Week Ten: The Pros & Cons of Metal Re-Enchantment

The definition Kahn-Harris provides for reflexivity (p. 141) is something we see beyond the metal scene and a characteristic of various institutions, even in straight society. That definition states: “The reflexivity of modern social life consists in the fact that social practices are constantly examined and reformed in the light of incoming information about those very practices, thus constitutively altering their character ... We are abroad in a world which is thoroughly constituted through reflexively applied knowledge, but where at the same time we can never be sure that any given element of that knowledge will not be revised” (1990: 28-9). We see this type of behavior in everything from politics to metal, and I think as music, as one example, begins to change that knowledge, various subgenres begin to develop and spread based on those sets of knowledge. You could also say this happens in religion. Therefore, the actions that come result from reflexivity may not necessarily change the knowledge that has been created, but mutate it and create a new form of offspring like a cell dividing into smaller, similar pieces of itself.

With these extreme forms of metal in particular, there must be some forms of anti-reflexivity in order to create a sense of humor and maintaining an existence from the straight society. If metal musicians and fans took themselves too seriously all the time, they would be nothing more than a blacked out, loud, angry version of straight society. By making fun of themselves through music that create parodies of various genres and television shows like Metalocalypse, metal musicians and fans can maintain a sense of value in what they’re doing by making fun of how ridiculous they can sometimes be, just as they are making fun of how ridiculous straight society can sometimes be. Even though it may just be in the nature of metal and going against the grain to do something against what normal behavior tends to follow (reflexivity in this case), anti-reflexivity plays a pivotal role in the lives of metal musicians and fans in order to see how over the top the genre and people are, and laugh at themselves for a little while.