A New Zealand university researcher has won a government grant to study the lifestyle habits of head-banging heavy metal fans.
The $68 000 grant over three years to student Dave Snell will allow him to carry out his study, entitled “The Everyday Life of Bogans: Identity and Community Among Heavy Metal Fans”.
In New Zealand and Australian slang, a bogan is an insulting term for an unsophisticated lower-class person, the equivalent of “trailer trash” in the United States.
But Snell is happy to describe himself as a bogan, saying he loves heavy metal music — distinctive for its thick, loud, guitar-and-drum sound.
“The stereotype of a bogan is tight black jeans, a Metallica T-shirt, a mullet or a shaved head and a love of beer and cars. I’d very proudly call myself a bogan,” he told Radio New Zealand Friday.
The research will include studying different types of dancing to heavy metal music — head-banging or moshing — as well as the importance of tattoos and body piercings, he said.
Bogans offered a good case study of the importance of identity to different groups of people, he said.
New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission, which administers the scholarships, defended the study.
“This research will help us to understand our communities and our younger people,” said commission senior manager Frannie Aston. — AFP