Affective Intensities in Extreme Music Scenes: Cases from Australia and Japan (Pop Music, Culture and Identity)

Extreme music, such as death metal and grindcore, blasted onto the popular music scene in the 1980s. Since then, a new musical and subcultural dynamic has emerged between Australia and Japan in which extreme musicians from both places tour each other's countries. Affective Intensities aims to explore this dynamic and introduce readers to the embodied sensations, flows and experiences of being in extreme music scenes in Australia and Japan. Through an ethnography of extreme music in both countries, Rosemary Overell investigates what it means to go to gigs, play in bands and listen to extreme music. She pays particular attention to the intersections between gender, place and belonging in Australian and Japanese extreme music scenes, coining the concept of 'brutal belonging' to describe the intense, sometimes violent, sensations experienced in extreme music cultures.