Daniel Suer

I studied music („Großfach“) and English at the University of Siegen (1. State Exam) as well as musicology at the University of Music and Dance Cologne (M. A.). Currently I am a research assistant and PhD student within the DFG-funded project “The Relation of Music and Dance in Metal. Developing a Method of Analysis for the Situating Description of Aesthetic-Performative Practices on the Basis of Qualitative-Empirical Investigations from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives”.

Memberships

German Society for Popular Music Studies (since 2020: Board Member)

International Association for the Study of Popular Music

International Society for Metal Music Studies

Gesellschaft für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung

International Council for Traditional Music

Research Interests

Music – Movement – Corporeality

Metal Studies

Qualitative Research Methods

X-Disciplinarity and Popular Music Studies

Dissertation Project: „Bang Your Head!“ Heavy Metal Music and Dance in Germany (Working Title)

My dissertation project focuses on dance practices in contemporary heavy metal. It aims to analyze and understand these practices in their complexity, which in turn means to discern which different elements are involved (e.g. actors, actants, discourses etc.) and how they relate to each other. Special attention is paid to the relation between music and bodily movement. My empirical material consists of participant observations, interviews as well as different representations of dance and Adele Clarke’s Situational Analysis provides my method(olog)ical framework. We have gathered further information on the overall project here.

Events

In cooperation with Florian Heesch and Franziska Kaufmann: Hosting of the international conference Hard Wired VIII: Methodical Approaches to Music and Dance – Exploring Heavy Metal and its Genre Boundaries, September 2022, University of Siegen

In cooperation with Steffen Just, Sean Prieske, Melanie Ptatscheck and Svenja Reiner: Hosting of the 11. Early Career Workshop of the German Society for Popular Music Studies, February 2021, University of Music and Dance Cologne/online

In cooperation with Chris Kattenbeck, Ella O’Brien-Coker and Svenja Reiner: Hosting of the Summer School Populäres Wissen?! Pop*Musikforschung und Wissenschaftskommunikation (Popular Knowledge?! Pop*Music Research and Science Communication), September 2019, University of Music and Dance Cologne

In cooperation with Chris Kattenbeck, Svenja Reiner and Max Ruhmann: Hosting of the Summer School Transdisziplinäre Pop*Musikforschung (Transdisciplinary Pop*Music Research), September 2018, University of Music and Dance Cologne

In cooperation with Chris Kattenbeck, Svenja Reiner and Max Ruhmann: Hosting of the Summer School Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Pop*Musik (Perspectives on the Cultural Study of Pop*Music), September 2017, University of Music and Dance Cologne

Publications

Jung, Lea/Suer, Daniel/Kaufmann, Franziska/Arkley, Melissa (2022): „Workshop Report: ‚Feminism and Metal‘, Hosted by Rosemary Lucy Hill and Florian Heesch, Online, 15 June, 2021”, in: Metal Music Studies 8 (2), pp. 269-274.

Kattenbeck, Chris/Reiner, Svenja/Suer, Daniel (2022): „Kommuniziert Euch!? Externe Wissenschaftskommunikation und Popular Music Studies – ein Diskussionsanstoß“ („Communicate Yourselves!? External Science Communication and Popular Music Studies – An Impulse for Discussion”), in: Beathe Flath, Christoph Jacke und Manuel Troike (Hrsg.): Transformational POP: Transitions, Breaks, and Crises in Popular Music (Studies) (~Vibes – The IASPM D-A-CH Series; Bd. 2), Berlin: IASPM D-A-CH, pp. 33-48. Open Access

Suer, Daniel (2018): „Kaye, Carol“, in: MGG Online, ed. by Laurenz Lütteken, Kassel: Bärenreiter, online: https://www.mgg-online.com/mgg/stable/47323

Suer, Daniel (2018): „Kilmister, Ian (Fraser)“, in: MGG Online, ed. by Laurenz Lütteken, Kassel: Bärenreiter, online: https://www.mgg-online.com/mgg/stable/394455

Suer, Daniel (2017): “Review: Heavy Metal Music and the Communal Experience, Nelson Varas-Díaz and Niall Scott (eds) (2016)”, in: Metal Music Studies 3 (3), S. 465-469.

Talks (Selection)

Dances with Tables. Materialities of Dance Practices in Metal during COVID, IASPM XXI: Climates of Popular Music, July 2022, Daegu, South Korea

Two Case Studies on the Aesthetic and Social Co-Constitution of Music-Movement-Relations in Heavy Metal, 5th ISMMS International Biennial Research Conference: Heavy Metal in the Global South – Multiregional Perspectives, Juni 2022, Mexico’s National Autonomous University, Mexico City

(Feminist) Researcher Positionality, Self-Reflexivity, and Dance in Metal, Feminism and Metal – an Academic Workshop, June 2021, Huddersfield/Online/Siegen

(in cooperation with Chris Kattenbeck and Svenja Reiner) Kommuniziert Euch?! Überlegungen zu Wissenschaftskommunikation in den Popular Music Studies (Communicate Yourselves?! Thoughts on Science Communication in Popular Music Studies), 4th IASPM D-A-CH Conference: Transformational Pop. Transitions, Breaks, and Crises in Popular Music (Studies), March 2021, Online/Paderborn University

Metal – Music – Movement. Situating Music and Dance in Metal, 4th ISMMS International Biennial Conference: Locating Heavy Metal Music and Culture, June 2019, Nantes

Spannungsfelder. Zur situationsanalytischen Untersuchung von Tanz im Heavy Metal (Fields of Tension. On the Situational Analysis of Dance in Metal), 5. Spring Institute der Gesellschaft für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung, March 2019, Porto

„Aggressive music demanded violent physical responses”: Tracing Historical Developments of Music and Dance in Metal and Punk, Doing Metal, Being Punk, Doing Punk, Being Metal: Hybridity, Crossover and Difference in Punk and Metal Subcultures, December 2018, De Montfort University, Leicester

Metal Mosh Massacre, Bang Your Head & Co. Dance Practices as Subject of Metal Lyrics, HardWired VI. So far, so good… so what? Approaching the Metal Realities, May 2018, University of Siegen