Heavy Metal 101

This is not a metallurgy class! Learn everything you ever wanted to know about heavy metal music. Topics of this video lecture series include musicology, history, metal culture, music theory, songwriting tropes, harsh vocal techniques, extreme metal, tech-based instruments, and how the genre tackles some of today’s biggest sociopolitical challenges. You’ll find out why metal bands exist in every country on Earth, and why you’re probably already a metalhead without even knowing it. This course has been rockin’ MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP)* since 2006!

2025 Video Lectures:

• Heavy Metal 101: Music and Culture
• The Physics Behind the Shred with Will Lunden
• Wheels of Steel: The Influence of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with Martin Popoff
• Is Heavy Metal Sacred? The Psychological Functions and Desecration of Heavy Metal with Kyle Messick
• History of Heavy Metal, Part I
• History of Heavy Metal, Part II
• Metal Aesthetics: A Rebel at the Core with Clara Wanning
• Leather and Heavy Metal: More Than Meets the Eye with Haydée Irizarry
• Neuroscience of Metal with Evgeny Gromovoy
• All about Harsh Vocals: History, Application, and Technique with Paul Buckley
• History of Heavy Metal, Part III
• Understanding Black Metal: History, Sound, and Controversy with Lauren Crosser
• Life as a Modern Metal Drummer: Tech, Production, and Touring with Matt Zappa
• History of Heavy Metal, Part IV

The class video lectures from 2021 to the present are available on the site.

*IAP is a 4-week term at MIT in January that allows members of the MIT community to organize, sponsor, and participate in activities and topics often outside of the regular MIT curriculum.