We all listen to music sometimes. We all experience hardships and tragedies sometimes. And when these two are happening simultaneously, let me tell you, that is really something. Music and distress make a decent team in an otherwise miserable situation. I bet that you too turn your favorite band on for comfort when feeling down. Music has an immensely personal effect on us, and only a few may disagree.
Music is a means of emotional healing that soothes, embraces, and offers a safe haven for a person in distress. Your average listener usually listens to mood-congruent music, which means they make their musical picks according to their mood. Like this, the music acts as a social surrogate—in other words, a replacement for an empathetic friend, for instance.
People regulate their emotions with music in a multitude of ways. When feeling sad, some people prefer to cheer themselves up with happy or calming music, whereas others put on sad music that really hits home and makes one bask in sadness. Either way, listeners regulate their emotions with music to distract themselves from worries, unwanted thoughts, and stress, to name a few.
Heavy
Because music has such a grip on us, some believe that it can outright conduct one’s behavior, mainly for the worse. Throughout the years, whatever has been the hardest-hitting form of music on the market at the time has taken the scapegoat’s seat. Heavy metal is a genre that has stuck around and been subject to speculation, hysteria, and criticism since its conception, continuing the tradition of blaming mass media for societal issues such as anti-social behavior.
In past music psychology studies, heavy metal has been identified as a risk factor for aggressive and antisocial behavior, along with substance use and self-harm. This has to do with antisocial and violent themes in the music, which are considered central to the genre.
It has been noted in recent studies that young people who listen to music with aggressive themes reported their wellbeing to be enhanced, being no different from other music listeners. Heavy metal fans report that the music they listen to has a calming effect on their anger. Study results have backed these claims. In recent years, research results like these have been making headlines, which shows that the stereotype of your average heavy metal listener being an antisocial barbarian is still going strong. If this weren’t the case, the papers wouldn’t make a big deal out of it every time a new study comes out.
Regular folk
Because typical music listeners tend to choose their music mood-congruently, sure enough, heavy metal fans do the same. Thus, angry listeners listen to angry music accordingly. What they aim to gain from this is a full-on experience of the emotion they’re feeling. Quite the opposite of those stereotypical assumptions people could make! The aggressive music greatly decreases levels of hostility, irritability, and stress. Many fans also use the music for the enhancement of happiness and wellbeing.
Some fans have reported that heavy metal acts as a buffer for self-harm and other harmful thoughts. The previously mentioned antisocial and violent themes serve for some listeners as a space for recovery and handling of painful topics, such as fear of death and anxiety. So as it turns out, fans of heavy metal are just like any other people. They use music to both have fun and cope with life, with no intent of hurting anybody.
When it comes to risky behavior sparked by listening to heavy metal, it gets complex: one’s risky behavior is defined by various individual variables, such as pre-existing vulnerabilities for psychological problems. As of today, no such study has been found in which it has been successfully proven that heavy metal directly causes aggressiveness and antisocial behavior.
Sources and further reading on the topic:
- Olsen et al. (2022) Psychosocial risks and benefits of exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes: Current theory and evidence. Current Psychology, 42(24), 21133-21150.
- Schäfer et al. (2020) Music May Reduce Loneliness and Act as Social Surrogate for a Friend: Evidence from an Experimental Listening Study. Music & Science, 3, 1-16.
- https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/22/listening-heavy-metal-punk-extreme-music-makes-you-calmer-not-angrier-study
- https://yle.fi/a/74-20017755
Picture: Drew it myself to save time
♫ Down to a Note ♪ 