Becoming Brutal

Studies in Symbolic Interaction

This vibrant volume is a creative mix of contributions, including seminal essays and interpretive works, from researchers and writers in the area of popular music and major players in the bright future of symbolic interaction. Genres discussed range from country, jazz and the virtuoso to latino, grindcore and extreme metal.

Heavy Metal, Gender and Sexuality

Heavy Metal, Gender and Sexuality brings together a collection of original, interdisciplinary, critical essays exploring the negotiated place of gender and sexuality in heavy metal music and its culture. Scholars debate the current state of play concerning masculinities, femininities, queerness, identity aesthetics and monstrosities in an area of music that is sometimes mistakenly treated as exclusively sustaining a masculinist hegemony. The book combines a broad variety of perspectives on the main topic, regarding gender in connection to: the history of the genre; the range of metal subgenres; heavy metal's multidimensional scope (music, lyrics, performance, style, illustrations); men and women; sexualities and various local and global perspectives. Heavy Metal, Gender and Sexuality is a text that opens up the world of heavy metal to reveal that it is a very diverse and ground-breaking stage where gender play is at the centre of its theatricality and sustains its mass appeal.

The Commonplace Philosopher in Town and Country