Harris M. Berger - Metal, rock, and jazz: perception and the phenomenology of musical experience

Cover

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MUSIC / CULTURE

A series from Wesleyan University Press

Edited by George Lipsitz, Susan McClary, and Robert Walser

Published titles

My Musicby Susan D. Crafts, Daniel Cavicchi, Charles Keil, and the
Music in Daily Life Project

Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music
by Robert Walser

Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the Westby Mark Slobin

Upside Your Head! Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenueby Johnny Otis

Dissonant Identities: The Rock'n'Roll Scene in Austin, Texasby Barry Shank

Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America
by Tricia Rose

Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capitalby Sarah Thornton

Music, Society, Educationby Christopher Small

Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures
by Frances Aparicio

Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music/Consuming Technology
by Paul Thberge

Voices in Bali: Energies and Perceptions in Vocal Music and Dance Theater
by Edward Herbst

A Thousand Honey Creeks Later: My Life in Music from Basic to Motown
and Beyondby Preston Love

Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listeningby Christopher Small

Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration
in African American Musicby Christopher Small

Singing Archaeology: Philip Glass'sAkhnaten by John Richardson

Metal, Rock, and Jazz: Perception and
the Phenomenology of Musical Experience
by Harris M. Berger

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HARRIS M. BERGER

Metal, Rock, and Jazz

PERCEPTION AND THE
PHENOMENOLOGY OF MUSICAL
EXPERIENCE

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WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH 03755
1999 by Harris M. Berger
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1
CIP data appear at the end of the book

Turn for the Worse, by Dia Pason, copyright 1994 by Chris Ozimek, Brian Exton, Steve Christen, and Alfredo Ricci, is transcribed herein and used by permission of the artists.

The Final Silencing, by Sin-Eater, copyright 1991 by Dann Saladin, Rob Toothman, Brandy Smith, John Ziats, and Erik Rueschman, was transcribed from a local demo LP and is used here by permission of the artists. Dann Saladin is doing a new version, to be released in 1998, copyright Dann Saladin.

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For my parents and my wife

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List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

1. An Introduction to Central Issues in Ethnomusicology and Folklore: Phenomenology and Practice Theory

I. The Ethnography of Musical Practice

2. Commercial Hard Rock in Cleveland, Ohio: Dia Pason and Max Panic

3. Heavy Metal in Akron, Ohio: Winter's Bane and Sin-Eater

4. Two Jazz Scenes in Northeast Ohio

II. The Organization of Musical Experience and the Practice of Perception

5. The Organization of Attention in Two Jazz Scenes

6. The Organization of Attention in the Rock and Metal Scenes

7. Tonality, Temporality, and the Intending Subject (1): Chris Ozimek and Turn for the Worse

8. Tonality, Temporality, and the Perceptual Subject (2): Dann Saladin and The Final Silencing

9. Conclusions: Perceptual Practice and Social Context

III. Music, Experience, and Society: Death Metal and Deindustrialization in an American City

10. Death Metal Perspectives: Affect, Purpose, and the Social Life of Music

11. A Critical Dialogue on the Politics of the Metal Underground: Race, Class, and Consequence

12. Conclusion: The Scope of Ethnomusicology

Notes

Glossary

Selected Bibliography

Index

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FIGURES

Figure 1. Map of the Akron Agora

Figure 2. Map of Mr. E's Tavern

Figure 3. An Accompaniment Pattern for Take the A Train

Figure 4. Another Accompaniment Pattern for Take the A Train

Figure 5. A Third Accompaniment Pattern for Take the A Train

Figure 6. Basic Jazz Groove

Figure 7. An Older Jazz Groove

Figure 8. Simplified Jazz Groove

Figure 9. Map of Rizzi's Jazz Lounge

Figure 10. Turn for the Worse

Figure 11. Approximation of the Harmonic Implications of the Second Fill in Turn

Figure 12. The Final Silencing

Figure 13. An Example of a Rock Groove

Figure 14. A Fill Played against the Implied Groove

Figure 15. A Second Fill Played against the Implied Groove

Figure 16. Synthesis of Identification in Harmonic Rhythm

PHOTOGRAPHS

Dia Pason (Chris Ozimek, Brian Exton, Steve Christen, and Alfredo Ricci)

Max Panic (John Carr, Ken Barber, George Chapman, and Jeff Johnston)

Dann Saladin

Winter's Bane (Terry Salem, Dennis Hayes, Timmy Owens, and Lou St. Paul)

Larry Whisler

Dick Schermesser

Bill Roth

Jack Hanan

Jerome Saunders

Eric Gould

The Whisler Quartet at Rizzi's Jazz Lounge (Bill Roth, Larry Whisler, Jack Hanan, and Dick Schermesser)

Larry Glover

Dann Saladin at Home

OUAM Hall

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It is difficult for me to find the words to express my appreciation and gratitude to all of the people that have supported me in preparing this text. I must, of course, begin with my parents, Judith and Charles Berger, whose ceaseless warmth, kindness, and generosity have been the most certain foundation in my life. I also thank my aunt and uncle, Karl and Lynne Nisoff, and the Del Negro family for their ongoing concern and affection, and my sister, Alexa Murphy, who first introduced me to the pleasures of popular music.