“Sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll” — the timeless rallying cry prioritizes the interests of musicians and fans alike who engage with the once-subversive culture of heavy music. Sex and sexuality, however, is today a little more of a nuanced topic than it was during rock’n’roll’s early development, and the modern rock scene is a many-headed hydra of unique musical profiles. How, then, do different genres of music play out their preoccupations with sex? Take heavy metal, for example: toughness, evil, and fist-pounding rebellion leaves little room for nuance when confronting or hinting at the topic of sexuality — yet somehow, each subtle modulation in genre can shift an entire scene’s views of sexuality based on a few key element...
