Tales from the Thousand Lakes: Placing the Creative Network of Metal Music in Finland

Abstract

Music in general and the music industry in particular have been understudied subjects in the field of geography. The relatively scarce amount of literature on music industries has concentrated its attention on companies operating inside the industry, and on popular music. There is a gap in the knowledge on the networking processes of individuals inside the music industry and the geographical dynamics of music genres. Thus, as a point of departure, this study focuses on the creative individuals of a distinct music genre: namely, the bands and artists of the Finnish metal music genre, owing to the genre's international recognition and its importance in the Finnish economy and society. According to the analysis the metal bands in Finland tend to cluster in the largest cities. There are, however, some exceptions—very small municipalities (in terms of population) with a fair number of metal bands. Still, the capital Helsinki is the most prominent cluster of metal music in Finland. A further social network analysis reveals that the metal music cluster of Helsinki has a network of short average path length and a high degree of clustering. In other words, the members of the network function in close collaboration with each other. This notion was also verified by mapping the joint-career path of the most prolific (connected) individuals inside the network.