http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ci/mmp/mmp1/prog.html

Has anybody seen this yet? There'll be a conference on the sociology and related issues of metal in Salzburg, Austria, starting Monday, November 3. It seems all conference papers can be downloaded from the website given above. I for one intend to dig into some of the papers this afternoon; there is bound to be some controversial stuff there.

Any discussion about the papers, or the idea of holding such a conference, is welcome.

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ci/mmp/mmp1/s7.html

Apparently the early Norwegian black metal scene was racist. Of course, one of the bloke's sources is Lords of Chaos, so I basically give this conference zero credibility whatsoever.

Metal conference? Sounds like a dumb idea.

Well, my dear scientists... LEAVE METAL TO THE METALHEADS!

Why do people confuse black metal with death metal sometimes? Allmusic calls Mayhem a DEATH METAL pioneer in one of their reviews

1) Allmusic is all over composed of idiocy.

2) I'm willing to bet that the debating on this forum is of a higher quality than what will be present at this conference.

There'll be a much higher syllables-per-word rate, though.

I dunno, every other genre of music has been analysed and discussed from time to time and no one really bats an eyelid. It's hardly like metal is this super mystical, enigmatic thing that absolutely defies description or whatever. Some parts of the conference may well be worthwhile.

Metal finally deciphered...

Well, from what I've read so far, it kind of tries too hard and drowns you in wanton hyperintellectual analysis. Also, I don't understand why research on metal by an outside group always has to amateurishly fuck up some of its information on the subject. The black/death confusion as an example.

But yet, I haven't read it all, it may be worthwile in places.

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ci/mmp/mmp1/s4a.html

This Wallach guy seems to know what he's writing about. Pity there's no paper to download.

I've read the essay on viking metal so far. Apart from one or two blunders, the information within seems to be more or less correct, but it's all fairly basic, and that's all there is too -- a description of sorts of viking metal culture (not so much of viking metal itself), without much analysis. A little feeble, bad notes for effort. You really get to read a paper at a scientific conference for this?

Edit: This paper by a musicologist about the actual music is worthwhile. Good choice of specimens too.

I remember reading a sociological study on metal by Keith Kahn-Harris. entitled Extreme Metal: Music and culture on the edge.

If you're looking for a sociological study on metal, i suggest reading that, it over analyzes in some parts but overall i think it is a very competent and interesting study

Yes, this was cited several times in the papers I read (some, by the way, are decent); is this available on the net somewhere, do you know?

For most people out of the scences black and death metal music ist just loud, sounds agressively and destructively – almost indistinguishable from noise. They can not comprehend the huge attraction black and death metal music has for the fans. Marcus Moberg

This guy knows his shit.

Yeah I find that usually people who have no idea what they are talking about just refer to anything heavy as "Death metal". Jesus I have a friend who claimed that Killswitch Engage, Bullet For My Valentine and Atreyu were "extreme Death metal".

I wish they had continuous studies on this sort of thing so we could see the huge difference in metal "culture" 10 years ago to now. Since then we've seen a huge blowup in metalcore/deathcore/melodeath and with the huge popularity of Dragonforce, there seems to be a huge growth in popularity of "shred" material and some power metal as well. I'd be interested in seeing if it is actually all that much different, and how much different than 10-15 years ago. Since all that is my own personal perception it is hard to verify the growth of the "scene" statistically, although it does seem to be quite visible and the different behaviors and trends of the different time periods.

Was it Malefic of Xasthur who had a sociology degree mentioned in that thread about band members with degrees? There have to be other people with sociology degrees (maybe anthropology as well) who have long been into metal and are familiar with the scene who should really make an effort to put together a historical overview of the sociology of the metal scene and the evolution of it from a scientific standpoint with vast numbers of interviews, etc.

Yeah, nice one. Somehow it's odd reading about metal in such a technical manner, but very interesting as well once you realize that it's in principle just another form of music with its own rules and parameters.

What is this, the council of Nicea for metalheads? I think its kind of stupid and unnecessary, but whatever. In the end, if I can still buy any metal album I want, then I'm good.

I know you can buy it on amazon.com

as for downloading, I'm sorry but i have no idea.

I believe this is what is (partly) happening with this conference. Some of the contributors seem to be metal fans (...heads?), like the English black metal guy who wrote this or this guy who gives a well-informed (though not proofread, ah my eyes!) overview on the history of right-wing extreme music.

Others on the conference schedule approach the subject from the outside, and some have a quite expansive definition of what "metal" is, one that would not be shared by the denizens of this board. But that's okay too, since an outside point of view can help to complement and hold a mirror to insider views. (Excluding some who are badly informed or who only use metal to support their pet theories, like that idiotic aesthetics guy.) I don't know if it would really be helpful if the sociology and history of metal were only documented from the inside -- the danger of subjectivity leading to all sorts of honorable but ridiculous statements would be too high.

A broader knowledge base wouldn't hurt though, that is, more interviews. But if metal stays as popular as it is now, we are sure to see more along this line of research in the future, I think.

If the Norwegian scene is racist, someone should tell South Americans that. Did you see the video of Gorgoroth's concert in Chile? Man, they seemed to be LOVING that stuff.

This is absolutely ridiculous. WHY do we need this now? We have plenty of debates and discussion here to do that.

I hate peopel liek that. This one kid was like "Death metal si awesoem!" And I was liek "Really? You liek Morbid Angel?" And he was liek "Whos that? I like Lamb of God, Heaven Shall burn, .."

I have a friend wwho thinks Slipknot is mix of Black and Death Metal, so your friend is even closer