Think you know more than everybody else about metal? Now you can prove it...

[cyberdrummer]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10049703/College-launches-UKs-first-Heavy-Metal-degree.html

College launches UK's first Heavy Metal degree

Studying the history of Iron Maiden and producing a film soundtrack inspired by This is Spinal Tap could now earn you a degree, after a college launched the UK’s first Heavy Metal Music Performance degree.

The course will encourage students to explore how the actions of heavy metal figures have been censored throughout history, as well as to study how famous heavy metal bands came into being and the relationship of heavy metal to religion and philosophy. In the second year students will also get the chance to tour Britain playing heavy metal music at concerts, and tutors say the course is about using the city's reputation for music to prepare students for a career in the industry.

Students will get a foundation degree by studying the two year course, which can be topped up to a full BA degree with a further year's study, that will be awarded by Nottingham Trent University, which has accredited the course.

But education campaigners have criticised the course as something that could put students at a disadvantage with future employers.
Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “The problem is I don’t think this will have credibility in the marketplace. I’m not against heavy metal at all, I just don’t think it will impress an employer to find a youngster has a degree in heavy metal. It could become a ‘disqualification.’”

Mr McGovern, who used to work at St Antony’s school in North London, which he said was renowned for students who have left the school to work in the music industry including band Bombay Bicycle Club, said he also felt this could create the illusion amongst young people that the degree would be the path to being in a heavy metal band.

He added: “The rock musicians who have been successful didn’t need a degree to get there.”

New College Nottingham has launched the degree to capitalise on the rock and metal music scene in the city which is home to Download festival and where Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson hails from. They said the course, which is the first of its kind, has been launched in response to student demand and will start in September.

Tutors say the degree isn’t about ‘creating the next rock star’ but is about capitalising on the thriving music industry in the city and enthusiasm for music to make students ready for a career in the industry, not just as performers but to work in music publishing, record companies and teaching.

Course lecturer Liam Maloy said he had spent the last seven months putting the course together and added: “You can study music at Oxford, Cambridge and in all cities all over the UK, but here in Nottingham we wanted to offer something special that reflects our city’s culture and employment opportunities.

“Heavy metal is an extremely technical genre of music and the study of its culture and context is a rising academic theme, so we’re very excited to be at the forefront of its integration with education.”

He said the course, which will include professional performance, composition, recording and promotion, will be academically rigorous.
Tutors say there are already students signed up to the course, which has fees of £5,750 per year.

Nottingham is known for its music scene. Download Festival attracts more than 75,000 rock and metal fans every year and Metal label Earache Records was founded in Nottingham in 1985.

[wolfking]

Would love to do that, but not really any career opportunities would come of it.

[ZKX-2099]

Maybe a job at Blabbermouth.

[Bolsters]

Maybe a job at Blabbermouth.

All you need is a degree in copy/paste to get that job.

[ZKX-2099]

You mean be a liberal arts major?

[Jaq]

Maybe a job at Blabbermouth.

All you need is a degree in copy/paste to get that job.

I love how long some articles on bands get once they finish pasting on the last ten articles they've run on the band and re-using the same 10 press kit photos. Though it annoys me to no good end when the article is about, say, a member of the band dying and no one thinks "hey, maybe we should leave off the part about their first week Soundscan sales and where they came in on the Billboard Heatseekers chart back when their last album came out in 2010." Blabbermouth used to be a halfway decent place to find out metal news, but now it's just endless copy and paste and things like how every article on Accept has the line up they've had for several years now listed as "Accept 2013 is"