Dirty, soothing, secret magic: individualism and spirituality in New Age and extreme metal music cultures

Coggins, Owen

doi:10.1017/s0261143018000697

Pop. Mus.

2019

DOI: 10.1017/s0261143018000697

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Dirty, soothing, secret magic: individualism and spirituality in New Age and extreme metal music cultures

Owen Coggins¹

Abstract: Taking inspiration from a press article comparing doom metal and New Age music, I explore individualism and magic in these musical cultures, reflecting on the ‘dirty, soothing secret’ suggested in that article's title. I trace the loosely defined characteristics of New Age music in the limited academic research on the topic, before situating the music in the wider New Age milieu which centres around the epistemological authority of the seeking self among diverse spiritual resources. Then, I examine the claims … Show more

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Cited by 2 publications

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Going down to the crossroads: popular music and transformative magic

Angus¹

2020

Pop. Mus.

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If there is a single narrative that captures the modern understanding of transformative crossroads magic it is the spurious fable of the selling of Robert Johnson's soul. When, in the palaeoanthropology of 20th century rock and roll music, the biographers of the short-lived blues legend claimed that he had been down to the Dockery Plantation crossroads at midnight to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for guitar skills, they were perhaps unwitting witnesses to the deep history of myth and ritual that has long been associated with the transformative space of the crossroads. They were not lacking in foresight, however, about the way in which such a claim would enhance their subject's credibility. The value of such a sulphurous reputation for a musician is not merely a recent phenomenon but also has historical precedents. A hundred years before Johnson (who lived 1911–1938), the guitarist and violinist Niccolo Paganini (1782–1840) was considered such a suspiciously devilish virtuoso that his audiences were reputed to cross themselves before his concerts in hope of protection from subtle demonic influence. One audience member even fled a concert after reporting seeing the Devil himself aiding Paganini's performance. Going a little further back, Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770) explained of his best-known sonata, The Devil's Trill (1713), that he had ‘written down the piece after waking from a particularly vivid dream of the Devil playing a violin with ferocious virtuosity’, and claimed that it was ‘but a shadow of what he had witnessed in the dream, for he was unable to capture on the page the Devil's full intensity’. His long career was certainly not harmed by this youthful excursion into Hell.

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Going down to the crossroads: popular music and transformative magic

Angus¹

2020

Pop. Mus.

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Kvetching abovt kvlt: Conflicting social uses of the index ‘kvlt’ in online metal spaces

Robertson

2023

Metal Music Studies

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The word ‘kvlt’, generally pronounced as ‘cult’, is a well-recognized linguistic feature of (black) metal discourse. To date, over a dozen academic studies have included reference to the term, and all are united in sharing a broad consensus that ‘kvlt’ serves as a marker of ‘black-metal-ness’ or black metal aesthetics. The common recognition of ‘kvlt’ in both metal scenes and academic studies belies a lack of actual investigation of how the word is used, however, with ‘kvlt’ extensively appearing in discussions of metal but seeing little analysis itself. Approaching ‘kvlt’ as an index, i.e. a linguistic form linked to contested social meaning(s), the current study attempts to better understand ‘kvlt’ itself through analysis of how ‘kvlt’ is used across contemporary metal discourses. The study’s data comes from 200 uses of ‘kvlt’ divided between two sources: the Metal Archive Forums and the Reddit forum (or ‘subreddit’) r/blackmetal. Through analysing these uses in context, the study finds that while many previously attested uses of ‘kvlt’ certainly exist, there are differences in how ‘kvlt’ is used and differences in the extent to which they actually signal internal borders within (black) metal communities. Not only do black metal focused spaces utilize ‘kvlt’ differently from more generic metal ones, but also the ways that ‘kvlt’ is used to praise, critique or even simply describe metal music and scenes differ as well. As a result, the study argues that both discourse around ‘kvlt’ and the use of ‘kvlt’ itself are more than just a form of subcultural capital, serving also as part of contemporary metal identity work, boundary policing and debates over the proper ways to ‘be’ or ‘do’ metal.

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Dirty, soothing, secret magic: individualism and spirituality in New Age and extreme metal music cultures

Cited by 2 publications

References 11 publications

Going down to the crossroads: popular music and transformative magic

Going down to the crossroads: popular music and transformative magic

Kvetching abovt kvlt: Conflicting social uses of the index ‘kvlt’ in online metal spaces

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