Becoming topological of heavy metal: Notes from India

Abstract

The article argues for doing away with master concepts such as ‘subculture’ and similar ancillary concepts and instead argues for the open-ended pursuit of the social. Instead of deploying a priori spatiotemporal concepts such as ‘subculture’, ‘scene’ or ‘tribe’ it argues that a more fruitful approach would be to interrogate the work that these concepts do. It is important to grasp how and if these concepts close down or open up the field. The article argues that these concepts are necessarily topological and scalar, i.e. they are concerned with fixing musical collectivities in space–time. Through two ethnographic vignettes from India – of metal gigs in Kolkata and Bengaluru set a decade apart – the article argues for a minor and open-ended approach to heavy metal. Against the master concepts, the article argues for a seepage of minor aesthetics into our theorizations which can challenge the totalizing impulse of theory. An open-ended pursuit of heavy metal allows comprehension of a range of human and non-human processes in the social which otherwise risk being obfuscated by a narrow concern of chasing a master concept. In the concluding section, the article ends with a brief methodological note on the black metal/punk/grindcore act from India, Heathen Beast and the difficulty of situating them through conventional concepts.