{"id":1543,"date":"2016-06-02T14:27:32","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T18:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/?page_id=1543"},"modified":"2016-06-02T14:51:40","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T18:51:40","slug":"nu-metal-affective-masculinities-and-suburban-identities-guest-blog-by-niccolo-dante-porcello-part-5","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/nu-metal-affective-masculinities-and-suburban-identities-guest-blog-by-niccolo-dante-porcello-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"nu-metal, affective masculinities and suburban identities: guest blog by Niccolo Dante Porcello (part 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER FIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHANGE (IN THE HOUSE OF FLIES)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark Slobin\u2019s concept of micromusics attending to a greater \u201cumbrella-like overarching structure\u201d becomes clear when looking at nu-metal. Using this as a guiding principal, the subculture of nu-metal can be understood as a reflection of a specific and important time in the past 30 years of American cultural production. In a piece for SPIN, Charles Aaron goes about describing the impact that mainstream attention from white audiences had on hip-hop and black culture, and in doing so uses a framework of cultural hybridization. Aaron attempts to discover what cross-cultural acceptance of part<\/i> of black culture had on the economically and socially powerful white populations in the United States.<\/p>\n

As hip-hop culture reached white youth before it reached white elders, it became legislated through perceptions of impact rather than the impact itself; Tipper Gore\u2019s landmark creation of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC henceforth) was a response to \u201cvulgarity and sexualization\u201d that in turn politicized black art. Originally founded in 1985 to censor rock lyrics, the PMRC eventually latched on to popular<\/i> music as their target. Writing about the founding of the PMRC and its impact on censorship Claude Chastagner points out that \u201cwhile black music had been directed at the black market, no one had really objected; it was only when white youth began to be attracted that the attacks really began.\u201d[86] Nu-metal was an integral part of this censorship process, one that saw the infamous Parental Advisory sticker being on nearly every nu-metal album released. It is worth nothing that the sticker more likely than not directly contributed to the sales of nu-metal albums \u2013 it was another easy, and public way of non-conformity.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5541\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nu-metal was vulgar, psychosexualized, and violent, but it was also a reflection of white kids being into black culture. In nu-metal fans rejecting the grunge and punk movements, they were embracing what Aaron refers to as a musical miscegenation. Aaron (writing in 1998) points out that:<\/p>\n

While many publications, including SPIN, have sincerely chronicled and bemoaned the so-called death of alternative rock as a relevant, creative genre (circa 1996, say), what actually faded with alt-rock is a belief in rebel style that exists independently of African-American culture. This was the secret legacy of punk rock (indie rock and grunge) in America \u2014 it offered a handbook of cool for whites that basically ignored the existence of black people. What\u2019s happening now is that rock\u2019n\u2019roll is going back to its miscegenated roots. Like suit-and-tied black professionals donning kente cloth and attending the Million Man March, rock\u2019s white fans and performers are undergoing an intense re-darkening process.[87]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this is taken as such, nu-metal was one of the most complete, early examples of a cultural desegregation that occurred in the last decade of the 20th century and is ongoing today. It is here that the untangling the knot of nu-metal becomes more complex; its possible that a music that was willfully self-involved and aesthetically unpleasant became an unconscious vehicle for a profound change in the cultural output of the United States. Beyond that alone, the subculture that drove this change was mired in a suburban middlescape that championed capitalism over creativity, and achievement over happiness. The \u201cburnouts\u201d of Gaines\u2019 Teenage Wasteland<\/i> were the same kids for whom nu-metal resoundingly mattered and for whom fighting the censorship sent down from above was tantamount to a life or death struggle.<\/p>\n

There is no absolute topology of the triangle between fan, artist, and the art itself, but even a rough understanding of each factor reveals a fundamental complexity in networks of cultural production. Korn means something vastly different to Jonathan Davis than it does to someone in Poughkeepsie, New York listening to Korn on their way to parochial school in the morning; however, they are both valid.. Deftones, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and especially Rage Against the Machine sound<\/i> like that journey to school in the morning for a generation of kids that were put to suburban pasture before they even had a chance to protest. Transgression \u2013 sonically, aesthetically \u2013 was good enough when the other option was encouraged conformity. Towards the end of the SPIN interview where Davis is guiding Neil Strauss around Bakersfield, a sentiment appears that encapsulates where nu-metal came from and what it means. Fittingly, Davis asks: “So, what did you think of Bakersfield?” To which Strauss responds: “It’s a shitty place to live and a shitty place to visit”.<\/p>\n

“Now you understand,” he [Davis] says triumphantly, “and you’ve only been here a few hours. Doesn’t it make you want to start a band called Korn?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n

[86] Claude Chastagner, \u201cThe Parents’ Music Resource Center: From Information to Censorship\u201d Popular Music<\/i> 18 (1999), 183.<\/p>\n

[87] Aaron, \u201cWhite Boy Says Yo\u201d, Rolling Stone.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to extend thanks first and foremost to my advisors, Dr. Leonard Nevarez and Dr. Justin Patch for their willingness to take on a thesis in which the word Korn is used 41 times. That was deeply kind of you. I\u2019d like to thank Clyfford for being the best instigator a boy could have \u2013 without you pushing me to do my thesis on something I cared about this would have been a hideous process. Thank you Sasha for not being skeptical about this \u201cangry boy music\u201d but also never once allowing me to believe I couldn\u2019t do this (or anything) well in this world. Thank you Seth and Val invaluable editing help; I promise I\u2019ll learn the difference between manner and manor after I graduate. Thanks to Tom for feeding me and never being mad that I spend most of my time in the basement. Thank you to Sophie for support in every way, including \u201chow do I cite things?\u201d text messages all the time. Thank you to 124 for not ever asking why I was listening to Limp Bizkit at 2am \u2013 I know you could hear it. Finally, thank you to Olivia for not shanking me after the 28th time we listened to \u201cVoodoo\u201d by Godsmack in the fall, and being the truest compatriot over these last 4 years.<\/p>\n

This thesis is dedicated to my brother, who gave me everything, and also his CD case when he left for college.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aaron, Charles. \u201cWhat the White Boy Means When He Says Yo\u201d, SPIN Magazine<\/i>, November, 1998.<\/p>\n

Berger, Harris. Metal, Rock, and Jazz: Perception and The Phenomenology Of Musical Experience<\/i>. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1999.<\/p>\n

Bourdieu, Pierre. A Social Critique of The Judgement of Taste<\/i>. Translated by Richard Nice. Boston, MA: Harvard Press, 1984.<\/p>\n

Bruegmann, Robert. \u201cLearning from Sprawl,\u201d in Worlds Away: New Suburban \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>Landscapes<\/i>, edited by Andrew Blauvelt. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2008.<\/p>\n

Chang, Jeff. Can\u2019t Stop Won\u2019t Stop: A History of The Hip-Hop Generation<\/i>. New York: Picador, 2005.<\/p>\n

Chastagner, Claude. \u201cThe Parents’ Music Resource Center: From Information to \u00a0\u00a0Censorship\u201d. Popular Music<\/i> 18 (1999): 179-92.<\/p>\n

Deleuze, Gilles. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy<\/i> (R. Hurley, Trans.). San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1988.<\/p>\n

Ebel, Jonathan H. \u201cJesus Freak and the Junkyard Prophet: The School Assembly as \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Evangelical Revival,\u201d Journal of the American Academy of Religion<\/i>, 77<\/i> (2009): 16\u201354.<\/p>\n

Farley, Helen. \u201cDemons, Devils and Witches: The Occult In Heavy Metal Music.\u201d In Heavy Metal Music in Britain, <\/i>edited by Gerd Bayer, 73-85. Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2009.<\/p>\n

Fabbri, Franco. \u201cA Theory of Musical Genres: Two Applications,\u201d edited by D. Horn and P. Tagg Popular Music Perspectives<\/i> (1981), from G\u00f6teborg and Exeter: International Association for the Study of Popular Music.<\/p>\n

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality<\/i>. (R. Hurley, Trans.). New York: Random House, 1978.<\/p>\n

Frith, Simon. \u201cMusic and Identity\u201d in Questions of Cultural Identity, <\/i>edited by Stuart Hall \u00a0\u00a0and Paul Du Gay New York: SAGE Publications, 2006.<\/p>\n

Gaines, Donna. Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia\u2019s Dead End Kids<\/i>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.<\/p>\n

Ganahl, Jane. \u201cWoodstock \u201999: The day music died\u201d, San Francisco Examiner<\/i>, July 28, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1999. http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/style\/article\/Woodstock-99-The-day-the-music-died-3073934.php<\/a><\/p>\n

Hayden, Dolores. A Field Guide to Sprawl<\/i>. \u00a0New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.<\/p>\n

Hyden, Steven. \u201cYou\u2019re Either With Korn and Limp Bizkit, or you\u2019re against them,\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>AV Club, <\/i>February 8, 2011, http:\/\/www.avclub.com\/article\/part-9-1998-youre-either-with-korn-and-limp-bizkit-51471<\/a><\/p>\n

Klosterman, Chuck. Fargo Rock City<\/i>. New York: Scriber, 2001.<\/p>\n

Kahn-Harris, Keith. \u201cDeath Metal and the Limits of Musical Expression\u201d in Policing Pop<\/i> edited by Martin Cloonan and Reebee Garofolo, 81-99. Philadelphia, PA: Temple \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 University Press, 2003.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Davis, interview by Neil Strauss, SPIN Magazine<\/i>, November 1998.<\/p>\n

Lena, Jennifer C., and Richard A. Peterson. \u201cClassification As Culture: Types and \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trajectories Of Music Genres,\u201d American Sociological Review<\/i> 73 (2008): 697-718.<\/p>\n

Marino, Gabriele. \u201c\u201cWhat Kind of Genre Do You Think We Are?\u201d Genre Theories, Genre \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Names and Classes Within Music Intermedial Ecology,\u201d In Music, Analysis, Experience New Perspectives in Musical Semiotics<\/i>, edited by Costantino Maeder and Mark Reybrouck. 239\u201354. Leuven, BEL: Leuven University Press, 2015.<\/p>\n

Moore, Ryan. Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture, and Social Crisis. <\/i>New York: \u00a0\u00a0NYU Press, 2010.<\/p>\n

Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects<\/i>. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1961.<\/p>\n

Ngai, Sianne. Ugly feelings<\/i>. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.<\/p>\n

Overell, Rosemary. Affective Insensities In Extreme Music Scenes: Cases from Australia and Japan.<\/i> London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014.<\/p>\n

Osbourne, Ozzy. I Am Ozzy<\/i>. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009.<\/p>\n

Pieslak, Jonathan. \u201cText and Identity in Korn\u2019s \u2018Hey Daddy\u2019\u201d, Popular Music<\/i> 27 (2008), \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 35-52.<\/p>\n

Rafalovich, Adam. \u201cBroken and Becoming God-Sized: Contemporary Metal Music and Masculine Individualism\u201d, Symbolic Interaction<\/i> 29 (2006), 22-31.<\/p>\n

Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.<\/p>\n

Rubin, Alan M., Daniel V. West, Wendy S. Mitchell. \u201cDifferences in Aggression, \u00a0\u00a0Attitudes Toward Women, and Distrust as Reflected in Popular Music \u00a0\u00a0Preferences\u201d, Media Psychology <\/i>3 (2001), 25-42.<\/p>\n

Sheffield, Rob. \u201cWoodstock \u201999: Rage Against The Latrine\u201d, Rolling Stone<\/i>, Sept 2, 1999. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/news\/woodstock-99-rage-against-the-latrine-19990902<\/a><\/p>\n

Slobin, Mark. Subcultural Sounds<\/i>. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1993.<\/p>\n

Taylor, Laura W. \u201cImages of human-wrought despair and destruction: Social critique in British apocalyptic and dystopian metal.\u201d In Heavy Metal Music in Britain, <\/i>edited by Gerd Bayer, 90-110. Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2009.<\/p>\n

Walser, Robert. Running With The Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal<\/i><\/p>\n

Music. <\/i>Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1993.<\/p>\n

Wayne, Mark. Marxism and Media Studies<\/i>. London: Pluto Press, 2003.<\/p>\n

Wartofsky, Alona. \u201cWoodstock \u201999 goes up in smoke,\u201d Washington Post,<\/i> July 27, 1999,<\/p>\n

accessed January 28, 2016. http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/national\/daily\/july99\/woodstock27.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. <\/i>Boston, MA: De Capo Press, 2000.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LISTENING APPENDIX<\/b><\/p>\n

Beastie Boys<\/p>\n

Licensed To Ill <\/i>1986 (Def Jam Recordings)<\/p>\n

Black Sabbath<\/p>\n

Paranoid<\/i>, 1970 (Vertigo Records)<\/p>\n

Deftones<\/p>\n

Around the Fur <\/i>1997 (Maverick)<\/p>\n

White Pony<\/i> 2000 (Rhino Entertainment)<\/p>\n

Drowning Pool<\/p>\n

Sinner <\/i>2001 (Wind-Up Records)<\/p>\n

Eminem<\/p>\n

The Slim Shady LP<\/i> 1999 (Interscope\/Aftermath)<\/p>\n

Godsmack<\/p>\n

Godsmack <\/i>1997 (Republic Records)<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden<\/i> 1980 (Harvest Records)<\/p>\n

Korn<\/p>\n

Korn<\/i> 1994 (Epic Records)<\/p>\n

<\/i>Life is Peachy <\/i>1996 (Epic Records)<\/p>\n

<\/i>Follow The Leader<\/i> 1998 (Epic Records)<\/p>\n

Limp Bizkit<\/p>\n

Three Dollar Bill, Y\u2019all<\/i> 1997 (Interscope Records)<\/p>\n

<\/i>Significant Other<\/i> 1999 (Universal Victor, Inc.)<\/p>\n

Linkin Park<\/p>\n

Hybrid Theory<\/i> 2000 (Warner Bros. Records)<\/p>\n

Rage Against The Machine<\/p>\n

Rage Against The Machine <\/i>1992 (Sony Entertainment)<\/p>\n

Evil Empire <\/i>1996 (Epic Records)<\/p>\n

Battle of Los Angeles <\/i>1999 (Epic Records)<\/p>\n

Red Hot Chili Peppers<\/p>\n

Blood Sugar Sex Magik<\/i> 1991 (Warner Bros. Records)<\/p>\n

Saliva<\/p>\n

Every Six Seconds<\/i> 2001 (Island Records)<\/p>\n

Wu-Tang Clan<\/p>\n

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) <\/i>1993 (Loud Records)<\/p>\n

See also this custom Spotify playlist.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Previous:<\/b> Chapter One<\/a>
\n Click Click Boom<\/a><\/p>\n

Chapter Two<\/a>
\n Heavy Metal<\/a><\/p>\n

Chapter Three:<\/a>
\n Bulls on Parade<\/a><\/p>\n

Chapter Four:<\/a>
\n Freak on a Leash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER FIVE CHANGE (IN THE HOUSE OF FLIES)   Mark Slobin\u2019s concept of micromusics attending to a greater \u201cumbrella-like overarching structure\u201d becomes clear when looking at nu-metal. Using this as a guiding principal, the subculture of nu-metal can be understood as a reflection of a specific and important time in the past 30 years of American cultural production. In a piece for SPIN, Charles Aaron goes about describing the impact that mainstream attention from white audiences had on hip-hop and black culture, and in doing so uses a framework of cultural hybridization. Aaron attempts to discover what cross-cultural acceptance of part of black culture had on the economically and socially powerful white populations in the United States. As hip-hop culture reached white youth before it reached white elders, it became legislated through perceptions of impact rather than the impact itself; Tipper Gore\u2019s landmark creation of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC henceforth) was a response to \u201cvulgarity and sexualization\u201d that in turn politicized black art. Originally founded in 1985 to censor rock lyrics, the PMRC eventually latched on to popular music as their target. Writing about the founding of the PMRC and its impact on censorship Claude Chastagner points out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1543","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1543\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}