Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps

it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream

van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. Welcome to the

Arts and Ideas podcast. I'm Lucy Weir and my essay is titled A Norwegian Morality Tale.

Alternative music has always given parents cause for concern. When rock and roll exploded in the

1950s, it stirred widespread fears about moral integrity and teenage sexuality. In the 1960s, bands such as the

Beatles and the Rolling Stones alarmed authority figures with lyrics that seemingly endorsed free love

and recreational drug use. As rock hardened into heavy metal, musicians would be accused of far darker crimes.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, accusations of devil worship became increasingly common.

Rumors abounded that vinyl records contained hidden, satanic messages, malevolent commands that were only revealed when tracks were

played backwards. Almost always, these kind of moral panics focused on imaginary evils,

and many bands cheerfully embraced the notoriety and the extra publicity that it brought.

However, to my mind, there is one case in particular which stands out. It takes place in Norway in the early 1990s. It is a rare example of a

moral panic that was ignited by genuine acts of arson, suicide and murder, and at its heart lay a new and

largely unknown genre of alternative music known as black metal. This story is one of real

and sometimes gratuitous violence. In this case, moral panic was surely justified. Yet, at the same time,

these dramatic events continue to be misrepresented. In my view, they exemplify the way in which

a centuries-old fear of devil worship and occultism can distract us from genuinely destructive influences

and serious societal problems. I should say at the outset that the music at the heart of this story

is not to everyone's taste. As a historian of performance, however, there is something about the extreme nature of this

genre which I find particularly compelling. Black metal, with its heavily distorted guitars,

manic drum beats and animalistic shrieked vocals, delivers a sonic shock to the system.

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