| A Blaze in the North American Skyarticle, by Brandon Stosuy, 2008, The Believer magazine Examines to what extent American black metal said to be aggressive and brutal is legitimately so if, unlike Norwegian black metal, its artists don't actually engage in acts of physical aggression and brutality. |
| A Burzum Story: Part VI - The Musicblog column, by Varg Vikernes, Burzum.org Vikernes recounts how with his band Burzum in 1991 he rebelled against the notions that it's important for metal bands to focus on instrumentation, production and branding, instead creating with Burzum music that's more spontaneous and organic (and achieving critical acclaim as a result). |
| Alienation Incorporated: 'F*** the Mainstream Music' in the Mainstreampaper, by Karen Bettez Halnon, 2005, Current Sociology Explores how many youths have in the spirit of anti-commercialism embraced bands such as Limp Bizkit and Marilyn Manson which break nearly every conceivable social rule governing behavior, taste, authority, morality and civility but which have also become highly commercialistic themselves. |
| An Inquiry into the History and Evolution of Metaphysical Satanism in Black Metalarticle, by Kilgore Herring, 2011, TinyMixTapes.com Using Deathspell Omega as a case study, investigates the nature of metaphysical Satanism in metal, to what extent the musicians hold it as a gimmick or as an authentic belief, and how in the latter case musicians can remain true to their beliefs within a music industry that does not necessarily value authenticity. |
| * Black Metal: The Music of Satandocumentary, by Bill Zebub, 2010, Grimoire Interviewing a wide variety of black metal musicians, looks at the music behind all the musician theatrics and media spin. |
| Black metal where it shouldn't beblog post, 2011, InvisibleOranges.com Looks at two instances of black metal going mainstream in Satyricon playing at a fashion show at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Norway and Keep of Kalessin playing at the Melodi Grand Prix competition that determines the representative for Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest. |
| Black Metal? Eh?column, by Alex, 2010, LurkersPath.com Talks about black metal as experiencing a resurgence of authenticity following a more difficult period when the scene was filled with unoriginal clone bands. |
| Can a Rock song have a Jazz audience? Relationship between folksonomy and collaborative filtering in music recommender systemspaper, by Eugenio Tacchini and Ernesto Damiani, Università degli Studi di Milano Study investigating the level of eclecticism in musical preference suggests metal listeners are the group with the least eclectic tastes, preferring more to listen just to metal rather than to a mixed variety of genres. |
| Chuck Schuldiner: Legend or Ideological Disaster? - Assimilationists and false martyrs delight the crowd, kill the fenrearticle, 2003, Dark Legions Archive website |
| Defining Gothic Metal: The Truth And Lies of the Scenecolumn, 2006, MetalStorm.net Looks at problems of authenticity in the sub-genre when the term "gothic metal" is illegitimately appropriated or superficially applied, such as when a band is considered gothic just because its singer is female and her clothing style is obscure or poetic. |
| Every empire has its downfallblog column, 2009, TheMetalInquisition.com Argues the metal scenes in Europe and America are becoming complacent and stagnant while in other parts of the world they're becoming more innovative and fans are more fervently devoted. |
| * "EVERYTHING LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE"article, by Andy R. Brown, 2007, Journalism Studies In context of metal's excessive / superficial desire for intensity, examines contemporary metal magazine culture in Britain and the apparent decline of 'critical rock journalism' and rise of consumer-oriented lifestyle magazines. |
| Extreme Blacknessdocument, Dave Hill, 2005, www.TheBlackMetalDialogues.com Humorous e-mail exchanges playing on black metal stereotypes, between "Lance, the King of Black Metal" (aka Dave Hill) and Mathias, member of the underground black metal band Mysticum and who does not know the e-mail discussion is a spoof. |
| False Metal: The Financial and Farcical Return of Heavy Metalessay, by Dave Burns, Lamentations of the Flame Princess Argues metal's economics are controlled by people with no regard for the music or its fans. |
| For Those About To Mope: How Rock Learned to Love Morrisseycolumn, by John Doran, 2009, The Quietus Looks at why Morrissey, a lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smith, remains one of the most dropped names in metal and heavy rock despite releasing a pop punk album. |
| Harder, Faster, Stronger: Representations of Masculinities in Heavy Metal Musicpaper, by Duygu Yildirim, 2009, presented at the second "Heavy Fundametalisms: Music, Metal and Politics" conference in Salzburg Explores the polarization, exageration, superficiality and ultimately crisis of masculinity in metal. |
| Heavy metal bands moving to independentsnews article, by George Albert, 1983, The Desert News newspaper Looks at how metal bands began to move away from major record labels towards smaller independent ones and how metal albums with poor production quality could still sell. |
| Heavy metal down, but not outnews article, by Frank Spotnitz, 1985, Anchorage Daily News Looks at metal's boom in popularity and whether the market could be oversaturated as a result partly of labels signing too many bands in attempt to cash in on the boom. |
| Heavy Metal Sheepcolumn, by Keith Kahn-Harris, 2011, Souciant online magazine Looks at how metal fans are loyal and support their favorite artists with more constancy than in most other musical genres, and to what extent metal bands can change their sound without losing their audience. |
| How Black is Black Metal?article, by Kevin Coogan, 1999, Hitlist magazine In context of the book Lords of Chaos, explores black metal and its relationship with Far Right politics in Europe, how co-author Michael Moynihan (who is an extreme rightist himself) may have tried to exaggerate the extent of the relationship, and how extremist facets of black metal ideology may have more to do with aesthetics than fervent conviction. |
| "I Hate Keyboards in Metal"blog column, by Telemachus Stavropoulos, 2010, Poetry-Of-Subculture.blogspot.ca Considers how categorical statements of personal preference are prominent in the metal subculture and are mostly just ignorant, judgmental clichés. |
| Impure Metal: How Underground Heavy Metal Became Mainstream Heavy Musicessay, by Dave Burns, 2006, Lamentations of the Flame Princess Examines the contrarian, revolutionary nature of the metal underground, the assimilation of the underground into the mainstream, how the media ignores metal or portrays it as a silly fringe movement, and how the label of "underground" or "true" metal is used by bands for publicity and marketing. |
| Is Emo Metal? Gendered Boundaries and New Horizons in the Metal Communityarticle, by Rosemary Lucy Hill, 2011, Journal for Cultural Research Focuses on emo-related arguments and debates found in the weekly British metal magazine Kerrang!. |
| It's Still Rock and Roll to Me: Christian Heavy Metal and the Problem of Authenticityarticle, by Jeremy V. Adolphson, 2011, Rock Brands:
Selling Sound in a Media Saturated Culture Explores how music can authentically be both Christian and metal simultaneously and how Christiam metal musicians should market their music, with particular focus on how Christian metal musicians can convey religious content and how they can re-appropriate devil imagery by personifying concepts of mortification and suffering through a double meaning of rock-coded lyrics. |
| Iwrestledabearonce vocalist hit with big black sloppy limp dildo on stage and you'll never guess who threw itnews article, by Jason Fisher, 2010, TheGauntlet.com TheGauntlet.com staff members Ken Sorceron and Ian Jekelis threw a dildo on stage at Irestledabearonce vocalist Krysta Cameron during a concert; Irestledabearonce is often perceived as an inauthentic metal band. |
| Led Zeppelin sell outnews article, 2002, TVNZ.co.nz Commercials for Cadillac car company to feature Led Zeppellin song, marking the first time Led Zeppelin has sold its music for commercial use. |
| Living for Music, Dying for Life: The Self Destructive Lifestyle in Heavy Metal Culturepaper, by Daniel Frandsen, 2009, presented at the second "Heavy Fundametalisms: Music, Metal and Politics" conference in Salzburg Explores authenticity in metal, metal culture's self-destructive habits such as hearing damage, excess alcohol consumption, etc, how the culture survives on the destruction of its members, and how self-destructive lifestyles can be squared with the human condition. |
| Loving Indolence, Hating Peace - The Strange State of Black Metal Upon Varg Vikernes' Emancipationcolumn, by Thomas Bey Wiliam Bailey, 2009, Furious.com Considers the underground nature of black metal and the paradoxical risk of its anti-conformist spirit breeding conformity among its adherents. |
| Metal Enterprisesblog column, TheCorroseum.com Berates old German record label Metal Enterprises as the worst metal label ever. |
| Metal Guitarist Wears Women's Shorts, Hell Breaks Loosenews article, by Amanda Hess, 2009, WashingtonCityPaper.com |
| Metal politics: Gojira vs Dark Legions Archivenews article, by Transcix, 2011, TheMetalDiscourser.com Looks at disagreement over what constitutes authentic / true metal, involving members of Dark Legions Archive website, members of SMNnews website, the death metal band Gojira and the spamming of the band's website's guest book. |
| Metalhead or Metal Listener?editorial, 2001, Metal-Rules.com |
| Metallica CD slammed for being too loudcolumn, by Jack Schofield, 2008, Guardian.co.uk Using Metallica's album Death Magnet as an example, looks at a music industry practice of making songs louder by compressing their audio level—to the detriment of their dynamic range—in order for them to stand out on the radio and iPods. |
| * Musical genre as a gendered process: Authenticity in extreme metalarticle, by Ben Hutcherson and Ross Haenfler, 2010, Studies in Symbolic Interaction Examines the role of gender in the emergence of extreme metal sub-genres, the maintenance of genre boundaries and fan identity construction, and argues the construction of new extreme metal sub-genres is partly a process of re-establishing and valorizing masculine traits by linking them to authenticity and thereby denigrating feminine traits. |
| Must see show coming soon!blog post, 2010, TheMetalInquisition.com Looks at a humorous concert poster that tries to exaggerate the guest guitarist's resumé. |
| Never Mind the Authentic: You Wanted The Spectacle / You've Got The Spectacle (And Nothing Else Matters?)thesis, by Wade Nelson, 1997, Concordia University Examines rock press coverage of certain events such as the release of Metallica's new album and the band's headlining of the Lollapalooza tour, how the coverage included not only the expected authentic versus inauthentic debate but also a second sensibility that could be termed a "postmodern" one, and how criteria of evaluation in rock journalism is complex and also expands beyond these two sensibilities. |
| No Method in the Madness? The Problem of the Cultural Reading in Robert Walser's Running with the Devil: Power, Madness and Gender in Heavy Metal Music and Recent Metal Studiespaper, by Andy R. Brown, 2010, presented at the third "Heavy Fundametalisms: Music, Metal and Politics" conference in Prague In context of historical stigmatization of metal, argues some metal academics who are also fans tend to defend the music by exaggerating its sophistication or meaningfulness, and explores more objective ways of approaching metal academically and defending it from fan or academic-fan points of view. |
| "No Shelter" in Popular Music: Irony and Appropriation in the Lyrical Criticism of Rage Against the Machinepaper, by Jeffrey A. Hall, 2003, Studies in Popular Culture Discusses how Rage Against the Machine enables the entertainment industry yet also resists the forces of commodification, using as a case study the song "No Shelter" which was used in the Godzilla movie soundtrack while its lyrics called the movie Hollywood junk. |
| On the Downfall of Death Metalcolumn, by Noctir, 2010, RitesOfTheBlackMoon.tripod.com Argues death metal declined in quality and authenticity. |
| On the Modern Black Metal Scenearticle, by Noctir, 2010, RitesOfTheBlackMoon.tripod.com Looks at the different generations of black metal and argues that much of the music is not authentic. |
| Politics? Nah, Fuck Politics Man: What Can We Expect from Metal Gods?paper, by Niall W. R. Scott, 2008, presented at the first "Heavy Fundametalisms: Music, Metal and Politics" conference in Salzburg Explores how a respectable metal philosophy or politics can be developed by holding the genre to higher standards. |
| Pop metal music stages big comeback this summernews article, by Steve Morse, 1987, The Vindicator Looks at the resurgence of metal in the short-lived quasi-genre 'pop metal', a fusion between pop and heavy metal. |
| * Pop-metal resurgence is long on form, short on substancenews article, by Steve Morse, 1987, Boston Globe Looks at the quasi-sub-genre of 'pop metal' as being superficial in nature and how it helped revitalize metal's popularity in the late '80s. |
| Re-Releases - fan friendly or money making?blog post, by Alexander Melzer, 2009, Metal-Observer.com |
| Recognition that intelligent metal conversation does take place?blog post, by Transcix, 2011, TheMetalDiscourser.com Talks about how another website's music columnist, in an effort to combat stereotypes of metalheads as unintelligent, attempts to recognize examples of intelligent metal writing but fails to find any due to inept searching. |
| Rethinking Metal Aesthetics: Complexity, Authenticity, and Audience in Meshuggah's I and Catch Thirtythr33thesis, by Eric T. Smialek, 2008, McGill University Using two Meshuggah albums as case studies, investigates how authenticity and aesthetic values vary in metal discourses and argues for an alternative to traditional class-based models of metal fans in order to acknowledge a wider variety of aesthetic values. |
| Rock Band vs. Real Band - Sleater-Kinney's guitarist tests out the new video game Rock Bandcolumn, by Carrie Brownstein, 2007, Slate Magazine Talks about the advantages of being a member of a real-life rock band rather than just playing a video game about it. |
| * Rock Critics Need Bad Musicarticle, by Deena Weinstein, 2004, Bad music:
The music we love to hate Explores how rock critics often superficially dismiss metal as bad music, how rock critics often conflate 'MTV metal' or 'pop metal' with less mainstream metal, how non-mainstream metal listeners perceive 'MTV metal', and what constitutes authenticity in metal and metal journalism. |
| Satanism & Heavy Metal: The Confusion Continuesarticle, by Matt G. Paradise, SatanService.org Discusses the disconnect between Satanism as it is described in The Satanic Bible and Satanism as it is typically used and exploited in metal for shock value, aesthetics, etc. |
| Schizophonic Performance: Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Virtual Virtuosityarticle, by Kiri Miller, 2009, Journal of the Society for American Music Considers gameplay of Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games as offering a developing form of collaborative, participatory rock music performance, and explores models of rock heroism in the games, media debates about the impact of games and players' ideas about genuine musicality, rock authenticity, and gendered performance conventions. |
| Should metal remain underground?editorial, 2000, Metal-Rules.com |
| Soft ... the new heavynews article, 2004, Reuters.com As labels increasingly dump bands who aren't extremely profitable, more and more metal bands offer music easier on the ear in a bid to win mainstream radio play, targeting their harder tunes only to niche TV shows. |
| Structural change in the music industry: a Marxist critique of public statements made by members of Metallica during the lawsuit against Napsterarticle, by Kieran James and Christopher Tolliday, 2009, International Journal of Critical Accounting Informed by a Marxist critique of public statements made by members of Metallica during the ‘Napster incident’, analyzes and unpacks the music industry’s present predicament, warped logic and the greed of its various protagonists, exposes the band’s departure from its previous existentialist and fraternal worldview in favour of a brutal form of Anglo-American market capitalism, and concludes long-term extreme-metal fans are justified in their vilification of the band. |
| Subcultural capital in the Christchurch underground heavy metal sceneessay, by Sarah Forgan, University of Canterbury Examines what constitutes the underground metal scene in Christchurch, New Zealand, what might be thought of as subcultural capital within the scene, and how the scene has been manipulated and exploited through the media and advertising. |
| That's Not Metal: Violationswebsite section, ThatsNotMetal.com On That's Not Metal, satirically billing itself as "a blog for the heavy metal elitist in all of us (except the poseurs)", this section of the website offers a collection of columns discussing common trends and occurrences in metal that are 'inauthentic' |
| The Assimilation of Underground Metalarticle, 2009, Dark Legions Archive website Examines how metal, as Romantic music, is in all its 'heaviness' uniquely suited to give the listener a sobering glympse beyond ego-death of the Unknown, of true non-dual reality, and discusses how this quality in metal is being lost as the music becomes assimilated into the mainstream. |
| The Death of Metal: A Rant on Elitismblog post, 2009, Gamespot.com Critiques the Encyclopaedia Metallum, a highly popular metal band and review archive and discussion forum. |
| The Ghosts of Glam Metal Pastarticle, 2006, Lamentations of the Flame Princess Using some past glam metal bands as cases in point, examines the negative effects on metal bands today of signing a contract with a major record label and entering a more money-driven arena. |
| The Mosh Box: What Will Those Wacky Christians Come Up With Next?news article, by groverXIII, 2010, TheNumberOfTheBlog.com Describes the attempts of a Christian audience at a metal concert to form a mosh pit, but not succeeding to form the type of mosh pit generally perceived as 'authentic' by most metal listeners. |
| The mould of the prototypical metal website and the struggle to break out of it: Invisible Orangesblog column, by Transcix, 2011, TheMetalDiscourser.com Argues the prototypical metal website is pointless, especially considering the vast amounts of time and effort that need to be invested by the owner / administrators. |
| * The Sacralization of Disorder: Symbolism in Rock Musicarticle, by Bernice Martin, 1979, Sociological Analysis Examines how on one hand concepts of chaos, disorder and anti-structure are prominent in rock while on the other hand rock subculture possesses significant structure and code, and why lower-strata youth tend to emphasize group structure and identity while higher-strata youth tend to emphasize anti-structure and individuality. |
| * This Is Spinal Tapmovie, directed by Rob Reiner, written by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner, 1984, MGM A cult classic mockumentary following a fictional metal band called Spinal Tap and poking fun at metal stereotypes and inauthenticity in metal. |
| True metal, false metal and no metal at allblog column, by Telemachus Stavropoulos, 2010, Poetry-Of-Subculture.blogspot.ca Considers the blurry line delineating genuineness in metal. |
| Two examples of how NOT to run a metal websiteblog column, Transcix, 2012, TheMetalDiscourser.com Criticizes WorldMetalAlliance.com and Lotfp.com as being prime examples of low-quality websites too commonly found in the online metal scene. |
| What is Selling Out?editorial, 2002, Metal-Rules.com |
| When to Stop Listening: If the motive is to pander not adventure, the music will be worthlessarticle, 2008, Dark Legions Archive website |
| Why an undergroundblog column, 2010, ANUS.com Looks at how corporate sponsoring of metal shows leads to the rejection of more 'dangerous' metal and how if a band makes itself like a commodity then it will be bought and sold at the whims of the market. |
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