Heavy metal bands quickly established a subculture known as metalheads in the late 1960s, featuring long hair, leather or denim clothing, and band patches adorning battle jackets as the signature look for their fans.
Participants have described the battle jacket as an outlet for self-expression and community building, its selection and arrangement being strongly tied to musical traditions and personal ideas, values, beliefs, and experiences.
Origins
Denim or leather cut-off jackets adorned with band logos, album art, or other provocative imagery have become an iconic symbol of heavy metal subculture and serve as an outlet for fans to express their musical tastes, personal affiliations, and antiauthoritarianism sentiments. Our research, consisting of both surveys and interviews conducted with metalheads, revealed that the battle jacket is an integral component of heavy metal uniform and conveys a sense of community within this genre.
Battle jackets have their roots in punk and countercultural movements of the 1970s. At that time, rock (now commonly referred to as classic rock) and punk became part of British heavy metal’s new wave; bands like Judas Priest’s Rob Halford and Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilminster popularized this head-to-toe leather look.
Heavy metal musicians Eddie Vedder and Mick Fleetwood can be credited with popularizing leather cut-off jackets with patched edges into heavy metal music, taking inspiration from punk subculture fashion trends. Punks were pioneers in adding metal spikes or other accessories to their leather jackets which eventually spread throughout metal fans as a trend.
Participants in our study highlighted that battle jackets are a symbol of longstanding dedication to metal music and represent its values of freedom of expression and defiance of authority. Furthermore, it reflects their lifestyle of enjoying metal music and attending concerts – two activities essential to maintaining an authentic experience within this subculture. Peer validation ties authenticity closely to peer acquisition of knowledge through interactions among peers such as advice-sharing, social referencing, and code switching (Citation Baxter and Marina). A battle jacket acts as an informal badge of metalhead identity which signals to others that its owner knows their music as well as any associated fashion trends.
Styles
Heavy metal jackets are created solely to express individual fandom; unlike generic band t-shirts which may be worn by non-metal fans and found on fashion store racks. Heavy metal jackets serve as an expression of subcultural identification; each patch used shows one’s level of commitment to genre and fandom (CitationCardwell).
Inspired by two late-1960s youth cultures – motorcycle culture and outlaw gangs such as Hell’s Angels in America, and hippie lifestyle in Europe – black leather biker jackets quickly became a trademark of metalhead style. When bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath emerged onto the musical landscape they developed a fandom known as metalheads which featured long hair, shaved heads, leather or denim clothing and band patches on denim or leather jackets – becoming staples of metalhead style.
Use of jackets as an expressive medium is central to metalhead culture, yet their usage comes with implicit rules which govern its usage, with any deviation leading to conflicts and challenging their validity (CitationCardwell).
As an example, many users regard the arrangements of patches as being important; some consider it inappropriate to cover every surface with them, while others argue against including political or religious statements on it, as this may void its authenticity. Furthermore, quality materials must also be considered alongside number and size of patches used on jackets.
Patches
Before the music t-shirt became the go-to piece of band merch, jackets were used as an expressive statement about one’s musical tastes and fandom. A sleeveless denim jacket could be embellished with band patches, badges, studs and hand painting to show your fandom; selecting, placing and sewing these patches had great significance in showing people one’s deep engagement with their subculture.
Interviewing owners of battle jackets, I explored their customizations in terms of meanings and functions. Through triangulating questionnaire results, image analysis, and discussion forums, I identified three aspects of battle jackets that have proven essential for building identity and memories (CitationCardwell). These aspects included sense of community, pursuit of selfhood, and codes of civility/authenticity – making these an important site of identity construction and memory construction (CitationCardwell).
Construction of identities and relationships is complex; some participants interpreted their jackets as symbolic of being part of wider cultures; for instance, Participant 3 noted how her Black Sabbath jacket had been passed down from both parents as part of her heritage, with its patch placement and stitching also serving to show their dedication as Metalheads.
Rituals involved with creating and wearing the battle jacket only reinforce these meanings further. Some participants considered creating and donning one as a “rite of passage” for new metalheads, providing an opportunity to show their commitment to metal music and subculture. Furthermore, many emphasized the significance of maintaining tradition within their communities by wearing battle jackets as marks of authenticity.
Symbolism
Jackets hold numerous meanings for metalheads, from personal style to sense of belonging in metal culture. Applying “thing theory,” they become active life presences that build cultural histories through interactions between owners and jackets.
Metalhead jackets provide metalheads a way to show their love of their favorite bands while connecting with others who share the same passion for music. Furthermore, these jackets serve as a form of rebellion and countercultural affiliation – creating performances and enactments of selfhood, community involvement, civility/authenticity codes that create complex webs of meanings central to metalhead worldviews.
Many respondents in this study were young people newly introduced to heavy metal subculture. Many described creating their first jacket as an important rite of passage into this genre; seeking advice from older members for traditional styles like German “kutte” or Norwegian “tunnel.” Upon attending concerts, participants also sew patches onto their jackets in order to show their allegiance towards specific artists.
A majority (40 out of 59) of respondents were male; however, age distribution was fairly evenly spread between teenagers and mature adults. Participants came from various countries across Europe, Americas, Asia and Oceania.
Most respondents felt that jackets could be inclusive so long as they focused on music rather than political or religious views, with some respondents using their jackets to demonstrate support for LGBTQ or ethnic minority rights by stitching on antifa and Black Lives Matter patches.
Community
Heavy metal music is a global phenomenon with diverse audiences around the world participating. Contrary to popular perceptions of metal as being only for teenage boys, its community is far more inclusive; women make up one third of gig-goers worldwide (CitationBishop), and members from older age groups, families, disabled people, LGBTQ communities and LGBTQ people participate (CitationBishop). Audience-performer relationships play a central role in heavy metal’s culture – audiences clapping, chanting backstage after performances and bands meeting fans afterwards (CitationBishop). Rituals that demonstrate these two-way relationships include clapping backstage before performances to meet fans afterwards (CitationBishop).
A battle jacket is a powerful symbol that unites metalheads with the bands they love, serving as a form of expression and identification at shows. Metalheads often wear their battle jacket to pledge allegiance to their favourite bands while showing individuality and building community ties. A metalhead’s battle vest may contain images from every concert they attended or just those they favor most – it may feature everything or just what speaks to them personally!
Photographer Peter Beste has captured the battle jacket in all its glory in his book Defenders of the Faith published by Sacred Bones. Focusing on Norwegian black metal culture with a keen eye, Beste uses Defenders of the Faith to document timeless subculture traditions; instead of taking portraits of bands or musicians posed to look iconic he captures scenes such as festival campsites or city sidewalks and of course battle jackets in action!