Description
Book SynopsisThis collection brings together cultural studies and pop music accounts of metal around the world, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Brazil, Malta, Slovenia, China, Japan, Norway, Israel, and Easter Island. The volume is divided into sections covering the broader topics of gender, nation, racism, the music industry, and global and local perspectives.
Trade Review“This is a timely collection, as recent books and films about punk and metal in the Middle East and South Asia shed light on a worldwide audience. Ethnomusicology collections and students of popular culture take note.” - Ed Graves,
Library Journal“[I]f 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. . . . I believe the editors and authors can all be proud of this monumental work. . . . Me like!” - Josh Wood,
Metal Rules“
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.” - Kurt Morris,
Razorcake“I would recommend this book highly to ethnomusicologists, popular culture scholars, and social scientists interested heavy metal music. . . . [M]ost of the articles are written in such a way that they present and embrace the historical depth of their subjects in such a way that a fairly educated reader would still find the book interesting. Many anthropology professors assign a general reading list for introductory courses. This book is well suited for such practices because it might provide a disinterested student a chance to apply anthropology to something they already enjoy.” - Troy Belford,
Anthropology Review Database“
Metal Rules the Globe is a groundbreaking work for the field of metal studies, demonstrating through a wide selection of case studies how metal fans and musicians make meaning and offer social critique in the loci of global/local tensions resulting from globalization. . . . 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.” - Lauren Welker,
Journal of Folklore Research“
Metal Rules the Globe will surely join the ranks of Robert Walser’s
Running with the Devil and Deena Weinstein’s
Heavy Metal as one of the classics of heavy metal scholarship. A fascinating and valuable read!”—
Sam Dunn, director of
Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and
Global Metal“The authors stoke the flames of heavy metal high and wide as the united forces of fans, bands, and mediators mount local-to-global resistance against the contradictory claims on identity, economy, history, and society. Valiant against anomie, disempowerment, and meaninglessness, we see an Alloy International Army standing proud and strong. A treasure chest of brutal truth for scholars, planners, metal maniacs, and globalization geeks from sea to toxic sea.”—
Donna Gaines, author of
Teenage Wasteland and
A Misfit’s Manifesto“The contributors to
Metal Rules the Globe venture far and wide, providing an engaging overview of heavy metal music across the world. This collection will find an international audience and become the standard reference on the global heavy metal scene.”—
Will Straw, co-editor of
The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock“If you’re a fan of musicology, sociology, anthropology or ethnographic discourse, then
Metal Rules the Globe is well worth exploring. It underscores just why metal is such a crucial medium of support and nourishment for millions of fans. It’s a fascinating insight into how metal constructs different notions of identity around the world, yet reinforces those all-important commonalities we share as fans.” -- Craig Hayes * PopMatters *
“
Metal Rules the Globe is a groundbreaking work for the field of metal studies, demonstrating through a wide selection of case studies how metal fans and musicians make meaning and offer social critique in the loci of global/local tensions resulting from globalization. . . . 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.” -- Lauren Welker * Journal of Folklore Research *
“
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.” -- Kurt Morris * Razorcake *
“[I]f 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. . . . I believe the editors and authors can all be proud of this monumental work. . . . Me like!” -- Josh Wood * Metal Rules *
“I would recommend this book highly to ethnomusicologists, popular culture scholars, and social scientists interested heavy metal music. . . . [M]ost of the articles are written in such a way that they present and embrace the historical depth of their subjects in such a way that a fairly educated reader would still find the book interesting. Many anthropology professors assign a general reading list for introductory courses. This book is well suited for such practices because it might provide a disinterested student a chance to apply anthropology to something they already enjoy.” -- Troy Belford * Anthropology Review Database *
“The book deserves a prominent place among the scholarship of heavy metal and readers interested in this musical genre will certainly have their knowledge enhanced by reading it. Readers may also be inspired (as I was) to seek out the music of some of the bands mentioned in the essays. . . .
Metal Rules the Globe is an important book that makes valuable scholarly contributions to the literature about heavy metal and globalization.” -- Michael P. Marino * Popular Music and Society *
“This is a timely collection, as recent books and films about punk and metal in the Middle East and South Asia shed light on a worldwide audience. Ethnomusicology collections and students of popular culture take note.” -- Ed Graves * Library Journal *
“Given the range of perspectives, genres, and geographic locales, this book will appeal to a broad audience—academic and popular, graduate and undergraduate, metalhead and uninitiated alike—and provides both a journey and destination.” -- John Fenn * Western Folklore *
“
Metal Rules the Globe is set to become required reading for anybody interested in how heavy metal has turned from a minor taste in small post-industrial British and, later, American working class communities into a global phenomenon.” -- Gerd Bayer * Music and Letters *
Table of ContentsPart 1. Introduction: The Global Conquest of an Outcast Genre
Affective Overdrive, Scene Dynamics, and Identity in the Global Metal Scene / Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, and Paul D. Greene 3
The Globalization of Metal / Deena Weinstein 34
Part 2. Metal, Gender, Modernity
"A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty": Masculinity, Male Camaraderie, and Chinese Heavy Metal in the 1990s / Cynthia P. Wong 63
Unleashed in the East: Metal Music, Masculinity, and "Malayness" in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore / Jeremy Wallach 86
Part 3. Metal and the Nation
Electronic and Affective Overdrive: Tropes of Transgression in Nepal's Heavy Metal Scene / Paul D. Greene 109
Otherwise National: Locality and Power in the Art of Sepultura / Idelber Avelar 135
Part 4. Metal and Extremist Ideologies
The Marketing of Anglo-Identity in the North American Hatecore Metal Industry / Sharon Hochhauser 161
Musical Style, Ideology, and Mythology in Norwegian Black Metal / Ross Hagen 180
"You Are from Israel and That is Enough to Hate You Forever": Racism, Globalization, and Play within the Global Extreme Metal Scene / Keith Kahn-Harris 200
Part 5. Metal and the Music Industry
Arenas of the Imagination: Global Tours and the Heavy Metal Concert in the 1970s / Steve Waksman 227
Thunder in the Far East: The Heavy Metal Industry in 1990s Japan / Kei Kawano and Shuhei Hosokawa 247
Part 6. Small Nation/Small Scene Case Studies
Metal in a Micro Island State: An Insider's Perspective / Albert Bell 271
Noisy Crossroads: Metal Scenes in Slovenia / Rajko Muršic 294
Nako: The Metal in the Marrow of Easter Island Music / Dan Bendrups 313
Afterword / Robert Walser 333
Acknowledgments 337
Works Cited 339
Contributors 367
Index 371
