Musical Scenes and Social Class

This important collection advances the scholarly conversation on punk and metal several steps forward. It is one of the few books that takes the significant parallels between punk and metal histories seriously, their convergences and their specificities. More than that, it seeks to rethink much of the mythology that has grown around the two genres regarding their status as ‘working-class’ styles. International in scope, interdisciplinary in method, Musical Scenes and Social Class is essential reading for anyone seeking to better understand the social character of popular music genres. Steve Waksman, author of This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk This is an essential collection of essays, unpicking and critiquing the cultural, sonic, political and aesthetic dimensions of punk and metal. Through comparative analysis, new insights are made. Professor Matthew Worley, author of No Future: Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976–1984 and Class Against Class: The Communist Party in Britain Between the Wars In a fragmentation and large-scale social crisis context, this Volume takes up the seminal debate between negativity and aggressivity in rock music (punk and metal) and class belonging in Britain and France. This fact is remarkable from the point of view of sociology and contemporary history, showing us – without mythologization – the various interrelations between cultural-artistic-musical practices and their still – and increasingly intense – determination by social belongings. It is not a question of going back but of reinterpreting the growing contemporary social polarization by and with these sounds. A vital feature of this Volume is also the demonstration of the self-renewal of punk and metal, from a spatial, social, cultural, and artistic point of view. The irreverence, resistance, and personification of subaltern and paradoxical identities, portrayed in this book, represent a step forward in the renewal of the approach to popular music. -Paula Guerra, Associate Professor, and Co-Convenor, KISMIF Conference, Portugal Romain Garbaye is Professor of British Studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. He obtained his D.Phil. in comparative politics at Oxford University, UK, in 2001, and then held positions at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Gérôme Guibert is Professor of Sociology at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, and an ISMMS (International Society for Metal Music Studies) board Member.