The Relation of Music and Dance in Heavy Metal. Developing a Method of Analysis for the Situating Description of Aesthetic-Performative Practices on the Basis of Qualitative-Empirical Investigations from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Florian Heesch
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 454261397

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

Music and dance often go hand in hand. This is as true for heavy metal as it is for many other music genres. Earlier research has investigated characteristic forms of metal movement, such as headbanging and moshing at live concerts. However, the fact that there are numerous further metal dance phenomena has been largely overlooked, leaving many questions unanswered regarding the relationship between music, dance, and other aspects, such as space, sound, and clothing. This project represents the first systematic investigation into the relation between music and dance in (heavy) metal. Recognizing that such a relation is complex, with sounds, movements, and other elements depending on one another, the project aimed to develop a suitable analytical framework. Thus, one of the project's outcomes concerns methodological work: situational analysis, developed in qualitative social research, was applied to the study of music and dance. Daniel Suer (research assistant within the project) coined the term Situational AfforDance Analysis for this model—a combination of situational analysis and a music sociological concept that describes what music can afford, that is, what actions it invites and enables people to engage in. In the historical part of the project, crossover connections to hardcore punk were traced, demonstrating how the practice of moshing spread in German metal scenes during the 1980s. Within this scope, the emergence of the terms moshing, mosh, and moshpit in Germany can be dated to 1986. A case study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the degree to which dance practices are taken for granted in the world of metal music. Dancing fans flexibly adapted their movements to the music, even under the extraordinary spatial constraints imposed by pandemic conditions. The project provided the first detailed descriptions of diverse dance moves performed by groups and individuals at metal concerts, including moves that were synchronized as well as moves that differed among dancers. Offering the first case study on the significance of digital spaces for metal dance, the project examined "Try Not to Headbang" challenges. It was shown how members of the metal world construct certain well-known riffs as an “imperious command" to headbang. Another pioneering case study focused on stage dance. Although less common than audience dances, stage dances are gaining relevance in 21st-century metal, broadening the movement spectrum with influences from ballet and belly dancing, as well as through the perspectives of the almost exclusively female dancers. The theoretical-methodological research approach developed in the project and its innovative findings provide a wide range of opportunities for further studies on performative practices, both in metal and in other musical worlds.

Publications

• „(Feminist) Researcher Positionality, Self-Reflexivity, and Dance in Metal”, Feminism and Metal – an Academic Workshop, Juni 2021, Huddersfield (UK)/Online/Siegen (D)
  Suer, Daniel
  
• „Probleme einer zielführenden Selbstpositionierung in der Erforschung populärer Kulturen am Beispiel der Metal Studies – Selbstreflexionen zur Positionierung in der Feldforschung und bei kontroversen Themen“, 6. Summer Institute der Gesellschaft für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung: Music, Media, Culture and Economy: Selbstreflexivität und Positionierung im eigenen Forschungsprojekt, Oktober 2021, Porto (PRT)
  Kopanski, Reinhard & Suer, Daniel
  
• „Tanz um den Tisch. Materialitäten von Tanzpraktiken im Heavy Metal zu Pandemiezeiten“, 31. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Popularmusikforschung in Kooperation mit dem Seminar für Kulturanthropologie des Textilen der TU Dortmund: All the Things You Are: Populäre Musik und materielle Kultur, Oktober 2021, Dortmund (D)
  Heesch, Florian & Suer, Daniel
  
• Situating Dance History: Moshing’s Crossover from American Hardcore to German Metal in the 1980s”, Hard Wired VIII: Methodical Approaches to Music and Dance – Exploring Heavy Metal and Its Genre Boundaries, September 2022, Siegen (D)
  Heesch, Florian
  
• „Dances with Tables. Materialities of Dance Practices in Metal During COVID”, Biennial Global Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music XXI: Climates of Popular Music, Juli 2022, Daegu (KOR)
  Suer, Daniel & Heesch, Florian
  
• „Projektvorstellung – Das Verhältnis von Musik und Tanz im Heavy Metal“, Vortragsreihe der Abteilung für Musik- und Bewegungspädagogik/Rhythmik (Prof. Dr. Stephanie Schroedter) an der Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien, April 2022, Wien (AUT)
  Heesch, Florian & Suer, Daniel
  
• „Situational AlorDances: Investigating Music-Movement Relations in Metal”, Hard Wired VIII: Methodical Approaches to Music and Dance – Exploring Heavy Metal and Its Genre Boundaries, September 2022, Siegen (D)
  Suer, Daniel
  
• „Two Case Studies on the Aesthetic and Social Co-Constitution of Music-Movement-Relations in Heavy Metal”, 5th International Biennial Research Conference of the International Society for Metal Music Studies: Heavy Metal in the Global South – Multiregional Perspectives, Juni 2022, Mexico City (MEX)
  Suer, Daniel
  
• „Workshop: Situationsanalyse – Neue Erkenntnisse, neue Fragen“, 7. Summer Institute der Gesellschaft für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung: Transdisziplinarität und Disziplin im eigenen Forschungsprojekt, September 2022, Porto (PRT)
  Rhein, Christian & Suer, Daniel
  
• „Zum Potenzial der Situationsanalyse für die Popular Music Studies“, 7. Summer Institute der Gesellschaft für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung: Transdisziplinarität und Disziplin im eigenen Forschungsprojekt, September 2022, Porto (PRT)
  Suer, Daniel
  
• The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music. Cambridge University Press.
  Herbst, Jan-Peter
  
• „Dances with Tables: Altered Materialities of Dance Practices in Heavy Metal as Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic”, 47th World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, Juli 2023, Legon (GHA)
  Suer, Daniel
  
• „Zur Anwendung der Situationsanalyse in den Popular Music Studies“, Workingpaper zur Arbeitstagung Situationsanalyse: Zu Aktualität und Verwendungsweisen eines Forschungsprogramms, 17. November 2023, Universität Tübingen
  Heesch, Florian & Suer, Daniel
  
• „’We Didn’t Call it Wall of Death, but Just Pogo’: The Crossing-Over of Hardcore Dancing into Metal in 1980s Germany”, 6th International Biennial Research Conference of the International Society for Metal Music Studies: No Outsides: Metal in an Era of Contagion, Juni 2023, Montréal/Tiohtià:ke (CAN)
  Heesch, Florian
  
• Hard Wired VIII: Methodical Approaches to Music and Dance: Exploring the Field of Heavy Metal and Its Genre Boundaries, hosted by Florian Heesch, Daniel Suer and Franziska Kaufmann, University of Siegen, Siegen, 8–9 September 20221. Metal Music Studies, 10(1), 61-64.
  Jung, Lea & Suer, Daniel