Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge by Kahn-Harris Keith

Author:Kahn-Harris, Keith [Kahn-Harris, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2006-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

The Scene and the Accumulation of Capital

There has been a historical shift in the way capital circulates through the institutions of the scene. In the 1980s the scene was small, fluid and informal. Participation in the scene demanded little capital derived from outside the scene and in turn produced little capital that could be circulated outside it. In the 1990s and onward, the scene became more formalized and capital accumulated within it, resulting in a greater need for scene members to draw on capital from outside the scene.

Despite this accumulation of capital, the scene has remained relatively small and obscure throughout its existence, ensuring that the total amount of capital in circulation has remained modest compared to larger scenes. Nevertheless, there was a period in the 1980s when the scene might have become less obscure and more popular. In the 1980s a few extreme metal bands such as Slayer achieved success within the burgeoning heavy metal scene. The extreme metal scene could have grown rapidly in popularity, assisted by the institutions of the heavy metal scene. One reason that the scene did not grow in this way was the antipathy that scene members showed to some of the most popular forms of heavy metal (particularly glam metal) and the close relationship that the scene had with the punk scene. Instead, in the late 1980s, when the scene was on the cusp of a great surge in popularity, the divide from the heavy metal scene was reinforced so as to develop a distinct extreme metal scene. The informal networks and institutions of the scene became highly formalized, ensuring the efficient circulation of extreme metal almost exclusively within the extreme metal scene alone. While the scene remained obscure, the access points into the scene multiplied for those willing to find them, and producing and obtaining music within the scene became easier. Although scene members made use of capital-accumulation practices derived from outside the scene, these practices were rarely used to market extreme metal outside the scene. Instead, the penetration of the scene by networks for capital accumulation was a by-product of the formalization of scenic practice undertaken to ensure the scene’s integrity.

Once networks of capital accumulation emerged in the early 1990s, they began to redirect scenic practices in certain directions. Once institutions have a cash income, they need to adopt conventional money-management procedures such as keeping accounts and paying taxes. Once institutions make profit, allowing their owners and staff to be paid, such institutions must continue to make profit and orient their practices accordingly. The profit motive may come to dominate such institutions. Profitable bands may no longer have time to correspond with scene members. Profitable record labels may not be able to afford to sign and support bands that have little chance of providing some return on their investment. Profitable distros may not offer favourable terms for exchange or sale. Inevitably, power relations and hierarchies within the scene begin to emerge. Wealthier, more successful scenic institutions are able to promote their product more widely and so influence the overall direction of the scene.

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