• ‘Quiet These Paintings Are’: the function of slowness in doom metal styles

    Author(s):
    M.Selim Yavuz (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    Music and Sound
    Subject(s):
    Heavy metal (Music)--Instruction and study, Musicology, Popular music
    Item Type:
    Conference paper
    Conf. Title:
    International Association for the Study of Popular Music United Kingdom and Ireland 2017
    Conf. Org.:
    University of Sussex
    Conf. Loc.:
    Brighton, United Kingdom
    Conf. Date:
    8-10 September 2016
    Tag(s):
    doom metal, extreme metal, metal music studies, Metal Music Studies, Popular Music Studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6PD5C
    Abstract:
    Doom metal music is comprised of richly varied styles. These styles sound significantly different from time to time, yet they still are referred under a doom umbrella. One compelling trait emerges among these seemingly disparate styles. Especially when compared to other heavy and extreme metal music styles, these doom styles always stay on the slower end of the spectrum. This idea of slowness should not be only understood from a pace standpoint, rather, it is the slowing down and lowering of different aspects in the music. Besides the heaviness or the ‘low’ apparent in the tempi of these musics, one notices it in tessitura occupied, in song structures, in lyrics, in dynamics and in the perception of the music. According to Scott & O’Doyle, lifelessness and deceleration of doom achieves immediacy by opening up a reflective space and this decline ‘to the point of timelessness’ leads to affirmation in the music. Furthermore, Coggins also explores drone doom as mystical texts providing therapeutic spaces for the listener. With the help of these discussions, a group of doom styles materialises: funeral doom, death doom, and gothic doom. This presentation examines these styles under the light of ‘low’ness in order to show the coherence of these styles in both cultural and musical terms. It is important to note that these styles show crucial divergence from both other doom styles and other metal music cultures. This divergence requires exploration in order to correctly categorise these musical cultures, an exploration which only then bends to deeper connections among these styles. This presentation also proposes to comment on these connections through an expedition into the cultures in question keeping the function of the ‘low’ in mind.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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