Heavy Metal - Controversies and Countercultures - Titus Hjelm
The extreme metal ‘connoisseur’
Heavy Metal - Controversies and Countercultures - Titus Hjelm
Nicola Allett
Loughborough University
Description
This chapter draws on the author's research with extreme metal fans to consider the construction of the extreme metal community in the UK, in the light of controversies and set against a wider culture that is increasingly celebrating the extreme. The author considers a discursive strategy by fans to define extreme metal against a mainstream and legitimate their taste by adopting a system of values and distinctions that position themselves as ‘connoisseurs’.