Karel Veselý: Can Music Change the World?
– Czechia
Born in 1976 in Znojmo, he studied English and philosophy at the Faculty of Arts at the Masaryk University. He is a music journalist and novelist. He has worked as a teacher and translator, and has been freelancing since 2008. He is the author or a co-author of publications on the current state and history of popular music and culture, such as Hudba ohně (Music of Fire, 2010), Planeta Nippon (Planet Nippon, 2017) and Všechny kočky jsou šedé (All Cats Are Gray, 2020). He wrote the novels Bomba★Funk (2017) and Kov (Metal, 2022). "Metal is faith and law," states the annotation of his latest title. "The main character [...] lives by it, even though the world around him has slightly different rules. Should he adapt, or is it okay to not give in and follow his own rules? How can one view the world through the glomy mist of dreary black metal? And can music change the world?"