Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses Heathens' use of music in religious practices, with a particular focus on ritualization, interpretation, and authority construction. Using a digital survey and interviews, this paper discusses how Heathens talk about some of the most popular music within the religion(s).

Paper long abstract:

Using a digital survey and interviews, this paper discusses how Heathens use and talk about some of the most popular music within the religion(s). How can we understand the relationship(s) between self-identifying Heathens and Norse-inspired music? Do Heathens listen to Norse-inspired music at all? Those who do, how do they use it? What artists and bands appear to have the strongest influence and what kinds of influence do they possess? Are the any differences in how Heathens use Norse-inspired music in the metal and neofolk genres? What determines how they use a specific artist's music in their religious practice?

This paper addresses Heathens' use of Norse-inspired music and the relationship(s) between these practices and Heathens' religious practices, focusing on the incorporation of music into religious interfaces through ritualization, interpretation, authority construction, and ways of hearing. What can we learn about the ways in which Norse-inspired music is technologized, and the Norse past is technologically musicalized if we approach the ongoing and continuing construction of Heathen religious interfaces—individual and shared—as practices of reception and ritualization, and how they intersect in interpretative work and authority construction. Seen in this way, music is discussed as an authority-constructing technology that helps facilitate religious interaction, interfaces, and immersion, development of identity/-ies and social bonds in contemporary Heathenism.