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 The context for my practice involves historical references such as seventeenth century Dutch still life painting.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 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: "Since its inception in the late 1980s, the Turkish black metal scene has gone through significant changes. Whereas earlier black metal bands in Turkey avoided references to Islam in their cultural production, this is no longer the case. Rather, during the last decade and a half, Islamic semiotic resources (ISRs) have started to become a noticeable feature of the scene’s cultural production. A contextual understanding of the scene’s new relationship to ISRs is the primary aim of this dissertation.
Based on six years of fieldwork in Turkey, including interviews with scene participants, observations at numerous black metal concerts, combined with an analysis of albums, concert posters, and other subcultural artefacts, this dissertation explores the utilisation of Islamic themes in words, imagery, and sound within Turkish black metal and the meanings ascribed to them.
It demonstrates that blasphemous expressions targeting Islam have not only increased over time but have become more prominent than might at first seem warranted because of what will be called the ‘transferability of affordance’. Furthermore, in its aim to comprehend the utilisation of ISRs, this dissertation explores how Turkish and transnational developments along with discourses of authenticity and identity have informed and shaped blasphemous expression towards Islam, arguing the latter may aid Turkish bands in claiming subcultural capital and partaking in a global scene.
It furthermore investigates how the religio-political realities of contemporary Turkey have impacted blasphemous expression towards Islam. In contrast to much research arguing that the epithet ‘blasphemous’ is rarely a label with which individuals or groups self-identify, this dissertation shows that, while it may be self-sought and actively pursued, it is an identity that needs to be carefully navigated. This dissertation contributes to the fields of Turkish studies, religious semiotics, metal music studies, and apostasy studies by exploring how the concept of blasphemy acquires meaning in various contexts, as well as the influences shaping individuals’ willingness to blaspheme. While there is a significant body of research on black metal within Christian cultural contexts, this dissertation on Turkish black metal constitutes the first monograph dealing with this type of music in a Muslim majority society."
(SOURCE: https://www.academia.edu/129150699/ToPraiseDisgraceIslamicSemioticResourcesinTurkishBlack_Metal)

Abstract: What kind of rock culture would grow out of an exam-oriented educational system? In the western rock world, self-learning has been characterized as most popular musicians’ principal learning pattern, closely intertwined with the “DIY” ethos and the counter school culture. This research aims to present a different case, that of the “schooled” rock music in Taiwan. Over the last three decades, rock music in Taiwan has grown in popularity, while Taipei has gradually earned the reputation of being the “Mandarin pop/indie capital.” In its developmental process, a few characteristics are worthy of the attention of both the Sociology of Education and youth cultural studies.
Firstly, learning rock instruments in regular high school is the main route for teenagers to gain access to rock culture. Secondly, where elite students tend to devote more time to rock music activities than other students, their musical repertoire is characterized by producing covers of heavy metal tunes instead of song-writing. This thesis will probe the rationale behind this phenomenon by answering the following questions: What can best explain the appeal of heavy rock to Taiwanese elite high school students? Why do they not write their own songs?
Drawing upon data collected through a school ethnography, it is revealed that the ways Taiwanese elite high school students participate in musical activities can be best understood to be part of a subcultural milieu marked by the collective pursuit of “dual excellence in both study and play”. In this symbolic space, the demanding technical requirements for acquiring several playing techniques allow rock to become a rankable sphere of activity in which elite students struggle for subcultural superiority according to measurable musical standards. The emphasis on instrumental virtuosity conforms to students’ competitive disposition manufactured through academic exams. With these features, rock music becomes a particular form of subcultural activity which allows elite students to not only resist educational control, but also exert symbolic violence over peers of lower-ranked high schools by showing technical superiority.
This thesis extends the CCCS’s subcultural solution to the analysis of “subcultural distinction”. In distinction to the “internal perspective” of Sarah Thornton’s conception of subcultural capital (1995), a more holistic framework is developed to explore the relationship between the wider patterns of social division, young people’s subcultural participation, and the shaping of the value hierarchy both within and outside the subcultural sphere. Further, the thesis explores the educational system’s active role in shaping youth subcultures. I demonstrate how education in Taiwan is institutionally mediated by the exam regime to be a powerful logic of social differentiation, and the ways young people’s subcultural choices are constrained by their educational career advance from high school to university. The study also has important implications for the educational policy making in Taiwan. By looking at how students “play,” I propose a new exploratory route to illuminate the widespread impact of the exam-oriented educational system on students’ creativity and identity formation.