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Masculinity and heavy metal share a clear and well-documented relationship, with many of the key texts on metal centering around its representation of gender (Walser, 1993; Weinstein, 1991). Less discussed is masculinity in Australian metal, as Australian metal itself remains underrepresented in scholarly research. In this chapter we discuss the music, media and image of Parkway Drive – a popular metalcore band from Byron Bay, Australia – via a reading of two of the band’s feature-length rockumentary films. We draw on concepts and theories of gender (Butler, 2006), and public image (Leonard, 2007), as well as studies of Australian masculinity, specifically those pertaining to mateship, surfing, and adventurousness. As the metalcore subgenre has not been widely studied, this approach provides a basis for understanding the subgenre as well as its relationship to gender, commercial success, and Australian heavy metal, focussing on the decidedly Anglo-Australian representation of masculinity performed by Parkway Drive. We argue that the band typifies a distinctly Australian type of hegemonic masculinity, one that draws on discussion of Australian identity, beach culture and surfing. We further examine the band’s use of ‘rockumentary’ tropes to build their public image and to tighten affective bonds with viewers.

This paper aims to explore the challenge of learning and reinvention from the twin perspectives of academia and the earthy pragmatism of popular culture. It provides a set of lessons to assist organisations to learn and, more importantly, unlearn, so that they can stay ahead.

The paper starts with a brief review of some of the more important ideas around learning. It is followed by a case study of a “glorious failure”, taken from the music business using action research as the methodology.

The main findings may be summarised are: selected people who are able and willing rather than simply putting up with what you have available at the time; if your project is much bigger scale/different than that attempted previously to recognise this and act accordingly; when working with highly creative people, ensure that there is sufficient focus on end customer requirements to avoid the project becoming too self‐obsessed. These findings are highly transferable from the original field of the music industry to other environments.

Some principles for commencing the processes required to encourage learning and unlearning are developed for adaptation to particular organisations in the paper. These will be of value to anyone who seeks to introduce adaptive or transformative change in their organisation.

The purpose of this study is to raise the issue of contemporary retromania with marketing historians.

This is a reflective essay combining personal experiences with empirical exemplars.

It is found that retromarketing is a subject requiring scholarly scrutiny. The commodification of the past is increasingly prevalent and marketing historians are ideally placed to lead the discussion.

As yestermania is unlikely to evaporate anytime soon, it provides rich, socially and managerially relevant pickings for marketing historians.

Aside from the scurrilous suggestion that historians should get out of the dusty archives, it argues that originality is overrated.