http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=4335

“This book is an impressive creation, a first formative step into a vastly untapped area of academic inquiry, showing how this music genre is adapted locally to unique cultural conditions. Anthropologists and ethnomusicologists should now seriously consider heavy metal music as yet another of the components of North American and Western European globalization.”

From The Journal of Folklore Research:

http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/review.php?id=1380

“The editors have synthesized decades’ worth of theory with a survey of the global field of metal studies today, thus making this volume a must-read for any scholar of metal.”

By Kurt Morris
Friday, March 30 2012

Yes, as I am writing this review, I am listening to Slayer’s Reign in Blood. However, this book is not directly about them. Metal Rules the Globe is, rather, a text about the effect of bands such as Slayer, Metallica, Venom, Black Sabbath, Anthrax, and other early metal pioneers on the metal scene around the world. It’s a look at the subgenres that exist and how the distinctly Anglo-American phenomenon of heavy metal music has had an impact on various countries and peoples worldwide.

First things first, though—this is an academic text. This is not a pleasure read. It’s written by academics and is not meant for a general audience. Terms such as capital, play, and hegemony are used in their academic sense and issues of gender, race, and technology are discussed. While this wasn’t a big deal to me (my writing sample for the application to my American Studies grad program was about metal music and the Parents Media Resource Council, so a lot of this was familiar to me), I don’t want some casual Razorcake fan picking this up and saying, “I don’t want to think this much when I’m reading about heavy metal.” You’ve been warned.

However, that being said, this is a fine work. The introduction of Metal Rules the Globe does a great job of setting the stage for what is to follow. The editors lay out in the first chapter what to expect and it’s then followed up by Deena Weinstein, who was one of the early academics to write about the sociological aspects of heavy metal music. She’s the perfect person to guide the reader into the general history of heavy metal and its process of globalization.

According to the editors, there are four main themes explored in the book: “the analyses of metal’s distinctive sounds; the varied cultural meanings that metalheads ascribe to those sounds, the social dynamics of local scenes in which metal is created, consumed, and lived; and the diverse situated performance of identity in metal.” The book is then broken up into five parts: Metal, Gender, Modernity; Metal and the Nation; Metal and Extremist Ideologies; Metal and the Music Industry; and Small Nation/Small Scene Case Studies. In the final section, metal is looked at in the Mediterranean island-nation of Malta, Slovenia, andEaster Island, one of the most remote places on the planet.

Metal Rules the Globe is incredibly diverse. It is comprehensive and covers the effect metal has had worldwide, the ways in which unique cultures and subgenres have utilized heavy metal to make it achieve their own goals, and how it is reflected in their own struggles and lives. The authors are a range of academics from around the world. A number of them are also heavy metal musicians. It’s safe to say that all of them are fans of the music. Even though the text may be academic, beneath a number of the chapters you can tell there are some serious fanboys and girls, which is pretty awesome.

Other chapters discuss metal in China, Nepal, Israel, Indonesia,Singapore, and Japan. Often, these look at specific bands in each country to serve as an example of the development of the metal scene in the nation at large. The chapters I enjoyed the most, however, were Sharon Hochhauser’s focus on Hatecore (neo-Nazi metal) and Ross Hagen’s look at Norwegian Black Metal. Both chapters served to inform me further about two scenes in which I was already somewhat interested.

While not all the chapters were as intriguing as those, the fact that each was written by a different author and about such varying subjects means that if one chapter isn’t your thing (and if you’re a metal fan) there’s likely to be a few others that are up your alley. I can’t help but think that for academics in the pop culture, anthropology, musicology, and sociology fields, this will become an important text. It’s well written and easy to understand for even someone with a nominal interest in metal while retaining a good sense of authority. Also, there is an entire chapter about Sepultura. For real. Long live metal! No matter what part of the world it comes from. (Duke University Press, Box 90660,Durham, NC 27708-0660)

Source: http://www.razorcake.org/punk-book-reviews/metal-rules-the-globe-edited-by-jeremy-wallach-harris-m-berger-and-paul-d-greene-381-pgs

This book METAL RULES THE GLOBE wins the award for ‘Most Obvious Book Title Of The Year’. Of course Metal rules the globe! I’ve known that for 30 years. That’s why our founder EvilG named this site, Metal Rules. Metal not only rules the globe, but everything else too. Well, those are strong words and now we have academic proof to back up such lofty proclamations. On a more serious note perhaps METAL RULES THE GLOBE is the latest in an ever increasing quantity of academic books and papers dedicated to the study of and appreciation of Heavy Metal.

Essentially METAL RULES THE GLOBE is a collection of 14 essays about various aspects of Heavy Metal compartmentalized into six chapters. A book review is not the time or place for an in-depth analysis or critique of each essay, it would be an insult to the authors and the book review would be 14 pages long! It’s going to be long enough as it is. Instead I’ll just say a couple of sentences on each piece giving you an idea of the nature, style and diversity of such a monumental and groundbreaking collection.

As mentioned there are six parts. It starts with the Introduction with two essays about the globalization of Metal. Up next is ‘Metal, Gender and Modernity’ (two essays), followed by ‘Metal And The Nation’ (two essays). Part Four was one of my favorite sections with three essays about Metal and extremist ideologies. The pair of essays that comprise the fifth section ‘Metal And The Music Industry’ are fascinating and Part Six, ‘Small Nation/Small Scene Case Studies’ rounds out the book with three essays.

Kids, Don’t be afraid of my constant use of the word ‘essay’. These works are of an academic nature of course but the nature of the topics being covered is so interesting that it is not like sitting in High School being forced to read some crap (probably an essay) you don’t care about, or worse yet having to write an essay. (2000 words due on Monday and you haven’t started yet…) As for METAL RULES THE GLOBE, if you are interested in Metal in Japan, there is something here for you. If you are into Sepultura there is something here for you. If you like Kiss and Zeppelin, we got ya covered. Don’t think of this book as homework, think of it as a collection of Metal Essays Greatest Hits, with a bonus track being the Afterword by Robert Wasler, author of 2001’s, RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL.

Let’s look at the guts of this thing. The book starts with a collaborative effort of the three editors, Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, and Paul D. Greene and they eloquently discuss the project (10 years in the making!) and look at the global Metal scene. Up next likely one of the most famous Metal academics, Deena Weinstein writes a great and self-explanatory piece called, ‘The Globalization Of Metal’. You may know her from Sam Dunn’s movie, METAL: A HEADBANGERS JOURNEY or her book HEAVY METAL.

Part Two launches with Cynthia Wong’s piece about masculinity in Chinese Metal in the 1990′s. Because there was so little Chinese Metal, her work is one of, if not the first, to discuss this region. Jeremy Wallach more than adequately discusses the utterly massive scenes in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore of which he is the expert, having immersed himself in the cultural scene of that region for years.

Part Three starts with Paul Greene’s work examining not only the Nepalese Metal

Scene but how the rebellion of the scene manifests itself in the music, lyrics and art. Idelber Avelars’ contribution is an in-depth look at Sepultura and their place representing Brazil and Metal on the global stage. This essay was my least favorite as it had some technical errors and was quite subjective, often overstating the importance of Sepultura, as compared to other Brazilian bands like Viper that had made global in-roads before Sepultura had. However, it’s still excellent piece and Sep fans will love it.

Extremist ideologies is the ever popular, ever controversial theme of the next three essays. Sharon Hochhauser does a phenomenal job of documenting the marketing of North American racist Metal industry, unfortunately dubbed ‘Hatecore’. Call a spade a spade, it’s Metal made by racists for racists, the term ‘hate’ could apply to many other non-racist bands and sub-genres. Next is Ross Hagen’s informative examination of good ol Norwegian Black Metal, one of the most studied cultural phenomena is recent memory. I liked his angle; he avoids regurgitating the sensationalist aspects and actually focuses more on music, image, lyrics rather than the actions of a few individuals. Speaking of extreme, the next essay is by Keith Kahn-Harris, author of the pioneering book EXTREME METAL. In his writing he examines Racism and Globalization especially looking at the Israeli Metal scene. Another favorite of mine in this collection, Kahn-Harris expands on his theories of the collection of transgressive sub-cultural capital, more specifically how some bands/people ‘pretend’ to be racist to gain legitimacy in a scene that rewards shock and the inherent danger of even pretending to endorse hate and crime. He concludes these damaging actions make it even harder for talented, legitimate bands (specifically) from Israel to gain global acceptance.

As an industry dude I also really enjoyed Part Five and the brace of essays about the Metal Industry. Steve Waksman wrote a fantastic comparative piece about mega-bands (Kiss and Led Zeppelin) and their early incursions into (then) non-traditional Metal markets such as Japan, Brazil. One band toured these regions for commerce and one for artistic reasons. I’ll let you guess which band was which. I liked this essay immensely and I felt a renewed appreciation for Waksman’s work, especially after giving him a bit if a rough ride when I reviewed his book, THIS AIN’T THE SUMMER OF LOVE, which I didn’t agree with or enjoy nearly as much as his entry in this book. The second essay of the pair is a collaborative effort by Kei Kawano and Shuhei Hosokawa and what I think will become a definitive work and the title says it all; ‘Thunder In The Far East: The Heavy Metal Industry in 1990′s Japan. Compare this work to Cynthia Wong’s aforementioned work about Metal in China in the 1990′s (Part Two) for an interesting counter-point.

If you are still reading this award yourself a B+ and add +10 points to your Metal Cred rating! Lastly, there is a trio of essays about very small Metal scenes from around the world. These writings and studies are all very interesting and well done but perhaps have a limited appeal (unless you live in one of those places) because the focus is very narrow. Albert Bell examines the Maltese Metal scene. Rajko Mursic sheds light on the Slovenia Metal scene and Dan Bendrup talks about the Rapanui Metal scene. Rapanui is better known as Easter Island, you know… the place with the giant, half buried, face statues. They have a Metal scene! I think that truly demonstrates the global nature of Metal when a few dudes on a remote Polynesian island with a population of about 4000 can create a scene.

I believe the editors and authors can all be proud of this monumental work. As one of the crude, unsophisticated, mono-browed, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, unkempt, mono-syllabic, head-banging dudes who has dedicated his entire life to the Metal, my final analysis of this excellent collection of academic papers is this….

Me like!

Source: MetalRules.com

Book Signing
Friday, March 9th

7:00 ~ 9:00 PM

RamaLama Records
3151 West Central Ave.
Toledo, OH

Details: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RamaLama-Records/325131159513

I’ll be doing a book signing (the first of many) at the Spiral Bookcase, an independent bookstore in Philadelphia, on Thursday, January 5th 6-8 PM.

Info: http://thespiralbookcase.com/?m=20120105&cat=8

In the eleven long years it has taken to bring the volume to fruition, metal studies has been transformed from a preposterous notion to a burgeoning and intellectually vibrant area of inquiry. Here’s the info on a new special issue of the British Journal for Cultural Research dedicated to that nascent field: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14797585.2011.594578

Journal for Cultural Research
Special Issue: Metal Studies? Cultural Research in the Heavy Metal Scene

Volume 15, Issue 3, 2011
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcuv20/15/3

Metal Studies? Cultural Research in the Heavy Metal Scene
Karl Spracklen, Andy R. Brown & Keith Kahn-Harris

Part One: Debate – Theory and Directions

Heavy Genealogy: Mapping the Currents, Contraflows and Conflicts of the Emergent Field of Metal Studies, 1978-2010
Andy R. Brown

How Is Metal Studies Possible?
Deena Weinstein

Metal Studies and the Scission of the Word: A Personal Archaeology of Headbanging Exegesis
Nicola Masciandaro

Metal Studies: Intellectual Fragmentation or Organic Intellectualism?
Keith Kahn-Harris

Part Two: Research Articles

Female Authority and Dominion: Discourse and Distinctions of Heavy Metal Scholarship
Brian Hickam & Jeremy Wallach

Grim Up North: Northern England, Northern Europe and Black Metal
Caroline Lucas, Mark Deeks & Karl Spracklen

Is Emo Metal? Gendered Boundaries and New Horizons in the Metal Community
Rosemary Lucy Hill

Embracing the Chaos: Mosh Pits, Extreme Metal Music and Liminality
Gabrielle Riches

The Price of Rebellion: Gender Boundaries in the Death Metal Scene
Sonia Vasan

In other news, my fiancée was looking through the used metal section at RamaLama Records in Toledo and thought there was something oddly familiar about the foreign language printed on one of the CDs. Sure enough, it was an album by Siksakubur from Jakarta, which I recognized right away, even though I was quite surprised to encounter it in Northwest Ohio outside my own living quarters. Turns out Rob (the owner) gets a lot of his used CDs from a guy who orders albums from all over the world (another album we found and I purchased just because of the name was Extremely Rotten Flesh from Colombia). So then we looked through the rest of the section to find more albums by Indonesian bands, which were not necessarily on Indonesian or Southeast Asian labels. Here’s what we found, in no particular order:

• Dead Squad — Horror Vision, Rottrevore Records (Indonesia), 2010 [I already had a copy of this, having bought it at Terror Merch in South Jakarta in January].
• Hellbeyond — The Strongest Stand Last, Rottrevore Records (Indonesia), 2010.
• Funeral Inception — Anthems of Disenchantment, Warpath Records (France), 2002.
• Bloody Gore — Stench of Your Perversions, original album recorded in Indonesia in 1999 [I have the cassette], CD reissue on Fetal Tampon Disease Records (US), no date.
• Decomposed — Putrid Stench Purulency, Coyote Records (Russia), 2008.
• Siksakubur — Eye Cry, Rottrevore Records (Indonesia), 2003.

We also found two from Singapore:

• Arbitrary Element — Process of Extermination Recluse Production (Singapore) 2007.
• Split EP by I Abhor and Wormrot — Scrotum Jus Records (Singapore) 2010.

Finally, I want to end with a plug for a website I just ran across for a proposed book of photos of Southeast Asian underground music scenes: http://labourofloveandhate.com/

All for now,

\m/

Jeremy

METAL RULES THE GLOBE: CASE STUDIES IN HEAVY METAL MUSIC AROUND THE WORLD

Frequently misunderstood and maligned in its countries of origin, heavy metal music has in the last three decades become a potent source of meaning and identity for young and no-longer-so-young people across the planet. These fans have stayed loyal to the music despite societal disapproval, occasional moral panics, censorship, and even government harassment and violent crackdowns. The proposed panel explores the broad swath of metal’s worldwide growth and examine why this often devalued, suppressed, and ridiculed music genre has attracted so many impassioned, devoted fans in such far-flung locales.

Following a general overview of heavy metal’s global dimensions and the social, economic, and technological forces that facilitated the music’s global spread, two case studies will be examined in depth: the longstanding and thriving but controversial metal scene in Turkey and the infamous and oft-sensationalized scene in Norway (perhaps the best known metal scene outside the Anglophone world). Together these papers seek to address why heavy metal music matters so much to scene participants in very different cultural settings and what metalheads around the world might share in common. Does it really make sense to claim, as an early tagline for the 2008 film Global Metal did, that they are really “one tribe”?

BLACKENED HISTORIOGRAPHY: THE BATTLE OVER NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL’S OFFICIAL HISTORY
Ross Hagen
Utah Valley University

Black metal music has become one of the most fruitful and flexible subgenres of heavy metal music, yet its origins continue to stir controversy within the current black metal scene. The creation of the genre is often credited to a small group of Norwegian bands in the early 1990s, many of whom promoted nihilistic, anti-Christian, and at times nationalist and racist worldviews. Members of the scene were involved in a number of church arsons and several murders, including a fatal intra-scene feud in which Euronymous, of the band Mayhem, was murdered by Varg Vikernes of Burzum. This violence attracted global news coverage, simultaneously transforming the small Norwegian black metal scene into a global presence and mythologizing the actions of its members. Hundreds, if not thousands, of bands across the globe have adopted and evolved the musical style, yet many question the continued relevance of these elder scene members and their ideals.

This paper traces the tensions between black metal’s increasing diversity and the value many participants place on stylistic and ideological orthodoxy by examining the various recastings of its origin story. In particular, I focus on recent attempts by Vikernes to rebrand these actions as exercises in political dissidence opposing social conformity and Americanization. I argue that these repeated revisions by Vikernes and others can be seen as an attempt to assert authority over the black metal genre as it has inexorably become less symbolically bound to their militant worldviews.

THE HISTORY OF TURKISH HEAVY METAL
Ilgin Ayik
Istanbul Technical University

Although Turkey’s westernization process dates back to the late 19th century, heavy metal’s origins are in the post Second World War years, when the American fleet was in Mersin. For this reason, the first rock’n’roll bands were formed in the Turkish navy. The motto of the 1961 Constitution, “it is not possible to be global without being local,” gave rise to a new genre called Anatolian pop (Anadolu pop), a mix of local and popular music elements which ruled the whole decade of the 1960s. Psychedelic rock and world music streams changed this genre into Anatolian rock (Anadolu rock) and its golden years were the 70s, but by the end of the decade the government stopped supporting this genre with the excuse of degeneration of the traditional values of Turkish music. The 1980 military coup brought two dimensions of disconnection: first, it built a wall that separated the 70s from the 80s; second, it disconnected the country from the rest of the world for a considerable period. The result of this environment was anger. Many new bands were founded in this period; they were much louder than their Anatolian rock ancestors. This genre was later named Turkish heavy metal.

In this paper, based on both research and personal experience, the history of heavy metal music in Turkey will be examined, with a consideration of its dialogue with the other genres and affairs in the country and the rest of the world. This presentation will also show how a cultural transformation strategy by the government unexpectedly created a colorful musical genre.

‘EL METAL NO TIENE FRONTERAS’: THE GLOBAL CONQUEST OF AN OUTCAST GENRE
Jeremy Wallach
Bowling Green State University

Though heavy metal is no stranger to mainstream commercial success, for most of its four decades of existence it has served a niche market, one that had long been dismissed in the United States as consisting of unintelligent, lazy, uneducated, alienated young men. The notion that people in other countries might listen to or enjoy this music, especially after metal’s popularity waned sharply in the 1990s, would likely seem ludicrous to most non-fans. After all, Americans themselves had rejected such Neanderthal wailings and gruntings, hadn’t they?

Yet listen they did. Beginning at metal’s inception, accelerating dramatically in the late 1980s and 90s, and completely exploding with the advent of webzines, mp3’s and MySpace, metal won legions of fans in both the industrialized and developing world, often attracting the best and the brightest in these countries, though everywhere it remained a minority taste. This paper contends that as an important cultural phenomenon of the last quarter century, the globalization of metal reveals much about contemporary conditions around the world and also much about metal itself, and how wrong and misguided early stereotypes about the music and its fans really were. For if metal is relevant to millions of die-hard fans from Easter Island to Indonesia to Botswana to Slovenia to Malta to Nepal to Brazil, perhaps it was always more than Neanderthal grunts, and those original fans, never only men, now no longer young, and many still listening to the same decades-old bands, might actually not have been so unintelligent.

The preliminary program for the conference will be posted soon on the IASPM-US website, which is definitely worth visiting in any case.