The Culture Of Heavy Metal Music Listeners Around The World:
...but is it possible that heavy metal music listeners have a distinct culture of their own that transcends the dividing lines of nations? This paper is intended to research and report the similarities between heavy metal listeners across the world. In order to do that I will be splitting the world up into four major categories for observation and research:
1. The United States
2. English speaking Europe (Ireland, Great Britain)
3. Non-English speaking Europe (Finland, Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia, etc.)
4. Asia (India, Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, etc.)
I do realize that this leaves out some key areas like The Middle East, Africa, South and Central America, unfortunately there is almost no literature (especially peer reviewed articles) coming from these regions; it is also a problem that there are not very strong metal communities in those regions.
But what is heavy metal music? The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: “loud and harsh sounding rock music with a strong beat; lyrics usually involve violent or fantastic imagery.” A better definition was found at the website wikipedia: “Heavy metal (often referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion and fast guitar solos. All Music Guide states that "of all rock & roll's myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality.”
One of the key aspects of culture is communication and language. Metal music, no matter where it comes from is predominantly English. Bands from Japan, Finland, Italy, and Mexico will usually write songs in English (whether this is to appeal to the large metal scene in Britain and the...
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