Year: 2009
Author: Gerd Bayer
Genre: Rock Literature
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 0754693287, 9780754693284
Series: Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series
English language
Format: PDF
Interactive table of contents: No
Number of Pages: 214
Heavy metal developed from the frontier genre of British rock music in the late 1960s to a global commodity of mass consumption in the early 21st century. Early supporters of this musical style, such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Saxon, Uriah Heep and Iron Maiden, mostly focused on the audience of young men. The compositions were often filled with cruel, sexist and nationalist themes, but also responded to the growing sense of decline in social and professional life. Nevertheless, at the same time, heavy metal was largely due to the legacy of blues and classical music, along with a great deal of literary and cultural issues. This genre also spawned mythological concept albums and rewrote classical poems. In other words, heavy metal from the very beginning tried to place itself in the borderline between a mediocre mass culture and a rather elite adherence to complexity and musical mastery, speaking from the subordinate's position against hegemonic discourse. The collection of works presents an exhaustive and interdisciplinary view of British heavy metal from its inception to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and ending with increasing internationalization and mass acceptance in the late 1980s. The authors of each chapter view heavy metal from the text side, presenting a critical analysis of the politics and ideology behind the lyrics, photos and speeches. Instead of concentrating on individual bands and songs, the works collected here debated with the heavy metal system in the brain, presenting an in-depth analysis that is directly related to the context of British life and culture. A wide range of approaches should familiarize readers of various disciplines with new and original ideas on the study of this phenomenon of popular culture.
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