Alexandra Kolesnik participated in a conference on heavy metal studies at the University of Siegen

Junior research fellow Alexandra Kolesnik took part in a conference ‘Hard Wired VI: So far, so good…so what? Approaching the Metal Realities’, which was held on May 3–5, 2018 at the University of Siegen (Germany). Alexandra presented a paper ‘Russian Heavy Metal Fandom and Post-Soviet Reality’. See the conference programme.

Junior research fellow Alexandra Kolesnik took part in a conference ‘Hard Wired VI: So far, so good…so what? Approaching the Metal Realities’, which was held on May 3–5, 2018 at the University of Siegen (Germany). The conference was aimed at discussing heavy metal cultures taking into account various cultural and geographical contexts, as well as modern approaches to heavy metal studies (from musicology and cultural studies to cultural history and black metal theory). Alexandra presented a paper ‘Russian Heavy Metal Fandom and Post-Soviet Reality’. On the example of Russian online heavy metal communities, he showed how Russian heavy metal fans build the boundaries of Russian heavy metal music as a genre through references to the Soviet and post-Soviet past. The conference also included workshops, meetings and interviews with representatives of record companies, promoters and music managers. In particular, a producer Charlie Bauerfeind gave a workshop on music production. Charlie worked with many heavy metal bands, Blind Guardian (Germany), Helloween (Germany), Rage (Germany), Saxon (Great Britain), Angra (Brazil), etc., and told about his experience of sound mixing and production. Also a founder of one of the biggest worl's heavy metal festivals Wacken Holger Hübner told about the history of the festival and the specifics of the modern music festivals industry.

See the conference programme