Cultural and Social Dimensions of Contemporary Heavy Metal Narratives
Cultural and Social Dimensions of Contemporary Heavy Metal Narratives

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses the cultural and social dimensions of contemporary heavy metal narratives. It delineates the principal theoretical premises regarding the pedagogy of popular culture and the educational significance of scholarly inquiry into heavy metal within the broader framework of popular music studies undertaken both in Poland and internationally. The study employs a qualitative content analysis of song lyrics drawn from albums released between 2020 and 2025 by selected Anglo-Saxon heavy metal pioneers (Osbourne, Saxon, Girlschool, Metallica). Particular attention is devoted to the identification of thematic categories, with an emphasis on the articulation of social discourses in the artists’ oeuvre. Furthermore, selected aspects of the biographies of two deceased figures of the heavy metal canon, Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister and John “Ozzy” Osbourne, are examined in the context of mythologizing processes and the construction of cultural narratives.

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