Deena Weinstein

Deena Weinstein (born March 15, 1943) is a professor of Sociology at DePaul University. Her research focuses on popular culture. She is particularly well known for her research on heavy metal music, as she has published two books on the genre: Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture and Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology. Because of her research on heavy metal, Weinstein was featured in the 2005 documentary, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and the later Metal Evolution.

Career

Weinstein argues that the "fundamental ceremony" in metal is the live concert (shown here is Kiss performing in 2004, wearing makeup).

Weinstein holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University. She argues that heavy metal has outlasted many other rock genres largely due to the emergence of an intense, exclusionary, strongly masculine subculture. The Chicago Sun-Times calls her book Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture the "definitive study of heavy metal culture that "does for metal what Greil Marcus's "Lipstick Traces" did for the Sex Pistols"

Her 1991 book Heavy 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." A review of the book calls it a "...reasonable summary of most academic study so far, which indulges heavy metal as an extreme offshoot of rock in 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."