Overview

The long-lasting effects of colonialism—racism, political persecution, ethnic extermination, and extreme capitalism—are still felt throughout Latin America. This volume explores how heavy metal music in the region has been used to challenge coloniality and its present-day manifestations. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina, Nelson Varas-Díaz documents how metal musicians and listeners engage in “extreme decolonial dialogues” as a strategy to challenge past and present forms of oppression.  Most existing work on metal music in Latin America has relied on theoretical frameworks developed in the global North. By contrast, this volume explores the region through its own history and experiences, providing a roadmap for this emerging mode of musical analysis by demonstrating how decolonial metal scholarship can be achieved. 

Full Product Details

9781789383935

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Decolonial Metal Music in Latin America is truly remarkable in the rigor and scope of its scholarship, while remaining anchored in the poignant, eloquent, and transformative stories that circulate around decolonial metal music in Latin America.' -- Mark Padilla, Florida International University, USA 'Until now, Latin American metal music scholars have not been critical of their field's unequal position vis-a-vis the Global North. In addition to consolidating a starting point for his Latin American colleagues, Varas-Diaz provides a tool for researchers from distant countries to get closer to Latin American realities through a decolonial perspective. The great descriptive richness, product of the author's ethnographic work, allows readers to embark on an imaginary journey through different Latin American metal scenes and listen to the voices and subjective experiences of their metalheads.' -- Manuela B. Calvo, National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina 'Varas-Diaz's masterful book proves that in Latin America, the sonic intensity of metal music fuels an incendiary passion for social justice.' -- Jeremy Wallach, Bowling Green State University, USA

'Varas-Díaz’s masterful book proves that in Latin America, the sonic intensity of metal music fuels an incendiary passion for social justice.' -- Jeremy Wallach, Bowling Green State University, USA 'Until now, Latin American metal music scholars have not been critical of their field’s unequal position vis-à-vis the Global North. In addition to consolidating a starting point for his Latin American colleagues, Varas-Díaz provides a tool for researchers from distant countries to get closer to Latin American realities through a decolonial perspective. The great descriptive richness, product of the author's ethnographic work, allows readers to embark on an imaginary journey through different Latin American metal scenes and listen to the voices and subjective experiences of their metalheads.' -- Manuela B. Calvo, National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina 'Decolonial Metal Music in Latin America is truly remarkable in the rigor and scope of its scholarship, while remaining anchored in the poignant, eloquent, and transformative stories that circulate around decolonial metal music in Latin America.' -- Mark Padilla, Florida International University, USA

'Varas-Diaz's masterful book proves that in Latin America, the sonic intensity of metal music fuels an incendiary passion for social justice.' -- Jeremy Wallach, Bowling Green State University, USA 'Until now, Latin American metal music scholars have not been critical of their field's unequal position vis-a-vis the Global North. In addition to consolidating a starting point for his Latin American colleagues, Varas-Diaz provides a tool for researchers from distant countries to get closer to Latin American realities through a decolonial perspective. The great descriptive richness, product of the author's ethnographic work, allows readers to embark on an imaginary journey through different Latin American metal scenes and listen to the voices and subjective experiences of their metalheads.' -- Manuela B. Calvo, National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina 'Decolonial Metal Music in Latin America is truly remarkable in the rigor and scope of its scholarship, while remaining anchored in the poignant, eloquent, and transformative stories that circulate around decolonial metal music in Latin America.' -- Mark Padilla, Florida International University, USA

Author Information

Dr Nelson Varas-Díaz is a professor of social-community psychology at Florida International University’s Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies. His work related to metal music addresses issues of community formation, linkages between culture and music, and metal music as a decolonial strategy in Latin America.

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