Headbanging to Drum Patterns to Create Heaviness

Abstract Headbanging is not just “nodding to the beat,” but an active dance practice through which headbangers can increase a song’s heaviness—amplifying the sound’s real and imagined power by using their own body motion to add to its embodied impact. This chapter features a close musical analysis of various possibilities for coordinating headbanging with common drum patterns in Metallica’s “Whiplash” and Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist.” This analysis shows how each way of moving might shape experiences of heaviness, and highlights the subjectivity and agency of each listener. Headbanging is often a participatory group action, though, so it balances independent individual expression with community and togetherness.