To Örebro University

This paper investigates the ways by which heavy metal fans construct their self and collective in relation to the music and the culture, by concentrating on subjective and inter-subjective arguments on what it means to be an authentic heavy metal fan. The empirical material consists of focus group interviews and single interviews with Swedish heavy metal fans of ages 18-27. By way of conclusion, individual construction of an authentic heavy metal identity is the result of a) arguments on long term dedication, b) being able to highlight symbolic events and attributes which are associated with the heavy metal culture, and c) arguments of making the right choices based on an authentic inner voice. Thus, social construction of a common authentic identity is the result of negotiations around an abstract moral. The study finds that the construction of authentic selves and collectives takes place partly in a close social in-group context, where individual and collective dedication is known and need not be argued for, as well as in a thematic in-group, where symbols and attributes are knownbut where dedication must be argued for.

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the approaches used by young heavy metal fans to acknowledge, uphold and reproduce the dynamic relationship between social alienation and rebelliousness within the heavy metal culture and with the outside world. The empirical material was obtained through focus groups and individual interviews with heavy metal fans of ages 18 through 26. This article makes four main observations. First, alienation in heavy metal culture must be understood in direct relation to the expression of rebelliousness. Second, rebelliousness is a provocation as well as an integration of in-group belongingness and out-group alienation. Third, alienation functions as a precursor to but also a catalyst of rebelliousness. Last, feelings of alienation and rebelliousness have either an abstract or a concrete recipient, towards whom the experience of self is mirrored.

The aim of this study is to research the kinds of rituals which hold the heavy metal culture in its diversity together as well as to research the concrete and abstract connotations of rituals in this context. The empirical material consists of single interview and focus interview receipts covering the reports of 26 heavy metal fans of ages 18-27. By way of conclusion, the heavy metal fans engage in rituals on three levels. First, they have concrete formal ritual meetings in the form of concerts, where they reproduce values of authenticity, negotiate the meaning of attributes and recharge with emotional energy. Second, the fans engage in a natural ritual, a ”de-socialised” ritual, where they nurture a subgenre prone heavy metal identity. This is done by a) engaging in a system of civil inattention in the bodily presence of heavy metal fans of other subgenres and b) reproducing a cultural value of being detached in the bodily absence of other heavy metal fans. Third, they engage in an individual and preparatory ritual, which serves as a reflexive understanding of and transformation into the ideal heavy metal self while preparing for other rituals.

The purpose of this article is to study how gender difference and ultimately female gender positioning are created and manifested in the heavy metal culture. The empirical material consists of single interviews and focus group interviews with heavy metal fans between the ages of 18 and 26. The overall finding is that, while gender is a movable position in general, women move their gender position to a greater extent than men as they are constantly forced to adhere to the male values of the heavy metal culture. Three dualities in the positioning of heavy metal women illustrate to this phenomenon: a whore-goddess paradigm based on the knowledge of the female heavy metal fan; the balancing act of “acting male” and “looking female”; and the gender “twilight zone” of being insufficiently male for heavy metal culture while being insufficiently female for the mainstream world.