Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

WTAMU Heavy Metal Class Catches the Attention of the World

Local News Story. Art by Chris Brockman.
Local News Story. Art by Chris Brockman.

The heavy metal as a literature class has become part of the metal music world. An article from the Amarillo Globe-News started a riot on several different heavy metal sites about the unique class that is offered this semester at WTAMU by Dr. Martin Jacobsen, associate professor of the English Department.

“We made the metal sphere spin a litter faster,” Dr. Jacobsen said, slightly overwhelmed.

Jacobsen decided to offer the course after using “Out of the Silent Planet” by Iron Maiden in one of his other classes to demonstrate sentence structures. The students fell in love with the idea of using metal music to help instruct lessons.

“It was something that students remembered,” said Jacobsen.

On Tuesday, Feb. 19 when Jacobsen walked into class, the excitement was tangible. All of the students were on the edge of their seats and gave a standing ovation because the article from the Amarillo Globe-News had spread so quickly. Instead of holding a normal lecture, the English Department bought pizza and soda for the class to further the excitement as Jacobsen presented the class with “You Can’t Kill Rock n’ Roll” by Ozzy Osbourne as the class theme song.

Students were shocked and elated to find their class was gaining so much recognition. Heath McCarty, junior, co-host of “The Rocket,” a metal show for WT’s student-run radio station 91.1, said he is excited that metal music is getting the recognition it has received.

“I think it’s pretty awesome,” McCarty said. “I don’t think a lot of people realize the gravitational pull metal has. I think it’s a good thing we are getting a lot of recognition. I haven’t even seen all the stuff yet.”

The article has become a worldwide buzz. It has been translated into at least nine languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Hungarian. Death Metal Underground, a web based magazine, asked Jacobsen to answer a few questions for the site. Most of the metal music websites have found the article and posted about the class when metal music was not a prominent genre of music in the West Texas area before the class was started. Jacobsen has been asked to do interviews for several different radio stations including “The Rocket” and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Here, it is so justifying and almost vindication to a degree to see that heavy metal has made such an impact and that it can be viewed through an academic lens,” John Adams, senior Mass Communication major, said. “That’s amazing. That people take it seriously enough that we are going to have a serious discussion about it.”

The students in the class have given positive feedback about Jacobsen’s teaching style. A normal class has a lecture includes premises, thesis and evidence. Jacobsen uses songs that validate his thesis of the evolution of metal and the literature value of each subgenre of metal.

“I’ve had many classes with Dr. Jacobsen and he’s always a good professor, but with this class he’s teaching something totally new and doing it well,” Keslie Wilson, senior English major, said. “He also loves the class as much as the students do which helps make the class all the more enjoyable.”

Because the class is not like a classical literature class or a linguistics class, the deficit between students and Jacobsen is decreased due to the fact that some of the students have been listening to metal music for most of their lives and follow it very closely. The idea the students know as much as the professor has put Jacobsen in a unique situation where he has to think a little more about his lessons. He even stays up late at night ensuring that he has all of lecture notes correct and pushes himself to make each class better than the one before.

“There is more equal footing than in a linguistics class,” Jacobsen said. “It has a different depth of know. The class ratifies their passion for their art form. There is an emotional component.”
Adams said even the students that were not familiar with the genre have shown great interest in the subject matter and have started to appreciate the art of metal music.

“There is something in metal for everyone,” Adams said. “Whether it be the guitars, whether you like heavy stuff, or whether you like lyrical content. There is something in metal for everyone. And Jacobsen is just smart enough and creative enough to pull that out of it and put it on a screen.”

Eric Baur, a junior History major, found it hard to articulate how thrilled he was to be part of the class that gained attention in the very thing the class is studying.

“It is more than just a heavy metal class,” Baur said. “It is a true humanities course. Heavy metal encompasses being human. I think anyone can find something of intrinsic value in heavy metal music. With this class, I am able to have an outlet for my love of metal and merge it with my academic life, and that is something that is very special to me.”

The class has become more than just a credit for students. It has given them a way to academically show that their passion for metal music is not to be overlooked, but to be embraced. Metal has a culture of its own, and the class shows students who are unfamiliar with the culture why metal music is important and why people follow it so closely. The music is not simply an angry person who is trying to let the world know he is angry, but a literary genre in and of itself.

“We want to talk about metal and literature as a thing within itself,” Jacobsen said. “It’s a once in a lifetime kind of moment you can spend an entire career and never get anything like that.”

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