The research was a qualitative study of the dress of heavy metal (HM) music groups using content analysis. The purpose was to examine dress characteristics of a representative random sample of HM music groups. The objectives were (a) to develop a classification system for HM music groups based on time and subgenre, (b) to identify music groups within each cell (i.e., time and subgenre) of the classification system, and (c) to identify dress characteristics of a representative random sample of the music groups. The subjects in the study were HM music groups as pictured on albums. The variables were the selected items of dress and the classification of the groups by time and subgenre. A classification system was developed and used for the selection of subjects. Using the HM Dress Classification Instrument developed by the researcher, specific dress characteristics of twenty-four HM music groups were identified. This data was compiled in tabular format. Among the twenty-four HM groups, the predominant clothing was a black woven shirt and black leather/suede pants. Clothing trim included studs, motifs/designs, words and fringe. No visible jewelry was predominant. The primary shoes observed were western boots. Straight, shoulder-length black or blond hair with no head covering was predominant. Beards, makeup, tattooing, and other forms of corporal adornment were observed. Although some dress categories were dominated by single items, changes were observed across time and subgenres. The data indicated rejection of the two null hypotheses. / Master of Science

In the vast majority of popular music, the tactus—the periodicity that we move to, also known as the beat or the pulse—does not change within a single song. Not so in metal, a genre in which bands will change the rate of this tactus on a dime, reset its phase, or do away with it altogether. This dissertation collects these moments of disruption under the umbrella term “tactus transformation.” Tactus transformations are multifaceted: they are theoretically complex, challenging for composers and performers, kinetic for headbangers, and meaningful for fans. As such, I take a methodologically parallactic approach to studying them, drawing in each chapter on a different perspective and a different way of knowing. In Chapter One I use a traditional music theory lens to build a taxonomy of these moments, drawing attention to the ways they challenge standard notation and lead to multiple perceptual possibilities. In Chapter Two I present a survey of the conceptual strategies, digital tools, and embodied techniques that metal musicians employ to compose and perform tactus transformations, tracing a throughline of mimetic motor learning and framing metal as an aural musical tradition. In Chapter Three I outline a novel empirical, quantitative method for analyzing headbanging motion from a video of a metal show to trace how fans navigate stasis and synchronization through tactus transformations. In Chapter Four, I analyze discourse about tactus transformations to show that they contribute to meaning for metalheads via complexity, community, and metaphor. Across the dissertation, I foreground the voices of metal musicians and fans to an unprecedented degree, drawing largely from the dozens of interviews I conducted as part of this project. Implicit in the chapters, and made explicit in the Conclusion, is the argument that music theory benefits from considering the musical knowledge of these “non-theorists.”

I've always considered myself a serious person who understood the meaning of labor. I am determined to labor over my ideas, and to labor seriously. The problem, and by "problem," I mean, "best thing" about this is that no one takes me seriously. Ever. They seem to like my work anyway. Apparently, I'm more funny than I am serious. But that's okay, because, secretly, I think I've always tried to be serious because I never thought I was smart enough to be funny. I often misunderstand things. Sometimes I mishear or wrongly attribute or think that facts are a metaphors or that metaphors are facts. Then I take this (mis)information back to my studio and playing Cosmic Matchmaker, yoking together seeming disparate elements to create a visual vocabulary. And then I labor over it. Very seriously.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Université de Montréal, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-265).

The extreme metal subculture is a collective of musical genres that are generally more sonically aggressive and experimental than heavy metal. This dissertation argues that extreme metal and its accompanying culture can be beneficial to young Black musicians and fans, as it allows for more creative freedom for artists to express themselves within a music culture that on the surface, is concerned more with the music than the visual aesthetics that drive mainstream music genres. However, through my own experience as a Black woman metal fan, I also believe that anti-black racism can be a distinct detractor in active participation within this music culture that because of its absence in mainstream popular music culture, is dependent on its listening audience to stay even more independent.With each chapter, I look at various issues to demonstrate these ideas while also acknowledging that extreme metal shares some of the same sociocultural complications as heavy metal, such as racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and homophobia. I explore how black participants who are currently involved in their respective scenes find freedom and individualism despite the challenges they could face. This dissertation is interdisciplinary in nature, as I refer to scholarship from several disciplines to explore how, despite the reluctance from scholars to properly acknowledge the contributions of African American within heavier variations of rock n’ roll, there are sonic, lyrical, and philosophical correlations between the freedom expressed within the music and lyricism of blues music, as well as in Avant Garde jazz stylings, and extreme metal. My methodological process was grounded on providing the “subaltern” a voice: It was crucial to offer space to Black musicians within extreme metal genres to document not just their musical experiences, but their abilities to work within a music culture that has been historically marked as “white-centric” in its music and its aggression. This is no easy feat, but I argue that with each year, there are more Black artists getting involved within their respective extreme music scenes as musicians, fans and industry workers who work behind the scenes as journalists, photographers, and tour managers. I also provide anecdotes from my own experiences as a longtime fan, a music journalist and my knowledge that was gained through my previous work researching and writing a book on the experiences of Black women within the heavy metal, hardcore and punk scenes. Through interviews and examples from my experiences covering extreme heavy metal concerts and festivals, this dissertation effectively blends scholarship and real-life examples that I believe encapsulates the issues that Black extreme metal participants are presently experiencing. I conclude my dissertation with suggestions about the ways in which Black fans can participate within a music culture that is marked with the current political and social climate. By noting that extreme metal genres have been used as a vehicle by White Nationalist groups to recruit members, as well as in sharing disinformation, I provide ideas that participants can use to ensure their safety to enjoy the music they are passionate about. Overall, my philosophy is that extreme metal is not only an enjoyable music but can also be a vehicle for progressive change: The aggression and the energy has been a lifesaver for myself and all my interlocutors as a method to acknowledge and release the frustrations and anger that we feel in living in an unjust society. I am especially concerned with Black youth, as expressions of anger omitted within public spaces could potentially lead to violence enacted on their bodies. Extreme metal allows Black youth to express these emotions within spaces that are shared with a myriad of people from various backgrounds, but we must find productive ways to deter Black youths from internalizing their pain and anger and exploring and advocating for healthy ways they can express these emotions with others who share the same feelings. While these extreme metal scenes come with their own complications, I hope this dissertation serves as a beginning in exploring alternative ways to express our own individuality in whatever manner we choose to.

The research study, Caught between Christianity and the hard rock: A narrative study, presents, explores and discusses the stories of Christian hard rock musicians from a predetermined Christian hard rock band, comprising of four members. The study takes a narrative approach at exploring and discussing the participants’ stories, which comprise the qualitative data for the study. The stories were collected by means of four individual semi-structured interviews and a group unstructured interview. The interviews sought to ask the participants certain questions to hear and collect their stories pertaining to the various narratives interplaying in their lives as Christian hard rock musicians. Following collection and transcription of these stories, the stories were analysed according to interpretive narrative analysis, according to Riessman, with reference to Labov’s 6 elements of transcription. Such stories were subsequently reported and discussed within the research study from a narrative theoretical point of departure. This allows for the reader to gain an understanding of the various narratives interplaying in the lives of Christian hard rock musicians, and the significance of such narratives and their experiences, which ultimately is assumed to influence the participants’ daily lives. Ultimately, the study facilitates for the participants to tell their stories as they wished to tell them, in terms of how they may be “caught between Christianity and the hard rock” music genre. Subsequently the study also serves for the reader to gain a narrative understanding as to how the band members understand themselves and their band to be in the world. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Psychology / unrestricted

A cultura de massa (midiática) tem sido tradicionalmente considerada pouco criativa, alienada e, portanto, menos relevante do que as formas artísticas clássicas e canônicas. Sua incapacidade de se relacionar com a sociedade de outro modo que não como produto disponível no mercado fariam dela mero sustento da lógica de consumo. Propomos no presente trabalho a observação desta forma de cultura a partir de uma outra perspectiva. Com base em teorias Pós-Coloniais, da Complexidade e do Letramento Crítico, mostramos que a alienação da cultura de massa não lhe é uma característica intrínseca, mas uma construção feita a partir de práticas sociais cotidianas. Sendo uma construção, a alienação pode ser desconstruída, e a cultura pode tornar-se crítica, política, socialmente interessada e interessante. Trabalhamos com esta hipótese analisando o heavy metal, tomado como manifestação cultural (de massa) tradicionalmente identificada com a rebeldia e a contestação cultural e social. Observamos diferentes estratégias de dissidência a que recorrem roqueiros e headbangers, constatando que rupturas mais profundas com o conformismo alienado emergem de sua participação crítica em sua cultura musical, na cultura de massa e na sociedade de consumo. A confirmação de tal constatação foi obtida pela análise (multimodal) de um caso, representado pela banda sueca Pain of Salvation. / Mass culture has been traditionally associated with lack of creativity and alienation, being considered less valuable and interesting than classic and canonic forms of Culture and Art. Its only role in society would be that of a commodity. It would be destined to serve consumption. The aim of our research is to offer a change in the perspective from which we see mass culture. Based on concepts and ideas coming from Postcolonial theories, Social Complexity and Critical Literacy, we can see alienation not as an intrinsic quality of mass culture, but as a construction that is socially produced. Therefore, we work on the hypothesis that, being a construction, alienation can be deconstructed, and culture can be made critical, political, socially interested and interesting. In order to confirm this, heavy metal music, traditionally identified with both cultural and social resistance and disobedience, was taken for analysis. We could, then, observe the different strategies of dissidence adopted by rockers and headbangers, finally concluding that deeper ruptures with alienated conformity emerge from their critical participation in the music culture, in mass culture, and in the consumer society. Final conclusions on this were made after the multimodal analysis of a case, represented by the Swedish band Pain of Salvation.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cincinnati Christian University, 2009. / Includes abstract and vita. Bibliography: l. 134-140.

A cultura de massa (midiática) tem sido tradicionalmente considerada pouco criativa, alienada e, portanto, menos relevante do que as formas artísticas clássicas e canônicas. Sua incapacidade de se relacionar com a sociedade de outro modo que não como produto disponível no mercado fariam dela mero sustento da lógica de consumo. Propomos no presente trabalho a observação desta forma de cultura a partir de uma outra perspectiva. Com base em teorias Pós-Coloniais, da Complexidade e do Letramento Crítico, mostramos que a alienação da cultura de massa não lhe é uma característica intrínseca, mas uma construção feita a partir de práticas sociais cotidianas. Sendo uma construção, a alienação pode ser desconstruída, e a cultura pode tornar-se crítica, política, socialmente interessada e interessante. Trabalhamos com esta hipótese analisando o heavy metal, tomado como manifestação cultural (de massa) tradicionalmente identificada com a rebeldia e a contestação cultural e social. Observamos diferentes estratégias de dissidência a que recorrem roqueiros e headbangers, constatando que rupturas mais profundas com o conformismo alienado emergem de sua participação crítica em sua cultura musical, na cultura de massa e na sociedade de consumo. A confirmação de tal constatação foi obtida pela análise (multimodal) de um caso, representado pela banda sueca Pain of Salvation. / Mass culture has been traditionally associated with lack of creativity and alienation, being considered less valuable and interesting than classic and canonic forms of Culture and Art. Its only role in society would be that of a commodity. It would be destined to serve consumption. The aim of our research is to offer a change in the perspective from which we see mass culture. Based on concepts and ideas coming from Postcolonial theories, Social Complexity and Critical Literacy, we can see alienation not as an intrinsic quality of mass culture, but as a construction that is socially produced. Therefore, we work on the hypothesis that, being a construction, alienation can be deconstructed, and culture can be made critical, political, socially interested and interesting. In order to confirm this, heavy metal music, traditionally identified with both cultural and social resistance and disobedience, was taken for analysis. We could, then, observe the different strategies of dissidence adopted by rockers and headbangers, finally concluding that deeper ruptures with alienated conformity emerge from their critical participation in the music culture, in mass culture, and in the consumer society. Final conclusions on this were made after the multimodal analysis of a case, represented by the Swedish band Pain of Salvation.