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Polzer, E. (2017). Mosh Pits and Mental Health: Metal Communities and Emerging Adults' Well-Being. Master's thesis, Colorado State University, Ann Arbor.
Abstract: In this thesis I will examine relationships between metal music and community participation and the mental well-being of so-called “emerging adults” within these communities. Building upon previous research on these relationships, I examine how emerging adult mental well-being is affected – both positively and negatively – by engagement and involvement in metal music communities. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, I employ ethnographic fieldwork, person-centered interviews, and survey methods to describe how not just metal music but other “ritual” activities of metal music culture enact euphoric and also sometimes potentially detrimental effects on the mental health of emerging adults within these communities. Through these methods, I aim to detail how in a paradoxical sense the chaos and aggression inherent in metal music can confer therapeutic calm to individuals through identification with the music, the group, and the performances conducted within these metal music communities.
The introductory Chapter One will first serve to provide an overview of what is exactly meant when describing heavy metal music communities, as ambiguities exist not only in the common understanding of the subculture, but also in the academic literature. In addition to this, a brief history of metal music communities will be discussed, detailing public perceptions, stigmas, and moral panics associated with the music and its fans. The chapter will be closed with a discussion of the research site, scope, and overall aims of the study, namely to provide greater insights into the mental health and well-being of emerging adults within these music scenes. Chapter Two consists of a review of existing literature on this subject, accounting for research within psychological anthropology, sociology, public health, popular music studies, and adolescent and emerging adult psychology. This Chapter will describe not just previous studies on heavy metal music communities, but should also provide a foundation on which this current study rests. Drawing upon literature and theory from these fields, the question of emerging adult mental health within these music scenes can be better understood, not just in terms of accuracy from a scholarly perspective, but also driven by emic perspective from the field. In seeking answers to these questions, Chapter Three will discuss the methodology and research design of this study. Attention will be given to the study population, site, locales, and scope and the rationale for using particular methods employed in this study. Chapter Four follows, detailing the analyses of data generated from the field and the results gathered throughout each step of research. Results will be described in both quantitative and qualitative terms, hoping to thus better clarify this study’s central question. Limitations of the research will be described in the concluding segments of this chapter. Finally, Chapter Five will discuss the results of this study in relation to theory and previous research, future impacts and considerations in this field, and concluding remarks regarding the relationship between metal music and the mental health of emerging adults. |
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Patterson, D. (2013). Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult. Venice (CA): Feral House.
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Pack, C. (2018). Hellbound in El Salvador: Heavy Metal as a Philosophy of Life in Central America. Ph.D. thesis, Johns Hopkins University, Ann Arbor.
Abstract: Heavy Metal in El Salvador has been a driving force of the underground culture since the Civil War in the 1980s. Over time, it has grown into a large movement that encompasses musicians, producers, promoters, media outlets and the international exchange of music, ideas and live shows. As a music based around discontent with society at large, Heavy Metal attempts to question the status quo through an intellectual exploration of taboo subjects and the presentation of controversial live shows. As an international discourse, Heavy Metal speaks to ideas of both socio-political and individual power based around a Philosophy of Life that exalts personal freedoms and personal responsibility to oneself and their society. As a community, it represents a ‘rage’ group, as defined by Peter Sloterdijk, that questions Western epistemologies and the doctrines of Christian Philosophy. This is done in different ways, by different genres, but at the heart is the changing of macro- (international) discourses into micro- (local) discourses that focus on those issues important to the geographic specificity of the region.
In the case of Black Metal, born in Norway, it is interpreted in El Salvador through the similarities between the doctrines of Hitler and those of the most famous dictator in the country’s history – General Maximiliano Hernandez – and then applied, ironically, to the local phenomena of the Salvadoran Street Gangs (MS-13 and 18s) and their desired extermination. It is also done through the re-interpreting of folk metal in the local phenomenon of tribal metal that reinterprets the indigenous through the lens of modern society and heavy metal’s ideas of power. Finally, the Salvadoran metalhead adapts the genre’s vulgarity and dark humor to fuel their own systems of dealing with harsh repression and existing within a society that seems to have no place for them. At the bottom though, much more than a community, Heavy Metal in El Salvador is a source of fraternalismo that utilizes the Philosophy of Life to bind its members together and to provide them a means by which to express their personal freedoms within a society that would happily see them limited. |
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Odell, G. K. (2019). A Night at the Opera: Performance, Theatricality, and Identity in the Music of Queen. Master's thesis, University of Missouri, Ann Arbor.
Abstract: Many discussions of the rock band Queen (vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Deacon) reference their theatricality, yet few analyze what makes Queen’s music and performances theatrical. Through examining Queen’s theatricality from different angles, this thesis shows the different layers of Queen’s performativity and its relationship to identity.
After an introductory chapter that surveys the literature about Queen, the second chapter of the thesis analyzes the theatricality of Queen’s music from a stylistic basis. The chapter begins by addressing Queen’s camp theatricality through their use of music hall, operetta, and musical theatre styles. It then addresses their drama-based theatricality through their use of opera and film music styles. The third chapter analyzes Queen’s performance of gender and sexuality through their use of different genres. It first discusses Queen’s participation in the genre of glam rock, in which they performed a more feminine persona, but were still understood as heterosexual. Then it explores Queen’s disco and funk influenced music and Mercury’s “castro clone” image as simultaneously a more masculine and more homosexual performance. Finally the chapter analyzes the various rock genres Queen used throughout their career in order to perform heterosexual masculinity, including hard rock, stadium rock, and heavy metal. The fourth chapter focuses primarily on Mercury’s performance of ethnicity and nationality through his music. Taking into account his history as a first-generation Parsi Zanzibarian who immigrated to London, it first looks at his and Queen’s expressions of “Britishness” through the figure of the British pop dandy and their use of the British national anthem. Then it turns to discussing the influence of Mercury’s Persian and African heritage on select songs. Finally, it examines religion as it relates to cultural identity, specifically Mercury’s Zoroastrian heritage and the ways he used the aesthetics of heavy metal to articulate his place within that religion. The fifth chapter concludes the thesis by taking a holistic view of how all of these layers of performativity operated simultaneously, endowing Queen’s music with a deep and complex sense of theatricality. |
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Núñez, M. de la L. (2022). De Conan a símbolo de raza y nación : desarrollo e implicancias de la masculinidad de protesta de la figura del guerrero vikingo en los inicios del metal vikingo nórdico. Master's thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Republic of Chile. Retrieved June 6, 2026, from http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7764/tesisUC/ART/64378.
Abstract: Esta tesis trata acerca del desarrollo que sigue la masculinidad de la figura del vikingo del metal, desde que aparece dentro del metal del norte global, hasta que se convierte en la figura paradigmática del metal vikingo nórdico. La hipótesis que sostengo es que el vikingo del metal vikingo nórdico representa una masculinidad de protesta del metal (siguiendo el sentido que Connell le da a la masculinidad de protesta). Por ello, se trata de una construcción de género que contiene elementos que van surgiendo y se vuelven parte de la cultura metalera, así como otros elementos más que le permiten mostrar su oposición o protesta hacia masculinidades diferentes a la que presenta el vikingo, sobre todo hacia la masculinidad hegemónica local. No obstante, la expresión de dicha oposición termina presentando varias similitudes con discursos de odio ligados al patriarcado, a la raza y a la nacionalidad.
Keywords: Heavy metal (Música); Masculinidad en arte; Vikingos
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Morton, M., & Opipari, B. (2024). Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir. New York City: Hachette Books.
Abstract: "A gritty, revealing heavy metal memoir by Lamb of God’s lead guitarist and co-lyricist, which explores both his life in music and his tumultuous path through addiction and into recovery.
DESOLATION is the story of Morton's lifelong quest for clarity and self-acceptance, and shows how the pressures of career success and personal battles eventually came into conflict with Morton's dedication to the creative process. Intertwined with addiction, self-destruction, and the path to eventual surrender and recovery, Morton also reveals the greatest personal tragedy of his life: the death of his two-day old daughter, plunging Morton further into hopelessness. Surrounded by bandmates living their wildest dreams, Morton wanted nothing more than to disappear, ingesting potentially lethal cocktails of drugs and alcohol into his system on a daily basis. And yet, amidst the harrowing heartbreak, there were moments of triumph, hope, and incredible personal connection. Morton developed close relationships with his bandmates and crew members, sharing experiences that have made for some strange and hilarious tales. He's also gained a greater sense of purpose through interactions with his fans, who remind him that his work reaches people on a deeply personal level. Through the highs and the lows, Morton learns how to find presence and gratitude where he once found fear and resentment, a process that he considers a gift of spiritual awakening. DESOLATION is, at its core, about Morton's journey as a musician navigating self doubt, anxiety and the progressive disease of addiction, and ultimately finding relative serenity. Perfect for fans, new and old, as well as anyone who has ever been tested and brought to their limits, DESOLATION is a highly-satisfying, full-throttle investigation of the human experience. " (source: Hachette Book Group) |
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Miller, M. B. (2016). Nicodemus! The beds are burning again: The ascension of Gorgomath. Doctoral thesis, University of Missouri - Kansas City, .
Abstract: Nicodemus! The Beds are Burning Again: The Ascension of Gorgomath is a 22-minute concerto for piano and chamber orchestra that explores the use of narrative as a means of unifying disparate musical languages into a cohesive single-movement structure. The narrative, as implied by the fourteen programmatic indicators within the score, features a protagonist, Nicodemus, and an antagonist, Gorgomath. Additional contrasting elements essential to the plot are: the burning beds, outer space, the ultimate weapon, and the three rituals. The programmatic indicators, to be listed in the program, function as a framework from which the listener can fabricate their own version of the story.
The narrative begins with “The beds are burning,” a heavy-metal inspired musical theme characterized by a pervasive rhythmic structure interspersed with virtuosic piano displays. Full orchestral forces add to the intensity of a relentless motor rhythm heard first in the piano. Following “Ritual I,” a transitionary theme of soli strings and piano, Nicodemus’s theme develops, a musical antithesis to “The Burning Beds” theme. It employs a simple melodic loop over a basic four-chord harmonic structure, reminiscent of 8-bit video game themes, and is voiced as piano accompanied by tremolo in the woodwinds and strings. Nicodemus’s journey into space begins with a rapid deceleration in tempo. The following slow ternary form includes a funerary dirge bookended by the piece’s most lyrical piano writing, expressed by the rise and fall of melodic octaves. The pounding neo-Shostakovian strings of “Ritual II” transition directly into the development section, “Nicodemus seeks the ultimate weapon.” Nicodemus’s theme undergoes significant transformation, assuming the guise of stride piano and North Indian tabla music. These styles are unique to this section, as is their orchestration of high, sustained winds alternating with orchestral hits between low strings and percussion. The piece’s recapitulation, “Meanwhile…,” begins with a return of the burning beds. Here, “Gorgomath’s Theme,” identifiable by the instability of its 7/16 motor rhythm is briefly foreshadowed. It appears in its entirety in the coda, “Boss Battle.” The resulting work uses original narrative to blend polystylistic elements into a cohesive single movement structure with a dramatic musical arc. Keywords: Communication and the arts; Chamber; Concerto; Heavy metal; Musical composition; Narrative; Orchestra; Piano
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Miller, D. (2016). Creative Producers and Gender Relations: A Field Analysis of Two Grassroots Music Scenes. Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto (Canada), Ann Arbor.
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. |
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Milazzo, A. (Ed.). (2024). Ripping Tongues: Metal for Free Speech, Free Thought, and Free Expression (Revised edition). Sevenoaks, Kent, U.K.: Heavy Music Artwork.
Abstract: << In Ripping Tongues, Metal for Free Speech, Free Thought, and Free Expression, over a thousand bands and visual artists from every corner of the world come together to explore one of the most crucial and timely issues of our age: the freedom to express, create, and critique without restriction.
This comprehensive collection captures the raw and unfiltered insights of 905 bands and 95 artists from 27 countries across 79 countries. Through interviews conducted over three years, we’ve brought together perspectives from legendary acts like Opeth, Kataklysm, Amorphis, and Sonata Arctica, as well as genre-shaping groups such as Finntroll, Powerwolf, and Moonspell, each with their own take on why artistic freedom is the lifeblood of heavy metal and other uncompromising forms of art. >> SOURCE: https://heavymusicartwork.com/products/ripping-tongues |
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McLaughlin, A. R. (2015). Navigating Gender Inequality in Musical Subgenres. Ann Arbor: East Tennessee State University.
Abstract: This study looks at female musicians performing in subcultural rock genres commonly considered non-gender-conforming, such as punk rock, heavy metal, noise, and experimental. Twenty-four interviews were conducted with female musicians who reflected on their experiences as musicians. Themes emerged on women’s patterns of entry into music, barriers they negotiated while playing, and forces that may push them out of the music scene. Once women gained a musician identity, their gender functioned as a master status. They negotiated sexism when people questioned their abilities, assumed men played better, expected them to fail, held them to conventional gender roles, and sexually objectified them. Normative expectations of women as primary caregivers for children, internalization of criticism, and high personal expectations are considered as factors that contribute to women’s exit from musical careers. This research closes with suggestions for how more women and girls can be socialized into rock music.
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