Noted: At some point in reporting this article, someone pointed me to the MySpace page of Blood Jewel, a goth industrial band in the spirit of Marilyn Manson. Stylistically it could not be more different from the zaniness of Gory Bateson and the Ethnogs. Blood Jewel’s Web page seems designed to shock, full of depictions of violence and sexual bondage, and it features a music video called “Speedkilla,” a commentary on the student who carried out the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech two years ago.
This, too, is an academic project.
Blood Jewel’s leader, who goes by the stage name Detonator, is Neil L. Whitehead, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He studies depictions of sexual violence. He started the band three years ago as a way to get a new perspective on the culture of goth industrial music â?? and to propose a new approach to anthropology.