Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T10:49:18.962Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dirty, soothing, secret magic: individualism and spirituality in New Age and extreme metal music cultures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2019

Owen Coggins
Owen Coggins*
Affiliation:
The Open University and Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy, London E-mail: owen.coggins@open.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Taking inspiration from a press article comparing doom metal and New Age music, I explore individualism and magic in these musical cultures, reflecting on the ‘dirty, soothing secret’ suggested in that article's title. I trace the loosely defined characteristics of New Age music in the limited academic research on the topic, before situating the music in the wider New Age milieu which centres around the epistemological authority of the seeking self among diverse spiritual resources. Then, I examine the claims made about metal in the news article, drawing out themes which also relate to individualism and magic. Finally, I return to the concepts of the dirty, the soothing and the secret, arguing that these are not merely incidental aspects of the mainstream reception of New Age and metal music, but in fact can be understood as contributing to the magical potential of such music for listeners.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 38 , Special Issue 1: Music and Magic , January 2019 , pp. 105 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Attali, J. 1985. Noise: The Political Economy of Music, trans. Massumi, B. (Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press)Google Scholar
Bebergal, P. 2014. Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll (New York, Tarcher)Google Scholar
Berlatsky, N. 2012. ‘Doom Metal has a dirty, soothing secret: it sounds a lot like New Age music’, in The Atlantic, 3 August. www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/doom-metal-has-a-dirty-soothing-secret-its-a-lot-like-new-age-music/260582/ (accessed 6 February 2018.)Google Scholar
Castañeda, C. 1968. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (Berkeley, CA, University of California Press)Google Scholar
Certeau, M. d. 1995. ‘History and mysticism’, trans. Goldhammer, Arthur, in Histories: French Constructions of the Past, ed. Revel, J. and Hunt, L. (New York, New York Press), pp. 437–47.Google Scholar
Coaldrake, K. 2012. ‘New Age music and Japanese tradition: Kitaro live in Yakushiji’, Perfect Beat, 13/1, pp. 49–68Google Scholar
Coggins, O. 2014. ‘Nationalist black metal, black metal nation’, in Writing Difference: Literature, Identity and Nationalism ed. Ray, G., Girindra, , Sarkar, J. and Bhattacharya, A. (London, Atlantic), pp. 460–81Google Scholar
Coggins, O. 2016. ‘Record store guy's head explodes and the critic is speechless! Questions of genre in drone metal’, Metal Music Studies, 2/3, pp. 291–309.Google Scholar
Coggins, O. 2018. Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal (London, Bloomsbury Academic)Google Scholar
Deegan, G. 2014. ‘Cash pile at Enya's music business jumps by €220,000’, Independent.ie, 7 January. https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/cash-pile-at-enyas-music-business-jumps-by-220000-29893284.html (accessed 1 August 2018.)Google Scholar
Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul)Google Scholar
Drury, N. 1985. Music for Inner Space: Techniques for Meditation and Visualisation (Bridport, Prism Press)Google Scholar
Garneau, R. 1987. ‘Ritual and symbolism in new age music’, Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology, 4, pp. 57–73.Google Scholar
Godwin, J. 1987. Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde (London, Thames & Hudson.)Google Scholar
Göransson, N. 2017. ‘Esoteric’, in Bardo Methodology, 22 March. www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2017/03/22/esoteric-interview/ (accessed 8 February 2018)Google Scholar
Hibbett, R. 2010. ‘The new age taboo’, Journal of Popular Music Studies, 22/3, pp. 283–308Google Scholar
Huxley, A. 1945. The Perennial Philosophy (Oxford, Chatto & Windus)Google Scholar
Kelly, K. 2015. ‘Downward facing doom: When yoga meets heavy metal’, The Guardian, 22 June 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/22/downward-facing-doom-yoga-meets-metal (accessed 31 July 2018)Google Scholar
Leary, T., Metzner, R., and Alpert, R. 1964. The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (New York, Citadel)Google Scholar
Magliocco, S. 2015. ‘New age and neopagan magic’, The Cambridge Companion to Magic and Witchcraft in the West: From Antiquity to the Present, ed. Collins, D.J. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), pp. 635–63Google Scholar
Matthew-Walker, R. 2002. ‘New Age music’, Musical Opinion, 125, p. 26Google Scholar
McConnell, F. 1994. ‘Soothing music: for those in a coma’, Commonweal, 121/9, p. 18.Google Scholar
Partridge, C. 2005. The Re-enchantment of the West Volume 1: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture (London, T&T Clark International)Google Scholar
Redden, G. 1999. ‘Magic happens: a New Age metaphysical mystery tour’, Journal of Australian Studies, 23/62, pp. 101–4Google Scholar
Reddit 2012. ‘Doom Metal has a dirty soothing secret it's a lot’, Reddit.com, 5 August. www.reddit.com/r/doommetal/comments/xq7f3/doom_metal_has_a_dirty_soothing_secret_its_a_lot/ (accessed 6 February 2018)Google Scholar
Serres, M. 2007. The Parasite, trans. Schehr, L. R. (Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press)Google Scholar
Sharf, R. 1995. ‘Buddhist modernism and the rhetoric of meditative experience’, Numen, 42/3, pp. 228–83Google Scholar
Socialism and/or Barbarism. 2009. ‘Turning a blind ear’. http://socialismandorbarbarism.blogspot.com/2009/09/turning-blind-ear.html (accessed 31 July 2018)Google Scholar
Thacker, E. 2012. ‘The day of wrath’, Glossator, 6, pp. 89–120Google Scholar
Weinstein, D. 2000. Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture (New York, Da Capo Press)Google Scholar
Zaehner, R. C. 1957. Mysticism Sacred and Profane (Oxford, Oxford University)Google Scholar
Zrzavy, H. 1990. ‘Issues of incoherence and cohesion in New Age music’, Journal of Popular Culture, 24/2, pp. 33–53Google Scholar

Discography

Black Sabbath, ‘Black Sabbath’. Black Sabbath. Vertigo/Warner Bros. 1970Google Scholar
Drudkh, Forgotten Legends. Supernal Music. 2003Google Scholar
Drudkh, Autumn Aurora. Supernal Music. 2004Google Scholar
Drudkh, Songs of Grief and Solitude. Supernal Music. 2006Google Scholar
Drudkh, Blood in our Wells. Supernal Music. 2006Google Scholar
Drudkh, Estrangement. Supernal Music. 2007Google Scholar
Drudkh, Anti-Urban. Supernal Music. 2007Google Scholar
Drudkh, Microcosmos. Season of Mist. 2009Google Scholar
Drudkh, Slavonic Chronicles. Season of Mist. 2010Google Scholar
Drudkh, Eternal Turn of the Wheel. Season of Mist. 2012Google Scholar
Drudkh, Eastern Frontier in Flames. Season of Mist. 2014Google Scholar
Esoteric, Epistemological Despondency. Aesthetic Death. 1994Google Scholar
Esoteric, The Pernicious Enigma. Aesthetic Death. 1997Google Scholar
Esoteric, The Maniacal Vale. Season of Mist. 2004Google Scholar
Esoteric, Paragon of Dissonance. Season of Mist. 2011Google Scholar
Om, Variations on a Theme. Holy Mountain. 2004Google Scholar
Om, Conference of the Birds. Holy Mountain. 2005Google Scholar
Om, Pilgrimage. Southern Lord. 2007Google Scholar
Om, God is Good. Drag City. 2009Google Scholar
Om, Advaitic Songs. Drag City, 2012Google Scholar
Sleep, Jerusalem. London Records. 1996Google Scholar
Sleep, Jerusalem. Rise Above. 1998Google Scholar
Sleep, Dopesmoker. Tee Pee Records. 2003Google Scholar
Sleep, Dopesmoker. Southern Lord. 2012Google Scholar