Session 3B: History
Session 3B: History
Chair: Angelique Moreau
All Tomorrows Become Yesterday: Stoner Rock’s Construction Through Nostalgic Historiography
Simon Poole
Cultural Theory and Popular Music, Buckinghamshire New University, United Kingdom
In the preface to Mick Farren’s first novel, The Texts of Festival, he describes a future society that ‘ritually celebrate[s] the runes of the Rock Era – the ancient words of the witch gods’ (1973, p i). Festival, the fictional city of Farren’s book, is a community based on dogmatic reading of music from the late sixties and early seventies – a dogma that actually bares little relation to the original texts. I would argue that the fans and musicians of the ongoing metal subgenre of Stoner rock is, if not dogmatically, similar to Farren’s future distopia (reference and reverence towards Tony Iommi’s downtuning being a case in point). Utilising the concept of nostalgia put forward by Svetlana Boym (2001) which draws upon nostalgia in terms of place and space as much as it does time; and Bennedict Anderson’s ideas of imagined community (1991), this paper seeks to explore the Stoner genre as a community that is reflectively nostalgic – with the emphasis on algia, ‘the imperfect process of rememberance’ (Boym, S. 2001, p.41) – attempting to escape from the contemporary and return to a place that actually does not, nor ever has existed, but rather is a place that is perpetually being built. For the Stoner rock genre/community is constructed through the active historiography of the fan/musician ‘Invent[ing] nations where they do not exist’. (Gellner, E. in Anderson, B. 1991, p. 6). In this world, arguably marginal acts from around the world such as Pentagram and Blue Cheer, Witchfinder General, Flower Travelin’ Band and The Possessed, gain greater status, become the ‘ancient witch gods’ and represent a perpetual mid-Atlantic place where it is almost always 1974. As such the paper will utilise the semiotics of Stoner rock to explore these notions of nostalgia, historiography and the journey towards the (imagined) community.
Roots Metal: Rediscovering the Origins of Heavy Metal in Stoner Rock
Robert Rutland
School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
The style of music known as “stoner rock” began to appear in the early 90s and has since become an established genre with a large community of artists and fans. Musically, stoner rock bands display many of the characteristics of heavy metal: loud and distorted guitars and bass, heavy-handed drumming, and aggressive singing. In the proposed paper, I wish to explore those aesthetic qualities of stoner rock that make it a distinct subgenre of heavy metal. Stoner rock is distinguished in part by its “lo-fi” quality. In general, stoner rock artists are analog purists who favour vintage musical equipment and recording techniques. This is consistent with its retro-aesthetic and helps stoner rock achieve its characteristically raw, organic sound. While heavy metal music has been integrating classical and prog-rock elements since the mid-70s, stoner rock self-consciously returns to heavy metal’s blues and psychedelic roots. Visually, the genre appropriates the imagery of 60s and 70s drug culture in a sometimes campy celebration of hedonism. The music and imagery together create a seamless retro-aesthetic that claims no higher purpose beyond the celebration of a particular sensory experience, but in this way stoner rock drains heavy metal of some of the self-seriousness for which it is often derided by critics and audiences. Social commentary and critique, if indeed any is to be found, is drowned out by fuzzed-up power chords and irony. Together, the elements of stoner rock confer upon it a certain authenticity, real or imagined, that many other contemporary metal subgenres appear to lack. This is not to suggest that stoner rock is thereby rehabilitating heavy metal. The more interesting point I wish to examine is how stoner rock reinvents and represents early heavy metal at a time when novel and apparently more “progressive” metal subgenres are proliferating.
Barbarians and Literature: Viking Metal and its links to Old Norse Mythology
Imke von Helden
Department for Scandinavian Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany
Viking Metal originated in the late 1980s in Scandinavian countries, pioneered by the Swedish Death Metal Band Bathory. It was further developed and coined by Norway’s Enslaved who combine Viking topics with a special “Northern” sound. Viking Metal in respect of content is focused on the Viking Age, Old Norse mythology and pre-Christian religions. Bands like Amon Amarth, Enslaved and Týr are increasingly popular among metal fans all over the world and will render the basis for my analysis.
The following essay renders an analysis of the reception of Old Norse mythology in Viking Metal music in terms of both lyrics and cover artworks. Viking Metal bands adopt and reinterpret saga themes, stories and characters, mainly taken from the Eddas. Heroic or romantic imagery plays an important role among metal bands in general. Strong Viking warriors in chain mail and leather as well as scenes of assumedly everyday Viking life in Northern landscapes can be found in many cover booklets.
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