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I am the Black Wizards: Multiplicity, Mysticism and Identity in Black Metal Music and Culture

Olson, Benjamin Hedge
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1206132032

Abstract Details

2008, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture.
Black metal represents one of the most dramatic, violent and obscure representations of contemporary international popular culture; it is an extremist sect of an extremist sect. An understanding of popular culture's most extreme polarities is imperative to an understanding of its range and general character. I will argue that black metal culture is radically different from all other forms of metal and must be understood as a unique form of cultural expression that signifies a dramatic break from both traditional metal and secular modernism. Although black metal has proliferated across the world, taking up certain indigenous variations in its various locations, it has retained three basic characteristics that make it exceptional and significant: 1.) Black Metal is characterized by a conflict between radical individualism and group identity and by an attempt to accept both polarities simultaneously. 2.) Black metal is centered on an extravagantly romantic view of nature and an idealized past, both of these concepts being very much intertwined. 3.) Black metal celebrates the irrational and primal; it is a critique of modern rationalism and secularism.
Esther Clinton, PhD (Committee Chair)
Jeremy Wallach, PhD (Committee Member)
Marilyn Motz, PhD (Committee Member)
134 p.
American Studies
black metal; heavy metal; extreme metal

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Olson, B. H. (2008). I am the Black Wizards: Multiplicity, Mysticism and Identity in Black Metal Music and Culture [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1206132032

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Olson, Benjamin. I am the Black Wizards: Multiplicity, Mysticism and Identity in Black Metal Music and Culture. 2008. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1206132032.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Olson, Benjamin. "I am the Black Wizards: Multiplicity, Mysticism and Identity in Black Metal Music and Culture." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1206132032

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1206132032
16,643
© 2008, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.