The extreme metal ‘connoisseur’

Authors

  • Nicola Allett Loughborough University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v6i1.164

Keywords:

connoisseurship, counterculture, extreme metal, heavy metal, low culture

Abstract

This article draws on the author's research with extreme metal fans to consider the construction of extreme metal community in the UK, in the light of controversies and set against a wider culture that is increasingly celebrating the extreme. It considers a discursive strategy by fans to define extreme metal against a mainstream and legitimate their taste by adopting a system of values and distinctions that position themselves as ‘connoisseurs’. The author demonstrates that her respondents’ consumption of extremity contrasts with their presentation of selves as connoisseurs of ‘high’ art who value knowledge, virtuosity, distance and expert judgement. Such an emphasis upon connoisseur values and ‘high culture’ characteristics place extreme metal music as art, removing allegations of profanity and distancing extreme metal music and community from the ‘low’ culture of the popular mainstream.

Author Biography

  • Nicola Allett, Loughborough University

    Nicola Allett is a Research Associate at the Department of Social Science, Loughborough University. She is currently working on the Leverhulme Trust funded project ‘Media of Remembering: Photography and Phonography in Everyday Remembering’, which investigates how photography and music act as vehicles of memory in everyday contexts. Her PhD explored the nature of attachments, investments and commitments to Extreme Metal music and subculture. Her research interests are in collective identifications and music in everyday life.

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Published

2012-05-14

Issue

Section

Countercultures

How to Cite

Allett, N. (2012). The extreme metal ‘connoisseur’. Popular Music History, 6(1-2), 164-179. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v6i1.164