A discourse analysis of the construction of gender in the performance of metal music

Sara Beya

Master thesis, 30 hp Gender Studies: Master Thesis 2020 30 hp Spring term 2020

Abstract

This study focuses on how gender is discursively constructed by the stereotypical metal performer in the metal scene, since these types of performances has been largely un- problematized in previous metal scholarship. Through discourse analysis of music videos and live performances of three metal artists this study presents the doing of gender in the metal scene in a way which portrays every act, body feature, movement, spatial use and sexual display, as equal parts of a gender performance. The results present how gendered identities and gendered bodies are discursively created in the performance of metal music.

Keywords: metal, masculinity, doing gender, discourse analysis, discursive creation of the body

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...... 1

PURPOSE, AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...... 2 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ...... 3

METAL STUDIES HISTORY ...... 4 OVER-THE-TOP MASCULINITY IN METAL ...... 4 The exception of glam metal? ...... 5 QUEERING THE METAL SCENE ...... 6 A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF MASCULINITY IN METAL STUDIES ...... 6 THEORY ...... 7

A DISCURSIVE APPROACH TO CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS AND SUBJECT POSITIONS ...... 8 DOING GENDER IN METAL ...... 9 DISCURSIVE CREATION OF SEXED BODIES ...... 10 THE INVISIBLE MASCULINE GENDER ...... 11 METHOD AND MATERIAL ...... 12

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS METHOD ...... 13 MATERIAL ...... 14 DATA GATHERING AND ANALYZING PROCESS ...... 15 ANALYSIS ...... 16

LOOKS – BODIES CRAFTED INTO GENDERS ...... 16 Body features ...... 17 Muscles, tattoos, body hair and sweat ...... 17 Long hair – “flow it, show it, long as God can grow it” ...... 18 Clothing, makeup, jewelry and boots –“ I’m on my heals and looking pretty” ...... 19 Topless ...... 20 Discourse: A masculine gendered body ...... 20 MOVEMENTS ...... 21 Body language: posture, walking, dancing and headbanging ...... 21 Displaying able-bodiedness –“ Jump!”...... 21 Showing off the body ...... 22 Discourse: Masculine gendered movements ...... 23 SPACE – LOUD AND PROUD PRIMA DONNAS ...... 23 Space – “Here I am” ...... 23 Demanding attention – “let me hear you get wild!” ...... 24 Discourse: Gendered space consuming in metal ...... 25 SEXUALITY – HYPERSEXUAL ROCK GOD ...... 25 Sexual being ...... 25 Heterosexuality and the masculinity of sex ...... 26 Discourse: Oversexualized, heterosexual, masculine...... 28 RECKLESS AND REBELLIOUS – “YOUTH GONE WILD” ...... 28 NOT FEMALE – “GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS” ...... 30 Men are active, women are passive – and uninteresting ...... 31 Discourse of gendered difference ...... 32 METAL AND MASCULINITY – “ALL RIGHT NOW BOYS LET’S SHOUT TODAY” ...... 32 Not any other band, not any other thing –“ Ice Ice Baby Fuck off Fuck off” ...... 32 Authenticity ...... 33 Metal community and the metal audience ...... 34 Bandmates ...... 35 Discourse of metal – “trying to beat the boys at their own game” ...... 35 CONCLUSION ...... 36

REFERENCES ...... 41

APPENDIX: NOTES ON REFERENCES IN THE HEADINGS: ...... 49

The references for the headings, from the front page and throughout the thesis, can be found in the appendix.

INTRODUCTION

The musical genre metal is widely known and appreciated. The phenomenon of metal culture has gotten the attention of a myriad of scholars, conducting research that spans over both decades and disciplines. This research has found that the culture of metal is rank with misogynistic, heteronormative values and with stereotypical masculinity in abundance. Yet, there are women and others who would seem marginalized within the metal scene that still manages to partake in and enjoy the music and to make themselves into intelligible subjects within that genre. Their experiences have been sought after and documented, through much of queer metal scholarship – however, there seems to be a prominent lack regarding those that do fit in, regarding the “experience of masculinity” within the genre (Jones 2018, 31-32).

“An important reason that gender studies still needs to deal with the phenomenon of heavy metal is that the stereotypical image of it as an irony-free culture, where the conservative hegemonic masculinity ideals still apply must be dissected” (Heesch and Scott 2016, 30).

Since the culture of metal is a male dominated area, the male presence is largely taken for granted and the aspect that those with a body understood as male perform their gender to the same extent as those understood as female, has not been much on the agenda. In recent studies of gender in metal music, it has been duly noted that the area experiences a lack. Metal music is by and for young, white, able-bodied men – so the only justifiable question to ask in gender research of the area seems to be how the queer metalheads1 fit in, discursively create themselves and make themselves into intelligible subjects in such an environment. But I rather find myself wondering how the young, white, able-bodied men make themselves into intelligible subjects in such an environment. I want to unearth their everyday struggle to mold and shape themselves into the discourse that turns them into “metal gods”.

I think that we constantly form ourselves according to and are formed by others in discourse. If I am to be perceived as a young, white, able-bodied man, I must continually position myself in such a way. Discourses are contingent, constantly moving, never fixed. I might have some physical attributes that “help” me to be discursively created and re-created where I “want” to be, but I must also present myself in such a way that makes these traits visible. In line with

1 A metalhead is a fan of metal music 1

Butler (1988; 1993), I do not think that there is a clear separation of sex and gender, and that this is something that needs to be adhered to in a gender analysis. There is no “doing gender” without first “doing sex”, therefore I argue that part of “doing gender” consists of also presenting your body in a certain way – what you do with your body will have dire consequences for how your gender is to be perceived.

The metal scholars’ lack of interest in the men of metal doing gender in a stereotypical masculine way, shows that this phenomenon has a distinct naturalness about it, which seems to have made it unworthy of research. In line with Jones (2018, 31-32), I argue that the experience of men’s perception of gender within metal need to be further looked into, “[a]nd, until this research has been established, it would appear that male experiences will continue to be situated by scholars as being “normal”.”

Purpose, aim and research questions

“Given its popularity, visibility and complexity, the scholarly study of heavy metal needs no justification.” (Spracklen, Brown and Kahn-Harris 2011, 209)

Metal music had its heyday in the 1980s (see Klypchak and Brown 2007; Howe and Friedman 2014; Griffin 2014), so how can it still be considered to be a relevant topic? The area of metal studies is still flourishing. In line with Spracklen, Brown and Kahn-Harris (2011), Griffin (2014) and Howe and Friedman (2014), to name a few, I argue that the scope of my study, albeit revolving around material produced in the 1980s, is still highly approachable to audiences, new and old. Even those that were not part of the scene in the 1980s, can and do take part of this material today. As a material to be analyzed, it is not less relevant than music videos and live performances of today since people still see it and make sense of it.

I argue that the naturalization of gender stereotypes has not been problematized enough within metal studies, and I want to challenge the perceived notion that the white, young, able- bodied men just woke up metal gods one day and went out and displayed their “natural selves”. It needs to be realized that they too are constructed – that it is not only those that do not fit in that perform their gender. In order to give all gender displays of metal equal recognition, my purpose is to fill the gap that exists regarding the analyzing of the conforming male displays of doing gender in the metal scene, in the hopes of being able to fight taken for granted stereotypes and give a more diverse take on those performances. In order to shed light upon the contingency of discourses regarding gender performances as well as on the restraints

2 in the possibilities for how each and every one of us presents ourselves intelligibly – I think this sort of research is necessary. And that goes for the men of the metal scene as well.

The aim of this study is to analyze how the stereotypical gender performances within the metal scene are discursively constructed, and further to add the discursive creation of the body to a greater extent to the discussion on aspects of performing gender. I will do this by analyzing music videos and live performances by three artists who fit the description of a stereotypical metal performer in the musical genre metal. I will be analyzing material produced from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, at the height of metal’s popularity, and the analysis will be carried out with the following research questions:

How is gender discursively constructed by an individual who bears traits and prerequisites of a stereotypical metal performer within the musical genre metal?

What discourses regarding body features, behavioral traits, spatial use and movements are distinguishable?

In what ways do these different discourses construct a subject position as a gendered identity for the metal performer?

In what ways does the belonging to the metal scene impact on how the gender performance is expressed?

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Metal studies first appeared in the early 1990s and has since grown to be a rather large area of study. The field spans from sociological culture studies (e.g. Weinstein 2000) to gender studies (e.g. Heesch and Scott 2016; Clifford-Napoleon 2015) , as well as containing lyrical analyses in an attempt to understand the effects that the music has on its listeners (e.g. Conway and McGrain 2016; Rafalovich 2006), among other areas. I will mainly focus on how the aspect of gender has been touched upon and therein mainly on how masculinity has been addressed in metal studies. I will be using the term “metal” as I am referring to metal music, as suggested by Weinstein (2000, 55) it’s a term that refers to both heavy metal and subgenres, such as glam metal, thrash metal and death metal.

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Metal studies history

Weinstein (2000)2 and Walser (1993) were the pioneers of metal scholarship. Weinstein (2000) gives a thorough introduction to the world of metal, presenting the culture from a sociological perspective and giving a broad description of the area. The inherent masculinity of the genre did not go unnoticed in her accounts as she presented the emergence of the musical genre and its culture. She found the audience, as well as the performers, of “heavy metal in the 1970s was made up mainly of blue-collar, white, adolescent males” (Weinstein 2000, 66). Walser (1993, 24) agrees with this account of the musical genre’s audience in its early stage but notes that as metal music reached mainstream success in the 1980s, its audience became more diverse, regarding both gender and age. This alternation in the audience however did not seem to make much of a difference in the inherent masculinity of metal music, the culture or the performers. Women doesn’t seem to have much of a role to play in the metal scene in Weinstein’s (2000, 69) accounts, on the contrary she presents women that in some way emerge on the scene as “trying to beat the boys at their own game”. The apparent misogyny of the scene Weinstein (2000, 67) found closely connected to the inherent masculinity and suggested it might have had more to do with “a rejection of the cultural values associated with femininity” than actual, pure misogyny, thus connected to the binary opposites of masculine and feminine in society at large. More or less all of the metal studies to follow Weinstein (2000) and Walser (1993) put their own work in relation to theirs, usually emphasizing or clarifying points that were considered lost or understudied.

Over-the-top Masculinity in Metal

Metal is known for displaying “over-the-top masculinity” (Kahn-Harris 2016, 41). Hindrichs (2016) agrees on the strong connotations of masculinity that surrounds metal music and culture but acknowledges that this so-called fact is strengthened and recreated every time it’s stated. Hindrichs (2016, 178-179) sees masculinity as inscribed in the very core of metal in various ways and on different levels, regarding both the qualities of the music, imagery, bodily features of performers and the audience alike, concluding that “[h]eavy metal’s concept of masculinity is constructed at all these levels in equal measure” (see also Kahn- Harris 2016, 62-63). Kahn-Harris (2016, 63) brings forth the concept of a “metal identity triad” which is “expressed through the constructions of white, heteronormative masculinity”.

2 Weinstein’s book on metal was first published as Heavy metal, A cultural sociology in 1991, and then a revised copy of the book, Heavy Metal – the music and its culture, was published in 2000. It is the book from 2000 that I will be referring to. 4

Not all parts of this triad are equally important, but rather masculinity is its first and foremost characteristic (Kahn-Harris 2016, 64). Kahn-Harris (2016, 63) also explains that essentialism and being true (authenticity) are important within metal, and in line with both the notion of essentialism and masculinity as significant parts of the culture, Kahn-Harris is on the same note as Weinstein (2000, 67) who claims it may well be rather culturally connoted traits of femininity that are in stark contrast with metal culture than actual women.

The constant re-ascribing of masculinity as a core value in metal is further noted by Chaker (2016) as she addressed what words were used to describe music. In order to keep the metal genre coded masculine, it is constantly described in terms which are coded masculine; “[t]he gendered coding of music in the scene discourse is thus implicitly associated with a judgement: ‘good’ music sounds ‘male,’ whereas ‘bad’ music sounds ‘female’ or ‘gay’” (Chaker 2016, 231-232). This finding can be compared to Overell’s (2016) study of masculinity in the extreme metal scene of Osaka, in which the word “brutal”, of masculine connotations, is commonly used to describe the music itself, a certain band within the genre or the audience’s experience.

The exception of glam metal?

The subgenre glam metal can be considered to be the most elaborate gender play of metal, because of the abundance of makeup and big hair in the performance of both men and women. However, Ables (2016, 168) argues that the bands of glam metal used these aesthetics “to such an extreme that they were no longer feminine, but purely sexual beings.” As androgynous as the glam metal scene may seem, it is only the superficial appearance that is in any way gender bending. If anything, the men of glam metal to a higher degree than in other metal genres highlighted their masculinity by “hyper-masculine activity” (Ables 2016, 168) and heterosexuality by being “surrounded by sexily attired femme fatales” in music videos and the relentless mentioning of “their ever-present and willing groupies and having strippers as romantic partners” in interviews (Kahn-Harris 2016, 44). Since both femininity and homosexuality was so far away from the metal scene, the masculinity and heterosexuality of stars of glam metal would never be questioned, and thus the “gender-bending in 1980s glam metal” is to be considered as nothing other than “safe play” (Kahn-Harris 2016, 64). The glam metal scene is thus an eloquent example of how traits expressed within a culture must be analyzed and addressed according to that culture in order to be intelligible.

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Queering the metal scene

“For queer fans of heavy metal, masculinity is nothing more than a drag show” (Clifford-Napoleon 2016, 82).

Studies of metal which address gender in a somewhat critical way, try to show that the studies that have hitherto been made have emphasized a stereotypical metal fan and/or performer that just doesn’t reflect reality. There has also been numerous attempts at queering the scene in showing that previous scholars of the subject has categorically looked past all the queers who have made a place for themselves in the metal scene in some way, either as performers or fans. The claim in this research is that “heavy metal is not inherently masculine at all, that masculinity is only a performance, an illusion that has come off the stage and entered scholarship” (Clifford-Napoleone 2016, 82). It is further asserted that the signifiers of metal “from leather jackets to guttural lyrics” has been wrongly understood as something connected to “lower class, uneducated, white, heterosexual and male” (Clifford-Napoleone 2015, 111). Clifford-Napoleone (2015, 19) tries to “[create] the possibility for unchaining masculinity from the white male body” by dissecting the essence of metal and disconnecting its core values from masculinity or the male body. She notes that a trait considered masculine as it is performed by a male body simply isn’t understood the same way as it is performed by a female body, and as such “the illusion of heterosexual male masculinity causes female masculinity to be coded as a defective copy of the male body” (Clifford-Napoleone 2015, 93).

A different perspective of masculinity in metal studies

“Although gender as a social construct is emphasized, the experience of male heavy metal fans, as being in receipt of masculinity, seems relatively trouble- free and given as stable” (Jones 2018, 7)

A strain of gender-based scholarship regarding metal has arisen, that wants to challenge the music as crowded with “misogyny and sexual objectification” of women (Griffin 2014, 80). Such studies usually make an effort to highlight how female metal musicians made their place and defended their space within the genre, as well as how female metal fans of today negotiate their identity to somehow fit in – how the “portrayal of heavy metal music as subordinating women at the behest of hypersexual, hypermasculine rock gods” can be understood as something else than just misogynistic sexism (Griffin 2014, 80). Nordström and Hertz (2013) claim that from a gender perspective it is important to examine how women

6 make a place for themselves in metal because the culture is so male dominated, macho and heteronormative. However, as this aim is being carried out, with mainly women in the focus, the gender representation of men in the genre comes off as stable (Jones 2018).

Scott (2016, 217) tries to unravel the “myths of gender” in metal, as he takes issue with previous descriptions of masculinity of metal personas which he feels are much more diverse, shifting and contextual than given credit for. Other scholars on this same track as Scott, are Elflein (2016) and Jones (2018). Both Elflein (2016) and Jones (2018) reaches the conclusion that hegemonic masculinity traits can be and is resisted within metal. In Jones’ study on masculine traits which are shown on the cover of the metal magazine Kerrang!, he finds that the male, masculine presentations are oversimplified and largely viewed as natural and stable. Jones (2018, 7) finds that previous research on gender in metal has been focusing mainly on “the ways that women perform gender in heavy metal contexts, the role of men in heavy metal is often situated as being stable in comparison.” And on the same note as Clifford- Napoleone (2015), it is asserted that “particular qualities of heavy metal that are presumed to be masculine-coded are not exclusively available to men” (Hill 2016 in Jones 2018, 7-8). It is found problematic that “themes related to masculinity are often automatically positioned as naturally male” (Jones 2018, 13). Jones (2018, 13) critiques previous studies for their lack of realization that men, as well as women, performing masculinity must negotiate their gender, in their conclusions that “no negotiating is done by male fans in order to align with the gender codes of heavy metal culture and that, perceivably, male fans can just be their natural selves without being subject to scrutiny”.

THEORY

A theory can only be explained, and is only intelligible, from the views of certain standpoints – and that’s where epistemology and ontology comes into the picture. Epistemology is defined as “the nature and conditions of knowledge” (Code 2000, 170). Who is allowed to speak where and what is perceived as knowledge in what conditions, are questions likely to be asked within the scope of a study with a feminist epistemological standpoint. Ontology is described as a theory of reality, of “what entities exist, how is it possible for them to do so, and what […] the relations [are] among them” (Thalos 2000, 369-370).

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The theoretical standpoints from which I conduct this study entail a social constructivist approach to the notion of knowledge and reality. The social constructivist approach “acknowledges that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning in language. Things don’t mean: we construct meaning, using representational systems – concepts and signs.” (Hall 1997:25)

The first and foremost theoretical concept through which I conduct this study is the theory of discourse, and this concept “is not about whether things exist, but about where meaning comes from” (Hall 1997, 45). The discourse theory is originally Foucault’s, but it has been adapted and interpreted in various ways. The inherent claim within discourse theory is that the real power lies in the power of knowledge and the power of language – “since we can only have knowledge of things if they have a meaning, it is discourse – not the things-in- themselves – which produces knowledge” (Hall 1997, 45). In the following sections I will more closely describe how discursive approaches are interwoven into the theoretical concepts that have guided the analysis in this study, in connection to culture, gender and bodies.

A discursive approach to cultural representations and subject positions

The power produced by discourse, is produced by hegemonies, and closely connected to the power of knowledge. It’s not about prohibition against ways of talking or behaving, but you have yourself little to no power over how your actions and words will be interpreted. They will be interpreted in accordance with the culture in which they’re performed. The possible choices are limited, as “[p]eople are, like society, fundamentally socially shaped […] and the possibilities we have for reshaping the structures are set by earlier structures” (Jørgensen and Philips 2010, 38). The analyzing of cultural representations acknowledges the larger units of a culture – “narratives, statements, groups of images” (Hall 1997, 42) – upon which the discourses that make up a culture are built. The representations and practices that are carried out within this culture, must be understood according to dictating discourses abound to be at all intelligible. Weinstein (2016, 39) asserts that “[c]ultural play does not occur in a social vacuum. Metal musicians, like all musicians, are embedded in a web of social relations that includes them, their fans and institutional mediators […] it is not possible to imagine any cultural form existing without a network of social interaction that sustains and embodies it.”

In this study, I am looking at how certain subjects presents themselves (and in so, doing gender) within a certain culture (the culture of the metal scene). As they become part of this scene, they are subjected to the discourse of metal, at the same time as they are subjected to

8 other discourses, such as discourses regarding gender. But although the discourses may differ, the subjects can never step out of discourse all-together. Hall (1997, 55) describes that this view of discourse and constructionism “did a great deal to displace the subject from a privileged position in relation to knowledge and meaning”, to the extent that “’the subject’ is produced within discourse.” Within the discourse the subject emerges, and it is only through the rules of the discourse that the subject can present themselves intelligibly. The subject must be “subjected to discourse” (Hall 1997, 55) to be at all.

Doing gender in metal

The term “doing gender”, coined by West and Zimmerman (1987), describes gender as something that you not simply are but rather something that you do. Doing gender is a concept applicable to everything that a person partakes in – in every single act, in everything you do – you do gender. West and Zimmerman (1987) discarded the term “gender role” because a role played is understood as something you do in certain circumstances, but that you will, eventually, step out of. But “doing gender is unavoidable” (West and Zimmerman 1987, 137), because whether you like it or not, your acts will be comprehended in relation to the sex category which you’re ascribed. Sex category is understood as the sex that you would appear to be, how most men and women are divided on a daily basis without any further investigations of your “real” sex (and “sex” is thus defined as something you can categorize people by, such as chromosomes, or sex organs). This doing of gender should however not be understood as something that is done at one’s own will, as “[o]ne only determines ‘one’s own’ sense of gender to the extent that social norms exist that support and enable that act of claiming gender for oneself” (Butler 2004, 7). This view is closely connected to Clifford- Napoleone’s (2015, 93) claim that “the illusion of heterosexual male masculinity causes female masculinity to be coded as a defective copy of the male body”.

The term “doing metal” has been suggested as a way of “conceptualizing it as a culture practice or rather a collection of practices”, showing both the coherences and differences of the various ways one can perform or in other ways partake in the metal culture (Hecker in Heesch and Scott 2016, 33). Doing metal differs from doing gender, in that the term doing gender refers to something that is being done constantly by an individual, while doing metal is rather what is being done within a certain scene or space, but by different people.

Rather than just “doing gender” and “doing metal”, I am dissecting the “doing of gender in metal”. “Doing gender” is never culturally disconnected; what is understood as the doing of a

9 certain gender in a certain culture, does not necessarily transcend smoothly to be understood in the same way in another culture. Thus, there is a distinctive way of doing gender in metal; one prominent example being the long hair. Long, flowing, glossy hair is widely perceived as bearing feminine connotations, but in metal there is nothing feminine about it. On the contrary, long hair is considered a necessary, masculine trait in a man. So even though most traits considered to be masculine within metal are considered masculine also in other cultures, it is important to be aware of the certain cultural connotations of the space you’re analyzing. (see also how Nordström and Hertz describe “doing heavy metal” 2013, 456-458).

Discursive creation of sexed bodies

The common divide between nature and culture, between sex and gender, is present also within the concept of “doing gender”. It is the gender which is theorized and problematized, not the sex. West and Zimmerman’s (1987) concept of doing gender is immensely popular within gender studies, even though it is built upon the notion that the sex “just is”. They do make note of the “sex category”, but the discussion on how this comes to be stops quite superficially. Sex, sex category and gender do not have to correlate to each other, or should at least be understood as separate entities, but it is only “gender” that the individual is considered to be “doing”. The discussion on sex ends on the note that it is a matter of definition, and whether this definition should be about chromosomes, sex organs, or something else. But if the doing of gender is to consist of intelligible and meaningful acts, the body performing the acts must have been assigned a sex. In just analyzing the doing of gender, and not the doing of sex or, indeed, the very body itself, there needs to be a pre- discursive understanding of the sex of a body, which I, in line with Butler (1993, xi) do not have. Butler (1993, 2) writes that “’[s]ex’ is, thus, not simply what one has, or a static description of what one is: it will be one of the norms by which the ‘one’ becomes viable at all, that which qualifies a body for life within the domain of cultural intelligibility”. How is the doing of gender to be understood, if the body that performs the gender doesn’t have a determined sex? The sex of a body is made intelligible through discourse – and the sex of a body must be intelligible for the body to be intelligible, as there is no such thing as a sex-less body.

Butler (1988, 525) asserts that bodies are crafted into genders, as a body is understood as masculine or feminine, it becomes masculine or feminine, and is “trained, shaped, cultivated” and “effectively materialized” accordingly (Butler 1993, 33). This understanding of gender

10 entails an understanding of the discursive forces that keep placing a certain body in a certain realm of understanding, that “[t]hrough the gender system, gender meaning becomes embodied” (Gullvåg Holter 2005, 21).

The analyzing of a gendered identity entails the analyzing of the bodily adaptions and prerequisites that go with it. Butler (1988, 519) finds that “gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self”. The performative acts, of which a gendered identity is made (Butler 1988) are performed from a sexed position, the subject “is constituted through the act of taking its sexed place” (Butler 1993,95). The body is part of the gendered performance, “it is through the body that gender and sexuality become exposed to others, implicated in social processes, inscribed by cultural norms, and apprehended in their social meanings” (Butler 2004, 20). But where to draw the distinctive line between sex and gender? In Butler’s (1988, 524) view, “if gender is the cultural significance that the sexed body assumes, and if that significance is codetermined through various acts and their cultural perception, then it would appear that from within the terms of culture it is not possible to know sex as distinct from gender”. You simply cannot have one without the other.

The invisible masculine gender

Kimmel (1993) asserts that masculinity has been somewhat sidetracked in the ongoing gender debate that emerged within feminism. He claims that feminism has done a great job in revealing the importance that the aspect of gender has on women’s lives but has failed to add men to the same extent to that argumentation, which leads to masculinity becoming invisible. When masculinity is not being conceived as a constructed gender to the same extent as femininity, men appear non-gendered – normal and thus the norm, to which other genders will be judged accordingly (Kimmel 1993, Kimmel, Hearn and Connell 2005).

In the understanding of masculinity as a constructed gender to the same extent as femininity, it needs to be taken into account that “[m]asculinities do not exist in social and cultural vacuum but rather are constructed within specific institutional settings” (Kimmel, Hearn and Connell 2005, 8). The understanding of the power relations between different masculinities emerged largely with the concept of hegemonic masculinity (see Connell 1983, 1990 in Gerschick 2005, 373). Connell and Messerschmidt (2005, 844) points out that it takes “considerable effort to maintain” a “masculine domination”. It’s constant work to make sure

11 that the traits of hegemonic masculinity are indeed connected to certain bodies, that the values of hegemonic masculinity are reproduced and highly valued. The aim of the concept hegemonic masculinity is to describe that there are different sorts of masculinities, and the term is closely connected to that of patriarchy, thus speaking of structures in society, which does not necessarily adhere to every single individual, but cause differences and patterns which can be seen at a structural level.

To tie to the previous discussion on discursive creation of bodies, Gerschick (2005, 374) notes the importance of bodily normativity for masculinity and asserts that “[p]hysical constructions of bodies […] is intimately linked to social construction”. He lists a number of traits for such a normative body, claiming that “bodies are central to achieving social recognition as appropriately gendered beings […] men’s gender performance tends to be judged using the standard of hegemonic masculinities” (Connell 1983, 1990 in Gerschick 2005, 373). A lot of the traits listed can be directly linked to traits associated with masculine gender performance within metal (such as activeness, athleticism, sexual desirability and virility, see Weinstein 2000 and Walser 1993). And the traits that Gerschick (2005, 373) identifies as signs of apt masculinity in the developing world – “toughness, the ability to endure pain and drink to excess, willingness to take risks, and sexual performance” – might be even more spot on as it comes to treasured masculine traits in metal (see Weinstein 2000 and Walser 1993).

Just as Jones (2018) argues, since the metal scene is at large masculinity connotated, masculinity is considered the norm within that realm, and as the norm masculinity becomes invisible, and is not studied further. This reproduces inequality for women, who are constantly compared to the norms of men (Clifford-Napoleon 2015; Weinstein 2000), but also for men who are not considered manly enough (Jones 2018; Elflein 2016). Thus, we have traits that are deemed to be the signs of masculinity, even hegemonic masculinity, that are within metal rather the “signs of metal”. As these are performed by a man in metal, merely as “doing metal”, they become invisible.

METHOD AND MATERIAL

As images, moving or still, are part of one’s material for a study, it should be acknowledged that they are produced with a meaning – images “interpret the world” and “display it in very particular ways; they represent it” (Rose 2016, 2). It is not only in the producing of the images

12 that meaning is created, but also in the consuming of them, “what is seen and how it is seen are culturally constructed” (Rose 2016, 3). It can be tempting to think of images as a mere objective recording, but “the power of the discourse means that it produces those things it purports to be describing” (Rose 2016, 205). Someone took the pictures or shot the film, someone put them in the cultural context in which they are still reachable today, and as I view them I do it from my cultural background, with my own intentions and agendas. The discourse analyzing of a visual material should thus address “how a particular discourse works to persuade. How does it produce its effects of truth?” (Rose 2016, 209)

Discourse analysis as method

”Although discourse analysis is about distancing oneself from these discourses and ‘showing them as they are’, in this kind of theory there is no hope of escaping from the discourses and telling the pure truth, truth in itself being always a discursive construction.” (Jørgensen and Philips 2010, 49)

In discourse analysis, the focus is on the interconnectedness of signs tied to an entity that can be compared, measured, and tested against surrounding society. Signs are not considered to have an inherent meaning in themselves but are given meaning in a specific cultural context (Hall 1997). The actual method of discourse analysis that I am using in this study is inspired by the method of Laclau and Mouffe as it is described by Jørgensen and Philips (2010). Important parts of this discourse analyzing method are the sign, as a moment or an element, the nodal point, chains of equivalence and chains of difference.

Signs can be divided into elements or moments. Moments have a fixed meaning within a certain discourse, while elements do not. As elements have been turned into moments, they gain a fixed meaning within a discourse and the discourse has reached closure, although, should never be considered to be fixed. The signs have “to be positioned in relation to other signs in order to give meaning”. The privileged sign of a certain discourse becomes the nodal point around which the discourse is organized. The nodal points are identified through looking at “what signs have a privileged status, and how [they are] defined in relation to the other signs in the discourse” (Jørgensen and Philips 2010, 27- 30).

As this analyzing method helps pick apart the studied object, I believe it is a good method for unearthing taken for granted truths. As you look at the whole picture, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to see beyond the taken for granted truths that you have set out to reveal.

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They are the very lenses through which we see the world, and we interpret what we see through them. But by picking the object of study apart piece by piece, thus not looking at it all at once, you shield your eyes from the discourse by looking past it and looking rather at what it has accomplished. And as you patch the pieces up, you are able to find the discourse which dictates the meaning and interconnectedness of the signs you have witnessed; the reason why a number of signs make sense to tie together is the discourse.

This discourse analyzing method has also got an articulated focus on subject positioning and identities, which I have found useful since I am looking at how a gendered identity is articulated. Jørgensen and Philips (2010, 41-43) describe that “[d]iscourses always designate positions for people to occupy as subjects”, and the very acquiring of an identity can be understood as a discourse, by being represented “by a cluster of signifiers with a nodal point at its center.”

Material

I carried out the aim of my study by analyzing the gender performances of three front men of famous metal bands. I used front men instead of entire bands since more effort is being put in the appearance of the front man, in what he is supposed to look like and how he is to be conceived (Chaker and Heesch 2016; Weinstein 2004). Metal music had its heyday in the 1980s (see Klypchak and Brown 2007; Howe and Friedman 2014; Griffin 2014) which is why I used material from performers that were predominantly famous during this time, mainly because it contains gender performances which would have been seen by quite a lot of people, and not just the devoted fans of the genre. Klypchak and Brown (2007) even narrows this time span down to the years 1984-1991, and the three bands who’s front men I chose for my analysis had hit records and/or hit singles during this time (Billboard 2020). However, they’re still perhaps not the biggest bands of metal – but I had a few criteria regarding the front man as well. Two of the biggest front men within the genre are arguably Rob Halford of Judas Priest, and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath and a solo artist as well. Both have gotten extensive research done on them, not only because they’re famous but also because they do not fit the stereotype of a metal performer; Rob Halford because of his sexuality (Clifford- Napoleone 2016, 88) and Ozzy Osbourne because of his looks, body features and mannerisms (e.g. Jones 2018, Elflein 2016). With that said, there are also other metal bands I could have chosen, that are perhaps more famous than the ones I did come to choose, such as Metallica, Pantera and Motörhead. But the singers of these bands do not stand out as

14 prominently from the rest of the band as the ones I have chosen. Since I had a stated focus on the front man, I wanted to use front men who were easily distinguishable from the rest of the band in performances. And, the most important criteria concerning the front man himself, was that he should bear the traits and characteristics of a true and uncontested metal god – white, young, able-bodied men; further could be added to the list, such as long, blonde hair, good looks, etc. (see e.g. Weinstein 2000; Walser 1993). Therefore, I chose to analyze the gender performances of David Lee Roth of Van Halen, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row and Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe.

The material I used was highly relevant when metal music was at it’s all time high, and consists of music videos (a total of 26 produced between the years of 1978-1991) and recordings of live performances (a total of four3, recorded between the years of 1983-1991). I wanted to look at different sorts of material, because of my pre-understanding that the presentation of gender might appear different in different settings. I found music videos to be intriguing because of their way of being pre-meditated and commercial-like. There is a lot of thought behind them, and they are made with a very clear aim. The live performances I anticipated would give a gender presentation that was not as planned and more spontaneous, as well as containing a more direct interaction with the audience.

Data gathering and analyzing process

As I watched the music videos and live performances, I took notes of what the front man did, what he was wearing, how he was looking, what facial expressions he was making, and so on. I also connected this to the lyrics that were sung or what was said. A gesture and a word apart or together can bear completely different meanings. In the view that gender always emerges in relation to something or someone else, what the front man was doing or where he was standing in relation to others was also of great interest, as well as what was going on around him – where the whole thing took place, what the setting looked like or what the aim was to get across. I also looked at how the people around him (such as other bandmembers, audience members¸ fans, and so on) were portrayed, and how that portrayal affected the gender construction of the front man. I considered everything that I took note of to be different signs: such as fabric or certain types of clothing; movements, gestures and facial expressions; words in sung lyrics or spoken words.

3 One of each of Van Halen and Skid Row, but two of Mötley Crüe because they were shorter 15

Early on in the data gathering, I found the aspect of “looks”, “movements”, “space” and “words” to be categories of a particular interest in terms of the presentation of a gendered identity. As I started sorting and analyzing the data, other prominent and recurring signs to tie together into discourses emerged, such as sexuality, behavioral traits, the emphasizing of the front man’s contrast to femininity and his belonging to the metal community. These were not categories which I made a certain point to make note of during the data gathering, but categories that emerged in the analyzing process. I also ended up merging “words” with the other areas, instead of making an area by itself. The analysis is thus divided into the main areas: Looks, Movements, Space, Sexuality, Reckless and rebellious, Not female and Metal and masculinity.

As explained by Jørgensen and Philips (2010, 41-43) the acquiring of an identity can be understood as a discourse, by being represented “by a cluster of signifiers with a nodal point at its center”. With different displays of the assigned gender “masculinity” as the nodal point, a cluster of signifiers gather round and designate a position for the metal front man to occupy as a subject. The different areas show different aspects of the gendered discourses that tie the front man to the masculine gender identity. Some of these areas are more connected to the body and some more to behavior and movement, but I also argue that they are all intertwined.

ANALYSIS

There are certain body features and behavioral traits that tie the metal front man to different discourses regarding gender. I will describe how the different discourses are built within each of the main areas Looks, Movements, Space, Sexuality, Reckless and Rebellious, Not female and Metal and masculinity.

LOOKS – Bodies crafted into genders

“Bodies are symbolic. One’s body serves as a type of social currency that signifies one’s worth” (Gerschick 2005, 372). In the display of the metal front men’s bodies attention is drawn to certain parts of the body by such things as choice of clothing, angle of the camera or movement.

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Body features

Being tall might seem to be trait which a body either possesses or not, but examples of how length is accentuated or hidden is still prominent regarding Bach in different music videos. In the music videos I remember you (Skid Row 1989b) and 18 and life (Skid Row 1989a), in which Bach’s looks were tailored to be more mainstream rather than metal, Bach is sitting down and rarely shown full body. In I remember you he is even looking upwards most of the time, further adding to de-sizing him. But in the music videos Youth gone wild (Skid Row 1989d) and Piece of me (Skid Row 1989c), his body is frequently shown in full frame, and as he is sitting down he’s got one long leg out, accentuating his height. In the music video Slave to the Grind (Skid Row 1991e), Bach is sitting in a corner in a white room with his eyes closed, head bent down and holding his arms around his legs. To the beat of the music, he kicks his legs wide out as well as his arms, and his full body length becomes visible. If you by any chance had forgotten the extent of his length, it is now thrown right in your face.

The masculine bodily features of the front man can also be accentuated by portraying him through a silhouette, such as in the music videos Don’t go away Mad (Just Go Away) (Mötley Crüe 1990a), or Quicksand Jesus (Skid Row 1991c). In Quicksand Jesus Bach is seen from the back, creating a dark silhouette molded by the light that shines through between his legs and around his body. The silhouette created in the contrast between light and darkness emphasizes the male figure of a slim waist and a wide chest and shoulders, what is otherwise effectuated by the cut of the clothing (such as in music video Monkey Business Skid Row 1991b).

Muscles, tattoos, body hair and sweat

Muscular arms bear connotations of masculinity, and the tattoos of rebellion, as well as metal (Weinstein 2000). The muscular tattooed arms of the front man are made visible through the frequent wearing of sleeveless shirts. Different ways of accentuating the muscularity and/or tattoos of the arms, can be seen for instance in the music video Don’t go away Mad (Just Go Away) (Mötley Crüe 1990a) where Neil is rubbing his upper arm as he is singing, or as Bach’s tattoo on his forearm that spells “youth gone wild” is in focus in the first frame of the music video of the same name (Skid Row 1989d). Further on, Lee Roth is accentuating his muscular arms in his dancing and athletic movements in music videos such as Jump (Van Halen 1983a), Jamie’s crying (Van Halen 1978a) and Hot for teacher (Van Halen 1984a) paired, of course, with sleeveless outfits. To actually have muscular arms is of less importance than

17 accentuating the muscularity that is. This is extra prevalent for front man Bach who lacks that much definition in the muscularity of his arms, but often accentuates the flexing of his muscles in different movements. Such as when he’s reaching his higher notes in both music videos and live performances, he’s clutching his fist, stretching out his arm, straining and flexing it as he’s hitting or pulling down in the air. Another example is as he mimes the words “at the end of my rope” (Bolan, Sabo and Bach 1991b) in the music video Slave to the grind (Skid Row 1991e), in which he is holding up his arm above his head, miming he’s holding a rope, in a movement in which he flexes his arm and the muscles becomes very visible.

Another bodily feature that bears masculine connotations is body hair. By just being topless Lee Roth is showing off a hairy chest, and as Bach relaxes his arm over his head, talking to the audience during live performance (Skid Row 1991d), he’s showing off a hairy armpit. Growing hair under the arms is definitely not solely masculine, chest hair is (arguably) masculine. But showing body hair becomes a masculine trait, not because women don’t have body hair, but because they’re supposed to shave off or hide that which they have.

The front man is frequently shown in music videos and live performances in quite a sweaty stage. They even pour water over themselves, creating much of the same aesthetics as sweat would (e.g. Skid Row1991d). The sweat shows that he has strained himself for real, connected to authenticity (which is important in metal, see Kahn-Harris 2016, 62 ), showing that it’s not just an act – even when it is part of a music video. Sweatiness is also tied to masculinity, in much the same way as body hair – albeit the fact that women have got at least some amount of body hair and do indeed break a sweat from time to time, these are shameful traits for women to show, thus showing them off becomes masculine.

Long hair – “flow it, show it, long as God can grow it”

All three front men have got long, blonde hair, and having long hair is rather the rule than the exception within metal (Weinstein 2000, 64-65, Walser 1993). The hair is very much emphasized, it’s never just “there”. The hair is usually not tied down by anything and paired with the movements of an energetic front man, it frequently gets in the way. As their hair falls into their faces, it is further accentuated by how it is removed. In live performances as well as music videos, the hair is taken away from the face with elaborate hand movements, shoveling it out of the face, ripping it away from the face, kicking, jolting or thrusting the head back – and, of course, more headbangs than you can count. The hair is indeed removed, at the same time as this sort of movement makes it fly everywhere. Lee Roth is shown pushing and

18 pulling, messing up and fixing his hair as well as running his fingers through it in music videos such as Panama (Van Halen 1984b) and Jump (Van Halen 1983a) and also during live performance (Van Halen 1983b). But it’s not enough to just emphasize the long hair, showing that it’s there, visible and an important part of the show, it must also be tied to masculinity. The hair that is just about everywhere, constantly in the way, insinuates that the front man does not care. This ties “long hair” to recklessness, sheering it of any connotations it might otherwise have with femininity.

Clothing, makeup, jewelry and boots –“ I’m on my heals and looking pretty”

Jones (2018) noted that leather, denim, tight clothes, elaborate clothing and make-up, as well as exposed flesh, were common masculine traits on the covers of metal magazine Kerrang!, all of which I found examples of in my study as well. The clothing does a number of things for the front man’s performance; both what he is wearing and what he is not wearing. What he is wearing shows his connections to metal and sometimes especially to glam metal and helps portray the body in certain ways. What he is not wearing shows that there are certain parts of his body that he wishes to reveal and draw attention to.

To connect the front man to the rock, metal and over-all bad boy style, bandanas are worn in an abundance. Bearing more connections to the glam metal genre is glitter and jewelry such as rings, necklaces and bracelets, chains, belts, big glittering belts, barets, scarfs etc. Makeup can often bear female connotations – but not in metal, and especially not in glam metal (see Ables 2016, 168; Weinstein 2000; Walser 1993). Leather is another true sign of metal and of one’s belonging to that community, which is why it comes in all sizes, colors and shapes. The staple leather wear of the metal front man is the black leather pants – tight, with studs, laced and so on; and the tighter, the more efficient it is in showing off the male anatomy. Another piece of clothing commonly wore are the chaps. Especially with brightly colored visible underwear underneath (such as the purple and tiger-striped ones that Neil wears in the music video Home sweet home (Mötley Crüe 1985a)) they further accentuate sexualized parts of the male anatomy.

The big boots are an important feature in the metal costume, and they do not only look cool, but also highly affects how you walk. The boots are frequently portrayed as something the front man is never without. In the music video Don’t go away Mad (Just Go Away) (Mötley Crüe 1990a) Neil is sitting on his bed and we are clearly shown his boots standing alongside of it; making it seem like the boots are the first thing that he puts on as he wakes up, and the

19 last thing he takes off before going to sleep. In the music video Panama (Van Halen 1984b) Lee Roth is being pulled out from his room by the police, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and his boots. The police could evidently pull him out of his room without giving him the time to dress, but they could not get him to leave without first putting on his boots. Either that, or he sleeps with them on.

Topless

The open or complete lack of shirt shows that the front man stands in a stark contrast to everything feminine. The female upper body and the male upper body often differ, which is more visible when the shirt is off. Further, the female upper body is not allowed to be naked. If a woman would appear on stage or in a music video without a naked upper-body, it wouldn’t be aired on TV. There’s such a strong norm against it, it’s even illegal. Mötley Crüe’s (1987a) music video Girls, girls, girls is made in a censored and an uncensored version, the only difference between them being that either the “girls” appear topless or they don’t. In any music video by Mötley Crüe, Van Halen or Skid Row you are likely to see the front man or at least some of the bandmembers topless, and in the live performances, it’s the rule rather than the exception. The front man doesn’t have to be completely topless to draw attention to his (masculine) upper body. Sometimes, wearing a little something can almost draw more attention to that which is still revealed. In live performance (Van Halen 1983b) Lee Roth is wearing a white vest with nothing under it, showing off arms and chest and back, all things hairy and sweaty and muscular. Wearing suspenders without anything under them, most certainly brings attention to and further accentuates almost toplessness (Mötley Crüe 1983; Van Halen 1979; Skid Row 1991c).

Discourse: A masculine gendered body

Bodies are crafted into genders (Butler 1988, 525). The body is never just there. It is constantly discursively created and recreated, it is accentuated in different ways, to draw attention to certain parts of it (see Butler 1993, 33). The different signs as presented under Looks become moments in the discourse where masculine looks is the nodal point. By tying signs of muscles, body hair, sweat, tallness and long hair to a certain body, you create a chain of equivalence that discursively positions that body as masculine (see Gullvåg Holter 2005, 21). The three front men possess the presented physical traits to a lesser or greater extent, but no matter how much of male connoted physical traits a body possesses, it must be flaunted

20 and drawn attention to in order to be taken into account in the gendered identity discourse regarding that body.

MOVEMENTS

The movements of a body are one of the cornerstones in a gender performance. Butler (1988, 519) asserts that “bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self”, and further Gerschick (2005:375) notes that how bodies “move and what they do” is a “key mechanism through which men perform and achieve gender.” The movements of the front man, what he physically does, helps position him in different ways. The movements consist of different parts such as posture, body language and facial expressions as well as more specific movements, such as headbanging or dancing. As it comes to the live stage performance, Weinstein (2000, 63) describes the able-bodiedness of the front man to be of the essence, as “[t]he heavy metal performer must translate the powerful, loud, and highly energetic music into his body movements and facial expressions. He must be acrobatically graceful enough to jump, leap, and generally bound about the stage.”

Body language: posture, walking, dancing and headbanging

The body language, posture and walking of the front man have got immense influence on his gender performance. He is frequently standing with his legs wide apart, with his groin and chest out, and his arms with a bit of a distance from the body, often flexed or otherwise strained. The walking is being performed with heavy, confident strides; sometimes with a groove, but constantly assertive – much affected by the wearing of heavy boots. Apart from merely moving to the beat or choreographed and athletic dancing (mostly performed by Lee Roth) , the most notable of the dance moves common for all three front men is that of violent dancing, consisting of hitting and kicking, and sexual dancing, consisting of groin thrusting and hip swinging. The frequent and abundant headbanging performed by the three front men creates a unity between themselves and other metalheads. It also accentuates the length of their hair, as the act of headbanging is more spectacular the longer the hair is.

Displaying able-bodiedness –“ Jump!”

Able-bodiedness can be displayed also in sheer looks but is even more visible in the movement of the front man. The front man is constantly active, on stage or in the music videos; he’s running around and jumping about, performing antics of different sorts, climbing

21 the drum stage and loudspeakers. As Bach is on stage in Wembley (Skid Row 1991d), he’s very energetic, almost bouncing, the blood sems to be boiling under his skin. Lee Roth’s display of able-bodiedness comes through as he’s performing some more elaborate athletic dance moves in most of his music videos and live performance, entailing high spinning jumps, high kicks, splits, acrobatics with the mike stand, and jumping over the camera, as well as flipping over the bass player’s back in the music video Panama (Van Halen 1984b).

Showing off the body

There’s a strong sense of showing off the body in the movements. Previous research of spectatorship has shown that it has been coded as feminine to be a “visual spectacle (passive object to be looked at)” (Nixon 1997, 318), thus merely being an object to look at bears female connotations. The front men are indeed to be viewed as visual spectacles, but they’re in no sense passive objects to be looked at, they’re rather demanding that their viewers look at them. Here, it is the one being looked at who seems to have the control. In Lee Roth’s movements, he comes off as highly confident and openly vain. He’s constantly smiling and (seemingly) in charge. The look on his face as he is swirling his hips, pushing his groin out, headbanging and displaying his naked upper-body in various movements, is that he wants you to look – he’s not alluring, he’s forcing himself upon you. Lee Roth’s performance contains quite a lot of movement, but as the singing turns more vocally demanding, he’s standing still and looking concentrated (Van Halen 1983b). This shows that he is the one in charge of when, where and how he is to be the object of others’ desires; a sex object and a visual spectacle at his own accord. Thus, the presentation entails in equal parts what movements are performed and in what way. The sense of being in charge as well as playing by your own rules is accentuated. As noted by Weinstein (2000; 2004) however, the front man often had issues with how he looked, felt that an aging body was indeed troublesome, trying to quench his anxieties, not only with exercise to keep the body in trim, but also with drugs and alcohol. She also notes a higher suicide rate among the front men compared to other bandmembers, which she connects to the stresses of being a front man, such as stage fright (Weinstein 2004, 331). With this in mind, it seems less plausible that the front man “really” possesses all that confidence that he portrays. This is nothing other than an act, and a gendered one at that. Despite (or just because of) the female connotations of being a visual spectacle, an object of another’s gaze, this very act is turned into a masculine one by turning the tables on the power relations. The front man is never to be seen as someone weak and vulnerable, despite being placed in such a position.

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Discourse: Masculine gendered movements

The sort of movement carried out can be tied to and enhance the masculine identity of the front man, as the different sorts of movements are becoming moments in a discourse with masculine movement as it’s nodal point (see Butler 1988, 519; Gerschick 2005, 375). The posture, the style of walking, the over-all body language and the activeness are different signs, displayed as gendered presentations by the front men in different ways (see Weinstein 2000, 63). The dance moves can be tied to signs of aggressivity as well as sexuality, and as such becomes signs also tied to masculinity. It is not always the movement in itself which is male connoted, but rather how it is carried out, which is visible in Showing off the body. Being a visual spectacle is connected to femininity (Nixon 1997, 318), but showing confidence, demanding attention and space and playing by your own rules turns this into an act which bears masculine connotations. The way that the movements are carried out are what colors them masculine, and thus the front man is actively achieving part of his gendered identity through his movements.

SPACE – loud and proud prima donnas

Weinstein (2000, 72) describes the metal front men to be loud and proud prima donnas, using a lot of space and demanding attention, as well as having a self-written part at the center of his band (Weinstein 2004). But the front man’s place in the center of attention consists of so much more than just putting him psychically and literally in the middle of his band, in the center of the stage (even though that too is common practice). The light falls on him first and leaves him last. The power in the music and volume of metal (Hindrichs 2016, 178-179) are also connected to the use of space. Playing loud music and screaming loudly gives you the power over a vast amount of audio space. And if this is in some way sanctioned, such as thousands of people in an audience cheering you on, it becomes evident that you should take up that amount of space.

Space – “Here I am”

The front man’s appearance and presentation of himself is spacious, which is effectuated mainly through posture, movements, and vocals. The front man uses the space of the stage by frequently running from side to side and using the whole stage as his own, as well as the frequent use of dance moves which take up a lot of space – hair thrown around, arms waved wildly, kicking and hitting in the air, spinning around and performing athletic antics. Standing

23 with the legs wide apart is a body posture that is connected to masculinity, as well as being a space demanding practice.

Bach’s use of space in music video Monkey Business (Skid Row 1991b) is more or less a textbook example of ways to use (a lot of) space in metal. He takes up a lot of space as he’s walking – him being tall in stature helps, but it is also exaggerated by him having his legs wide apart and his long arms swaying widely. He’s not walking very fast, but the swag and the confidence show that he’s not stopping or moving for anything. As he walks along a railway track, he shows that he does not respect danger, but rather takes up the space that should have been reserved for the authority of the dangerous train.

As he lets out the first scream, he also uses his vocals to occupy space. He’s leaning backwards with his face turned towards the sky, legs wide apart, standing fast on the ground, arms wide apart with fists clutched. And he’s even got his eyes closed doing this, showing he is confident that this space is his and that no one will challenge him for it. His dance moves consist of a lot of hitting in the air in front of himself, which grants him more space than his actual body – if you’re not willing to risk taking a hit, that is.

Demanding attention – “let me hear you get wild!”

“Let me hear you get wild!” Bach screams to the audience during the live performance (Skid Row 1991d) of Youth gone wild (Bolan and Sabo 1989b). The song Shout at the devil (Sixx 1983) is usually accompanied by a command to the audience to “Shout! – Shout! – Shout! – Shout at the devil!” (Mötley Crüe 1989c). A part of the lavished use of space is the frequent and outspoken demand of attention. This is done by the front man in live shows by extending the microphone out in the audience, beckoning with his fingers, simply shouting “Come on!”, “let me see your hands”, “sing along” and “I wanna fucking hear you!” and the likes. There’s an understanding and acceptance that the front man should demand this attention, shown in the way that other people respond to his demands.

In the music video In a darkened room (Skid Row 1991a), the music suddenly stops dead, and everything goes quiet right before the highest and hardest singing note. After effectuating the stop, Bach makes eye contact with the audience. He goes on to sing very emotionally, acapella: “Please let there be – Please let there be – Please let there be light” (Bolan, Sabo and Bach 1991a), the spotlight is on him and only him, he’s reached the most vocally challenging part of the song, standing in the middle of the stage, demanding everyone’s

24 attention – and getting it. This behavior also shows in the live performances as Bach often stops to look at the audience before he does a high note – as to make sure that he’s got their full attention (Skid Row 1991d).

Discourse: Gendered space consuming in metal

The acts of “doing metal” are in themselves largely space consuming – long hair headbanged vigorously, playing loud music and screaming at the top of your lungs. These space consuming practices Hindrichs (2016, 178-179) describes as part of what is constructing the “concept of masculinity” of the metal scene. To bring this to hyper-masculinity, the front men take up a lot of space (see Weinstein 2000, 72). The different ways in which the front man uses space in the metal scene, through movements, body features and vocals, make up signs that show the using of space as masculine traits and tied together they serve as moments in the discourse forming the front man’s gendered identity. But the front man not only demands space, it is also granted to him. Here, we find that there’s the notion of hegemony to consider, because even though space is in many ways demanded, it does not take actual force to gain it. Rather, there seems to be an agreement with those who the space is taken from.

SEXUALITY – Hypersexual rock god

Sexuality is an inherent part of metal music, and thus the front man needs to effectuate the band’s sex appeal (Weinstein 2000; 2004). Kimmel (2004, 238) notes that “sexuality has become increasingly ‘masculinized’” and connects this to “the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake”, “the multiplication of sexual partners” and “the separation of sexual behavior from love.” The aspect of sexuality in the gender performance of the metal front men concerns the presenting of his sexuality as a masculine one, him as a sexual being, as well as making sure there are no doubts about his heterosexuality.

Sexual being

Griffin (2014, 76) describes the persona of the metal front man to be that of a “hypersexual rock god”. The sheer sexuality of the front man is shown in different ways to portray him as nothing short of a sexual being (see Ables 2016, 168). One of those ways is accentuating his sexual appetite (Weinstein 2000, 36, 89), of which a vivid example is when Bach during live performance (Skid Row 1991d) looks out at the crowd of thousands of people, saying: “You all look good enough to fuck today, man”. Even though he does not literally mean that he would like to have sex with thousands of people, it does give the impression that he would

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(and could) have sex with thousands of people, and also that he would (and could) have sex with just about anyone.

The emphasizing of the front man as a sexual being is also done by accentuating blatantly sexual parts of the male anatomy. In live performance (Skid Row 1991d), Bach spits and sprays water all over himself, most notably his groin, leaving the area wet for the greater part of the show. This both brings attention to and accentuates his “manhood”, as well as sexualizing these parts. An even more blatant depiction, perhaps, is Lee Roth walking up to the cameras during live performance (Van Halen 1983b) to get close ups of his groin. There’s also extensive use of sexualized moaning and groaning, such as Neil in the intro to Girls, girls, girls in live performance (Mötley Crüe 1989c) and Lee Roth’s groans, moans, heavy breathing and panting in the music video You really got me (Van Halen 1987c), paired with suggestive hip movements.

The sexual dance moves are also an important feature in the depiction of the sexualized front man. The “groin thrust” is a common dance move for all three front men, and it’s not always paired with any explicit sexual meaning of the lyrics, but sometimes just performed to strengthen his identity as a “sexual being”. Bach often further emphasizes the groin thrust by also hitting the microphone against his groin. Swirling or rolling of the hips is another common dance move, which may be considered to be milder and not as directly sexualized, since it’s more common. What goes for both groin thrusting and swirling of the hips, is that when paired with certain lyrics or noises, they can be a highly effective way of emphasizing sexualization. Such as Bach’s groin thrusting with his hand between his legs in the live performance of the song Piece of me (Skid Row 1991d) to the lyrics: “One night ain't enough of my love – she wanted more, more, more” (Bolan 1989), or Neil’s groin thrusting in the live performance (Mötley Crüe 1987b) of the all-sexualized All in the name of … to the lyrics “anytime you want, you know you can have me” (Sixx and Mars 1987). Then there is also Lee Roth’s crawling towards the camera on all fours with a suggestive facial expression in the music video Panama (Van Halen 1984b), to the lyrics: “Ah, you reach down, between my legs, ease the seat back” (Van Halen et. al. 1984b).

Heterosexuality and the masculinity of sex

The masculinization of sex entails a separation of love and sex (Kimmel 2004, 238), and this is done in metal by completely denying the whole notion of “love” entailing anything other than sex. In live performance (Skid Row 1991d) Bach pours water into his mouth, turns his

26 face upwards, rubs himself between his legs to insinuate masturbation, and spits the water up in the air to insinuate ejaculation. This is followed by him saying: “I fucking … I just love this shit.” He’s actually talking about his love for performing on stage. And even though he is clearly not talking about love in any sexual way, but rather his love for an activity (performing on stage) it is accompanied by this sexual display, because love mustn’t be connected to anything other than sex.

As sex (or love) is the subject of the lyrics, it needs to be clearly noted that it is a woman who is on the other side of that exchange, and that it is sex which is the important thing for the male counterpart. In Jamie’s crying (Van Halen et. al. 1978a) Lee Roth sings about “Jamie” (who is frequently referred to as “she”) who does not want a one-night stand, she wants something else, something “more”. In the music video (Van Halen 1978) as well as the live performance of the song (Van Halen 1983b), there is a strong sexual tension throughout, due to Lee Roth’s dance moves, facial expressions and body language – he is in all aspects a sexual being, thus defining himself as the male counterpart of the song. The lyrics: “Now Jamie’s been in love before, and she knows what love is for” (Van Halen et. al. 1978a) conveys that there are different views on love, and that Lee Roth and Jamie have differing ones. Jamie’s view is sanctioned as socially acceptable “she knows what love is for” (on a similar note as in other Van Halen lyrics, such as Running with the devil: “I got no love, no love you'd call real“ (Van Halen et. al. 1978b)) thus, “what love is for” is something other than that which Lee Roth is advocating, adding to an image of him being a sexual rebel – oversexualized. Jamie also help to bring a stark contrast between the male and the female, supporting the discourse of men and women having inherently different views of love (see Kimmel 2004, 244) because they are inherently different.

Heterosexuality can also be depicted in the whole narrative of a music video or singled out events. Examples of a heterosexual narrative in music videos entail Don’t go away Mad (Just Go Away) (Mötley Crüe 1990a) which revolves around Neil breaking up with a woman, and Girls, Girls, Girls (Mötley Crüe 1987a) in which the members of Mötley Crüe are shown backstage in a strip club, helping the female strippers get dressed, such as tying up their bras. This implicates that something more has happened than what we were shown, and also explicitly shows that they have seen the strippers without bras. Neil’s image as a desirable, heterosexual man is strengthened by the way that women appear around him in the music video Home sweet home (Mötley Crüe 1985a). Neil is depicted on a beach with a lot of bikini clad women in the background, and one of them right on his lap. He kisses pin up posters of 27 women on the walls of his backstage room, just before emerging on stage. Women are shown getting up on stage, climbing and crawling up from the audience, hugging and clinging to him, before being carried away by security.

Discourse: Oversexualized, heterosexual, masculine

The displayed signs of sexuality are tied together by masculinity, thus creating a gendered discourse regarding sexuality. Signs of sexuality could in themselves be considered to be signs of masculinity (see Kimmel 2004, 238), but the signs of sexuality displayed in the analyzed material are in many ways tied explicitly to masculinity. The front man presents himself as a sexual being through signs of clothing, movement, facial expressions as well as making sure that love is never connected to anything else than sex. He emphasizes his sexual appetite and his body as embodied sexuality, in part by accentuating body parts that are connected both to masculinity and sexuality. Some depictions of the sexuality of the front man rely directly on separating him from femininity, thus femininity is considered the contrast to active, blatant sexuality. The heteronormativity of metal (see e.g. Kahn Harris 2016) is also part in achieving a gendered identity for the front man, and is notable in him singing about love or sexual acts with women, as well as by the way that women are shown to act around him. The song Jamie’s crying (Van Halen et. al. 1978a) presents signs in chains of equivalence on one side and signs in chains of difference on the other, that tied together present a coherent identity subject position for the front man to inherit – as oversexualized, as heterosexual and as masculine.

RECKLESS AND REBELLIOUS – “Youth gone wild”

Howe and Friedman (2014) note that the metal scene of the 1980s was very much a youth culture, and Weinstein (2000) too asserts that youth as well as rebellion (see also Walser 1993, 35) are important cornerstones of metal. Being rebellious is in muchness about showing a stark contrast to authority, which is in itself closely connected to youth culture, since the youth culture must break free from other prevailing cultures to emphasize its own right as a culture. Behaviors connected to recklessness and rebellion in themselves bear masculine connotations in society at large (see traits exemplified in Gerschick 2005, 373), further masculinized by being connected to metal.

Reckless behavior by the likes of trashing hotel rooms or breaking guitars is normality displayed within metal (see Densky and Sholle 1992 in Howe and Friedman 2014, 613), but there are also other, more subtle behaviors, tying to this tradition of recklessness. The front 28 man can display reckless behavior by throwing things away, never minding where they land, such as a ringing phone or his leather jacket (Mötley Crüe 1990a), dropping or throwing a microphone or a microphone stand to the ground (Skid Row 1991d; Skid Row 1989d; Skid Row 1991c), or throwing clothes away on stage (Van Halen 1983b). There are also examples of front men actively breaking things or throwing things in a fire (Mötley Crüe 1989a) or breaking through a wall (Mötley Crüe 1985b). Other examples of reckless behavior are more closely connected to the front man’s mannerisms, such as swearing, spitting on stage or kicking full plastic cups out in the audience (Mötley Crüe 1990b; Mötley Crüe 1989c, Skid Row1991d). During live performance (Mötley Crüe’s 1989c) Neil climbs a giant TV-screen, and similarly Bach climbs some big tower on stage (Skid Row 1991d). As the security personnel come to the rescue, it seems Bach’s acts were indeed rather reckless.

The analyzed material also presents portrayals of rebellion against authority, which is connected both to youth and metal music at large. As police appear in music videos, they are symbols of authority, portraying “not us” and “antagonists”. This is both in the sense of police themselves being state authority, as well as in them wearing visor which makes them faceless, thus embodying every authority – everything to fight. The police are portrayed as faceless enemies in the music videos Piece of me (Skid Row 1989c) and Youth gone wild (Skid Row 1989d), and in the music video Panama (Van Halen 1984b) Lee Roth is shown resisting the police himself. Another authority portraying the antagonist of the narrative, is a principle in music video Smokin’ in the boy’s room (Mötley Crüe 1985b). The story in this music video is about a boy whose homework has been eaten by his dog, but the principle doesn’t believe him. It is clearly shown that the boy is telling the truth, so the audience watching the video do not have to question who to believe. As Mötley Crüe emerges into the music video, they are on the other side of a mirror in the boy’s room – making it clear that they are on the other side of authority.

Although this may seem quite a small part in the overall discourse of the gendered identity of the front man, the frequent displays of recklessness and rebellion are equally important in the discursively created gender display (see Weinstein 2000, Walser 1993, Howe and Friedman 2014). The reckless and rebellious traits of the front man are masculine connoted signs (see Gerschick 2005, 373) that fixed as moments in the discourse add masculine behavior and masculine mannerisms to his gender performance and discursively shape his gender identity.

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NOT FEMALE – “Girls, girls, girls”

Connell and Messerschmidt (2005, 848) notes that “[g]ender is always relational, and patterns of masculinity are socially defined in contradistinction from some model (whether real or imaginary) of femininity.” In the metal scene femininity is at large shunned (Weinstein 2000, 67), and in the gendered performance of the front man it is frequently noted that he is not female. That is, not just the mere emphasizing of the masculine traits of the front man, but also the emphasizing of how he differs from femininity. This is extra prevalent as there are actual females present on stage or in the music video.

In the music videos Wild side (Mötley Crüe 1987c), Same old situation (Mötley Crüe 1990b) and Kickstart my heart (Mötley Crüe 1989b) there’s a clear difference in how Neil is interacting with the female backup singers and how he is interacting with the male bandmembers. As he gets close to the backup singers, they start caressing him and pull their fingers through his hair, which stands in stark contrast to his way of huddling close with his bandmates, such as when they’re holding each other behind the back when they’re receiving applauds. As Neil introduces the backup singers before they come out on stage in Moscow (Mötley Crüe 1989c), he says: “How many girls have we got here tonight? We got some girls, girls, girls of our own tonight”. The “girls” are introduced and brought out on stage in their capacity of being “girls”. There’s also a prominent difference in how the female backup singers use space. They are fixed to their spot and do not move about, while the male bandmembers (except the drummer, for obvious reasons) and most notably Neil have the whole stage at their disposal.

In the music video Girls, Girls, Girls (Mötley Crüe1987a), which is mostly set inside a strip club, there’s a clear separation between the sexes with women being on stage and men being in the audience. There are other men, besides from the bandmembers of Mötley Crüe in the audience, but no women. Some of the other men are balled, middle-aged business men, quite different from the metal-haired, rebellious young boys of Mötley Crüe, but it is still shown that the different groups of men are on the same side, opposite of the women – because they (as men) evidently have something in common. The women are there for the sake of the male audience – it’s their job and the male audience’s pleasure. In the music video Unchained (Van Halen 1981) we have quite the opposite situation, but still there’s a clear separation – here men are on stage, and women in the audience. The same goes for the music video Same old

30 situation (Mötley Crüe 1990b) where the audience consists of mostly women who are shown worshiping the band on stage.

Men are active, women are passive – and uninteresting

Women can be discredited without being completely left out of the scene – sometimes it’s even more striking if there are women present but they’re shown as passive or in other ways uninteresting.

In the music video Youth gone wild (Skid Row 1989d) the focus is on establishing a community, a shared identity between the metal band and their audience – just consider the lyrics: “We are the youth gone wild” (Bolan and Sabo 1989b). The music video mainly consists of images of young people running along, and there are boys as well as girls among them. However – the lyrics are sung from a male point of view using male pronouns, the band consists of only men, and as the group of youngsters perform some sort of antics (e.g. kicking down a grid) only boys are shown and focused upon among them. Though there are girls present, they’re not in focus and not shown as active. Somewhat similar is the music video Piece of me (Skid Row 1989c), wherein the women in the audience do not stand out in any way but blend into the mass – they’re not the ones stage diving, riding the waves of the hands in the audience or getting up on stage. In the fight scene of the music video, women are present, but are only shown face front as they’re in the background. As they are active and actually fighting the police, their faces are turned away or blurred out, as to de-personalize them.

This notion of de-personalizing women by not showing their faces also appears in the music videos Panama (Van Halen 1984b) and Dr Feelgood (Mötley Crüe 1989a). The same can be said for the music video Girls, girls, girls (Mötley Crüe 1987a), even though the video does show a lot of women, it starts by showing a woman’s legs, panning up, but never reaching her face. Further in Girls, girls, girls, they both sing about and are shown to be going from town to town to different strip clubs, making the women appear as highly replaceable and de- personalized. Even though they sing about “girls” they’re not referring to individuals, but rather “girls” as a phenomenon. (see also Howe and Friedman 2014, 613)

The front men are often shown full body or through close ups of their faces, but never just part of their bodies. Parts of their bodies can be accentuated by certain clothing or movement,

31 but it is rarely just a body part in frame. As a woman is present, and only part of her body is shown, we’re shown that she as a person is not important, hence, we need not see her face.

Discourse of gendered difference

Traits of femininity are lain out and emphasized as something which the front man is not, and these displayed signs can be tied together in a chain of difference to stand in stark contrast to the front man’s gendered identity (see Connell and Messerschmidt 2005, 848). This is done through emphasizing differences whenever women are present. It doesn’t matter if women are on stage and men in the audience or the other way around – as long as the two aren’t mixed. And if they are to be mixed, they must be distinctly told apart in some other way. Presenting women as uninteresting and de-personalized, is a way of adding something feminine to the metal scene without risking its inherent masculinity (see Hindrichs 2016; Walser 1993; Weinstein 2000; Kahn-Harris 2016).

METAL AND MASCULINITY – “all right now boys let’s shout today”

The musical genre metal is frequently claimed to be inherently masculine (see Hindrichs 2016; Walser 1993; Weinstein 2000; Kahn-Harris 2016). It is further described that metal displays “over-the-top masculinity” (Kahn-Harris 2016, 41) and that masculinity is a key concept within metal (Hindrichs 2016). Part of emphasizing masculinity lies in emphasizing the metal-ness of the band, the music, or the front man himself. Through various practices, the metal front man connects himself both to his bandmembers and to his audience. As this bond is established, accentuating masculinity in the other bandmembers or the metal audience, also accentuates the masculinity of the front man. As Neil exclaims: “All right now boys let’s shout today!” (Mötley Crüe 1989c), he is not actually saying that he himself is a boy, he says that his bandmates as well as the audience members are boys. However, as a likeness has been established between them and himself, the emphasizing that they are boys, spills over to him as well.

Not any other band, not any other thing –“ Ice Ice Baby Fuck off Fuck off”

The front men make various attempts to connect themselves to what they wish to be connected to or disconnect themselves to that which they don’t want to be associated with. Lee Roth uses the dance move of the rooster strut, commonly connected to Mick Jagger of Rolling Stones, during live performance (Van Halen 1983b) as they’re about to perform a cover of a song previously performed by Mick Jagger. Lee Roth is thus connecting himself to

32 the rock star icon, by his performance of the dance move as well as the song. Bach works hard to disconnect himself from some musicians and connecting himself to others. In live performance (Skid Row 1991d) he presents one song by saying: “Here is a song right here, that I gotta say … really really doesn’t sound too much like the Nelson’s, you don’t mind, though, do you? … This is a song … it’s not influenced by the Ramones, it kind of is the Ramones, this is called Riot Act!” He wants to be associated with some bands (Ramones) and stand in stark contrast to others (Nelsons). In the same live set, Bach begins a rally cry against the rapper Vanilla Ice: “I wanna hear ya. Ice ice baby fuck off, fuck off, come on”, and further on: “And I’m sorry, I’m really, really sorry, if I offended anybody here with the Vanilla Ice little serenade there. But you know, if Mr Ice is here today, I cordially invite him to come up here and get a piece … of … me”.

It's not only other musicians who gets to represent not metal. In the narrative of the music video Hot for teacher (Van Halen 1984a), there’s the character Waldo that’s presented as the very opposite of Lee Roth as well as all things metal. Waldo is an unattractive nerd who wants order, and is the only kid in the class who’s not happy when the music starts pumping during the lesson and the lightly-clad teachers emerge out on the children’s desks in a beauty- pageant-like manner. In the same music video, Lee Roth dresses out in a bow tie and a suit, making it obvious that he’s wearing them ironically. As the theatricality is turned to the max, it becomes even clearer that this is something he’s not.

Authenticity

The authenticity is important in metal (see Kahn-Harris 2016, 62), and is often noted in the performance, in both music videos and live performances. The bearing of the band’s authenticity very much rests on the shoulders of the front man and how he manages to convey that he is indeed feeling what is portrayed in the sung lyrics (Weinstein 2004). The singing or miming techniques is of the essence as it comes to the claim of authenticity and depends a lot on the facial expressions paired with other movements. In music videos the front man looks emotional and sincere while miming (see also Weinstein 2000, 61-63). To further accentuate the authenticity in the miming, the miming of high notes is accompanied by strained looks, such as noticeable veins in the throat, emotional and concentrated facial expressions, closed eyes, flexed arms and big arm movements, clutched fists, facial movement of the mouth that goes beyond mere articulation, getting down on their knees for added emotionality, etc. In the live performances, the body language and movements also differ during the singing of the

33 high notes. On stage, Neil is looking engaged with his singing, and he’s arching his back as he hits a high note, to show (make it look like?) he’s straining himself (Mötley Crüe 1987b). Bach’s screaming high notes is frequently accompanied by his staple movement of bending backwards, lifting his arm up in the air, clutching his fist and flexing his arm and having his face turned to the sky with closed eyes (Skid Row 1991d). Lee Roth reaches far back and kicks his head, as well as his hair, back as he hits the high notes in live performance. His performance contains quite a lot of movement, but as the singing turns more vocally demanding, he’s standing still, concentrated, clutching to the microphone and its cord. (Van Halen 1983b)

Metal community and the metal audience

The importance of a metal community, that entails both performers and fans of metal, is often accentuated. Metal stars are known for a lot of interaction with their fans at concerts and there’s a certain feeling that the metal band and the audience are one and the same, often visible from wearing the same sort of clothing and (claiming) to live the same sort of lifestyle – the two can rarely be told apart (Weinstein 2000). Neil is playing air guitar right next to the real guitar player on stage (Mötley Crüe 1989c), showing that even the metal god plays air guitar, just like the kids in the audience. As Mötley Crüe emerges at the edge of the stage, bowing to the cheering and applauding audience in the end of their show in Moscow, they have their clenched fists in the air, chanting along with the audience: “Crüe, Crüe, Crüe, Crüe” (Mötley Crüe 1989c). The front man tells the audience that they love them (Mötley Crüe 1989c, Skid Row 1991d, Van Halen 1981) or tell the other bandmembers how wonderful the audience is (Van Halen 1983b), blow kisses to the audience, or members of the band stage dive into the crowd (Skid Row 1991d) – tying to the metal attitude of metal gods being equal to their audience.

To set a shared identity within the metal community, Bach introduces the band as they’re about to enter the stage at Wembley in the following words: “All right, Wembley stadium, get ready to get your asses kicked, by the high and the mighty – Skid Row!” (Skid Row 1991d) To “get your asses kicked” might not seem that pleasant, which is why it bears all the more meaning within the community as it transcends into something desirable. In the music video Piece of me (Skid Row 1989c) there is also a strong sense of tightening this bond of the “metal community”. This is shown spatially as the crowd in the audience are pressed tightly together and as the people outside in the fight scene seem to be relentlessly fighting the police

34 for a common goal. The band is clearly worshiped by the fans who are constantly trying to touch them (even their boots, if that’s all they can get a hold of). There’s a clear emphasizing of common dress, hair and makeup, among band and audience members alike, to show that this is a community separated from the rest of society.

Bandmates

The masculinity of the front man is further accentuated by showing traits of masculinity within the bandmates, and then connecting the front man to the bandmates. This closeness to the other bandmembers can be shown through singing in the same microphone (Skid Row 1991c; Skid Row 1989d; Skid Row 1991d; Van Halen 1978a; Mötley Crüe 1989a), dancing together (Van Halen 1978b; Mötley Crüe 1990a; Mötley Crüe 1985a) hugging or huddling close together (Mötley Crüe 1989c; Van Halen 1983b; Skid Row 1989c, Skid Row 1991d), leaning on other members of the band as he is singing (Mötley Crüe 1989a), laughing and playing around together (Mötley Crüe 1990a; Van Halen 1979), high-fiving on stage or synchronized headbanging (Skid Row 1991d). While this closeness does not necessarily portray masculinity in itself, it helps to connect the front man to the other bandmembers. As closeness as well as likeness has been established between the front man and the other bandmembers, what they do will also rub off on him. As bandmembers are performing activities which display activeness, able-bodiedness and other traits previously mentioned connected the front man to masculinity in various ways, their display will add also to how the front man’s gender is perceived. Examples of this can be seen in the music video Home Sweet Home (Mötley Crüe 1985a) as well as in live performance (Mötley Crüe 1987b), where the bandmembers of Mötley Crüe jumps about on stage and climbs things, or in the music video Panama (Van Halen 1984b) where the bandmembers of Van Halen take turn in flying across the stage attached to a wire, or why not a live performance (Skid Row 1991d) when the bass player of Skid Row decides to stage dive.

Discourse of metal – “trying to beat the boys at their own game”

The front man’s acts, movements and other performances presented under Metal and masculinity revolves around him positioning himself as part of the metal community. As metal has been labeled inherently masculine (see Hindrichs 2016; Walser 1993; Weinstein 2000; Kahn-Harris 2016), connecting yourself to metal means that this inherently masculine- ness rubs off on you. If women in metal are “trying to beat the boys at their own game” (as according to Weinstein 2000, 69), it must mean that men in metal are also playing a boy’s

35 game. Through signs tied together in chains of equivalence, likeness is achieved between the front man and the bandmembers as well as the fans – as already established, the metal crowd are made up of mostly men (see Weinstein 2000; Walser 1993), thus connecting to them means connecting yourself to masculinity. Prevalent in this discourse is also the chains of difference that are pointing out what you’re not, and that’s not metal. All things not metal are discarded, as well musically as ideologically. The claim for authenticity as well as essentialism is important for the metal image (Kahn-Harris 2016; Weinstein 2004). However, this claim for authenticity as well as achieving of essentialism transcends beyond the mere musical performance into the gender performance. Being authentic in metal, also entails essential masculinity – being a real man. Thus, the discourses around the nodal points of “metal” and “masculinity” are intertwined, they both emphasize each other, and they both strengthen the front man’s gendered identity.

CONCLUSION

Finally, the door swung open, and the lead singer that Skid Row had pooled their cash to fly in from Canada ducked his head and entered the room. Six feet three of cheekbones, vanity and profanity, hair and attitude, Sebastian Bach broke the silence by gleefully introducing himself to all present: “Du-u-u-u-u-u- des! I’ve got a ten-inch dick!” (Ling 2003)

The aim of this study is to shed some light upon how gender is discursively constructed by an individual who bears traits and prerequisites of a stereotypical metal performer within the musical genre metal – by someone who’s gender performance would appear nothing short of “normal” and “natural”.

In analyzing the gender performance of famous people, you’re studying a performance which is highly accessible and has been shared and viewed by a large number of people. It is not only the presentation of the interests of one person which is represented, but a presentation that also brings with it values from the context which they are representing. Even though I am analyzing the gender presentation of three distinct individuals, I am at the same time analyzing part of a culture.

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I have analyzed music videos and recordings of live performances by three metal performers who were predominantly famous during the prime of metal music’s mainstream success, the 1980s. The material I analyzed was produced between the years 1978 – 1991. The results of this analysis show that while there are some differences between the three front men of my study, they were for the most part alike in their gender performances. It is easy to see that they were part of the same scene, although somewhat differing in time. Some of the earlier music videos by Van Halen from the late 1970s, such as Running with the devil (1978b), Jamie’s crying (1978a) and You really got me (1978c), were quite simplistic and not as elaborate as later music videos by Mötley Crüe from the 1980s, containing different settings and more of a storyline, such as Girls, Girls, Girls (1987a) and Dr Feelgood (1989a). However, as the novelty had worn off regarding music videos, the Skid Row music videos that were released in the early 1990s, show even more elaborate narratives and aesthetic, such as Quicksand Jesus (1991c), Slave to the Grind (1991e) and Monkey Business (1991b). But the gender presentations were still largely similar, and the live performances of Van Halen in Buenos Aires in 1983 (1983b), Mötley Crüe in Tacoma 1987 (1987b) and Moscow in 1989 (1989c) and Skid Row in Wembley in 1991 (1991d), albeit differing almost a decade from first to last, display very similar gendered performances by the three front men. This shows that these are cultural-specific gender presentations, which is why I find that the merge of doing gender and doing metal is a highly applicable theoretical tool. The difference between the gender performance in live sets and music videos did in no way contradict each other, but as anticipated they showed slightly differing aspects of the gendered presentation, mainly because of the different possibilities that the different settings provided.

The analysis focused on the main areas Looks, Movements, Space, Sexuality, Reckless and rebellious, Not Female and Metal and masculinity, which represents different areas and aspects of the gendered identity that the front men are ascribing themselves to. The analysis has shown how physical aspects of the body are either accentuated or hidden; how use of sexuality, body language, facial expressions and the space around them are in different ways tailored, into signs of gendered display. And as such, these signs make up the discourse of the front man’s gendered identity, sometimes in signs emphasizing chains of equivalence (part of oneself) or chains of difference (contrast to oneself). And in the front man’s gendered performance and acts, he’s also dependent on others – he can demand space, but others must also give up theirs. There’s a constant negotiation carried out by the front men, in which e.g. clothes, movements and camera angles are used to mold the body and rebellious and reckless

37 mannerisms are used to tie certain aspects of behavior to themselves. The front man presents his body in a certain way, but his performance is also received in a certain way. The front man must first be perceived as a masculine, metal front man, before the rest of his gender presentation can be “rightly” understood. Even if the gender presentation is compliant, it must be negotiated.

Weinstein (2000, 64) asserts that “the heavy metal star’s physical appearance – the requisite body image – serves as a selecting mechanism, rejecting individuals who lack the requisite attributes”. Such statements have further on been critiqued by, among others, Clifford- Napoleone (2016, 82; 2015, 111), who set out to queer the metal scene by claiming that the inherent values of metal are misunderstood as masculine. While I am not trying to disconnect masculinity from the metal scene, I do agree with Clifford-Napoleone’s (2015, 19) emphasis on creating “the possibility for unchaining masculinity from the white male body”.

My aim is not to claim that the front men of my study are not performing masculinity – on the contrary, they are – in every breath, groin thrust and headbang – performing gender, and performing masculinity. How they walk, how they talk, how they smell and how they smile – and how these different movements, body features, spatial use and sexual displays are interpreted by others around them, discursively mold and shape them as well as the subject position for them to occupy inside the metal culture in which they perform their gendered identities.

My aim is to completely strip the people in the metal scene down to the bone, no matter their prerequisites. I think that you need to separate every single trait of how a person presents themselves – behavioral, bodily features etc., in order to be rid of preconceptions and naturalized stereotypes. How you (manage to) present your body will have dire consequences for how your doing of gender will be understood: as compliant, as gender bending or queering. You’re (evidently) not gender bending if your display of gender characteristics fit neatly with your sex category. “He” is constantly pointing to himself as he is singing lyrics from a male point of view, always using female pronouns and looking suggestively into the camera as he’s singing about a sexual act – he does sing about sexual acts, vigorously and frequently, putting his whole body into it. A body which is tall, hairy, sweaty and muscular, running around on stage, screaming – is performing gender according to norm; what’s there to question?

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At the core of every critical study is to problematize that which is presented as the norm, reality and truth. Therein lies the claims of knowledge, and in the claims of knowledge lies power. The aim of gender studies, and not least the poststructuralist strain, has been to de- naturalize the perceived order of things in the notable social differences between men and women. However, as poststructuralism goes, with Butler at the fore, there is a goal set with slightly higher stakes. It doesn’t just stop at there are socially constructed differences between men and women but that our entire bodies and (gendered) identities emerge first and foremost and can only be understood within and through discourse. ”Our bodies become social texts which we construct to be ‘read’ by others”, Kimmel (2004, 231) writes. There is no lack of the realization that bodies are in muchness affected by social construction (e.g. Kimmel 2004; Kimmel, Hearn and Connell 2005; Butler 1988; 1993; 2004), but has this been aptly incorporated in the concept of “doing gender”?

Even those who do their gender “rightly”, conforming to norms, make strenuous efforts to do so. Following from the results of my study, the way that the body is displayed shows that there is put a lot of effort in making the body appear in certain ways. I argue that the body too is constructed through discourse, to the same extent as gender. Bodies are indeed materialized, but that material needs to be put in a discourse before it can be understood; discourses being our way of understanding things.

Recent studies of the musical genre metal has shown that there is a prevalent lack of studies in the area that take into account the negotiation of gender codes carried out by men in the field – “perceivably, male fans can just be their natural selves without being subject to scrutiny” (Jones 2018:13). The experience of men’s perception and presentation of gender within metal need to be further looked into “[a]nd, until this research has been established, it would appear that male experiences will continue to be situated by scholars as being “normal”.” (Jones 2018:31-32)

My study has helped achieve part of a well-needed filling of the gap in research regarding male gender performance within the sphere of metal; a gender performance which has hitherto largely been perceived as stable and normal for scholars of the subject. This has been done through unearthing and describing discourses regarding different aspects of masculine gender performance, with a specific focus on the discursive creation of the body. A conviction follows from the results of the analysis that the expressions of gender performance must be understood in combination with the bodily expressions.

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Further research could, and should, be carried out within this area. The research that both Heesch and Scott (2016) and Jones (2018) are calling out for is in no way considered to have been fulfilled by this study – more angles need to be added as well as different kinds of material. What about interviews, back-stage and other kinds of off-stage footage and the seemingly never-ending stream of autobiographies? Does the gender performance in these sorts of material tell another story all-together, or just add other aspects to the story already told? This sort of research is important in order to let also the stereotypical conforming gender performances be analyzed, problematized and de-naturalized. What does it take for you to be described with the words: “six feet three of cheekbones, vanity and profanity, hair and attitude” (Ling 2003) – or is it just a simple stated fact?

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Van Halen. 1983b. Van Halen – Live in Buenos Aires, Argentina February 11, 1983 Pro-Shot UPGRADE. [Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtf- tiohXD0&t=1120s [Accessed 2020-02-08]

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Appendix: Notes on references in the headings: Front page

“Six feet three of cheekbones, vanity and profanity, hair and attitude” (Ling 2003)

Analysis

LOOKS – Bodies crafted into genders (Butler 1988, 525).

Long hair – “flow it, show it, long as God can grow it” (Ragni and Rado 1979)

Clothing, makeup, jewelry and boots – “I’m on my heals and looking pretty” (Bolan 1989)

Displaying able-bodiedness – “Jump!” (Van Halen et. al. 1984a)

SPACE – loud and proud prima donnas (Weinstein 2000, 72)

Space – Here I am (Bolan and Sabo 1989a)

Demanding attention – let me hear you get wild! (Skid Row 1991d)

SEXUALITY – Hypersexual rock god (Griffin 2014, 76)

RECKLESS AND REBELLIOUS – Youth gone wild (Bolan and Sabo 1989b)

NOT FEMALE – Girls, girls, girls (Sixx, Lee, Mars 1987)

METAL AND MASCULINITY – all right now boys let’s shout today (Mötley Crüe 1989c)

Not any other band, not any other thing – Ice Ice Baby Fuck off Fuck off (Skid Row 1991d)

Discourse of metal – trying to beat the boys at their own game (Weinstein 2000, 69)

All references are included in the References list.

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