Metal, Rock, and Jazz

by Berger, Harris M.

• ISBN13: 9780819563767
• ISBN10: 0819563765
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr

Summary

This vivid ethnography of the musical lives of heavy metal, rock, and jazz musicians in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio shows how musicians engage with the world of sound to forge meaningful experiences of music. Unlike most popular music studies, which only provide a scholar's view, this book is based on intensive fieldwork and hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews. Rich descriptions of the musical life of metal bars and jazz clubs get readers close to the people who make and listen to the music. Of special interest are Harris M. Berger's interviews with Timmy "The Ripper" Owens, now famous as lead singer for the pioneering heavy metal band, Judas Priest. Owens and other performers share their own experiences of the music, thereby challenging traditional notions of harmony and musical structure. Using ideas from practice theory and phenomenology, Berger shows that musical perception is a kind of practice, both creatively achieved by the listener and profoundly informed by social context.

Author Biography

HARRIS M. BERGER is Assistant Professor of Music at Texas A & M University. A guitarist since the age of ten, he currently plays and sings with The Bee Dreams.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
An Introduction to Central Issues in Ethnomusicology and Folklore: Phenomenology and Practice Theory	p. 1
The Ethnography of Musical Practice
Commercial Hard Rock in Cleveland, Ohio: Dia Pason and Max Panic	p. 31
Heavy Metal in Akron, Ohio: Winter's Bane and Sin-Eater	p. 56
Two Jazz Scenes in Northeast Ohio	p. 76
The Organization of Musical Experience and the Practice of Perception
The Organization of Attention in Two Jazz Scenes	p. 119
The Organization of Attention in the Rock and Metal Scenes	p. 149
Tonality, Temporality, and the Intending Subject (1): Chris Ozimek and "Turn for the Worse"	p. 174
Tonality, Temporality, and the Perceptual Subject (2): Dann Saladin and "The Final Silencing"	p. 200
Conclusions: Perceptual Practice and Social Context	p. 242
Music, Experience, and Society: Death Metal and Deindustrialization in an American City
Death Metal Perspectives: Affect, Purpose, and the Social Life of Music	p. 251
A Critical Dialogue on the Politics of the Metal Underground: Race, Class, and Consequence	p. 276
Conclusion: The Scope of Ethnomusicology	p. 295
Notes	p. 299
Glossary	p. 311
Selected Bibliography	p. 315
Index	p. 325
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