Andrzej Mądro
Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 3 (57) Muzyczne transgresje, inwersje, brikolaże. Kulturowe warianty muzyki popularnej, 2023, pp. 261 - 278
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.23.019.18577The article is an overview of the most important concepts in the field of musical semiotics, and at the same time an indication of which of them have potential in relation to the study of metal music. Particular attention was paid to the method of musematic analysis, consistently used and developed for almost half a century by Philip Tagg, but also appreciated and practiced by other researchers.
The starting point for the author is the state of research in the field of “metal musicology” and theory of music ‒ there is still no adequate, new methodology, and at the same time a common space and a thread of understanding between disciplines and methodologies. Such an interdisciplinary perspective can be semiotics, especially musical, which is a valuable alternative and supplement to sociological, literary and cultural studies, etc. It has potential both where music is a (subordinate) medium of the message and a “amplifier” of the text, and where, through its structure and dramaturgy expresses “itself” in a way, constituting an abstract play of sounds and timbres.