Norm-Related Sonic Knowledge in Heavy Metal Culture

In 1980, British band Judas Priest released their song Breaking the Law on their album British Steel. This piece of music became an anthem which expressed heavy metals identity for musicians, fans and critics. In the lyrics to the song, law-breaking forms the central topic. For the jobless protagonist, breaking the law becomes his choice to point out his situation and express his individual identity. He views law as a deeply conservative institution, which threatens to paralyze him socially. By breaking laws norms, he reaches attention, identity and personal empowerment. Being deemed as defining 1980s heavy metals style and identity, the song used a specific imagination of law and law- breaking, and a specific attitude to legal norms, to in the first place create metal music and its culture. Already this example shows that such imaginations of law, justice, dealing with law- and rule- breaking, played an important role in metals history. Yet, there currently is no research which explicitly asks whether and how such imaginations became important in local histories of metal scenes. Especially for the historical period since the 1980s (a decade often referred to as the golden age of metal which brought its stylistic diversification and globalization), this remains a desideratum of research. This is where the present projects research comes in. The aim is to write a first and broad history of the metal scene in Graz and Styria, also in its national and international entanglements, since the 1980s. In the project, the mentioned desideratum in research is focused on. It will be investigated whether and how imaginations of law and law-breaking, of justice and injustice, as scene-laws played a role in the Styrian scenes history. The projects interdisciplinary team uses methodologies from cultural history, musicology, semiotic discourse analysis and culturally-oriented legal studies integrally. Centrally, the researchers will lead interviews with older and younger scene members (fans, musicians, owners of concert facilities etc.). Also, the textual (i.e. lyrics to songs or music journals), visual (i.e. record covers), and compositional aspects (in a musicological analysis of law-themed songs and albums) will be equally addressed. Hence, the projects novelty lies in the first use of methodologies from most recent theoretical research in cultural history, musicology, visual studies and legal studies to investigate a local and regional metal scene, and, at the same time, asking for the historical role of imaginations of law and law-breaking, and attitudes towards law in the scenes history.

No additional funding sources recorded.