Peter Pichler Bücher

Im Heavy Metal wird seit jeher der Mythos gepflegt, die gesamte Szene bewege sich ausserhalb aller gesellschaftlicher und kulturelle Normen. Dieses Outlaw-Ideal begegnet in paradigmatischer Weise in dem Klassiker Breaking the Law von Judas Priest. Obwohl sich diese Vorstellung als wichtiger Teil des Identitatsfundaments der Metal-Szene etablierte, gibt es bis heute keine Forschungen, die nach dem Zusammenhang von Rechtsbezug, Szene-Ethos und Sound im Heavy Metal fragen. In der vorliegenden Pionierstudie untersucht der Kulturhistoriker Peter Pichler, wie die uber vierzigjahrige Geschichte der lokalen Metal-Szene in Graz und der Steiermark durch diese Aspekte gepragt wurde. Dem Autor gelingt der Nachweis, dass man die Entstehung der individuellen Klanglichkeit des Metals durch das kulturelle Zusammenspiel von Recht, Moral und Sound erklaren kann.

Metal Studies is a „booming“ research field that has gained tremendous momentum in recent years. In this field, Heavy Metal is studied both as a cultural practice and as a musical genre. However, many of the most urgent conceptual questions have remained unanswered - especially those that lie outside the research interests of the founding disciplines of Metal Studies. This first volume of the book series „Meta/Metal“ tries to answer some of these questions. The book brings together contributions by leading scholars and young experts, each of which responds to one of the conceptual desiderata that have so far arisen in Metal Studies. All of the contributions share a commitment to combining basic research with empirical accuracy in this research field.

Metal Studies is a genuinely interdisciplinary research field. However, different specialist traditions, differing theoretical and methodological approaches, and also terminological "translation difficulties" make collaboration within the field difficult. This volume aims to explore the potential and limitations of interdisciplinary work by examining an example area - the laws of Heavy Metal - from the point of view of central disciplines. Laws are regarded as social conventions - i.e., rules that are made by human beings and are culturally stable. Examples of laws include conventions of musical language, the dress code in the metal scene, behavioural norms, and conventions in writing song lyrics. The volume includes contributions from the fields of law, social ethics, art history, religious studies, musicology, sociology, linguistics, and cultural history.