The Gnostic heritage of Heavy Metal. Issue 3 (2nd July 2016)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- The Gnostic heritage of Heavy Metal. Issue 3 (2nd July 2016)
- Main Title:
- The Gnostic heritage of Heavy Metal
- Authors:
- Belgrad, Daniel
- Abstract:
- Abstract: The religious impulse in early Heavy Metal music is fundamentally Gnostic. An ancient religious tradition emphasising the rule of evil and the remoteness of salvation, Gnosticism was integrated into hard rock music in the late 1960s. Early Heavy Metal musicians encountered Gnosticism as it had been absorbed into popular fiction and film, including especially the works of Dennis Wheatley and J.R.R. Tolkien. Prominent in giving Gnosticism musical form was the band Black Sabbath, whose first three albums in 1970 and 1971 pioneered the patterns of musical practice that would become the conventions of the genre. Heavy Metal's alternately heavy and giddy affect, created via a synthesis of musical practices and complementary verbal and visual representations, brought Gnostic beliefs into meaningful intersection with the everyday lives of young blue-collar males in Britain and the United States, as they confronted the post-industrial age in the context of a waning sixties counterculture.
- Is Part Of:
- Culture and religion. Volume 17:Issue 3(2016)
- Journal:
- Culture and religion
- Issue:
- Volume 17:Issue 3(2016)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 17, Issue 3 (2016)
- Year:
- 2016
- Volume:
- 17
- Issue:
- 3
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2016-0017-0003-0000
- Page Start:
- 279
- Page End:
- 294
- Publication Date:
- 2016-07-02
- Subjects:
- Music -- Gnosticism -- Black Sabbath -- J.R.R. Tolkien -- Dennis Wheatley -- affect theory
Religion and culture -- Periodicals
306.605 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.metapress.com ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcar20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/14755610.2016.1216457 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1475-5610
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 3491.668742
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 330.xml