''What's More Evil than Satan?'' : a Study on the History and Influence of National Socialist Black Metal

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Authors
Zimmerman, Dylan
Issue Date
2014-06-01
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en_US
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“There seems to be a consensus belief that the media which we consume on a daily basis has been getting progressively more violent and disturbing. We don't know what kinds of effects this constantly increasing barrage of cruel imagery might have upon the real-world behavior of those who are subject to it, though this is the topic of much public debate. I personally feel that the media we consume reflects who we are, therefore it is unsurprising that people who are intrigued and excited by violence would indulge in media which depicts those things. Similarly, the appeal of a musical genre with an overt political goal extends for the most part only to those who already hold those beliefs and wish to hear them repeated and confirmed by a third party. The genre of National Socialist black metal, despite its noticeable influence on mainstream black metal, is an example of a musical style which is not any actual threat to the bulk of society. The fringes which might already be interested in either the black metal or the Nazi side of the equation are already so deeply entrenched in elitist and exclusive groups that their impact on the mainstream culture is all but unnoticeable. This insularity can be understood through an analysis of the history of the black metal genre, its relationship to topics which alienate the mainstream, the polarizing nature of some founding members of the genre, the usage of Nazi imagery within the scene and its neighbors, and the perspectives of mainstream society on black metal.” The author presents the scripts from three podcasts on the subject.
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41 p.
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