The Role of the Middle Class in Punk/Metal Crossover
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CONTRASTING SOUNDS AND OVERLAPPING SCENES: THE ROLE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS IN PUNK/METAL CROSSOVER Tristan Leighton A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2021 Committee: Jeremy Wallach, Advisor Esther Clinton Katherine Meizel © 2021 Tristan Leighton All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jeremy Wallach, Advisor The heavy metal scene has a long history of crossover with punk rock, with many subgenres of heavy metal being influenced by punk. Previous research on punk and metal understood the punk subculture to be strongly tied with the middle class, while the heavy metal subculture was understood to be mostly working class. Over the past twenty years, however, the class demographic of the heavy metal subculture has shifted to be primarily middle class. This thesis is an attempt to understand how heavy metal’s shift in class demographics has influenced crossover between punk rock and heavy metal musics. To understand the relationships between class, punk rock, and heavy metal, this thesis makes use of Steve Waksman’s metal/punk continuum and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of distinction and cultural capital, as well as lyrical analysis and ethnographic research conducted in between July 2019 and February 2020 in the heavy metal scene in the greater Detroit area. In this thesis, I dissect the differences between heavy metal and punk rock. When viewed as Weberian ideal types, I found that, as a genre, heavy metal tends to avoid overt discussions of politics, whereas punk rock openly engages with politics. I argue that the heavy metal subculture has retained a working class habitus, which is seen in metal’s avoidance of overt discussion of politics. This working class habitus in the heavy metal scene is in tension with the middle class habitus of many metalheads. As a result of this, middle class metalheads use various techniques to navigate this tension, including enjoying metal music which more openly discusses politics due to punk rock influences. Finally, I argue that the subgenre of metalcore, a hybrid of hardcore punk and heavy metal, is a product of the middle class fanbase in heavy metal, as it focuses on topics such as sociopolitical troubles and iv mental health. In doing so, metalcore reflects the lived experiences of the middle class metalhead. v To my wife, Katie Jacobi. Your love and support made this possible. I love you hooman. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As I write these acknowledgments I am overcome with the volume of people who I have to thank. There are more than I can list, and I tried. I have a list next to me as I write, and I know I am forgetting people. Regardless, the first person I must thank is my wife Katie Jacobi. She has been by my side throughout the whole adventure that is graduate school. She supported me throughout every late night, every anxiety attack, every time I wanted to quit, and myriad other difficulties. She was also by my side celebrating every minor victory I had, even if I felt it wasn’t worth celebrating. She has been the ultimate cheerleader. I also have to thank her for being ok with moving to Ohio, as she is a Michigan native who moved to enemy territory just so I could go on this adventure. I have to acknowledge and thank my informants Humbaba, Epirus, Chris, Spike, Dizzy, Blackbird, Goku, Anthrowych, Raven, and the Engineer. I was unable to use all of your responses in this research, but I owe each of you a debt of gratitude. I learned how to be a better interviewer and researcher from each interview I did, and each interview helped shape the research I did. This thesis would not exist without your generosity. I am also grateful for the time and expertise my thesis committee has provided me. Dr. Jeremy Wallach, Dr. Esther Clinton, and Dr. Katherine Meizel. Words also cannot express how thankful I am for the guidance they provided me over the course of writing this thesis. Word also cannot express how grateful I am for their patience, for reading over my very rough drafts, for all the corrections and revisions they provided. The time and effort they have put into helping me with this project has deeply shaped what this project has become, and it has deeply shaped me into a better scholar. I also wish to thank the Stoddard-O’Neil fund, the Popular Culture Studies Department, vii and the beating heart of the department Beka Patterson. I am grateful for the funding I received from the Stoddard O’Neil fund; without it I would not have had the resources to do this research. I am also deeply grateful to the whole of the popular culture studies department and all the professors in it. It is good to know there is a quirky department that thinks looking at popular culture is not weird. I am also eternally grateful to Rebekah Patterson. As the graduate secretary for the Popular Culture department, Beka was the first person I dealt with at this school. She was also the facilitator for almost everything I did here, without her help an absent-minded egghead like me would have had no chance at navigating the logistics of graduate school. I also have to give thanks to my family. My father Dr. Richard Leighton, my mother Dawn Leighton, and my sister Sara Leighton were indispensable in getting this done as well. Just like my wife, my mother was always willing to talk when I needed to vent, to cry, or just to unwind. Sometimes you just need to call mom. Words cannot express how thankful I am that she is always there. My father was also always there, but he played a different role. Having known me my whole life, having faced many of the same difficulties, and having survived a PhD program, my dad was able to give me the advice I needed to get past a lot of my mental roadblocks and difficulties I had when writing. He always said that he knew I could finish this thesis and was always willing to help me get past my own demons. My sister, Sara, played a very unique role that I am thankful for. She was always willing to celebrate my successes, but what she did for me was something only a sibling can. When I really needed it she could give me the proverbial swift kick in the butt that I needed. I can’t express how lucky I am to have them as a family. Finally I would like to thank my friends who helped see me through this: Josh Smith, Dee Elliott, Joe Busch, Peter Burch. Josh’s friendship and the hours he spent with me reading for our viii coursework and group writing our thesis with me have helped me to no end. Dee’s enthusiasm for her thesis topic, the cryptid mothman, served as an inspiration to me at times. Her willingness to speak at length about her topic with unmatched enthusiasm and listen with the same level of enthusiasm as I talked about my thesis inspired me to keep going. I also have to thank Joe Busch for the amount of time he spent just chatting with me at his store, The Stacked Deck. Those conversations were some of the few instances where I was able to turn off my brain and not think about my thesis, giving me the space I needed to return to work refreshed. Finally there is Peter Burch, my best friend since high school. Peter didn’t help me at all as I wrote this thesis, but without him I would not have been able to write this project. The countless hours of discussions, debates, and arguments we have had over the years helped me develop many of the analytical skills that have used as I wrote this thesis. I know there are countless others I could thank and acknowledge, as I have been helped by many in the path I took to entering the Popular Culture Studies Department at BGSU, and as I wrote this thesis. Unfortunately to thank everyone would make an acknowledgments section that is longer than this thesis. No matter if you were mentioned here or not, I am eternally indebted to all who have helped me. As I understand it, this is not my thesis, it is our thesis, as I would not have made it as far as I have without all the help I have received along the way. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 Defining Punk and Metal ............................................................................................. 3 Theoretical Background ................................................................................................ 4 Methodology and Location ........................................................................................... 6 Ethics Statement............................................................................................................ 7 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER I. PUNK, METAL, AND THE WEBERIAN IDEAL TYPE ................................ 12 The Weberian Ideal Type .............................................................................................. 12 Heavy Metal’s Worldview ............................................................................................ 14 Heavy Metal’s Unity in Disparity ................................................................................. 15 Heavy Metal’s “Rejection” of Politics .......................................................................... 19 A Unified Philosophy of Punk Rock ............................................................................ 25 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................