Abstract
Berkers and Schaap focus on four key areas in metal music production: longitudinal and cross-national trends, subgenres, instrumentation, and degree of recognition, with a key focus on theories and concepts of gender inequality. Specifically, they posit questions concerning women’s increased role in music production, whether their participation in metal music, specifically, varies across subgenres, what roles women inhibit within bands, and how recognition of musicians differs by gender. The authors provide much-needed quantitative data on gender inequality in metal music production, as well as qualitative and interview data. They analyze practices of gender socialization, doing gender, and gendered evaluation within the global metal scene, but also within pop music and society as contextual comparisons.
Gender Inequality in Metal Music Production begins by providing a contextual analysis of women in pop music, and then provides both longitudinal and cross-national quantitative data on women’s participation in metal music production. Women’s representation is greater in more mainstream music genres, and women are underrepresented in music production as a whole. Berkers and Schaap demonstrate that across genres, metal music production is gendered, including instrumentation, with more women being vocalists. Finally, the book turns attention to what the authors call the “double-edged sword” of being a woman within the global metal music community. While navigating both uniqueness and gendered evaluation, women strategically engage gender and femininity. Specifically, women are afforded attention by mostly male voyeurs; however, they question whether they are being evaluated based primarily on their gender or musical ability.
The key contributions of this book are in its data presentation, especially the quantitative data, the authors’ development and use of the concept of a “double-edged sword,” and the book’s theoretical uniqueness. While theoretical and qualitative analyses of women’s participation in various music genres, and gender inequality in music production more broadly, have given us rich accounts of women’s experiences within various music scenes, this book provides much-needed quantitative data. While certainly subject to methodological limitations, such data and analyses go beyond local music scenes and subcultures to provide and push scholars to consider global and cross-national data. Indeed, Berkers and Schaap demonstrate that gender inequality in metal music production exists and has persisted across global contexts.
Secondly, Berkers and Schaap use the concept of a “double-edged sword” to describe the social situation women find themselves in, but also as an explanatory tool to explicate how women navigate their social and gendered position within the metal music scene. This double-edged sword of femininity encompasses the uniqueness of female metal musicians and the resultant attention they receive in a male-dominated genre of music, as well as the concern expressed by female musicians about gendered evaluations of their musical ability. Drawing on theories of doing gender and organizational sociology, the authors describe four possible ways in which musicians could be evaluated, tempered along structural and cultural embeddedness. Berkers and Schaap are particularly interested in what they refer to as “skilled nonconformists,” who do gender in traditionally feminine ways, but who are also highly skilled musicians. Berkers and Schaap’s concept of the “double-edged sword,” while perhaps not novel to those who have studied music scenes, theoretically unpacks this process and provides scholars with a way to further the discussion of gender inequalities within various music scenes.
Thirdly, Berkers and Schaap draw on unique theoretical foundations, including organizational sociology and “traveling masculinity.” While utilizing theories of doing gender, the authors extend discussions of doing gender and music specifically by demonstrating how gender inequality, especially masculine dominance, exist and persist in metal scenes across the globe. Even in countries notable for their progressive attitudes and legal and social policies aimed at gender equality, significant disparities in gender equality within metal music persist, suggesting, as the authors discuss, that the globalization of musical forms brings with it gender inequalities. The authors demonstrate that gender inequality in music production, generally, and choice of instrument played, specifically, persists, even across music subgenres, demonstrating men’s continued dominance in the global metal scene.
Additionally, Berkers and Schaap draw on organizational theories of cultural and structural embeddedness. Specifically, they consider women’s position within the global metal scene as related to their adherence to cultural norms, notably, masculinity. Women’s cultural embeddedness in the global metal scene, then, is evaluated based on the extent to which women adhere to the masculine norms of metal music production. Secondly, this cultural embeddedness is complicated by the extent to which women possess highly valued musical skills, or structural embeddedness. As the authors point out, women question the extent to which they are evaluated by their musical ability and skill or their gender and/or sexuality.
Finally, Gender Inequality in Metal Music Production would be particularly useful for scholars interested in music, music production, gender, and culture and would be adaptable to both undergraduate and graduate courses.
