Negative Effects of Heavy Metal.

Undergod

So I recently wrote a blog about people's perceptions of the negative effects of heavy metal.

I thought it might be of interest to people on this forum - to be honest, I'm kinda surprised people still take ideas like those I refer to in the article seriously, as my experiences with metal have been so different. What do people here think?

Clutchkick

I can't believe i used to listen to it and enjoy it:o

scudzilla

Negative effects of Metal??


THERE ARE NONE

Cill94

Well written stuff. I agree that if someone listens to a song and is then compelled to act out violently against themselves or others, then there was obviously something mentally wrong with them to begin with. It's like when they tried to blame the Columbine tragedy on Marilyn Manson. It's easy for the media to use metal as a scapegoat because it's typically a genre that is misunderstood, and people fear and subsequently attack what they do not understand.

nyarlothothep

There is generally a shocking level of willful ignorance displayed by people in relation to the genre. The media exerts a strong influence over those who still believe that it's a trustworthy source of information so metal will seem like the boogeyman of music. The fact that a lot of it is quite aggressive adds fuel to the fire. I find it interesting though that a lot of technically gifted musicians, musicians that are into the music, go into an aggressive form of music. So it's not all musicians like those who become classical musicians etc but it seems like a pattern to me. Perhaps metal reflects the anger directed towards the banality/simplicity of mainstream culture in its aggressive overtures? The reaction from the mainstream would be one of consternation, it's rejection of their core aesthetic vlaues, popular music-simple, happy, conformist etc metal-angry, complex, anti establishment/libertarian

GLaDOS

The only problems I can think of are neck pain and hearing loss

Knifey Spoony

ScienceNerd wrote: »

The only problems I can think of are neck pain and hearing loss

...and the uncontrollable urge to have long hair and a beard! :pac:

im invisible

yiz are all as mad as a hatter!

MarkR

Makes laundry day easy, on the plus side.

lord lucan

Excellent article.

Sadly them views are still present in many today. At my workplace there's a serious lack of metalheads and rockers. Talking to people about my taste in music and gigs i attend leads to a lot of the old stereotypes being brought up and ridiculous misconseptions being spouted.

That being said,i sort of enjoy been seen as some sort of devil worshiping outlaw and not Mr. Conformity.:cool:

Joe_Dull

Great article Undergod, nice job. The conventional view of metal is so negative that I often hold off telling people I meet the music I really enjoy until I know them a bit better. The last thing I want when I first meet someone is an awkward five minute defence of metal... "But it's just screaming in a microphone" "How can you enjoy that noise?" "It upsets me" etc.

seachto7

moshing

bradknowell

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

...and the uncontrollable urge to have long hair and a beard! :pac:

I love metal and shave my head, I do have a beard though. Stereotypes suck ass :pac:

Lawrence1895

Stagediving...and people not catching your fall :pac:

Twilightning

The elitist eejits within the metal community are a giant negative side-effect. They tend to show just as much ignorance towards a lot of metal's sub-genres they don't like as non-metal fans do towards the genre as a whole. Most popular form of elitism I find is when extreme metal fans look down upon something they deem not as 'heavy' as the stuff they'd listen to.

Undergod

Thanks for all the nice comments, guys!

I've found the book he cites on amazon, so I'm hoping to get it soon and maybe I'll write a follow-up article based on the original papers.

old gregg

MarkR wrote: »

Makes laundry day easy, on the plus side.

And see their (not metal) faces light up when you throw a bunch of black tees into the machine with their tennis whites.