CfP: Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices and Cultures

International Academic Research Conference
HELSINKI * FINLAND
June 8-12, 2015

Aalto University School of Business

www.modernheavymetal.net

Since its birth over 40 year ago, the music genre of heavy metal and hard rock has become not only a significant sub-culture but also an acknowledged subject for academic studies in various fields, even an interdisciplinary field of study in its own right. In the last few years, we have witnessed an increasing amount of events and publications in the metal academia, addressing the multiplicity of metal cultures, practices, and markets. The “International Society for Metal Music Studies” (ISMMS) and Metal Music Studies journal have also been established. In April 2013, the members of metal academia gathered in the “Heavy Metal and Popular Culture Conference”, hosted by the Bowling Green State University, in Ohio U.S. A decision was made there to bring the next main conference to Helsinki, Finland, the renowned metal capital of the Northern hemisphere.

Metal music has suffused to multiple directions, different markets and cultural layers – remaining marginal in some while enjoying mainstream success others. It has taken many forms, created a countless number of subgenres and representations, flirted and connected with other music genres and cultural products. Global and transnational communities have come into being simultaneously with the birth and development of local scenes. Moreover, the evolution of metal, as any other music genre, is impacted by the technological and economic revolution that has radically reshaped the forms of music production, delivery, consumption and culture – let alone the role of social media in communication, community building and fandom. Altogether, metal is embracing new fans and markets, creating new practices, forming new cultures, while treasuring the strong and polymorphous legacy of the genre. This brings along plenty of new challenges and opportunities for metal music studies in different genres.

The “Modern Heavy Metal” (MHM) conference will review, explore and discuss the current standing of metal; the plethora of its forms, cultures, practices, and markets. The conference will consist of research presentations, keynote speeches, industry/artist/media panels and other metal-laden program. In addition to the academic contents, the plan is to create close connections to the metal practice: the artists, their managers and other stakeholders, media, as well as the general metal audience. The event week will most likely include other metal entertainment spread over the evenings and the weekends.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Released on March 31 2014

To build up the academic program of the conference, we invite paper (and session) proposals from different fields of academic study to this interdisciplinary event. We are particularly interested in contributions shedding light on the markets, practices and cultures, faced by the metal practitioners and fans in the current multifaceted and global expression of heavy metal and its countless forms and sub-genres. The event is open not only for academics focusing on metal studies (in business studies, cultural studies, social sciences, humanities, musicology, arts, and other fields) but also for scholars from the wide range of popular music and popular culture studies. We warmly welcome also views from “the outside” to discuss and compare metal with other genres and cultural forms and helps in positioning metal in the bigger picture of cultural production and consumption.

The suggested themes include (but are not limited to):

    Metal music industry and markets; global and local views, formation and structure of markets, entertainment and cultural industries
    Metal management; strategic thinking, branding, visual communication in metal, metal export/import, leadership and roles, creative management
    Metal practices; music, production, technology, performance, delivery
    Metal cultures; fandom and fan communities, local communities, transnational/global communities, tribalism metal and social media, mainstream and subcultures, metal generations, gender and metal, artistic identity
     Form and philosophy of the metal genre
    Sound and structure of metal music
    Metal narratives, lyrics, and storytelling
    Metal and belief systems, metal and religion
    Politics, ethics and moral of metal
    Artistic and aesthetic considerations; metal (in) art, metal representations, aesthetic experience, bodily experience
    History, present and future of metal; transformations of the genre
    Scope and methods of metal studies
    Metal on the borderline; positions and connections of metal within the popular music and popular culture context
    Various topics exploring the phenomena and representations of metal and related genres.

Alongside with more traditional research papers, novel and creative approaches to research are strongly encouraged. Theoretical reviews, practical case studies, conceptual studies, methodological papers, ethnographical reports, lyrical and visual analyses, qualitative and quantitative approaches, and various other forms and approaches are supported. With the long abstract and paper process, we hope that many new studies get ignited and completed for the conference.

Please note that the paper review process comprises two stages: abstract and full paper. Final acceptance is based on the full paper. Full papers will be included in the Conference Proceedings book (electronic and/or printed version) that will be launched prior to the conference.

More Infos