Subjectivity and soundscape, motor-bikes and music

Abstract

The article analyzes the relation between foreground and background in heavy metal. First, it uses an analogy regarding babies, then it explains the concept of sonic anaphones and the idea of figure-ground as melody-accompaniment and finally it reaches the music genre in question. What is at play is the relationship between culture and subjectivity in the way it is expressed through sound, more specifically in relation to an archetype which became common in the postwar era between poor young man: the lonely motorcyclist. I argue that there is a relationship between this motorcyclist’s position and the position of the guitar in heavy metal. The same context which made it possible that these young man bought motorcycles for a fair price also made it possible that they created an analogous musical culture, through which these young men appropriated the urban sound that usually dominated them.