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Metal Studies? Cultural Research in the Heavy Metal Scene

Given its popularity, visibility and complexity, the scholarly study of heavy metal needs no justification. Like other popular music cultures, heavy metal is a contested and controversial marker of both cultural resistance and subcultural conformity, offering a resource that enables individualised identity formation and collective practices of association, consumption and commodification that are now global in character and complexity. At the same time, when compared to research on punk, hip hop and other scenes, the study of heavy metal was slow to get going, with substantial studies not appearing until the 1990s. With little fanfare, heavy metal studies has begun to flourish in the last few years. This summer, a multimedia event involving exhibitions of photography and fan memorabilia, art and performance, personality musicians and presentations is to publicly celebrate “the home of metal” in the British West and East Midlands – Birmingham, in particular. This event will be followed in September by an international conference, held over three days and gathering together a host of academics, practitioners and industry professionals. This conference is the fifth international conference to have been convened, specifically centring on the subject, since 2008, and more are to follow. This recent surge in academic interest on the subject of metal, and the extent to which it is reflective of a hitherto unrecognised depth of scholarly engagement that is global in character, certainly demands explanation. Prior to 2008 (Shephard 2008), although there were papers presented to conferences on the subject of metal, they were to some extent smuggled in under other themes, such as subculture, popular music, media, cultural studies, and the like. As Weinstein and Kahn-Harris both attest (this issue), prior to 2008, no JOURNAL FOR CULTURAL RESEARCH VOLUME 15 NUMBER 3 (JULY 2011) AQUATIC INSECTS