Department or Program

Music

Abstract

Metal music, like many other genres of popular music, has been grounds for musical exploration and intense experimentation. Progressive metal in particular has been notable for producing daring hybridizations of metal music styles and techniques with other genres. Progressive metal is the product of a mastery of the rock and heavy metal idioms; in recent times, the genre has begun to incorporate in different ways elements of jazz, fusion, ambient, country music, barbershop quartet, Baroque music, Classical music, Celtic music, Middle Eastern music, South Asian music, and many other. The release of such stylistically bold musical content to the mainstream, its good reception, and commercial viability pose interesting questions about the nature of an audience who is committed to the intense degree of sonic and performative experimentation that such music entails. Combining my formal studies in classical music, and my informal studies of metal, rock, jazz, progressive metal and electronic music, I seek to create a piece belonging to the genre of progressive metal which combines styles and techniques from the aforementioned genres in a novel way. I purport to write a set of pieces which introduce not only a new way of combining these genres under the framework of metal, but also, by bringing into the spotlight a preproduced element, and omitting altogether the traditional metal ensemble as a live component, new ideas about the significance of performance in the genre. I propose a reinterpretation of the genre based on a decisive departure from live performances and acoustic music and the negation of them as fundamental aspects of the metal genre, and on a move for acousmatic music. I argue that the move toward acousmatic music is to be regarded as an attempt to make the production of progressive metal and progressive rock more accessible in the contemporary paradigm.

Level of Access

Open Access

First Advisor

Bettendorf, Carl

Date of Graduation

5-2020

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Number of Pages

40

Components of Thesis

1 zip file containing 1 pdf file and 2 mp3 files

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