This week I decided to analyze the collection of published work, archival material and other articles related to heavy metal music and its fan culture from the 1960s to now. Much of the heavy metal scene and its subgenres, specially in the 1980s, were centered around the Sunset Strip area of West Hollywood. This collection is able to give viewers a relatively holistic view into this American subculture by offering a variety of recordings, fliers, and biographies of the musicians.
Though this narrative, I believe we are able to better understand the narrative of many bands and fans. Since there are a lot of photographs and recordings we have a lot of primary sources to analyze and get a first hand glimpse into what they must have seen and felt. Also, this collection has a number of fanzines in its fourth series that might further shed some light as to what heavy metal fans felt.
Unfortunately, I feel like this collection has dismissed the opinion of many other subcultures that may have stemmed from the Heavy metal subculture or even yet been against it. I believe that it would be extremely enlightening to understand how others outside of the heavy metal world view the often-times radical culture.
In order to get a better understanding of how people outside of the culture saw the fans and bands, the collection should have also included articles that highlighted their opinions. This would offer another perspective as to how this culture was able to grow and thrive during these years. Another gap in their archive is the lack of interview material. This collection allows us to infer what the fan/band members’ mindset might have been but it would have been nice to get some direct feedback.