Introduction
For my project, I will be analyzing 50 black metal songs to see if the lyrics enforce violence, anti-religion, and or racism. Black metal is an extreme genre within heavy metal, that has often been criticized for its taking on anti-Christian, satanic, and paganistic themes. Black metal initially aimed to remain underground yet its morbid stage performances, satanic symbols, imagery, and harsh ideologies led to hysteria in the media. Moreover, the intensity of this genre has been linked to church burnings and two murders in the early ’90s. These problems can be traced back to the 1984 Norwegian band Mayhem, who founded what it meant to be true “black metal”. Varg Virkens, the bassist of Mayhem, was put on trial and locked away for the majority of these crimes. Varg was and still is a neo-nazi and believes in many other founding ideologies that coincide with black metal. Modern black metal idolizes early black metal and has built off of its beliefs. This is problematic because this genre of music not only holds violent song lyrics but has also inflicted violence into their community in the earlier days.
By analyzing these songs, I aim to uncover if there is a bigger message and meaning to what black metal bands are inflicting on their fans. As a result, this issue pertains to the audience and fanbase of black metal. Their general audience is white male’s but I believe the youth is where the problem lies. This is because adolescents are easily influenced and their brains are not fully developed, impairing their judgment. With a history of crime and extreme pioneering members, I want to see if newer bands of black metal reflect the past within their lyrics. This is important to look at because lyrics hold meaning which may reveal black metal ideologies. By studying black metal lyrics, I hope to uncover if the issues of violence, racism, and anti-religion are present in this genre.
Literature Review
Black metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music; most notably because it is linked to church burnings and murders in the early 90s. This radical music genre is worth looking at due to its harsh desire to reject the cultural norm. This literature review will be examining peer reviewed sources that have analyzed black metal music and culture while also taking a deeper look at the ideologies that this music genre upholds. The three themes most discussed were: aversion to Christianity, nationalism and Nordic ancestry. This revealed that common key findings were found throughout these sources. Moreover, these sources are placed in Thematic ordered to see if recurring themes are presented. This gives the ability to look at subtopics that are related to themes such as Nordic ancestry and nationalism. Black metal scholars have similar ideas about why black metal developed and how it is today through three important characteristics.
Nationalism and Black Metal
Black metal originated in Europe causing the music genre to build its ideologies off of Northern European History, nationalist culture and ancient european traditions and myths. Caroline Lucas writes in Grim Up North that Mayhem was the founder of “true black metal”, paving the way for later bands to present the same ideologies in their music. One of Mayhems members, Varg Vikernes, was put on trial for the series of church burnings and the murder of his bandmate. At his trial he expressed views of neo-natzism and pagam belefs which led fans to embrace nationalist ideas. In the journal, The Metal Void: First Gatherings it also discusses how black metal takes nationalism to the extreme because of the early Norweigan black metal bands beliefs. It further goes on to state that these earlier beliefs have been transformed into “declarations of racial purity and Nordic superiority” (Taylor 162). Many studies have confirmed that the nazism and early Norweigan black metal are connected resulting in modern day black metal to be nationalistic.
A White Community within Black Metal Music
The listeners of black metal music are predominantly white men of the middle class, who share eleist viewpoints. In Metal Void: First Gatherings, Taylor writes how early Norweigan black metal artists make deliberate attempts to exclude any non-white people. This tendency is more pronounced in Norway’s underground black metal scene. This is most likely a direct cause of the country being a predominantly white population. The white community among black metal music is even more emphasized by the artists avoiding the use of blues notes and syncopated rhythms which come from African American origins. In the black metal scene, the white face paint or corpse paint worn by many of the musicians could be understood as a “further marker of whiteness” (Taylor 162). In the study Grim Up North it explains how historically Northern England was mostly white, including Norway, which is why a “sense of whiteness” is associated with this music genre. It goes on to further state how this “whiteness” gives fans a sense of identity. Furthermore, Cheung writes in Attitudinal meaning and social struggle in heavy metal song lyrics that black metal fans are white adolescent males, who are displeased with the mainstream society. Cheung explains how these strong attitudes and beliefs are a cause of marginalisation. Meaning the treatment of a person or group as insignificant or peripheral. A central theme within these studies is focusing on the concern of identity in relation to culture and society. It is clearly exemplified through these sources that the white community within black metal is a direct cause of the culture of early Northern Europe and desire to be exclusive.
Lyrical Content
Jeffrey S Podoshen stated in Theoretical reflections on dystopian consumer culture: Black metal how black metals lyrics were based off of Scandinavian nature, religion, Nietzschian philosophy, and Nordic ancestry as a result of the early violence surrounding this genre. It’s earlier crimes set the pace for black metal lyrics to continue to develop and harshen it’s views. Jesse Taina analyzed black metal lyrics in her study Keywords in Heavy Metal Lyrics A Data-Driven Corpus Study into the Lyrics of Five Heavy Metal Subgenres and found that the music genre held connections to Anti-Christian sentiment, Satanism and misanthropic ideals. Using content analysis, Taina found that some of the most used words in black metal were funeral, ruins, dark and born. After looking at how black metal is closely rooted to nationalism and a history of violence, it reveals why the lyrics are as stated.
Conclusion
After reviewing these journals, one can conclude that black has problematic lyrics and viewpoints due to its influence from early Northern European ideologies. It’s nationalistic ideals were only heightened and further embraced after the crimes of Norweign black metal bands in the early 90s. A sense of white community was built from this music culture, aiming to stay exclusive and embrace their origins. The lyrics stem from the history of white supremacy in these countries and the violence from earlier bands. Black metal not only sings about crimes and hatred but carries it out as well. This raises the question of if this is a music genre or actually a underlying cult.
Key words
Violence: In my paper, violence will be categorized under aggressive thoughts, disturbing imagery and feelings of intense hostility. For example, brutal or savage words such as destroy, bloodshed, attack, or kill. Additionally, violence will be categorized as the act of committing assault, harm or crime such as “burning” or “feeding” on someone or to something.
Nationalism: in my content analysis nationalism means to promote the interests of Northern Europe, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation's sovereignty over its homeland. Emphasis on xenophobic, occult and esoteric words or terms. For example “northern” gods or kings, “bartzabel”, “nativism” or “theurgy”.
National Socialist black metal: political philosophy within black metal music that promotes Nazism or similar ideologies. This is my second subcategory that will define nationalism. It will be coined as words or phrases that are racist or protest modern politics. For example, referring to Aryan and Nordic ancestry as the “master race” and any words or phrases that are racist. Nationalism will be broken up into my first definition (esoteric) and my second (racism).
Satanism: I will define satanism in this analysis as the opposition of Christianity or religion as a whole. Moreover, I have narrowed this definition into three subcategories: the allusion to religious references, denouncing Christianity or religion as whole and lastly mention of satan or hell. For example biblical references such as “armageddon”(religion), mocking religion (opposition to christianity), and phrases referring to satan and hell such as “praise satan'' (satan).
Research Methods and Research Questions
Do black metal lyrics display extreme ideology (anti religion or nationalistic beliefs)?
Do black metal lyrics use repetition of words or phrases to enforce a certain message (pertaining to violence, opposition to christianity and or racist viewpoints)
I intend to answer my research questions by examining 5 different black metal bands and looking at 10 of their most popular songs on spotify. I will only be looking at metal bands who came after the second wave of black metal (post-1993). This is because the second wave stopped after certain bands and members were put on trial and locked away for the church burnings and murders. Additionally I will only be looking at the chorus of the song, to narrow down my area of focus and see if the repetition of certain words or phrases that reference themes of violence, satanism, and nationalism continue to arise. This is to weed out keywords and phrases that are used as the central message of their song. Moreover, I will only be looking at songs that are in English and that are made after 2000. This limitation is set to only look at modern music and keep my research relevant. By following these guidelines, I will be able to answer my research questions by counting how many times my terms show up in the chorus of black metal.
Content Analysis is regarded as a quantitative systematic, and objective technique for describing the manifest content of communications (Treadwell 217). Furthermore it categorizes and counts clear or observable content, by first, operationalize the concept one wants to look at. Then deciding the samples and unit of analysis and developing a code book. Lastly begin coding (counting the occurrences) based on the code book. This is the best method for my research because it directly looks at the song lyrics I choose and gives me the ability to coin my terms, specific, to the topic of black metal. Moreover, by directly looking at the song lyrics I can see if my operationalized terms are displayed within the song. Giving me the ability to statistically examine the coded form of my text. Another advantage is if done right there is little room for error, leaving my research very accurate.
Textual Analysis goes beyond developing a taxonomy of content. When applying textual analysis to my research I analyzed the key terms I wanted to apply to that fit within black metal lyrics and looked for patterns and recurring themes. This is the best approach because it focuses more on the meaning of the lyrics, rather than how many times violence, nationalism and satanism appear in black metal music, for my study. This approach gives a more, in depth look at the song lyrics and provides greater information about the content, structure and function of black metal lyrics. This is important because it looks at multiple factors rather than one, diving deeper to give insight to the social factors that aid black metal’s popularity or give insight and explanation to certain themes within the black metal genre.
Sampling songs from 2000-present to see if themes of violence, nationalism and satanism are still relevant
Looking at 5 popular black metal bands that have a great following and still perform (Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth, Gorgoroth, Immortal)
Look at the top 10 songs on the bands spotify and analysis the chorus of these songs
Look for repetition of words or phrases (count how many times) in the chorus
Sample will be 50 song lyrics and unit of analysis will also be these lyrics
The whole black metal music genre is the universe and the ideal sample is the limits I set above (after second wave, popular, still making music and performing)
Specifically looking to see if themes of violence, opposition to chirtsianity, satanism, occult (mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena) and racism arise or are repeated within these lyrics
Characterize lyrics that fall under my 3 themes (Violence, Nationalism, Satanism)
Actual Coding
Intercoder Reliability: 0.885, 88.5%
Findings
After conducting my content analysis, I found that satisfaction was the most sung about, violence was the second and nationalism was the least. This was somewhat surprising because I thought nationalism would have been sung about most because of my findings from my literature review. I also concluded from my coding sheet that the majority of these bands did not sing about all 3 of my key terms. At most, one or two of my key terms would be sung about as their overarching theme for their music. For example, Gorgoroth tended to hold lyrics relating to Satanism with only four references to the other categories, in two out of the ten songs. Immortal's lyrics strictly expressed nationalism with one reference to satanism in their song Called to Ice. This must be because each band must feel stronger and less strong about certain black metal ideologies than others. Moreover, I took out my second definition of nationalism and only applied my first because Nazism and racism did not show up once in the lyrics I analyzed. This revealed that black metal bands are at least not openly racist but do express slight nationalistic views. Not one band strongly expressed any of my key terms within their lyrics, revealing that they have other topics and themes to sing about.
This data provides an answer to my research questions by revealing that black metal does not display extreme ideologies within the chorus of their songs. My data is limited to the chorus, bands and key terms I choose to examine, restricting my results to my sampling bias. For my second question, my coding sheet revealed that black metal lyrics do not use repetition of words or phrases to enforce a certain message. This is because there are not high numbers in my coding sheet with lots of low numbers and 0s. This study did not confirm my hypothesis because I assumed these lyrics would sing more about my terms. Shockingly, I saw a common theme that most of these songs sung about nature and the elements rather than my terms. Lastly, I applied my keywords and theories by following the definition I set and closing analyzing the lyrics to see if any of my words were expressed. I broke Satanism down into 3 keywords, making it more clear on what each word meant. As previously stated, I initially broke nationalism into two key words yet found racist words were not used at all. Violence was categorized under aggressive thoughts, disturbing imagery and feelings of intense hostility. These words were the easiest to point out because of the “violent” words that feel under it.
Conclusion and Reflection
For this content analysis, I examined 5 black metal bands and 10 of their most popular songs on Spotify. I picked this topic because of the history of crimes that are associated with this genre, in hopes to discover if issues and ideologies from the past show up in their lyrics. My literature review looked at 5 different sources that shared similar views about the culture surrounding black metal. The peer-review journals helped me to conclude that black has problematic viewpoints due to its influence from early Northern European ideologies. And additionally helping me to coin my keywords. My keywords were operationalized into violence, nationalism, and satanism. These words were put into my coding sheet to discover if black metal lyrics display extreme ideology and or if the lyrics use repetition of words or phrases to enforce a certain message. After conducting my analysis, I found that the answer to both of those questions was no. This was because not all of the bands sang about my keywords often. If the band were to use one of my keywords it was minimal and not repetitive within the chorus. This revealed that black metal does not solely sing about the three extreme themes I picked and that maybe these bands' lyrics are not as bad as they seem.
After looking over my content analysis and findings, I wish I sampled the whole song to obtain more lyrical content to examine. Most black metal songs have minimal lyrics in comparison to how long the duration of the song is because most of the song focuses on instrumentals. But the minimal lyrics could emphasize that these bands are singing more about the key terms than I concluded which is hard to tell from my coding sheet because it’s lacking in a word count. Additionally, I noticed when looking up the lyrics that these songs sung about my key terms, just not always in the chorus. The chorus is what most people remember and is repetitive, which is why I initially thought to examine that. Moreover, I found that the black metal chorus is not repetitive like music we are use to listening to and is sometimes hard to find within the song. I had to listen to some of the songs to find the chorus and realized that these are not catchy songs at all. If I were to investigate this again, I would sample more bands and look at two or three verses along with the chorus to gain more material to examine.
References
Cheung, Joyce Oiwun, and Dezheng (William) Feng. “Attitudinal Meaning and Social Struggle in Heavy Metal Song Lyrics: a Corpus-Based Analysis.” Social Semiotics, April 2019, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2019.1601337.
Lucas, Caroline, Mark Deeks, and Karl Spracklen. "Grim Up North: Northern England, Northern Europe and Black Metal." JOURNAL FOR CULTURAL RESEARCH 15 (July 2011).
Podoshen, Jeffrey S., Vivek Venkatesh, and Zheng Jin. "Theoretical reflections on dystopian consumer culture: Black metal." Marketing Theory, February 27, 2014, 1-20.
Spracklen, Karl. "The Metal Void: First Gatherings." Critical Issues, 2010, 81-94.
Taina, Jesse. “Keywords in Heavy Metal Lyrics A Data-Driven Corpus Study into the Lyrics of Five Heavy Metal Subgenres.” UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI, April 2014, 1–100.
Treadwell, D. F. 2011. Introducing communication research: paths of inquiry. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.
