Heavy Fundamentelisms - Music, Metal & Politics

MoominPapa

The first scholarly conference on Heavy Metal is to take place in Saltzburg, Austria 3rd-5th November
Guardian Article

The list of papers show how we here on Rock & Metal really push the envelope of advanced R&M discourse:

Saltzburg Paper: Marcus Moberg - Turn or Burn? The Peculiar Case of Christian Metal Music
Rock & Metal Thread: Christian Rock

Saltzburg Paper: Sarah Chaker - Extreme Music for Extreme People(!?!) Black and Death Metal put to Test in a Comparative Empirical Study
Rock & Metal Thread:Death Metal - Does Anyone Genuinely Like This?

Saltzburg Paper: Mikael Sarelin - Masculinities within Black Metal: Heteronormativity, Protest Masculinity or Queer?
Rock & Metal Thread: is metal turning gay???(ie MCR A7X FOB etc)

Dyr

advanced R&M discourse? :pac: why would heavy metal need this pseudo intellectual pish latched onto it by some student gimp? I blame black metal and opeth. Bring back gang green sez I

damonjewel

Man what a dreary weekend, I'd thought it be more like 'blackmore versus page, discuss', 'What is the greatest keyboard solo?' etc

redenemyjoe

Does this really need to be done? Are there enough metal heads with that pathetic a life that need to go to a waste of time think tank when they could be at home helping support their local scene?

Spend the money you could have spent on that trip investing in helping metal, not hindering it.

MoominPapa

Calm down guys. I reckon it'll all descend into a Van Halen Hot for Teacher scenario so I wouldn't worked up about it

Dyr

If they knew what heavy metal was all about it would, but these poindexters probably dont like to use the "heavy" suffix.

Sarky

It'll be just like this forum, only everyone will put effort into their opinions. \o/

kevin_de_big

Fans of metal are known to be elitist and cynical (with good reason). This goes also for the majority of music-lovers everywhere. I don't think convening like this will sway opinions at all, we're far too singleminded.

Freshly squash

I feel a strong wiff of anti-intellectualism so far on the thread.
Don't conform to sterotypes.

Dyr

Heavy metal doesnt need intellectuals. Too posh to mosh.

MoominPapa

Freshly squash wrote: »

I feel a strong wiff of anti-intellectualism so far on the thread.
Don't conform to sterotypes.

I know. Its like this thread is turning into a McCain-Palin rally

redenemyjoe

Freshly squash wrote: »

I feel a strong wiff of anti-intellectualism so far on the thread.
Don't conform to sterotypes.

Not at all mate, well not from my standpoint anyway. I'm into intellectualism just not in such an wasteful manner. I think this meeting will end up doing nothing for the "metal movement" a lot more could be done by investing intellectually as well as financially in local scenes.

MoominPapa

redenemyjoe wrote: »

Not at all mate, well not from my standpoint anyway. I'm into intellectualism just not in such an wasteful manner. I think this meeting will end up doing nothing for the "metal movement" a lot more could be done by investing intellectually as well as financially in local scenes.

What makes you think it purpose is to do something for the "metal movement"? Its conclusions could be that metal is a scourge on civilisation and should be surpressed for the sake of humanity.

damonjewel

MoominPapa wrote: »

Calm down guys. I reckon it'll all descend into a Van Halen Hot for Teacher scenario so I wouldn't worked up about it

Now that would be cool

Freshly squash

redenemyjoe wrote: »

Not at all mate, well not from my standpoint anyway. I'm into intellectualism just not in such an wasteful manner. I think this meeting will end up doing nothing for the "metal movement" a lot more could be done by investing intellectually as well as financially in local scenes.

Fair enough, at least you made a point instead of having a knee-jerk reaction of "metal+academia=taboo".
Personally though, I think it's a great idea and high time something like this has been undertaken. There has been research and academic discussion into practically all genres of music, why not metal? Metal should be the ultimate genre in terms of looking at music from a sociological perspective. Mainly I would say that this is because metal is for most fans, more than than just the music. A large proportion of them would say the communal nature of metal is one of it's defining characteristics, some are probably drawn to it because it can be like a society. That doesn't apply to everyone but it is there. If ever there was a form of music more deserving and more lacking in study, it's metal.
How does this qualify as wasteful research? You might not see how it helps the metal community but that doesn't make the research invalid. It's been undertaken for it's own ends, not neccessarily to help or harm metal.
Then again it may have a positive effect. Look at the coverage it's already received, mainstream papers like The Guardian have already picked up on the story. It'l at least bring metal (and some of it's most obscure and misunderstood elements) a bit more into the public eye. It may encourage people to look at metal with a new understanding and not dismiss it so fast. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic but I don't see why it shouldn't happen.

kilboy

I can see your point and I hadn't really considered the anthropological side of things.

I do think, having come through our incredibly flawed school music system, that maybe, some way down the line, people will have more of an appreciation of metal if only for the music.

E.g. Could you imagine how benificial studying bands like Sikth and Meshuggah could be to students. Hell, it might stamp out mediocre musicianship in modern pop music. Less of the indie crap. By the way, I am by no means an expert at my trade, I don't mean to come off as an arrogant player.