Metal Jew

I don't know much about modern dance but I know what I like

A few years ago I was flicking channels late night when I came across a programme called 'Summer Dance'. I know v little about this art form and am no fan of classical ballet but the piece I saw on the programme really spoke to me: a small group of women sit in chairs in what looked like an abandoned institutional space. Accompanied by a a minimal, percussive, metronomic score, the dancers make repeated sudden movements that are simultaneously erotic and neurotic. Punctuating the whole performance are extravagent tosses of the head - almost headbanging - that must make the piece intensely draining to perform.

I missed the start of the programme and the credits didn't say what the piece was. The TV listings in the paper gave no details. This was pe-internet ubiquity so I was unable to find out more. I mentioned what I'd seen to a few friends for whom it rang no bells. Infuriatingly the all-female comedy sketch show 'Smack The Pony' appeared to parody the piece a while back but gave no hint as to what the source material was.

Now finally I've been able to identify the piece thanks to a review in the Guardian that seemed to describe exactly what I had seen. It turns out that the piece is called 'Rosas Danst Rosas' by a Belgian choreographer called Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. It's apparently very well-known in the dance world and has recently revived (hence the Guardian review) with De Keersmaeker herself taking part.

Here's a youtube video of all or some of it (it doesn't make clear which) which is well worth watching, enjoy:

2009 - the year of the eggheadbanger

Looks like 2009 is turning into the year of the eggheadbenger:

1) October 8-10 sees the 'Heavy Metal and Gender' conference in Cologne . I'll be speaking and I can't wait for the vocal masterclass featuring Angela Gossow!

2) November 10-12 sees the second 'Heavy Fundamentalism' conference in Salzburg. I won't be there and I think it is a shame that in such a small academic field it was scheduled so soon after the Cologne conference (the Cologne conference was annouced first). Still, I really hope it is a success - the 2008 conference was a brilliant experience.

 

3) December 12 sees the 'Hideous Gnosis'  Black Metal Theory Symposium in New York. This is an unapologetically out-there fest of mind-duck theorising about mind-fucking black metal. Nicola Masciandaro, one of the organisers and speakers, presented a virtually inpenetrable paper at Salzburg last year and his blog verges on the incomprehensible - and is all the better for it.

New interview

There's a new interview with me on the Esoterric blog. For some reason, I opened up quite a bit about my childhood and metal's place within it.

Thanks to Ed (a fellow eggheadbanger) for the interesting questions.

Heavy Metal: Controversies and Countercultures

Call for Papers

Heavy Metal: Controversies and Countercultures

Titus Hjelm, Keith Kahn-Harris & Mark LeVine (eds.)

 

During its forty years of existence heavy metal music has been one of the most controversial genres of popular music. Controversies surrounding alleged (and often documented) sexual promiscuity, occultism and Satanism, and subliminal messages inspiring suicide, have all made heavy metal a target of ‘moral panics’ over popular culture. Within the broad category of ‘heavy metal’ new subgenres keep appearing, continuously challenging the more domesticated and mainstreamed versions, making the genre perpetually topical. In addition, with the deepening of globalisation, the music and culture of heavy metal has spread beyond Europe and North America, challenging cultural norms and raising public debates in new social contexts. Although commercially marginal compared to the heyday of its success in the 1980s, the social impact of heavy metal has hardly lessened.

 

The aim of this anthology is to analyse the relationship between heavy metal and society within a global context. Adopting a broadly social constructionist approach to the study of moral panics and social movements, the book examines two main themes:

 

a) Social reactions to heavy metal (i.e. controversy)

b) The construction of heavy metal culture and community in light of these controversies

 

The first theme looks at how heavy metal has been constructed as deviant and as a social problem. Studies that investigate representations of heavy metal in, for example, the media, the courts, religious literature, and other public arenas are welcomed. Because social problems and moral panics always reflect their social context, discussions of social interests and the social and cultural consequences of claims shed light on not just heavy metal as a genre and subculture, but society in a wider sense.   

 

The second theme examines the construction of heavy metal from the ‘inside’, that is, how fans, musicians, music journalists, etc. create the culture of heavy metal and how that culture interacts with the surrounding social and cultural context. This could include ethnographical studies and studies of fan discourse, for example.

 

While the majority of chapters will be expected to have a sociological or a cultural studies approach, we welcome contributions from a variety of disciplines, including social psychology, anthropology, history, folkloristics, religious studies, gender studies, etc. Contributions that combine aesthetic/musicological analysis with a discussion of the music's social impact, or that explore how new technologies for production and distribution of music have impacted metal culture are also welcome.

 

Examples of possible chapters include:

 

·         Heavy Metal and the Threat to Public Order in the Muslim World

·         Autobiography and the Making of Heavy Metal Legends

·         From National Shame to National Heroes: Lordi and the 2006 Eurovision Contest

·         Christian Metal

·         Heavy Metal in the US courts   

·         The Nordic Black Metal Phenomenon

 

Potential submissions could also include case studies of moral panics over heavy metal, ethnographic studies of heavy metal communities, and studies of fan and artist discourse. We are particularly interested in submissions that discuss heavy metal and society in the Middle East, Asia, South America, East Europe and Russia.

 

Please submit an abstract of up to 250 words and a short biographical note (see below) to [email protected]

 

The deadline for submissions is 30 September 2009.

 

The Editors:

 

Titus Hjelm is Lecturer in Finnish Society and Culture at University College London. His main areas of expertise are cultural sociology, sociology of religion, social problems, media and popular culture.  He is currently working on a book on social constructionism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and editing a volume titled Religion and Social Problems (Routledge, 2009). He is also a member of the internationally acclaimed metal band Thunderstone.

 

Keith Kahn-Harris is a research associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College. He is the author of Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge (Berg, 2006) and writes the blog Metal Jew (www.metaljew.org). He is currently co-writing a book on the British Jewish community since 1990.

 

Mark LeVine is Professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture and Islamic studies at University of California Irvine and author and editor of several books, including Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam (Random House/Three Rivers Press, 2008 and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books, 2009).

The End All Around US

I have a chapter in a new edited collection The End All Around US: Apocalyptic Texts and Popular Culture The chapter is called 'End of the World Music: Is Extreme Metal the Sound of the Apocalypse?'.

Miscellaneous ('aint that a catchy title)

• My article on Jews and The Wire is now up - I'm quite proud of it.
• Invisible Oranges has a post featuring metal versions  of Hava  Nagila (although they don't mention this one)
• I hadn't  mentioned Punk Torah before. The ever-woinderful Y-Love offers his take here.

New publications

Although neither of these publications have much to do with my metal side, I am quite proud of them:

Jews talking about talking about Israel - article in Haaretz

Communities in conversation: Jewish involvment in inter faith activities in the UK - report published by the Board of Deputies

Lecture at Texas A & M University

On 14 April 2009 I presented a guest lecture at Texas A & M University entitled 'The Color of Metal: 'Whiteness', 'Blackness' and the Roots of Heavy Metal in 1960s Rock'. I hope to turn it into an article at some point, in the meantime, you can my powerpoint presentation: Download Texas a and m lecture April 2009.

New article

I just published a new article on the Open Democracy website . It's a critique of the solipsism in much internet-based politics. Take a look at the comment thread...

Music and spirituality

I'm featured in a free-to-download e-book called The Spiritual Significance of Music edited by Justin St Vincent. The book consists of  an enormous collection of interviews/statements about music and spirituality. It splits into several 'editions', including a metal one, which has an impressive range of contributors - if you've ever wondered about Shane Embury's views on spirituality, here is your chance to find out.

My own musings can be found here