Doctoral Student Profile

Dave Snell

Supervisors: Darrin Hodgetts, Colin McLeay

The everyday bogans: Identity and community among heavy metal fans
Music is often part of our everyday routine and can provide the ‘soundscape’ that we live in; however the richness of music in daily life has not been adequately captured in psychological research. This thesis moves beyond the traditional research focus on music as a form of message transference to document the media-related practices through which a Heavy Metal community is negotiated and woven into the fabric of everyday life for a group of New Zealand Heavy Metal fans. Attention is given to how aspects of Heavy Metal culture, such as material objects, are appropriated by research participants as embodied practices performed across a range of social spaces (both online and offline) in order to produce, maintain and reaffirm shared identities and a sense of community.