Metal, Rock, and Jazz: Perception and the Phenomenology of Musical Experience

by Harris M. Berger

A lively comparison of musical meaning in Ohio's Jazz, metal, and hard rock scene.

This vivid ethnography of the musical lives of heavy metal, rock, and jazz musicians in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio shows how musicians engage with the world of sound to forge meaningful experiences of music. Unlike most popular music studies, which only provide a scholar's view, this book is based on intensive fieldwork and hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews. Rich descriptions of the musical life of metal bars and jazz clubs get readers close to the people who make and listen to the music.

Of special interest are Harris M. Berger's interviews with Timmy "The Ripper" Owens, now famous as lead singer for the pioneering heavy metal band, Judas Priest. Owens and other performers share their own experiences of the music, thereby challenging traditional notions of harmony and musical structure. Using ideas from practice theory and phenomenology, Berger shows that musical perception is a kind of practice, both creatively achieved by the listener and profoundly informed by social context.

Genres: Music

350 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t let the ridiculous cover photo deter you. This is a scholarly work of ethnomusicology.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1999. I was 11 in 1999. I was starting to discover metal at that age because I was listening to my Dad's music. Black Sabbath, The Doors, Van Halen, are some of the bands I love because of my Dad.

Now I'm 37 and still an elitist metalhead jerk. 😂 Or at least that's what I've been told.

As a musician and librarian I loved this book. This book is all about the study of culture through music. Harris Berger makes connections between jazz, rock, and metal.

Berger's connection of fairy tales and folklore to lyrics and music in the introduction was neat.

I was amused by Berger's description of metal crowds and people. Especially, the "critical man." "No showy clothes, stands with arms crossed." I'm not a man but that's definitely me. I won't mosh if your band isn't good. Or it's black metal. Because who moshes to black metal?

What I liked about this book is also what I did not like. It was cool that Berger observed and studied different music scenes. But why Ohio? Why not New York City or Los Angeles?

As a person who grew up in the Midwest and hated it. The opinions of the musicians Berger interviewed don't surprise me at all. They just make me roll my eyes and be happy I left that dump.

The worst offender was Dann Saladin. He is definitely a salad. Boring and bland with no taste. He whines about goregrind and hardcore. I disagree wholeheartedly with all his opinions. Mr. Saladin is a typical Midwestern cuck who thinks metal shouldn't discuss class, politics, or sex. Dann, you numbnutts you missed the point about metal and punk. Wherever you are you need to go back and listen to Death's "Pull the Plug" and all of Napalm Death's discography.

The best way I can conclude this book and my views on metal and punk is with this qoute by the author.

" All music need not bring about social justice, but to be unwilling to criticize elements of a musical culture that contribute to the participants' own undoing is to be complicit in that undoing" (Berger, p.292). "

Music is art. Art is culture. Culture is nothing without class, politics, race, and sex. Therefore, it all matters.