Bloomsbury Christian Metal: History, Ideology, Scene (Bloomsbury Studies in Religion and Popular Music)

Christian metal has always defined itself in contrast to its non-Christian, secular counterpart, yet it stands out from nearly all other forms of contemporary Christian music through its unreserved use of metal s main musical, visual, and aesthetic traits. Christian metal is a rare example of a direct combination between evangelical Christianity and an aggressive and highly controversial form of popular music and its culture. Christian Metal: History, Ideology, Scene is the first full exploration of the phenomenon of Christian metal music, its history, main characteristics, development, diversification, and key ideological traits from its formative years in the early 1980s to the present day. Marcus Moberg situates it in a wider international evangelical cultural environment, accounts for its diffusion on a transnational scale, and explores what religious meanings and functions Christian metal holds for its own musicians and followers. Engaging with wider debates on religion, media and popular culture, Christian Metal: History, Ideology and Scene is a much-needed resource in the study of religion and popular music. Review Metal, a genre suffused with Christian imagery albeit with a blasphemous twist, spawned its own renegade, Christian metal. Metalhead religious scholar Marcus Moberg presents a detailed and analytically elegant definitive account of this counter-movement, a worthy addition to metal studies.-Deena Weinstein, Professor, Department of Sociology, DePaul University, USA An invaluable guide to a thriving yet frequently misunderstood subgenre, Moberg's authoritative, insightful work on Christian metal is essential reading for metal scholars. ---Jeremy Wallach, Associate Professor, Bowling Green State Univeristy, USA About the Author Marcus Moberg is a senior researcher and formerly held the position of Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher in Comparative Religion at Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. His research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and consumer culture, and religion, media and culture studies. He has published widely on Christian metal and contemporary intersections of religion, media and popular culture.