has anyone written about notions of shamanism in western popular music ?

Q.  has anyone written about notions of shamanism in western popular music ?

ChatGPT said:

Yes — there is scholarly and critical writing on notions of shamanism (or “shamanic” metaphors/techniques) in Western popular music and culture. Here are some key works and how they approach the topic, which could be useful if you’re researching this area:

---

Key sources

1. ‘I’ve Got a Spirit Coming through Me’: Music as Hierophany and Musicians as Shamans by Mark Jennings (2015)

   • This article uses Mircea Eliade’s notions of hierophany (the appearance of the sacred) and of the shaman in his theoretical schema. journal.equinoxpub.com

   • It applies these ideas to popular music / Pentecostal music contexts (e.g., Australian musician Xavier Rudd) to argue that musicians can function “shamanically” by channeling something beyond the everyday. journal.equinoxpub.com

   • Usefully this connects “popular music” (in a Western context) with shamanic/ritual experience — you might draw on this if your focus is the “shamanic” in popular music (rather than only indigenous/ethnographic shamanism).

2. Pop Pagans: Paganism and Popular Music (edited by Donna Weston & Andy Bennett, 2013)

   • This collection includes a chapter titled “Techno-shamanism and the economy of ecstasy as a religious experience” by Alan Nixon & Adam Possamai. Routledge+1

   • The “techno-shamanism” chapter in particular examines rave / electronic dance music scenes and how ecstatic/trance experience in those contexts may be read through a shamanic lens. Western Sydney University Researchers

   • The book more broadly situates pagan/spiritual currents in Western popular music culture.

3. The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination by Andrei A. Znamenski (2007)

   • While not specifically about “popular music,” this book analyses how the idea of shamanism has been adopted and re-imagined in Western intellectual and cultural contexts. OUP Academic

   • It helps in understanding how “shamanism” is used as a metaphor or cultural figure in the West, which is relevant when you see “shamanic” imagery in music (album art, lyrics, performance, etc.).

4. Other related works:

   • “Entering the Crack Between the Worlds: Symbolism in Western Shamanism” by Susannah Crockford. journal.equinoxpub.com

   • “Shamanisms and the authenticity of religious experience” also by Crockford. journal.equinoxpub.com

   • These examine Western (neo-)shamanic practices and the issues of authenticity, symbolism, appropriation — topics very relevant if you’re looking at “shamanism in popular music” and the tensions that may entail.

---

What this means for your research

• Framing: You could frame your topic around how “shamanism” (or shamanic tropes: trance, channeling, journeying, the sacred within the profane) is used in Western popular music (genres, artists, performances) — both literally (e.g., artists drawing on indigenous shamanic practices) and metaphorically.

• Themes to explore:

  • Ecstasy/trance states in music (especially dance, electronic, “ritual” performances) → see the techno-shamanism chapter in Pop Pagans.

  • The musician as “shaman” figure: channeling spirits, bridging worlds, invoking transformation (see Mark Jennings’s article).

  • The visual/lyrical aesthetics of “shamanism” in album art, stage performance, marketing.

  • The tension of cultural appropriation or symbolic borrowing (shamanic metaphors imported into Western pop without context) — see Znamenski, Crockford.

  • Authenticity, spiritual experience, what qualifies as “shamanic” in a pop music context (again see the Crockford papers).

• Case studies you might consider:

  • Artists who explicitly invoke indigenous or shamanic practices (for example the Reality Sandwich article on Ben Lee and ayahuasca journeying). Reality Sandwich

  • Electronic/dance music scenes that emphasise trance, communal ritual-like experience (rave culture).

  • Folk/metal/neo-pagan genres that use shamanic imagery/performance. (Pop Pagans covers “Pagan Metal” etc.)

• Methodological caution:

  • Be clear whether you’re using “shamanism” in its original indigenous sense (which demands cultural, historical, ritual context) or as a metaphor in Western popular culture. The literature emphasises the debate around authenticity, appropriation, and “neo-shamanism”.

  • Some scholarship warns of the uncritical application of “shamanism” in contexts where it may be more symbolic than ritual-based. (See Crockford’s “Shamanisms and the authenticity…”).

  • If using case studies, you may need to explore how the artist/genre frames the “shamanic” element (self-identified? marketing? cultural borrowing?) rather than assume all “shamanic” references are equal.

---

If you like, I can pull together a bibliography of say 10-15 pieces (articles & book chapters) that specifically address shamanism in Western popular music (or adjacent areas: trance music, neo-paganism in music, etc.). Would that be helpful?