Lindsay Bishop: “As a veteran metalhead I – naïvely – wasn’t expecting to be too surprised by this fieldwork, but experiencing these performances as a researcher has altered my perspective drastically. “The trust you are placing in people as you crowd surf really is quite remarkable” Talk us through these findings – what were the biggest surprises, for you? NME caught up with Lindsay Bishop to discuss the research, her findings, and how this research could remodel metal’s longheld perception and have an impact on inclusivity in music communities across the board. It all adds up to a perception of the metal community that couldn’t be further from the denim-clad, stinky stereotype that’s plagued the genre for decades. Elsewhere, she also found that – despite that masculine stereotype – metal fans are (on average), a third female, and a gig near you is likely to boast an array of older adults, families, disabled and LGBTQ people, too. The fan community, she found, features a supportive and knowledgable social hierarchy which passes down customs and traditions (think ‘mosh pit etiquette’) from generation to generation. Instead, Bishop found that metal thrives on its sense of community. ![]() ![]() Lindsay Bishop, an anthropology PhD student at UCL, used a lifetime of heavy metal fandom (as well as more formal research, which began way back in 2010) to conduct the study, including bands such as Fear Factory, 3Teeth, Mortiis, Pig and Combichrist in her research – and she soon found that the established perception of metal fans couldn’t be farther from the truth. One researcher at University College London, however, has spent the last eight years disproving that outmoded stereotype. Brutish, beer-guzzling, bearded and overwhelmingly male, metal fans are seen to fit into a very specific box. The stereotype of the metalhead is one as old as heavy music itself.
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