Mortality and Music Popular Music and the Awareness of Death

The evidence of death and dying has been removed from the everyday lives of most Westerners. Yet we constantly live with the awareness of our vulnerability as mortals. Drawing on a range of genres, bands and artists, Mortality and Music examines the ways in which popular music has responded to our awareness of the inevitability of death and the anxiety it can evoke. Exploring bereavement, depression, suicide, violence, gore, and fans' responses to the deaths of musicians, it argues for the social and cultural significance of popular music's treatment of mortality and the apparent absurdity of existence.

Christopher Partridge is Professor of Contemporary Religion at University College Chester. His research and writing focuses on Western alternative spiritualities and popular culture.

Introduction: Death and Decay in Contemporary Culture
1. Transgression, Occulture and Liminality
2. The Gothic Imagination
3. Decay and the Grotesque
4. The End of History, Apocalypticism, and Catastrophism
5. The Harrowing of Hell and Post-Mortem Survival