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No Class? Class and Class Politics in British Heavy Metal
Malmö högskola, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5848-2231
2009 (English)In: Heavy Metal Music in Britain / [ed] Gerd Bayer, Ashgate, 2009, p. 161-180Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In Chapter 9, Magnus Nilsson analyses Motörhead’s lyrics as an attempt to handle a dominant discourse about the working class within the framework of a ‘heavy metal sub-culture’, and to investigate the political implications of this attempt. Song statements such as ‘We are Motörhead’ can be seen as an attempt to change class value in the public sphere. But, as nilsson shows, such songs have to be seen as an investment in a capital that, regardless of its value in a larger public sphere, already has a relatively high value in the heavy metal sub-culture where signs connoting working-class identity are used to create a strong sense of collective identity. However, this construction of identity is seldom politicized in Motörhead songs. What is constructed instead is a ‘cultural otherness’ that has almost no links whatsoever to questions concerning oppression, material injustice and so on. Even in songs that explicitly deal with class issues, the argument is limited to questions of identity. What is at stake is social class, but this is articulated as bearing a mark of cultural distinction.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Ashgate, 2009. p. 161-180
Series
Ashgate popular and folk music series, ISSN 2577-4255, E-ISSN 2577-4247
Keywords [en]
heavy metal, class, Motörhead
National Category
General Literature Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-9593ISI: 000336435900011Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85086625110Local ID: 7995ISBN: 9780754664239 (print)ISBN: 9781138249387 (print)ISBN: 9781315586441 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-9593DiVA, id: diva2:1406625
Available from: 2020-02-28 Created: 2020-02-28 Last updated: 2025-02-05Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
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  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
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  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
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