November 29, 2010
November 28, 2010
November 25, 2010
November 24, 2010
"Heavy Metal Carnival and Dis-alienation : The Politics of Grotesque Realism"
Karen Bettez Halnon
Pennsylvania State University
Based on four years of concert fieldwork and extensive music media analy- sis (including bands such as Cradle of Filth, GWAR, Insane Clown Posse, Marilyn Manson, and Slipknot), this article shows how heavy metal music and its carnival culture express a dis-alienating politics of resistance. Apply- ing Bakhtin’s multifaceted conceptualization of the carnival-grotesque, the author explains how grotesque realism in metal music and performances constitutes a proto-utopian liminal alternative to the impersonal, conformist, superficial, unequal, and numbing realities of commercialism and, more abstractly, a resistance to a society of spectacle and nothingness.
November 23, 2010
November 21, 2010
"Dark Carnival and Juggalo Heaven : Inside the Liminal World of Insane Clown Posse"
Ryan Parker
Faculty Mentor : Dr. Karen Bettez Halnon
“We didn’t grow up rich. We didn’t get invited to the Prom. But we don’t care.”
(Male Juggalo, Age 22, Insane Clown Posse Concert, April 19, 2003, Electric Factory Fieldnotes)
“They uncrowned and renewed the established power and unofficial truth. They celebrated the return to happier times, abundance, and justice for all people.” (Bakhtin, 99).
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