Rock and Romanticism: Post-Punk, Goth, and Metal as Dark Romanticisms
explores the relationships among the musical genres of post-punk, goth,
and metal and American and European Romanticisms traditionally
understood. It argues that these contemporary forms of music are not
only influenced by but are an expression of Romanticism continuous with
their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century influences. Figures such as
Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley,
Friedrich, Schlegel, and Hoffman are brought alongside the music and
visual aesthetics of the Rolling Stones, the New Romantics, the
Pretenders, Joy Division, Nick Cave, Tom Verlaine, emo, Eminem, My Dying
Bride, and Norwegian black metal to explore the ways that Romanticism
continues into the present in all of its varying forms and expressions.