Metal on Merseyside

This is the first book to examine the partially hidden history of metal music scenes within the city of Liverpool and the surrounding region of Merseyside in the North-West of England. It reveals that while Liverpool has historically been portrayed as a certain kind of 'music city,' metal has been marginalized within its music heritage narratives. This marginality was not inevitable. The book illustrates how it is not merely the product of historical representation but the result of forces of urban change and regional shifts in the economy of live music. Nor is this marginality inconsequential. Drawing on ethnographic research, Nedim Hassan demonstrates that it has influenced how the region's metal scenes are perceived and how people feel towards them.

Metal on Merseyside reveals how various people involved with such scenes work within often challenging circumstances to sustain the production of metal music and events. It also reveals the tensions that arise as scenemembers' desires for an ideal metal community collide with forces of change. Metal on Merseyside is, therefore, a fascinating barometer for the contradictions apparent when people engage in creative labour to produce music that they love.

Explores the metal music scenes in the city of Liverpool and the Merseyside region in the North-West of England Examines rock music scenes that have remained largely invisible within accounts of the area's recent history, both in popular and academic writing Explicates how people have worked within often challenging circumstances to sustain the production of metal music within a changing city region

Autorentext
Nedim Hassan is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Liverpool John Moores University, UK.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: in the shadow of Beat city?.- 2. City of extreme metal? Characterizing Liverpool and Merseyside's relationship with metal.- 3. Venues and urban change.- 4. 'Support your scene': metal scenes, solidarity and the threat of decline.- 5. Promoting metal on Merseyside.- 6. Mediating metal on Merseyside.- 7. Performing Metal on Merseyside.- 8. Conclusion: standing in diminishing shadows.