Heavy metal, identity work and social transition: implications for young people's well being in the Australian context
Files
(Published version)
Date
2011
Authors
Rowe, P.
Editors
McKinnon, C.A.
Scott, N.
Solee, K.
Scott, N.
Solee, K.
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Conference paper
Citation
Can I play with madness? Metal, dissonance, madness and alienation, 2011 / McKinnon, C.A., Scott, N., Solee, K. (ed./s), pp.79-89
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Heavy Fundamentalism, Music, Metal and Politics (8 Nov 2010 - 10 Nov 2010 : Prague, Czech Republic)
Abstract
Australia brands itself as a multi-cultural society that embraces social and cultural diversity, yet this rhetoric appears somewhat limited to ethnic and religious diversity and less likely to extend to embracing youth cultures and lifestyles on the periphery. This paper previews forthcoming doctoral research that will investigate the significance of heavy metal music and its culture for young people’s ‘identity work’ in Australia. Specifically, the research aims to investigate how and why young people use heavy metal music and lifestyles to forge ‘chosen’ social identities; and how the process of forging chosen metal identities affects young people’s social transitions through various social contexts, particularly schooling and school to work transitions. The emphasis on transitions through education and employment stems from current Australian policy prescriptions that demand young people to be engaged in either ‘earning or learning’. The focus of these policies is to responsibilise young people towards linear developmental pathways, largely neglecting and/or negating other structural and cultural factors or lifestyle options. In Sam Dunne’s 2006 documentary Metal, A Headbanger’s Journey, Rob Zombie (referring to metalheads1) suggests that nobody wants to be the ‘weird’ kid, but inevitably there are young people who end up as loners, or outsiders, and are thus drawn to the outsider elements of heavy metal music and its culture. Despite the enduring social disapproval of ‘metal’ as an identity, a core of young metalheads exist in schools across western nations which leads this paper to preview the following research questions. What do young people perceive to gain from forging metal identities against a backdrop of ‘normalising’ policy regimes; and what are the implications of these experiences for young people’s social transitions and personal wellbeing?