'Given that heavy metal has received less academic attention than other popular music forms, and that studies have often been biased towards heavy metal in the United States, the publication of Heavy Metal Music in Britain should be warmly welcomed. The essays in the collection focus largely on British heavy metal in the 1970s and 1980s, the period in which British heavy metal bands were crucial in defining the genre and spreading its popularity. The various contributions to the collection benefit from the different perspectives of authors from a variety of disciplines. They offer fascinating insights into heavy metal in Britain, situating the genre in its context and critically interrogating its complex aesthetics and politics.' Keith Kahn-Harris, Goldsmiths College, London, UK author of Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge (2006) 'It’s formulaic, it’s hypermasculine, it’s politically reactionary. Or is it? For too long cultural studies has bought into a few convenient myths about heavy metal, but ignored the music itself. This book energetically undermines those myths, and the results will inform and surprise anyone who thinks of heavy metal as a lost cause, and it will also please the fans who knew all along that metal and its subgenres were among the most rewarding cultural formations of the rock era.' Andrew Blake, University of East London, UK ’... proper leather-patches-on-tweed-jackets brainy stuff to get your teeth right into... you'll find a dazzling insight into why bands do what they do... certainly interesting. Who said metal's full of idiots?’ Kerrang! ’... a welcome - and overdue - contribution.’ International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) '... an important contribution to the literature... Cultural studies and English literature scholars, as well as mid- and larger-size colleges and universities, will want this volume in their libraries, as will teachers of rock and popular music at the upper-undergr