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Metal Music Studies - Current Issue

Volume 11, Issue 2

Volume 11, Issue 2, 2025

  • Articles

      • The figure of the child in metal music: Preliminary findings on form and function

        https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00172_1

        This article pioneers an exploration of the child and childhood in metal music. Using a grounded-theory approach, it examines the prevalence of ‘the child’ in metal music lyrics. The findings reveal a strong correlation between childhood imagery and specific metal subgenres, indicating that children’s representation in metal serves both aesthetic and social diagnostic purposes. These representations of the child reflect broader cultural constructs. They engage with common topics associated with the child, such as hope or despair for the future, the idealization of nostalgia and childhood innocence, and the impact of trauma over generations. The child is used to create pathos across genres; she is named in passing and used to shock. Ultimately, however, metal music does not challenge dominant constructs of the child. This article offers a brief introduction to the constructivist turn in childhood studies and highlights aspects of the common mythos of childhood. Metal music uses unquestioned norms around childhood to support its genre expression and emotional affects. The child thus plays an integral role in defining the cultural and aesthetic essence of metal music.

    • Highway to hell or stairway to heaven: Making sense of the rock and metal scenes in Bradford and Leeds, West Yorkshire 1980–2005

      Authors: Ruth Parker and Karl Spracklen
      https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00170_1

      Popular music scenes and spaces have been the subject of critical inquiry for many years, and metal music studies is also now well established. In this article, we explore the rock and metal scenes in Bradford and Leeds between 1980 and 2005 through written interviews with participants identified in the Facebook groups dedicated to the venues and nights in our chosen cities. We aim to show that the scenes constructed powerful senses of belonging to those in the scenes, but that memory and identity intersect with class, gender, race and northernness. This broad overview serves to contextualize our chosen cities, and we reference this snapshot of the scene in relation to other regions of the United Kingdom as we focus our attention specifically on the venues, fans, production and consumption of music in Bradford and Leeds. In taking this approach, we aim to pinpoint aspects of localized fan experience, and we depart from the perspective of established theorists who have historically approached the topic of the scene from a predominantly US perspective.

    • Forging a subcultural identity in the context of gender inequalities, generational bridges and symbolic security in Czech metal

      https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00171_1

      This study examines the influence of sociodemographic factors and value preferences on membership in the metal subculture through an ex-post-facto cross-sectional survey involving 1251 participants, including 310 metal enthusiasts. Factors such as gender, age and commuting distance from urban areas were analysed across five subcultural aspects: dress style, concert attendance, social media activity, group affiliation and slang usage. Findings reveal that the metal subculture is most prevalent among middle-aged men but maintains shared value foundations across age groups. Gender plays a critical role in value differentiation: while men and women share external subcultural markers like style, their internal value systems diverge significantly. Women act as stabilizing agents, bridging the subculture with mainstream society and mitigating social exclusion. This research highlights the dynamics of subcultural identity, offering insights into its role in shaping personal identity and fostering community cohesion.

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