Metal is a form of popular music. Popular music is a form of leisure. In the modern age, popular music has become part of popular culture, a heavily contested collection of practices and industries that construct place, belonging and power.

Karl Spracklen is a Professor of Leisure Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University. He teaches leisure theory, popular culture; philosophy and sociology of sports science, as well as research methods and dissertation support, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, across the School. He has published widely in the area of leisure studies with works including 'Leisure, Sport and Society' (2013), 'Whiteness and Leisure' (2013), 'Constructing Leisure, Historical and Philosophical Debates' (2011) and 'Habermas and the Meaning of Leisure' (2009) all with Palgrave Macmillan.