SCHOOL OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION / THE ASIA INSTITUTE THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE Brutal Belonging: affective intensities in, and between, Australia’s and Japan’s grindcore scenes Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Rosemary Therese Overell 5/27/2012 THESIS ABSTRACT This thesis examines the experience of affective belonging in the grindcore music scene. Presenting an ethnography of how scene-members in Australia and Japan participate in grindcore, my thesis shows the experience of affective belonging in three ways: spatially, socially and through the transnational exchanges between both scenes. My thesis formulates the concept of ‘brutal belonging’ as a metaphor for the intense, sometimes violent, sensation(s) of affective belonging in grindcore, to argue that fans experience belonging via shared affective intensities rather than scenic signifiers. My thesis focuses on how grindcore metal music scene-members in Australia and Japan experience belonging affectively. 2 DECLARATION This is to certify that the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated in the Preface, due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, the thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices or the thesis is 94,527 words as approved by the RHD Committee. Signed _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Rosemary Therese Overell 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I wish to thank The University of Melbourne and the Australian Postgraduate Award Committee for their financial support of my project. However, writing a thesis requires more than just monetary assistance. Thank you especially to my supervisors, Dr Audrey Yue and Assoc. Prof. Carolyn Stevens who were absolutely invaluable to me, particularly during my fieldwork in Japan. Thank you too, to my supporters in the School of Culture and Communication at The University of Melbourne, Chris Healy and Fran Martin. I also thank my family and friends for their unending patience and understanding during the long period of research and writing. Special thanks goes to Duncan, who, on my whim, was willing to uproot and move to Osaka for two years. Also thank you to my parents, without whose emotional and financial support I would not have been able to complete this thesis. My sister, Virginia, too, for always being willing to listen to me debrief. I also wish to express my gratitude to all the people who participated in the project. Your enthusiasm for grindcore, and my thesis, helped push me through all the difficult times. Further, a big thank you to Christoph and Rebecca, for including me in many Melbourne grindcore events and allowing me ‘backstage’, and John and Hide for introducing me to the Osaka scene. Also to my translators Hide, Hiroshi, Yoshi and, of course, Carolyn. I hope my thesis captures the passion that grindcore scene-members hold for ‘their’ genre. Thus, this work is dedicated to one of the most passionate, indeed brutal, scene-members of all: Chris ‘Reeky Bits’ Morris (RIP). 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 9 Hypothesis .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Section 1: Setting the Scene – Global Grindcore Music .................................................. 10 Section 2: Scenic Homes – Affective Belonging and Brutal Belonging ...................... 17 Section 3: A Grisly Scene? Extreme Metal Music and Belonging ................................. 24 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 53 Chapter 2: Methodology – An Affective Ethnography ........................................................ 56 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 56 Section 1: Grindcore Music in Melbourne and Osaka ...................................................... 57 Section 2: Non-representational Theory .............................................................................. 76 Section 3: An Affective Ethnography ..................................................................................... 85 Section 4: Research Methods and Sample Information .................................................. 91 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 105 Chapter 3: Brutal Belonging in Grindcore Spaces ............................................................. 108 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 108 Section 1: Signifying Brutality .............................................................................................. 110 Section 2: Grindcore Places .................................................................................................... 120 Section 3: Place Studies in Melbourne and Osaka ........................................................ 147 Section 4: Fuck … I’m Dead – Brutal Belonging and Brutal spaces ........................ 156 Section 5: Brutal Belonging – Homely and Uchi spaces .............................................. 172 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 181 Chapter 4: I Hate Girls and Emotions – Brutal Sociality ................................................. 183 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 183 Section 1: Brutal Sociality in Melbourne and Osaka’s Grindcore Scenes ............. 187 Section 2: Grindcore and its ‘Others’ in Melbourne and Osaka ................................ 190 Section 3: Brutally Gendered Sociality .............................................................................. 216 Section 4: Burning Emos – disavowing articulated emotions in Melbourne grindcore ........................................................................................................................................ 239 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 251 Chapter 5: Brutal Belonging in Other Spaces ...................................................................... 254 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 254 5 Section 1: The Interaction Between Melbourne and Osaka’s Grindcore Scenes ........................................................................................................................................................... 256 Section 2: Australian Bogans and Japanese Warriors – How Grindcore Relates to National Belonging .................................................................................................................... 266 Section 3: Brutal Belonging in Other Spaces ................................................................... 301 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 327 Chapter 6: Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 329 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 340 Appendices ....................................................................................................................................... 359 Appendix 1: Questions for the Qualitative Interview .................................................. 359 Appendix 2: Questionnaire ..................................................................................................... 361 Appendix 3: Information about the Participants ........................................................... 366 Appendix 4: Glossary Japanese / English .......................................................................... 371 6 LIST OF FIGURES Unless otherwise specified, in the body of the text, all photographs and maps were created by Rosemary Overell. 2.1 Melbourne’s grindcore places ............................................................................................... 67 2.2 Osaka’s grindcore places: AmeMura ................................................................................... 75 2.3 Osaka’s grindcore places: South Osaka .............................................................................. 75 2.4 Osaka’s grindcore places: North Osaka .............................................................................. 75 3.1 The Arthouse Hotel in North Melbourne........................................................................ 127 3.2 Shagnum play at Pony Bar ................................................................................................... 129 3.3 Thugz and Playaz play underneath a bridge in Clifton Hill ....................................