Abstract

The following critique analysis a review article published in the Journal of Popular Music
Studies volume 20, issue 2. The article is written by Steve Waksman (from the Smith
College) on two fairly recent books on the Metal genre. The first book is Damage
Incorporated: Metallica and the Production of Musical Identity (New York and London:
Routledge, 2006) by Glenn T. Pillsbury and the second book is Extreme Metal: Music
and Culture on the Edge (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2007) by Keith Kahn-Harris aka
The Metal Jew. In the following critique I express my views on the things that could have
been more elaborated and explained by Steve Waksman. Also I have argued on a few
points mentioned by Steve Waksman on these books.

Ever since the commercial rise of Metal as a genre from the 80s to the early 90s there
have not been many scholarly works on the genre. Waksman starts out by naming two
of the better known scholarly books Deena Weinstein’s Heavy Metal: A Cultural
Sociology (also known as Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture 1991) and Robert
Walser’s Running with the Devil: Power Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music
(1993) and drawing parallels between the two former books and the two recent ones.
The parallels drawn by Waksman were a bit far fetched as the two former books were
written in an era where Metal was still a dominant force in the commercial music world.
Waksman further talks about the genres that developed in Metal and claims the newer
subgenres like death metal, black metal and grindcore which were more aggressive and
faster were the cause of the death of the more “melodic and pop–oriented” strains of the
genre. This claim is only partially correct as metal developed into almost innumerable
subgenres ranging from melodic and slower styles to ones that moved in the direction of
extremity both in sound and lyrical content. Since the early 90’s bands all across the
world had contributed to metals overall scene and given it a vast variety of subgenres
ex. Symphonic Metal, Shred Metal, Speed Metal, Doom Metal. As Waksman suggests
that these few extreme subgenres had emerged towards the end of Metals rain of
domain and possibly contributed to the downfall of commercial metal is not very
accurate, as grindcore bands like Possessed (1983), Morbid Angel (1983), Death (1983)
and Cannibal Corpse (1988) had been there from the same time as bands like Metallica
and were very successful in their circle. Waksman further stats that Pillsbury’s work had
limitations as he chose to only focus on one band Metallica, but Pillsbury describes in
great detail all the bands that influenced Metallica’s music. He also goes in the great
depth about the origins of the bands and their music/lyrics overall Pillsbury covered most
major Metal bands that existed before the 90’s.

Waksman posses the view that covering Metallica is a very small fraction of the Metal
genre, whereas Metallica is the most successful American band selling numerous multi
platinum albums (www.metallica.com). Metallica opened the gates to make Metal a
commercial product and in ways made Metal the ‘popular music’ in the 80’s. Pillsbury
and Waksman give emphasis on the Metallica “sell out” controversy and made it look
unintentional, whereas that could not have been unintentional and was a commercial
step forward for the band to be successful. Metallica would have never been immortal in
the way it is today, It would have just ‘Faded to Black’ like many other similar bands of
their time. Waksman gives two factors that contributed to the “sell out” controversy, the
multiplatinum success of the Album Metallica (The Black Album 1991) and the release
of their two albums Load (1996) and Reload (1997) without mentioning the main or the
foremost reason which was Metallica’s 1st music video for the hit single “One” (aired on
MTV 20th January 1989). The music video was considered negative by fans as Lars
Ulrich stated that they would not go on MTV. Pillsbury has explained in detail 80’s Metal
community’s negative views on commercialization of music. Waksman has correctly
informed the reader of the different styles in which Metallica has produced their songs
and how that has expanded the boundaries of the genre, Waksman could have
embellished the fact that every Metallica album has been different from the preceding
ones not only in sound and image of the band but also the compositional style. Each
album of Metallica can be looked as an experiment some preferred by fans some not.
Waksman critiques Pillsbury claiming that he does not mention the metal underground
scene that was set in 1990’s, but Pillsbury was focusing on Metallica and the factors that
affected it. The metal underground scene and Metallica were two different points then
with almost no relation between them, as ever since Metallica became commercial they
were catering the general masses with a sort of popular rock and the people that were
involved with the metal underground scene disliked the bands popularized music and its
commercial success. Further Waksman impeached Pillsbury for not mentioning the
effect of grunge on metal, as it is accepted that grunge overthrew metal as the popular
commercial music of the time. Pillsbury is correct in not taking grunge in account as the
most successful multiplatinum album of Metallica (Metallica or The Black Album) was
released on August 13th 1991 and the album supposed of have put an end to metal
Nirvana’s Nevermind was released on September 24th 1991 and yet the Black Album
was no.1 on Billboard 200, UK album chart and Australian ARIA Album chart going 15x
Platinum in US sales alone and won the band numerous Grammys and one MTV music
award.
Waksman continues to write on Khan-Harris’s book Extreme Metal. Extreme Metal deals
with the metal society and how it is self sustaining and has grown over the last 2
decades since the end of the ‘Metal Reign’. Waksman notes an excellent observation
made in Khan-Harris’s book claiming metal scenes flourish in areas of the world that are
close to, but slightly removed from the centers of global power. A good example to
further prove this point is the 2008 world tour of Iron Maiden called “ Flight 666” over
South America had over 200,000 fans show up (Iron Maiden Flight 666 DVD),
something that most of the metal world just had a nostalgia for. Waksman states Khan-
Harris did not express how extreme metal is expressed and how that intensity is
conveyed to the audience. Expression and Intensity are very subjective to the venue,
the audience and most of all the band playing. It would be contrary to reason to try to
put the intensity and expression of extreme metal in words as it would be best
understood when experienced in person. Extreme Metal is a vague term to describe a
wide range of heavy music and hence have many different sounds. The scenes Khan-
Harris talks about in his book are more towards grindcore a subgenre especially for
bass and drum players as it has scope for complex rhythm patterns and virtuosic
expression. Other subgenres like shred metal, symphonic metal have scope for
keyboard/piano and guitar expression. That’s perhaps the reason why Khan-Harris
could not get inside the workings of extreme metal as Pillsbury did in analyzing the
music of Metallica as this was spotted by Waksman.

Overall Steve Waksman has shown both the books in a positive light and made them
very intriguing for the reader to read. Waksman makes a very valuable point towards the
end of his review that both the books are a major contribution to the scholarly literature
on heavy metal and together the two books provide rich understanding of metal, and
should open the way for further studies in the diversity and complexity of heavy metal.

Glenn T. Pillsbury received his Phd. In musicology from UCLA in 2003. In addition to the
subject of Metallica, he has lectured on issues of history and performance in barbershop
music, technique and transcendence in the music of metal guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, as
well as the complexities of history and musical identity within the metal tribute band
phenomenon.

Keith Kahn-Harris received his doctorate from Goldsmiths' College in 2001. His thesis
was entitled 'Transgression and Mundanity: The Global Extreme Metal Music Scene',
and was based on fieldwork conducted in Sweden, Israel and the UK. He has published
on issues surrounding transgression, music, racism and globalisation. He is the co-
editor of the collection After Subculture (Palgrave, 2003). He has been a Fellow at the
Mandel School for Advanced Educational Leadership, Jerusalem, and a visiting scholar
at Monash University Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization, Melbourne. He currently
works as an independent research consultant, specialising in the field of Jewish
communal and educational development

Steve Waksman is Assistant Professor of Music and American Studies at Smith

College. He is the author of Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping
of Musical Experience, and has published essays on the guitar and its history in The
Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World,
and Guitar Cultures. Currently, he is working on a revisionist history of heavy metal and
punk rock, titled The Noise of Youth: Rethinking Rock Through the Metal/Punk
Continuum. He is also occasional lead guitarist for the Distractions.

By Pranay

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References

Kahn-Harris K. (2010) Welcome. Internet Publications. Available from:

http://kahn-harris.org/ [Accessed 28:th January 2010].

Christe I. (2003) Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of

Heavy Metal, HarperCollins.
Chirazi S. & Metallica (2004). So What!: The Good, The Mad, and The Ugly.
Broadway.
Pillsbury G. (2006). Damage Incorporated: Metallica and the Production of
Musical Identity. Routledge.

Kahn-Harris K. (2007) Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge Oxford. Berg,
Oxford.