| View Larger Image | Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam | Paperbackby Mark LeVine (Author)
| List Price: | $13.95 | | Price: | $11.16 | | You Save: | $2.79 (20%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Three Rivers Press | | Page Count: | 304 Pages | | Publication Date: | July 08, 2008 | | Sales Rank: | 349,447th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780307353399
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
“We play heavy metal because our lives are heavy metal.”—Reda Zine, one of the founders of the Moroccan heavy-metal scene“Music is the weapon of the future.”—Fela KutiAn eighteen-year-old Moroccan who loves Black Sabbath. A twenty-two-year-old rapper from the Gaza Strip. A young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” They are as representative of the world of Islam today as the conservatives and extremists we see every night on the news. Heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and reggae are each the music of protest, and in many cases considered immoral in the Muslim world. This music may also turn out to be the soundtrack of a revolution unfolding across that world. Why, despite governmental attempts to control and censor them, do these musicians and fans keep playing and listening? Partly, of course, for the joy of self-expression, but also because, in this region, everything is political. In Heavy Metal Islam, Mark LeVine explores the influence of Western music on the Middle East through interviews with musicians and fans, introducing us young Muslims struggling to reconcile their religion with a passion for music and a desire for change. The result is a revealing tour of contemporary Islamic culture through the evolving music scene in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Heavy Metal Islam is a surprising, wildly entertaining foray into a historically authoritarian region where music just might be the true democratizing force. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 8 reviews)
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Heavy Metal Islam by D. E. W. Turner (Hereford, AZ, USA)  3 Stars
November 14, 2008
Mark LeVine is a musician who had previously been with Mick Jagger but is now a professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of California - Irvine. The book is about heavy metal rock and rapper bands in the Middle East, from Morocco to Pakistan. He speaks of how these bands are seeking peace in the Middle East - but, from his descriptions of that peace, it seems to me that they are seeking a peace without Israel. Although he does claim that the most popular band in the Middle East is a Jewish band called Orphaned Land, consisting of Jewish men who never finished their military service (which indicates Dishonorable Discharges). While their music may be "saturated with religious and biblical themes," I wonder where they really stand in their loyalty to Israel. And Mark LeVine is also Jewish, so why does he concentrate so heavily on a peace without Israel?
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Can heavy metal change the world? by rudiger (Hoople, ND)  4 Stars
November 01, 2008
Frankly I am baffled by the reviewers who described this book as dry, academic, and/or boring. To them I say, You haven't read much academic writing lately. Readers would be hard-pressed to find publications of any university press which match this title for sheer readability. LeVine does not inject much social theory into this book, nor does he write for a primarily academic audience.
To be sure, "HEAVY METAL ISLAM" is an imperfect text with its share of errors. (My personal favorite: the author thinks the French word for dockworkers--"dockers"--is actually a reference to the preppie American clothing line of the same name, and thus misinterprets a Moroccan poster to signify common cause between rockers and preppies. D'oh!) But assuming you have at least a high school education and care about topics beyond whether Cliff Burton or Jason Newstead was the best Metallica bassist, you may find that this book provides engaging food for thought despite such passing mistakes.
If there's a major flaw to "HEAVY METAL ISLAM," it has to do with its title and framing which are just a tad misleading. LeVine's analysis in fact extends to various Middle Eastern musicians (rappers, hip-hop artists, rockers and others) who have little or no connection to heavy metal. But I suspect the author made metal the book's titular focus for two reasons: one, he's clearly an aficionado of the genre, and two, he wanted to amp up the paradoxical, unexpected nature of his subject matter for potential readers ("Metalheads in the Middle East? Who knew?"). I used the same gimmick in titling this review.
And LeVine is fully aware that the cultural scene he documents in this book remains marginal, both in its popular appeal and its political significance. Yet his exploration of that scene enables him to get to the heart of several contemporary Middle Eastern societies, to experience the stifling frustration felt by young Arabs (and Persians, and Pakistanis) growing up under corrupt, authoritarian regimes, and to consider the means at their disposal for expressing and venting that frustration. Will metal music (or hip-hop, or rap, or what have you) change the world? Doubtful, but it can certainly change the way you think about the modern Middle East and its relationship to the West once you've read "HEAVY METAL ISLAM."
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Interesting insight in a otherwise closed world by M. L. Von Schaper  5 Stars
October 11, 2008
Mark LeVine is researching Islam and Heavy Metal and with his book he is granting an insight to those, that otherwise never would have been able to discover what really is happening in the Islam world of music.
He catches the vibes of the present time, the atmosphere of the people and musicians involved and presents their fear and their anger in an objective and in a subjective way.
I recommend to read this book for everyone who is interested and Islam and the arabian countries.
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Better off watching "Heavy Metal in Baghdad"... by Dario M. Zagar (New York, NY United States)  2 Stars
September 06, 2008
While the concept of the book, namely the rarely discussed role of musical counterculture in the middle East, certainly has potential, its execution is a disaster. Mark LeVine's writing has all of the excitement of an academic dissertation, with none of the depth or research behind it. He clearly knows little or nothing about heavy metal, and also clearly did little or no immersion into the music to learn about it. (The editor also did no fact checking--can't "high brow" books about a "low brow" topic at least have someone acquainted with the topic read it at some point prior to publication?)
Just about every mention about the actual music or bands involved is riddled with errors that a simple Google search would have corrected. Just a few: mentioning a Rage Against the Machine song as being called "F*** you, I won't do what you tell me", describing a poster of the "band" "Cowboys From Hell," and worst of all, discussing Iron Maiden's famous mascot, "Freddy". Come on, people--that is just sloppy!
Despite all of that, the biggest problem remains that LeVine is such an undistinguished writer that "Heavy Metal Islam" is a stultifyingly boring read. I couldn't help but imagine what the book would have been like by a compelling author (such as David Hadju, whose recent "Ten Cent Plague" makes the world of 1950's anti-comic book hysteria pop with life) who could have drawn out the passion and frustration in these people's stories. While it suffers from some of the same repetition as this book, the documentary "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" is a much more evocative depiction of the role of heavy metal in the lives of a group of young Iraqis struggling to fulfill their musical ambitions, while trying simply to survive.
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Pretentious, irrelevant by Frederic Salam (Charlotte, NC)  1 Stars
August 17, 2008
This is apretty good example of what's wrong with academic studies of the Islamic world. LeVine is so impressed with his own theory (which is, in brief, "wouldn't it be, like, totally cool if music, like, liberated the people, man?!?) that he fails to see how utterly irrelevant this music is in the Islamic world. Pretty poorly written too--which is, in any event, standard for these sorts of polemics. A silly book.
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