This article presents a consideration of popular music culture as intangible culture, consistent with the premises of the UNESCO 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention. The observations presented in the account are drawn from involvement in the Home of Metal (HoM) project, a music heritage project which aims to brand Birmingham and the Black Country as the birthplace of heavy metal. The article focuses on the methods used within the collection and curation of oral histories for a temporary museum exhibition held in Birmingham. It discusses the value of these verbal accounts of a music culture for the exhibition, particularly where there was an absence of physical artefacts.