This week I focused on The Collection of Heavy Metal Material which is the “collection of published works, archival material, and ephemera related to heavy metal music and fan culture” (The Online Archive of California). The collection features various items and artifacts relating to the heavy metal music sub-culture.
There are a few historical narratives that can be derived from this collection including the spread of heavy metal music and its history starting in the 1960s and 1970s in Los Angeles, California. One explanation given by the archives is the deep-rooted relevance of the heavy metal music movement into Los Angeles as the acceptance of new age music and the already-established rock genre developing and growing throughout Los Angeles and spreading throughout the rest of the country. Materials in this collection are varied as zines, fliers and advertisements from concerts, and other visual imagery from the older days of heavy metal music. These sources are reflective of the need for another counter-culture movement as brand new bands were constantly forming and performing around Los Angeles and the attendance of these events was far from sparse.
If these records were the only indication and were the only materials to summarize the heavy metal era, the movement would not be totally captured. Without the addition of individual concert-goers experiences and the current development of the heavy metal scene into the continued sub-culture for people who feel like the “other.” Sources that would need to be added would be first-person accounts of concerts, other activities besides the movement that define the genre and the current heavy metal material to add to the collection. However, I would not be sure if that would still maintain the current collection as the archive that it is, in the traditional definition of an archive. It is possible that to maintain an archive, there would be a need for “silences” and gaps in the understanding of a time period or even entire culture.
Hi there! I also choose to do the second weekly blog post on the Collection of Heavy Metal Music. I really appreciated your analysis on the collection. It was brief yet went into details on the important aspects. I agree that if the collection’s goal was to capture the heavy metal music movement, then it does not do it justice because there are sources that are missing. Great job!
Hi! I really liked how you gave a brief summary of what the archive was about in the beginning. I have also been seeing a trend that a lot of archives don’t have a lot of information because of the perspective these archives are written in. However, I do feel like the background information you gave was a good way to capture the movement and say that this era did happen in history.
Hi,
I also chose to analyze the same narrative this week. I feel that I agree with your overall answers to this assignment. In my post I included how I feel that there are many lacking points when it comes to the gathering of narratives. From what you’ve written, I too would would be curious to know and wished that they included were individual concert-goer experiences, or additional information that you included. Thanks for your post!
Since Heavy Metal has a pretty select niche that most people don’t often understand, it would’ve been cool to see that they added first person perspective’s on the music itself to gain understanding of what its like, for one, to be interest in the music, and two, what its like to identify with the culture and what it was like to maybe become exposed to this genre for the first time and how it shifted their lives. Were they “looking” for heavy metal? Was it the sound they had been missing? Or maybe it was the culture and message more-so, and the music grew on them with time? Who knows.. great post!
Its very cool to see what items they have stored down there. My favorite was a Alice Cooper t-shirt !
I also chose to do the heavy metal collection, and similar to your insights I thought there could be missing narratives. The “silences and gaps” are what I also believed could not help but happen. However, the collection does go deep by having material collected from the 60’s and 70’s like you stated. Like you stated, the first person accounts are vital. Great post!