Juventude e Heavy Metal : usos do espaço, práticas de consumo e produção de significados na cidade de Juiz de Fora-MG

Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate the relation between youth and music, in particular the heavy metal, looking forward to analyze the “headbanger” social construction in the rock and heavy metal environment. Considering the young people acting as expression of contemporary young cultures, as far as they express the group experiences and preferences, this work’s purpose was to use the results of an ethnographic investigation to comprehend how life style is built from choosing rock and heavy metal as a musical predilection. The analyzed background was the city of Juiz de Fora – MG, where there is a specific market for headbangers customs, namely specialized stores, rehearsal studios, music schools, pubs, concert halls, tattoo and body piercing studios, among other examples. The investigation was divided into three analytical lines: the first one is about the usage of urban space by headbangers and how they create a interactional meshwork among them. The second line explores how consumption goods become more symbolical according to daily routines, allowing to tie meanings and linking people and groups. The third one examines the process of becoming a headbanger, considering the changes the person goes through when initiated in the rock and heavy metal movement. This investigation expects to disclose the importance of music in these young people daily routines, as well as its capacity of intervention, the choice of certain spaces of the city as social points, and the use of accessories as a display of individual tastes, aesthetic and identity.