From satan to salvation : a content analysis of Christian and black metal music videos

Abstract

The research conducted throughout this dissertation focused on the content analysis of heavy metal music videos and their relevant lyrics, of the sub genres of Christian metal and black metal in particular. The aim is to study how and why the subgenres differ in terms of imagery used and messages communicated to the viewer. The empirical data collected is in the form of tables of categories and subcategories, which identify what elements are found in the music videos and lyrics. Some of these elements included religion, violence and dress code. The tabulated results show the number of times the subcategories were met whilst watching the videos and reading the lyrics. The results were then used as a basis for a discussion. This discussion focused on the two subgenres as separate entities initially; each one was discussed individually in terms of all the elements. Then these individual analyses were compared and contrasted. Through this discussion, it was concluded that although Christian and black metal stem from the same original style of music, they are very different in terms of verbal and visual expression, as well as religious ideology.