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The Aalto University School of Business will be hosting an international metal music research conference on 26-28 June – and for the first time in its new building in Otaniemi. Thirty speakers from close to 20 different countries will be participating in the interdisciplinary 2019 Modern Heavy Metal (MHM) conference. The majority of them are metal music researchers, but among the speakers there are also artists and music industry representatives.

This will be the fifth time the MHM conference is being held at the School of Business. This year's theme is "Authenticity and commercial appeal".

The founder and organiser of the conference, Academy Research Fellow and Docent in Management of Music and Culture Export , Toni-Matti Karjalainen, says this year's performances offer a versatile and multicultural cross-section of research into metal and popular music.

"The presentations deal with aspects of authenticity and commercialisation from the perspective of research in different fields and offer perspectives on the metal cultures, bands and phenomena of different countries and regions. The conference’s main speeches will present the Sting research carried out by British Professor Paul Carr and the discourse analysis of Doctor Salli Anttonen from Joensuu. They will offer perspectives on authenticity in popular music at a broader level.”

Documents, networking and Tuska

In addition to academic presentations, the conference offers plenty more that will reveal the diverse present-day situation within the music sector. Wednesday (26 June) will culminate with a showing of American director Bob Nalbandian’s documentary ‘Band Vs Brand’. The closing show on Thursday (27 June), meanwhile, will be a dual interview with Eero Sipilä of Battle BEAST and Lassi Vääränen of ARION. Also, Music Finland will be running a panel and networking event in which its international guests will also get their turn to speak. The participants of the final panel discussion on the Friday (28 June) include STAM1NA guitarist Pekka Olkkonen, HUMAVOID drummer Suvimarja Halmetoja, owner of the British music company INCENDIA MUSIC Lulu Davis, and producer agent and manager of ROCKFEST Toni Törrönen.

There is also the opportunity to seamlessly continue pondering the topics discussed by attending the Tuska festival, which is being held in Suvilahti from 28 to 30 June and which has over the years become one of the world’s largest heavy-metal events. Tuska is also one of the MHM conference’s partnering organisations.

Further information:
Academy Research Fellow Toni-Matti Karjalainen
tel. +358 (0)50 357 4047
toni-matti.karjalainen@aalto.fi

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