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Professor shares pagan music research at Denmark’s Extreme Music conference
Karl Spracklen, Professor of Music, Leisure and Culture in the School of Film, Music and Performing Arts, will speak at the Extreme Music – Hearing and Nothingness conference, which is held at the University of Southern Denmark on Thursday 1 – Friday 2 December.
Professor Spracklen, who is a member of the conference’s organising committee, will present his work on the influence of the 1973 film, The Wicker Man, on popular paganism, pagan music and metal music.
He explained: “The German epic heavy/doom metal band Atlantean Kodex has written two concept albums based on the folklore and paganism of old Europe and the West: The Golden Bough and The White Goddess. In the latter album the song Sol Invictus tells the story of a ‘neolithic magick’, a sacred truth, about death and resurrection. This pagan cycle is described as underpinning not only the established religions such as Christianity, but runs deep in today’s secular, scientific society.
“In my presentation, I explore the most important influence on Atlantean Kodex, which is also one of the most important influences on modern paganism: the film, The Wicker Man. This film tells the story of a pagan revival and survival on an island off the coast of Scotland, and ends with the Christian police officer sent to investigate a crime there being burned in an enormous wicker man.
“I discuss the ways in which that film uses speculative folklore to construct a set of invented traditions about paganism and its alternative, counter-Christian nature, which have made paganism appealing to extreme metal musicians and fans. I will use examples from other metal bands, such as Iron Maiden, and fans, who have name-checked the themes and the traditions of the film. In discussing the folklore of The Wicker Man, I also explore the folk music used in the soundtrack, which has also contributed to the invention of modern paganism and extreme folk music. I will conclude by suggesting that, although many pagans have adopted this extreme music and myth into their world-views, the myth of The Wicker Man is also used as a playful rejection of Christianity and its authority by those of a secular or humanist persuasion.”
Professor Karl Spracklen is an Ambassador of the International Society for Metal Music Studies and the Editor of the journal, Metal Music Studies. His research interests include: leisure theory, privatisation of leisure spaces, tourist spaces and tourist performativity, whiteness and masculinity, class, northernness and national identity, rugby league, whisky and real-ale tourism, and various music genres (metal, folk, neo-folk and goth). He teaches on the MA Leisure, Sport and Culture programme at Leeds Beckett.
Professor Spracklen’s latest research paper, Bravehearts and Bonny Mountainsides: Nation and History in Scottish Folk/Black Metal, was published in the latest edition of Rock Music Studies journal.
In the paper, Scottish nationalism and Scottish identity are explored through two extreme metal bands within the folk/black metal scene in Scotland: Saor and Cnoc An Tursa. Professor Spracklen presents a case study reporting on the two bands over a three-year period (encompassing the 2014 referendum).
He analyses their lyrics and imagery to show how the bands have used Scottishness, and responded to Scottish nationalism; and how fans have constructed Scottishness in their appreciation of the band’s songs and other identity work.