At a time when fundamentalism is on the rise, traditional religions are in decline and
postmodernity has challenged any system that claims to be all-defining, young people have …

This book is an investigation into church music through the lens of performance theory, both
as a discipline and as a theoretical framework. Scholars who address religious music …

This article explores the religio-spiritual characteristics of psytrance (psychedelic trance),
attending specifically to the characteristics of what I call neotrance apparent within the …

This thesis project is a multi-sited ethnographic study of music, intimacy, and crowds at"
techno" and" house" nightclubs in three cities: Berlin, Paris, and Chicago. It focuses on how …

In Christmas as Religion, Christopher Deacy explores the premise that religion plays an
elementary role in our understanding of the Christmas festival, but takes issue with much of …

This paper investigates the acoustic culture of Stonehenge, an iconic British prehistoric
stone circle. It addresses references to the structure within popular music culture, as well as …

With a focus on virtual reality, techno-rave culture, and “psychedelic trance,” this chapter
explores practices of consciousness alteration within contemporary countercultures. By …

Following the punk rock explosion of the late 1970s, Gothic music presented a romantic,
decadent and inward-looking alternative to anger and nihilism; Byronic moods largely …

Charismatic visions and the role of mediums; possession ceremonies and ecstatic trance;
the social contexts and practices of invocation: these are a number of the intriguing topics …

Ambient music, alongside related forms such as chill out, muzak and easy listening,
occupies a generous quantity of real estate in the few record stores that still exist in the …