Deena Weinstein

Deena Weinstein(born March 15, 1943) is a professor ofsociologyatDePaul Universitywhose research focuses onpopular culture.She is particularly well known for her research onheavy metalculture, on which subject she wrote a ground-breaking book,Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology(1991),later published in a revised and updated version asHeavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture(2009).

Career

Weinstein holds a PhD fromPurdue University.Her 1991 bookHeavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology"describes the heavy metal music culture, explains why it has prompted demands for censorship, and argues that the music deserves tolerance and respect."She argues that heavy metal has outlasted many other rock genres largely due to the emergence of an intense, exclusionary, strongly masculinesubculture.A review of the book calls it:

A reasonable summary of most academic study so far, which indulges heavy metal as an extreme offshoot ofrockin which rebellion is the prime goal and the fundamental ceremony is the live concert. These failings aside, there is very perceptive research here on the origins of heavy metal and the personalities within its culture. The latter is most informative of all aspects in this book and is Weinstein's strength as a writer.

TheChicago Sun-Timescalled the book the definitive study of heavy metal culture, saying that it "does for metal whatGreil Marcus'sLipstick Tracesdid for theSex Pistols."

Weinstein was interviewed in the 2005 documentaryMetal: A Headbanger's Journeyand the laterMetal Evolution.