Heavy metal as a resonant experience

Hartmut Rosa 2023. When Monsters Roar and Angels Sing. Eine kleine Soziologie des Heavy Metal. Kohlhammer

The German sociologist Hartmut Rosa is currently receiving considerable attention for his theories on acceleration and resonance (see my earlier review of Rosas book "Resonance. A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World" before reading further). Rosa is particularly concerned with music, and has published a book about his relationship with heavy metal. This is perhaps not entirely surprising to those of us who have read his book Resonance, where he more than hints at his positive relationship with the genre. What may be more surprising is that this musical relationship is so longstanding, deep, pervasive, and knowledgeable—just as it should be for a faithful fan who has followed the music since their teenage years.

At the same time, the book serves as an excellent illustration of what enables us to experience “resonance” in music—why music becomes an important axis of resonance alongside nature, religion, work, friendship, family, and other dimensions Rosa describes in his writings. Rosa uses his lived and embodied relationship with metal music to illustrate how music in general provides us with such experiential opportunities. For Rosa, it is never the genre that counts—whether classical, rock, or folk—but our relationship to the music.

Nietzsche, Adorno, and Marx

Rosa opens the book with a quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, describing how it is with people as it is with trees: the higher they strive towards heaven and light, the deeper their roots reach into the dark, the deep—toward the evil. Adorno and Marx also appear later in this reflective text. But the main focus is on the music and the lyrics of heavy metal, and above all, the experiences.

It was precisely this pull that met the teenage Hartmut. He grew up in a family with spiritual and esoteric orientations, who adhered to a super-ascetic and puritanical religious movement, he writes. Rosa was awakened by this music and allowed it to accompany him through the different stages of his life.

One interesting observation he makes is how music, artists, and new releases accompany him and mark central epochs and events in his life. Rosa connects this to his social theory, showing how we live in a constantly changing world. We change jobs, friends, homes, and live lives that undergo major technological and cultural shifts. What remains constant, however, is our fan relationship—the band we are attached to. We follow them closely, live with the musicians’ lives, follow (and fear) changes in line-ups, and always anticipate new releases.

Historian and Empirical Sociologist

Rosa demonstrates in several chapters that he truly knows the history of heavy metal. He has his favorites but has followed many of the major bands. When traveling, he often visits local record shops and discovers new bands. As a sociologist, he also refers to empirical research. Some of the results are striking: heavy metal fans, on average, are more intelligent than listeners of other popular music. No group reads more magazines than metal fans, and no other musical genre has as many major international periodicals. In this way, the relationship of metal fans to their music resembles that of many classical music enthusiasts—particularly in their deepened and immersive approach to listening.

The empirical evidence also contradicts the often negative portrayal found in media and popular perception. While the origins of metal music are rooted in the working class and disadvantaged groups, this is no longer the case. Today, metal has a foothold across all social groups. I myself recall being surprised when the regular music reviewer for the university newspaper Universitas turned out to be a well-known history professor. As a lifelong jazz fan, standing outside this culture, it is easy to develop prejudices. But encounters with many music students with a metal background have convinced me of the qualities of both the music and the experiences it offers. When I lecture on music and identity, it is often the metal fans who bring existential themes to the table.

The Experiential Dimension

Rosa is now well immunized against skepticism and prejudice toward this music. He fully understands that many find it full of clichés, that its noise level can overshadow its musical qualities. But for Rosa, it is about a total surrender to the music—as a bodily experience that also very much involves high volume, whether at home in the living room or at concerts. At the same time, the music offers—through lyrics and attitude—a mythological universe that spans from the demonic to the angelic, as the book’s title indicates: When Monsters Roar and Angels Sing, as the Danish translation has it.

Here, the sociologist Rosa moves away from quantitative empirical studies and enters the phenomenological description of the musical experience. He devotes a separate chapter to the qualities of resonance in this music. To briefly recap: Rosa’s theory of resonance concerns our longing for deeper meaning, our desire to connect more strongly to “the world,” to experience a response in our search for a deeper relationship. This can occur through our relationships with other people, with work, with materials (for example, a musical instrument), or with nature, religion, or art. In this case, it is music—specifically metal—that provides this response, this experience of meaning that we long for.

An Aesthetic and Religious Experience

Here, Rosa draws on aesthetic theory as well as music-psychological research, developing a general theory about the value of strong and resonant musical experiences, based on both his own and others’ encounters with heavy metal. He discusses how metal music and its lyrics can respond to the need for experiences of meaning that institutional religion and the church, for instance, do not fulfill.

This aspect will likely surprise many, since there has been frequent discussion about whether this music is in fact dangerous for life and health. The lyrics certainly appeal to the darker sides of existence. But it is precisely this that is so attractive, Rosa writes. Metal music, in this sense, has a more honest relationship to life. In fact, 40 percent of all fans report that this music has saved their lives at one or more points. From Rosa’s descriptions, it becomes clear how such experiences can easily be understood as religious: music offering a worldview, a sense of being at home in the world, that is not found elsewhere in society and culture.

When Rosa recently lectured at the University of Oslo to two packed auditoriums, I arrived too late to get into the one he was speaking in. I stood at the door arguing to get in, but it was full. Rosa himself then appeared, and I tried my German, telling him that the room was overcrowded. Rosa kindly replied in English that this was a good sign. I was directed to another auditorium where we saw him on a large screen. There, I ended up among a group from the Faculty of Theology, who already had his German edition on religion and resonance. (Religion = from Latin religio = to bind together = connection). And resonance is precisely this experience of being connected to something.

It also seems that Rosa writes his way across different academic fields by collaborating with other scholars—pedagogy not least. I recently downloaded an article he co-wrote with a German popular music researcher, which I will return to later. Personally, I have been engaged in writing Rosa into the field of music therapy, something I am pursuing further in a new article.

There are several reasons why Rosa is important. First and foremost, because we need to strengthen the sociological perspective in music therapy. There are many parallels between Rosa’s resonance theory and central psychotherapeutic theories—for example, Daniel Stern’s concept of “meaningful moments.” I will return to this in my next review of The Uncontrollable, also recently translated into Norwegian. It is also important for music therapists to expand their understanding of different musical genres, and to develop a nuanced perspective on metal.