting and self-poisoning (NICE, 2013). Other behaviours that can be described using this term include non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI; the intentional destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent) and suicidal behaviours such as suicidal ideation and attempts (self-harm with some intent to die; Klonsky & Muehlenkamp, 2007; Nock, Borges, Bromet, Cha, Kessler, & Lee, 2008).
Some would argue that NSSI is distinct from self-harm, and as such it features as a disorder in the DSM-V as Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Disorder (NSSID; APA, 2013), however there remains some controversy over the latter (Kapur, Cooper, O'Connor, & Hawton, 2013). The associations between alternative subgroup affiliation and self-harm and/or suicide were explored through a systematic review and empirical research study using quantitative methodology. It is well documented in the literature that the prevalence of self-harm and suicide is particularly high in adolescents and young adults, with suicide being one of the leading causes of death in this population (Hawton, Saunders, & O'Connor, 2012; WHO, 2014). Self-harm has become a clinical and public health concern with up to 30,000 adolescents receiving hospital treatment each year (Hawton, Rodham, & Evans, 2006) and prevalence rates rising to between 7-14% for young people in the UK (Hawton & James, 2005; Skegg, 2005; Swannell, Martin, Page, Hasking, & St John, 2014).
Minority groups are another population who appear to have elevated rates of self-harm, including Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT; Jackman, Honig, & Bockting, 2016), ethnic minorities (Bhui, McKnezie, & Rasul, 2007) and alternative subcultures (Young et al., 2014). However, there is a paucity of research into the latter population. This presented a gap to conduct a systematic review of the available literature in an attempt to understand the association between alternative subculture affiliation and self-harm and suicide. Chapter 1 describes the systematic process taken in an attempt to understand the links between alternative subculture affiliation and both self-harm and suicide. Ten studies were included which focused on self-harm and/or suicide and alternative identity through subculture affiliation (e.g. Goth) or music preference (e.g. Heavy Metal). The results indicated that there is an association between alternative subculture affiliation and self-harm and suicide, though the lack of research in the area and methodological limitations impact on the extent to which the underlying mechanisms can be understood.
Leading on from the systematic review, Chapter 2 presents the empirical study which investigated the factors that might contribute to the increased risk of NSSI in alternative subcultures, specifically focusing on variables that have been found to be linked to NSSI in young people; emotion dysregulation, depression, identity confusion and exposure to self-harm. The aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the mechanisms involved that might explain this increased risk of NSSI. Alternative subcultures were found to be at a greater risk of NSSI in comparison to affiliations with other subcultures, though this association lessened when the other variables were accounted for. A key predictor of NSSI in this population was emotion dysregulation. The findings highlight the importance of raising awareness of the potential risk of self-harm/suicide in alternative subcultures in order to create a greater understanding and direct resources appropriately.

Abstract: This thesis aims to conduct a study of battle jackets using painting as a recording and analytical tool. A battle jacket is a customised garment worn in heavy metal subcultures that features decorative patches, band insignia, studs and other embellishments. Battle jackets are significant in the expression of subcultural identity for those that wear them, and constitute a global phenomenon dating back at least to the 1970s. The art practice juxtaposes and re-contextualises cultural artefacts in order to explore the narratives and traditions that they are a part of. As such, the work is situated within the genre of contemporary still life and appropriative painting. The paintings presented with the written thesis document a series of jackets and creatively explore the jacket form and related imagery. The study uses a number of interrelated critical perspectives to explore the meaning and significance of the jackets. Intertextual approaches explore the relationship of the jackets to other cultural forms.
David Muggleton’s ‘distinctive individuality’ and Sarah Thornton’s ‘subcultural capital’ are used to emphasise the importance of jacket making practices for expressions of personal and corporate subcultural identity. Italo Calvino’s use of postmodern semiotic structures gives a tool for placing battle jacket practice within a shifting network of meanings, whilst Richard Sennett’s‘material consciousness’ helps to understand the importance of DIY making practices used by fans. The project refers extensively to a series of interviews conducted with battle jacket makers between 2014 and 2016. Recent art historical studies of still life painting have used a materialist critique of historic works to demonstrate the uniqueness of painting as a method of analysis. The context for my practice involves historical references such as seventeenth century Dutch still life painting. The work of contemporary artists who are exploring the themes and imagery of extreme metal music is also reviewed.

Abstract: This dissertation uses a comparative case study of two grassroots music scenes—the folk music and heavy metal scenes in Toronto—to examine gender relations among cultural producers. I collect data using semi-structured interviews with 63 field actors, 70 instances of participant-observation, and discourse analysis of key public texts. Building on Bourdieu’s field theory, I argue that gender organizes fields of cultural production, including (1) the field’s economy of symbolic capital (2) the connection between field and habitus and (3) the spaces where musicians develop the embodied cultural capital required for music careers.
The first paper shows that field organization impacts the extent to which field members’ gendered dispositions produce symbolic capital, or reputation. Two features of cultural fields shape whether symbolic capital is gendered: the degree to which symbolic capital is institutionalized, and the level of symbolic boundary-drawing in the field. The metal field’s low institutionalization of symbolic capital and high boundaries foreground gender as a basis of symbolic capital, while the folk field’s high institutionalization of symbolic capital and low boundary-drawing reduce the extent to which gender matters.
The second paper situates gender as central to relationship between field and habitus. Participants in the metal field develop a metalhead habitus that privileges gendered practices centered on individual dominance and status competition, while the folkie habitus encourages gendered practices centered on caring, emotionality, and community-building. These gendered habitus support different working conventions: volunteer-based non-profit organizations in folk, and individual entrepreneurship in metal. The gendered habitus also supports different stylistic conventions: guitar virtuosity in the metal field, and participatory music-making in folk.
The third paper finds gendered access to the learning spaces where musicians develop performance capital, a form of embodied cultural capital denoting the instrumental and interpersonal skills required to perform music. Folk’s learning spaces are largely public and do not require social networks for access, while heavy metal’s learning spaces are private and centered on male-dominated friendship networks from which women are often excluded. These different learning spaces creates gendered patterns of access to the embodied cultural capital required to develop a music career.

Abstract: Given the ever-growing popularity of music in daily life, it is of the utmost importance to understand how it influences affect, cognition, and behavior, especially given the violence of certain genres of music. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between music and behavior, specifically to examine how the lyrics and background music interact to influence affective hostility and aggressive behavior. Data were collected from a sample of 168 students (61% Female; MAge = 19.24, SD = 2.470) at a large, private, Midwestern university to investigate this relationship. The music was manipulated by randomly assigning the participant to listen to one of four versions of a song. These versions included the match of either antisocial or prosocial lyrics with heavy metal or calm background music.
Although there was no significant main effect of the lyrical content on participant’s aggressive behavior as hypothesized, there was a significant main effect of the lyrical content on an individual’s level of affective hostility F(4,159) = 8.818, p < .001, η 2</super> = .186. Specifically, pairwise comparisons showed antisocial lyrics resulted in a higher level of hostility as compared to the prosocial lyrics. This pattern suggests that music influences an individual’s affective hostility, but counter to previous research, music does not necessarily alter aggressive behavior. The relationship between music and aggression requires further investigation in order to determine whether music does in fact influence behavior, including potential moderators of this relationship.

Abstract: Heavy metal has a long and controversial history. One of the many things it has been blamed for is causing mental illness among its listeners. However, is the music to be blamed or are there other factors coming into play? Numerous studies have been done on various aspects of heavy metal such as its link to violence, but few have been done on mental health within the community. This paper replicated a French study examining levels of depression and anxiety within the community. Forty three participants, all active metal listeners, completed a survey examining various factors such as employment status and education levels, and completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Like the French study, it found that participants had generally low levels of depression and anxiety, but high levels were linked to outside factors. Hopefully, this will help open the floor for more valuable research on the community.