Rethinking Metal Aesthetics: Complexity, Authenticity, and Audience in Meshuggah’S I and Catch Thirtythr33
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Rethinking Metal Aesthetics: Complexity, Authenticity, and Audience in Meshuggah’s I and Catch Thirtythr33 Eric T. Smialek Schulich School of Music, McGill University Montréal, QC. Canada Thesis Advisor: David Brackett September 2008 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts ©Eric Smialek 2008 i Table of Contents Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... i Abstract .................................................................................................................. iii Résumé ................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. v CHAPTER 1 ―Inside What‘s Within Behind‖: Metal Research and the Problem of Meshuggah ............................................................................................................... 1 I. A Postmodern Aesthetic in Extreme Metal .......................................................... 4 II. Scholarly Literature on Metal: Issues, Attitudes, Beliefs .................................... 8 Beliefs about the Simplicity of Metal ........................................................ 10 Beliefs about the Homogeneity of Metal (or, The Instability of Genre) ... 14 Beliefs about the Demographics of Metal.................................................. 21 Some Anomalies: Scholarly Writings on Meshuggah ............................... 31 III. A Brief Look at Meshuggah‘s Participation in Genre ..................................... 36 CHAPTER 2 Interrogating (Our Representations of) the Text: A Turn Towards Music Analysis ....................................................................................................... 44 I. A Deeper Look at Meshuggah‘s (Late) Musical Style ....................................... 46 Extensional Development in I and Catch Thirtythr33 ............................... 50 Is I ―Calculated,‖ ―Random,‖ or Somehow Both? ..................................... 56 II. Catch Thirtythr33 and the Question of ―Calculation‖ ...................................... 60 CHAPTER 3 Meshuggah and the Fields of Production and Consumption: An Alternative to Marxist Models of Metal Fans ............................................................................... 72 ii I. A Sample of Fan Activities and Musical Preferences ........................................ 77 ―So why is ‗Post-Metal‘ so popular here???‖ ........................................... 77 Fan Interactions with Math Metal and Some Aggressive Rejoinders ........ 80 The Heteroglossia of Speech Genres and its Consequences for Meshuggah ................................................................................................. 90 II. Contradictions, Dichotomies, and Opposing Factions ...................................... 97 Catch Thirtythr33‘s Programmed Drums, Authenticity and Machine Based Aesthetics ......................................................................... 98 Reviews of Catch Thirtythr33 and I ..................................................................... 109 Bourdieu‘s Critiques of Taste Judgments and Social Class Struggles................. 115 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 124 Recordings Cited .................................................................................................. 130 Websites Cited ..................................................................................................... 131 Online Fan Forums Cited ..................................................................................... 132 iii Abstract The unusual complexity of two recent recordings by the extreme metal band Meshuggah has resulted in a strongly divided reception amongst fans, providing the opportunity to reconsider some common conceptions of metal aesthetics and to contribute to subtler ways of understanding taste and social demographics. Spanning twenty-one and forty-seven minutes respectively, I (2004) and Catch Thirtythr33 (2005) surprised fans with their unusual lengths (both recordings considered by the band to be single songs), complex song writing, and, with Catch Thirtythr33, the band‘s use of programmed drums. In response to interviewers‘ questions about each of these factors, the members of Meshuggah have made remarks that have been widely accepted among fans and rock journalists but that also seem to contradict their compositional practices and sometimes even their own previous statements. In my thesis, I investigate this discrepancy and its implications for how the concepts of authenticity and aesthetic values vary in metal discourses using concepts derived from critical theory, music theoretical analysis, and sociology. By uncovering several diverse aesthetic values through these discourses, I argue for an alternative to traditional class-based models of metal fans, one that will acknowledge the wide variety of aesthetic values found amongst metal audiences in this study. iv Résumé La complexité inhabituelle de deux enregistrements récents du groupe métal extrême Meshuggah a entraîné un profond schisme parmi les fans, offrant ainsi l‘opportunité de reconsidérer certaines conceptions courantes concernant l‘esthétique métal ainsi que de raffiner la compréhension du goût et de la démographie sociale. Durant vingt-et-une et quarante-sept minutes respectivement, I (2004) et Catch Thirtythr33 (2005) ont surpris les fans par leur durée inhabituelle (les deux enregistrements étant chacun considérés par le groupe comme chansons individuelles), leur écriture complexe et, avec Catch Thirtythr33, l‘utilisation programmée de la batterie. En réponse aux questions des intervieweurs concernant chacun de ces trois facteurs, les membres de Meshuggah ont mis de l'avant des affirmations qui ont été bien reçues parmi les fans et les journalistes de rock mais qui semblent cependant aller à l‘encontre de leurs pratiques compositionnelles habituelles, contredisant même, parfois, certaines de leurs affirmations antérieures. Cette thèse examine ces contradictions et ce que celles-ci impliquent dans la façon que varient les concepts d‘authenticité et des valeurs esthétiques présents dans les discours sur le métal, utilisant des concepts issus de la théorie critique, de l‘analyse musicale, ainsi que de la sociologie. En mettant en lumière les diverses valeurs esthétiques existant dans ces discours, je voudrais ici démontrer qu‘il existe une alternative aux modèles traditionnels des fans du métal se basant sur la classe sociale et qui rendra compte de la diversité des valeurs esthétiques que l‘on retrouve parmi le public du métal de cette étude. v Acknowledgments For the ideas I‘ve developed in this thesis I owe my most immediate thanks to my advisor David Brackett. By way of example in the quality of his own work, and by insisting that I challenge myself, David has taught me to look beyond my comfort areas in scholarship, to apply broader questions of social meaning to my musical interests, and, as a result, to become a more creative and insightful thinker. I am grateful for the patience and encouragement he has shown me. I owe thanks to many more professors at McGill who have given me their counsel and have inspired me. In particular, Steven Huebner, René Daley, Don McLean, and William Caplin have been enormously helpful. At the University of British Columbia, Professors Richard Kurth, John Roeder, and especially Ken Morrison, each showed tremendous interest in my ideas, often meeting with me on their own time to discuss Meshuggah and music analysis. My graduate student colleagues at McGill have been sources of motivation and friendship (and so has Asher!).1 I‘ve especially looked up to Michael Ethen and Dana Gorzelany-Mostak with whom I have shared many enlightening and many equally vacuous—but no less valuable—conversations about music, scholarship, and life at McGill. I owe thanks to Claudine Jacques for her translation of my abstract and for her generosity with conversations en français. Brian McMillan and the staff of the Marvin Duchow Music Library have been fantastic, always friendly and willing to go out of their way to help me. Maria- Alexandra Francou-Desrochers has been a wonderful companion throughout the ―thesing‖ process. During my times of greatest stress she has been a source of 1 Asher Vijay Yampolsky shares my taste for mischief and will appreciate my little jab. vi warmth, support, feedback at vital moments, and laughter. I want to also thank my best friend Ryan Clay for, at the age of 15, teaching me that ―Dude! Nothing can be too heavy!‖ Above all, I want to thank my parents, Mary Ann and Cary Smialek, who continue to believe in me. 1 Chapter 1 ―Inside What‘s Within Behind‖: Metal Research and the Problem of Meshuggah By borrowing my chapter heading from the title of an early Meshuggah song, I hope to have captured some aesthetic concepts that characterize nearly the band‘s entire career: playful deception, contradictions, confusion and complexity.1 To varying degrees, these terms might seem at odds with the genre of metal as it is usually conceived in the popular imagination and in a great deal of scholarship. Complexity in particular, with its connotations of sophistication, organization, and skill, is frequently opposed