This article presents a new framework for analyzing compound AABA form in heavy metal music, inspired by normative theories of form in the Formenlehre tradition. A corpus study shows that a particular riff-based version of compound AABA, with a specific style of buildup intro (Attas 2015) and other characteristic features, is normative in mainstream styles of the metal genre. Within this norm, individual artists have their own strategies (Meyer 1989) for manifesting compound AABA form. These strategies afford stylistic distinctions between bands, so that differences in form can be said to signify aesthetic posing or social positioning—a different kind of signification than the programmatic or semantic communication that has been the focus of most existing music theory research in areas like topic theory or musical semiotics. This article concludes with an exploration of how these different formal strategies embody different qualities of physical movement or feelings of motion, arguing that in making stylistic distinctions and identifying with a particular subgenre or style, we imagine that these distinct ways of moving correlate with (sub)genre rhetoric and the physical stances of imagined communities of fans (Anderson 1983, Hill 2016).
This article presents a theoretical framework for understanding headbanging to metal music as an embodied practice of perception and offers several analyses to demonstrate how specific patterns serve as a common core of rhythmic patterning in the genre. Listeners express metal’s flexible rhythmic style through headbanging, creating experiences of heaviness and community. This motion brings felt beats into existence, guided by what I call “metering constructions,” familiar rhythmic/motional patterns that are both schematic knowledge of music and embodied practices of perception. I define metering constructions through theories of embodied meter and cognitive linguistics. Two constructions, the backbeat and the phrase-ending 332, are used throughout rock, but distinguished in metal by characteristic drum patterns and motional qualities. Headbangers thus create and perform their own beat interpretation, what I call a “patchwork quilt of recognized rhythms” stitched together in various orders and combinations—sometimes resembling regular isochronous meter, sometimes not.
This article builds on a new theory of metal song form () to show how different versions of compound AABA form can carry narrative meaning, illustrated by analyses of a number of famous metal songs in mainstream (i.e. not underground/extreme) styles. First, I discuss how some songs about rituals use conventional compound AABA form such that the ‘transformation’ event of the ritual occurs during the song’s B section, focusing on examples by Mercyful Fate and Ghost. Next, I show how several metal ballads use a shortened version of the conventional form (AAB) to depict a protagonist who loses control, getting ‘stuck’ at the same time as the form gets ‘stuck’ in the B section, focusing on examples by Metallica and Pantera. I end with a short analysis showing how aspects of these two established strategies are combined in a unique pairing of form and narrative in Iron Maiden’s ‘Run to the Hills’. As I analyse these songs, I explore how musical form can structure fans’ participation in the music and shape their experiences of these songs’ stories.
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