The conservative line on rock music was established with the publication of Allan Bloom’s Closing of the American Mind, where he lampooned rock music as a flight from virtue and beauty in music. Rock’s degrading effect on mores, Bloom argued, would result in increased atomization and would neuter the effects of liberal education, making a free society impossible. In this talk, I will argue that metal music not only is a partial vindication of Bloom’s argument, but also redeems rock from Bloom’s biting critique. Metal music, it will be argued, is both a signifier of a sick culture and also an antidote to the worst, most deadening influences of modern music.

The lecture will be accompanied by musical interludes.

Tom Sarrouf, originally from Worcester, Massachusetts, is the Senior Academic Programs Manager at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, as well as the co-host of ISI’s podcast, “Conservative Conversations with ISI.” He graduated summa cum laude from Boston College with a B.A. in History, Philosophy, and Secondary Education. He is also a teacher for World Youth Alliance, whom he has worked for as an intern and teacher since 2020, and whom he represented at the 54th session for the Commission on Population and Development at the United Nations. Previously, Tom interned at the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding in 2021, and was also an ISI Honors Scholar that summer. He was the Lance and Julie Markowitz Publius Fellow with the Claremont Institute in 2023.