Listening To Heavy Metal Music Analysis

Many famous people, specifically musicians, are often negatively portrayed by their peers and the media. Due to this, many parents and guardians believe that listening to metal music leads adolescents into a world of drugs, mental illness, and even suicide. However, experts have shown that listening to this stimuli, actually does not lead to bad behavior, and can even have positive effects. Metal music has been put down since the start, but it culminated in 1985 when D. Snider of Twisted Sister, was taken to court over a list of bands that parents in a group called PMRC had conducted known as the “filthy fifteen”, in which they listed bands and singers they thought invoked violence and sexual interpretations within their songs. This list …show more content…
With ages ranging from 18-34, thirty-nine people took part in the study, and were asked to recall a time in which they felt the most anger or hatred. Upon the participants being put into this mood, they were given the option of listening to heavy metal or simply sitting in silence. Contrary to popular belief, when the people chose to listen to heavy metal their anger decreased and even some positive emotions come forward (Zadrozny, 2015). As published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, two researchers Leah Sharman and Dr. Genevieve A. Dingle reported, “The findings indicate that extreme music did not make angry participants angrier; rather, it appeared to match their physiological arousal and result in an increase in positive emotions. Listening to extreme music may represent a healthy way of processing anger for these listeners” (Zadrozny, 2015). Not only was there the study of how it helps to bring more positive emotions, but there is also research suggesting that it helps most people to “fill a gap” they may have within …show more content…
The study contained 219 women and 215 men who were given a chart to fill out about their personality traits; they were then played different genres of metal ranging from slow and intense sounds to speed metal and thrash. The men and women were to rate the music based on a scale of extreme like and extreme dislike. Upon reading the results, they found that those with personality traits of self hatred, depression, or any negative feelings were the ones who liked the heaviest sounds. Many of those who rated heavy metal under a strong liking, also stated that it made them feel happier and almost gave them a feeling of self worth. As stated from one of the researchers, “Rather than stereotyping fans as deviant, antisocial or violent,” they write, “it may be more fruitful to understand the psychological needs that contemporary heavy metal fill for some individuals” (Jacobs,