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'A cockroach preserved in amber': the significance of class in critics' representations of heavy metal music and its fans.
- Source :
- Sociological Review; Nov2014, Vol. 62 Issue 4, p719-741, 23p, 1 Diagram
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- In this paper we engage with new cultural theories of class that have identified media representations of 'excessive' white heterosexual working-class femininity as a 'constitutive limit' of incorporation into dominant (middle-class) modes of neo-liberal subjectivity and Bourdieu's thesis that classification is a form of symbolic violence that constitutes both the classifier and the classified. However, what we explore are the implications of such arguments for those modes of white heterosexual working-class masculinity that continue to reproduce themselves in forms of overtly masculinist popular culture. We do so through a critical examination of the symbolic representation of the genre of heavy metal music within contemporary music journalism. Employing a version of critical discourse analysis, we offer an analysis of representative reviews, derived from a qualitative sample of the UK music magazine, New Musical Express (1999-2008). This weekly title, historically associated with the ideals of the 'counter culture', now offers leadership of musical tastes in an increasingly segmented, niche-oriented marketplace. Deploying a refined model of the inscription process outlined by Skeggs, our analysis demonstrates how contemporary music criticism symbolically attaches negative attributes and forms of personhood to the working-class male bodies identified with heavy metal culture and its audience, allowing dominant middle-class modes of cultural authority to be inscribed within matters of musical taste and distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00380261
- Volume :
- 62
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Sociological Review
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 99516027
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12181