Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 34 minutes ago
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
All Men Must Die
Karl Spracklen - Leeds Beckett University
Email: K.Spracklen@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
/// ABSTRACT
Contemporary society is global, and hybrid, and has changed rapidly since heavy metal first emerged as a working-class, white male subculture in America and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. As heavy metal became more cosmopolitan and welcoming of difference in this century, so mainstream society supposedly became more progressive and liberal. Far right activists in black metal were seen as aberrations, frustrated white men being angry about being overlooked. But the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House has shown that angry white men still wield huge social and cultural power. The aim of this paper is to explore how true metal, folk metal and extreme metal might be seen as leisure spaces that resist the norms and values of the mainstream; but also how they might also serve to re-affirm and construct those norms and values. In particular, I am interested in how these forms of metal might work to re-imagine masculinity, race, nation and class in an intersectional way. I have written already about hegemonic masculinity and nationalism in black metal, folk metal and Iron Maiden (Spracklen 2013, 2015, 2017). This paper builds on that work but is based on new, unpublished research. The focus is extended to true metal as well as folk metal and extreme (Viking/black/pagan) metal, because true metal captures (and, historically, inspired) the same lyrical and symbolic mythotypes about warriors, roots and nations, standing firm and being true in the face of change. The focus is also extended to bands that use the warrior-nation mythotype in places and countries beyond the global North, and in ways that challenge or subvert hegemony.
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
All Men Must Die
Karl Spracklen - Leeds Beckett University
Email: K.Spracklen@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
/// ABSTRACT
Contemporary society is global, and hybrid, and has changed rapidly since heavy metal first emerged as a working-class, white male subculture in America and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. As heavy metal became more cosmopolitan and welcoming of difference in this century, so mainstream society supposedly became more progressive and liberal. Far right activists in black metal were seen as aberrations, frustrated white men being angry about being overlooked. But the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House has shown that angry white men still wield huge social and cultural power. The aim of this paper is to explore how true metal, folk metal and extreme metal might be seen as leisure spaces that resist the norms and values of the mainstream; but also how they might also serve to re-affirm and construct those norms and values. In particular, I am interested in how these forms of metal might work to re-imagine masculinity, race, nation and class in an intersectional way. I have written already about hegemonic masculinity and nationalism in black metal, folk metal and Iron Maiden (Spracklen 2013, 2015, 2017). This paper builds on that work but is based on new, unpublished research. The focus is extended to true metal as well as folk metal and extreme (Viking/black/pagan) metal, because true metal captures (and, historically, inspired) the same lyrical and symbolic mythotypes about warriors, roots and nations, standing firm and being true in the face of change. The focus is also extended to bands that use the warrior-nation mythotype in places and countries beyond the global North, and in ways that challenge or subvert hegemony.
