Threat cues in metal's visual code. (1st June 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Threat cues in metal's visual code. (1st June 2022)
- Main Title:
- Threat cues in metal's visual code
- Authors:
- Watier, Nicholas
- Abstract:
- Metal music has a signifying visual aesthetic or so-called visual code. In this article, I examine the significance of four primitive visual properties that characterize the code. I propose that the propensity for visual artefacts of metal music to depict low luminance, low colourfulness, redness and angular shapes is because these properties can act as subtle threat cues. As metal music has a preoccupation with threatening themes and sounds, these four properties provide concordant visual information about the affective attributes of the genre. After reviewing the supporting psychological evidence, I conduct a quantitative test of this proposal by comparing album covers from extreme metal bands to those from children's music, two genres that are opposed to one another in their embrace of a threatening atmosphere. The results indicate that extreme metal album covers are darker, less colourful, redder and feature more angular shapes compared with their children's counterparts, which suggests that these properties are relied upon to communicate a clear threat signal.
- Is Part Of:
- Metal music studies. Volume 8:Number 2(2022)
- Journal:
- Metal music studies
- Issue:
- Volume 8:Number 2(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 8, Issue 2 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0008-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 205
- Page End:
- 223
- Publication Date:
- 2022-06-01
- Subjects:
- Heavy metal (music) -- Periodicals
Heavy metal (music) -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
781.6605 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal, id=236/ ↗
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/index/ ↗
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/mms/2014/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1386/mms_00075_1 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 2052-3998
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22438.xml