tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/heavy-metal-10900/articlesHeavy metal – The Conversation2023-10-05T15:03:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2148832023-10-05T15:03:00Z2023-10-05T15:03:00ZBlack Sabbath – The Ballet: a heavy metal expert reviews this ‘spectacle of entertainment’<p>Ballets are typically performed to the enchanting and distinctive melodies of classical music, not the emphatic beats and supersonic volume of heavy metal. But it’s the music of heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath that scores Birmingham Royal Ballet’s new show, <a href="https://www.brb.org.uk/shows/black-sabbath">Black Sabbath – The Ballet</a>, which is currently showing at the Theatre Royal Plymouth before moving to London’s Sadler’s Wells. </p>
<p>Ballet, and the classical music that usually accompanies it, symbolises elegance and sophistication – the epitome of high culture. Heavy metal music is <a href="https://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/164/6/The%20Construction%20of%20Heavy%20Metal%20Identity%20through%20Heritage%20Narratives%20A%20Case%20Study%20of%20Extreme%20Metal%20Bands%20in%20the%20North%20of%20England.pdf">often regarded as the exact opposite</a>, and its fans have been treated in a similar fashion: viewed as unsophisticated. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Black Sabbath – The Ballet.</span></figcaption>
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<p>When I was doing research on identity expression in heavy metal music for my PhD, I was often met with apathy from people who did not care about the music or the culture. They’d ask: “Why bother doing research on this?” </p>
<p>I must admit that going into Black Sabbath – The Ballet, I had my own doubts. My knowledge and experience of ballet was nonexistent, and I was expecting little more than some dancing around to Black Sabbath’s music. But I was very pleasantly surprised that it was more than that – it was a spectacle of entertainment.</p>
<h2>Performing the ballet</h2>
<p>A short piano introduction to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TJkO9VNxwk">Iron Man</a> (1972) opens the show, as dancers dressed entirely in black enter the stage. Then, a guitarist – dubbed the Guitar Spirit – plays the chords to Iron Man, now accompanied by the orchestra. The dancers cavort around him, picking him up and carrying him around the stage as he plays. </p>
<p>As the song finishes and fades, an orchestral cover of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lejk2BmBbvk">Solitude</a> (1971) accompanies two dancers sharing a kiss that lasts throughout the song. Their bond is only broken by the return of the Guitar Spirit, now playing the riffs of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOTIIw76qiE">Paranoid</a> (1970). </p>
<p>The second act features voiceovers from members of Black Sabbath, including an account of guitarist <a href="https://www.thaliacapos.com/blogs/blog/black-sabbath-s-tony-iommi-and-the-accident-that-created-heavy-metal">Tony Iommi’s factory accident</a> which affected his guitar playing – and how he persevered through this struggle. There’s also commentary about the band <a href="https://loudwire.com/ozzy-osbourne-fired-from-black-sabbath-anniversary/">parting ways with lead singer Ozzy Osbourne</a>, their rise to fame, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/06/black-sabbath-cocaine-private-plane">struggles with drugs and alcohol</a> and the subsequent difficulties of stardom. </p>
<p>This act, telling the story of four young men from Aston in Birmingham becoming musical icons, concludes with a powerful orchestral arrangement of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYZE4vKDqzs">Sabbath Bloody Sabbath</a> (1973). The story is told clearly, underpinned by sombre and melancholic orchestral music that successfully adds a sense of nostalgia. </p>
<p>The final act focuses on the legacy of Black Sabbath, their influence on heavy metal music, how music brings people together, and how the band is celebrated all over the world. It includes a nice flute piece inspired by the connection the band shares with its fans, accompanied by some occasional light, rhythmic drum beats to perhaps emulate the conditions the band experienced working in a factory before their rise to fame. </p>
<p>Then, the Guitar Spirit returns and the mood of the music changes. Playing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAEqXqTTRVc">Laguna Sunrise</a> (1971), the Guitar Spirit and a dancer take turns to command the audience’s attention. The music builds up in a grandiose interplay with the orchestra – everyone plays their part to lead the audience to the climax of the ballet. </p>
<p>As Paranoid begins to be played for the last time, Iommi himself takes to the stage in a surprise appearance (he only appears in a handful of performances of the ballet) and rocks out with the Guitar Spirit. </p>
<h2>A fitting celebration</h2>
<p>Black Sabbath – The Ballet beautifully coalesces the elegance of classical music and ballet with the gritty and aggressive nature of heavy metal music.</p>
<p>Ballet may look fluid and effortless, but it demands years of hard physical and mental work. In this way, it mirrors the experience of being in a band: hard work which eventually results in success, despite strain and downsides. The fusing of the classical orchestra with the music of Black Sabbath makes this ballet a phenomenal experience. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Douglas Schulz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The elegance of classical ballet beautifully coalesces with the gritty, aggressive nature of heavy metal music.Douglas Schulz, Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2006892023-06-05T12:09:06Z2023-06-05T12:09:06ZArsenic contamination of food and water is a global public health concern – researchers are studying how it causes cancer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529435/original/file-20230531-23-iq2312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C937%2C768&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One symptom of arsenic poisoning is the growth of plaques on the skin called arsenical keratosis.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/tQzvii">Anita Ghosh/REACH via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arsenic is a naturally occurring element found in the Earth’s crust. Exposure to arsenic, often through contaminated food and water, is associated with various negative health effects, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK304375/">including cancer</a>. </p>
<p>Arsenic exposure is a global public health issue. A 2020 study estimated that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba1510">up to 200 million people wordwide</a> are exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water at levels above the legal limit of <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/arsenic/standards.html">10 parts per billion</a> set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization. <a href="https://publications.iarc.fr/Book-And-Report-Series/Iarc-Monographs-On-The-Identification-Of-Carcinogenic-Hazards-To-Humans/Some-Drinking-Water-Disinfectants-And-Contaminants-Including-Arsenic-2004">More than 70 countries</a> are affected, including the United States, Spain, Mexico, Japan, India, China, Canada, Chile, Bangladesh, Bolivia and Argentina.</p>
<p>Since many countries are still affected by high levels of arsenic, we believe arsenic exposure is a global public health issue that requires urgent action. <a href="https://stempel.fiu.edu/research/labs/cancer-research/">We study</a> how <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cristina-Andrade-Feraud">exposure to toxic metals</a> like arsenic can <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=v42J5dMAAAAJ&hl=en">lead to cancer</a> through the formation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/triggering-cancer-cells-to-become-normal-cells-how-stem-cell-therapies-can-provide-new-ways-to-stop-tumors-from-spreading-or-growing-back-191559">cancer stem cells</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Arsenic water contamination predominantly affects communities of color in the U.S.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Arsenic contamination of food and water</h2>
<p>Your body can absorb arsenic <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/arsenic/what_routes.html">through several routes</a>, such as inhalation and skin contact. However, the most common source of arsenic exposure is through contaminated drinking water or food.</p>
<p>People who live in areas with <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic">naturally high levels of arsenic in the soil and water</a> are at particular risk. In the U.S., for example, that includes regions in the Southwest such as Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. Additionally, <a href="https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/ovid/environmental-and-occupational-medicine-3485">human activities</a> such as mining and agriculture can also increase arsenic in food and water sources.</p>
<p>High levels of arsenic can also be found in <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-worry-about-arsenic-in-baby-cereal-and-drinking-water-57948">food and drink products</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2018.01.018">particularly rice</a> and rice-based products like rice cereals and crackers. A 2019 Consumer Reports investigation even found that <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/water-quality/arsenic-in-some-bottled-water-brands-at-unsafe-levels-a1198655241/">some brands of bottled water</a> sold in the U.S. contained levels of arsenic that exceeded the legal limit. Alarmingly, multiple studies have also found that several <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/most-baby-foods-contain-arsenic-lead-and-other-heavy-metals/">popular baby food brands</a> contained arsenic at concentrations much higher than the legal limit.</p>
<h2>Arsenic and cancer stem cells</h2>
<p>Chronic exposure to arsenic increases the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djx201">risk</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136071">of</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134128">developing</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.epi-13-0234-t">multiple</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.08.070">types</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/s0041-008x(02)00022-4">of cancer</a>.</p>
<p>The mechanisms by which arsenic causes cancer are complex and not yet fully understood. However, research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109%2F10408444.2010.506641">arsenic can</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021%2Facs.chemrestox.9b00464">damage DNA</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-013-1131-4">disrupt cell</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfy247">signaling pathways</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-12-73">impair the</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cotox.2018.01.003">immune system</a>, all of which can contribute to cancer development.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy images of ovarian epithelial cells before and after chronic arsenic exposure" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529436/original/file-20230531-17-e8zn68.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The image on the left shows ovarian epithelial cells under normal conditions. The image on the right shows the cells after three weeks of chronic arsenic exposure at 75 parts per billion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cristina M. Andrade-Feraud/Azzam Laboratory at FIU</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289%2Fehp.1204987">have also linked</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289%2Fehp.0901059">chronic arsenic exposure</a> to the development of <a href="https://theconversation.com/triggering-cancer-cells-to-become-normal-cells-how-stem-cell-therapies-can-provide-new-ways-to-stop-tumors-from-spreading-or-growing-back-191559">cancer stem cells</a>. These are cells within tumors thought to be responsible for cancer growth and spread. Like normal stem cells in the body, cancer stem cells can develop into many different types of cells. At what stage of cellular development a stem cell acquires the genetic mutation that turns it into a cancer stem cell remains unknown.</p>
<p><a href="https://stempel.fiu.edu/research/labs/cancer-research/">Our research</a> aims to identify what type of cell arsenic targets to form a cancer stem cell. We are currently using cell cultures obtained from the same organ at different stages of cellular development to examine how the origins of cells affect the formation of cancer stem cells.</p>
<p>Preventing chronic arsenic exposure is critical to reducing the burden of arsenic-related health effects. Further research is needed to understand arsenic-induced cancer stem cell formation and develop effective strategies to prevent it. In the meantime, continued monitoring and regulation of this toxic metal in food and water sources could help improve the health of affected communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Azzam receives funding from the Florida Department of Health and the National Institute of Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cristina Andrade-Feraud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millions of people worldwide are exposed via soil and water to arsenic, whether naturally occurring or related to pollution. Chronic exposure is linked to the formation of cancer stem cells.Cristina Andrade-Feraud, Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Health Sciences, Florida International UniversityDiana Azzam, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1735662022-02-28T13:28:13Z2022-02-28T13:28:13ZIs it possible to listen to too much music each day?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445798/original/file-20220210-47556-1cbnilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C35%2C2959%2C1764&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Listening to music can be a joyful experience.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nakesha-pope-of-bowie-dances-as-she-listens-to-music-during-news-photo/589997690">Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Is it possible to listen to too much music each day? – Emma, age 16, Springville, Utah</strong></p>
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<p>I love listening to music.</p>
<p>I love music so much I decided to study it in college. I’m earning a <a href="https://www.songsmysisterlikes.com/">doctorate in music history</a>, for which I have researched everything from early 20th-century French music to 1960s funk.</p>
<p>I make and perform music as well. I have played drums in rock and pop bands and composed original music for jazz ensembles.</p>
<p>I always have my headphones on, too. I listen to music while taking a walk. <a href="https://www.okayplayer.com/music/j-dilla-lofi-hip-hop-influence.html">I listen to lo-fi hip-hop</a> while answering emails. I listen to Brazilian <a href="https://library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-6/bossa-nov/">bossa nova</a> music while I cook and clean. I listen to the jazz vocalist <a href="https://bostonreview.net/articles/the-sounds-of-struggle/">Abbey Lincoln</a> while driving around town or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6TLQjuOF9aBRrEVLWBXhvW?si=068ea66c436f4fa3">upbeat electronic</a> music while taking long road trips.</p>
<p>I miss out on a lot around me by constantly listening to music, however. I might not hear the sound of birds outside my window or my cat’s mewling when she wants to be fed or to play. I might not hear the rustling of the wind or the chatter of my family enjoying one another’s company right outside my closed door.</p>
<p>Apart from causing you to miss out on all the sounds that surround you, generally speaking, <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/addicted-to-music#is-it-possible">listening to music does not harm your body</a>. It does not damage your liver, poison your lungs or fry your brain. It is not possible to listen to too much music. </p>
<h2>Watch the volume</h2>
<p>There are, however, exceptions. </p>
<p>For instance, you can damage your ears if you listen to music too loud for long periods. The World Health Organization estimates that around <a href="https://www.who.int/pbd/deafness/activities/MLS_Brochure_English_lowres_for_web.pdf">50% of teenagers and young adults</a> listen to music on personal audio devices at unsafe levels.</p>
<p>Fortunately, some smartphones have built-in features that measure <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/check-your-headphone-levels-iph0596a9152/ios">how much sound is coming from your headphones</a>. Such features measure the output of sound in a unit of measurement called decibels. </p>
<p><a href="https://soundear.com/decibel-scale/">Silence will produce no decibels at all</a>. A jet plane engine produces 120. Everyday conversations are around 60 decibels, while a balloon popping can be as powerful as 150.</p>
<p>The WHO has concluded that people can withstand <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/public_health_scientific_info.html">85 decibels consecutively for eight hours</a> without damaging their hearing. To give an example, I average about five hours of headphone listening a day at 70 decibels.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of headphone audio levels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445706/original/file-20220210-27-151xxlt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The author makes sure his headphone audio levels are safe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rami Toubia Stucky</span></span>
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<h2>Take precautions</h2>
<p>Anyone who plays music regularly or attends concerts and nightclubs needs to take extra caution as well. Several rock stars from the 1970s and 1980s have spoken out for years about their experience with hearing loss and <a href="https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2018/musicians-hearing-loss.html">tinnitus, a condition that causes ringing in the ears</a>.</p>
<p>Their condition resulted from rehearsing and performing for long periods of time at loud volumes. <a href="https://decibelpro.app/blog/how-loud-is-a-rock-concert/">The average concert often exceeds 100 decibels</a>, and the WHO notes that such sound can begin to damage one’s ears after only 15 minutes. Standing closer to the amplifiers and musicians will make the decibel level increase. </p>
<p>Most musicians rehearse and perform for more than 15 minutes. And most concerts last at least an hour, if not much longer. The solution, then, is to take precautions.</p>
<p>Just the way airport workers who signal to pilots <a href="https://pksafety.com/blog/airport-worker-safety-equipment">wear specialized earmuffs</a> while they are on the tarmac to protect their hearing from damage caused by noisy jet planes, musicians and concertgoers can wear earplugs.</p>
<p>I carry mine – which can cut out up to 21 decibels of noise – everywhere, attached to my keychain. I put my earplugs in while rehearsing or attending shows, or whenever I need to relax in a noisy environment. Other people rarely notice.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5363618/">Sound of Metal</a>,” a movie released in 2019, portrays a metal drummer’s experience with hearing loss. It is a sobering reminder of the importance of protecting your hearing.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean experiencing a lot of live or recorded music is bad for you. It is hard to listen to too much music, provided the volumes are reasonable. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rami Toubia Stucky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As long as you don’t tune out the world and protect your hearing, it’s hard to overdo it.Rami Toubia Stucky, Doctoral Candidate in Critical & Comparative Studies, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1693392021-11-09T15:30:16Z2021-11-09T15:30:16Z‘Oh creator, it’s you I now renounce’: How death metal lyrics echo some Bible passages, and what it means<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427077/original/file-20211018-17-11v8wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3860%2C2579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">David Vincent of death metal band Morbid Angel in Washington, D.C., in September 2012.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Metal Chris/flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The other day I came across a <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/heavy-metal-lyric-or-bible-verse"><em>Buzzfeed</em> quiz</a> that asked me: “Heavy metal lyric or bible verse?” </p>
<p>As someone who is a PhD candidate in religious studies and loves heavy metal, I was surprised to see that I hesitated on a number of my responses. Why does heavy metal use so many biblical references and symbolisms? </p>
<p>As I researched, I rediscovered death metal, a musical genre I used to listen to as a teen. It seems like death metal was even more fixated with religion than heavy metal. But why is this musical genre so obsessed with religious and spiritual symbolism? </p>
<h2>Heavy metal and religion</h2>
<p>Known as an extreme sub-genre of heavy metal, <a href="https://metal.fandom.com/wiki/Death_metal">death metal usually uses techniques such as</a> deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys and <a href="https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-is-tonal-and-atonal-music/">atonality (not conforming to the system of tonal hierarchies)</a> to transmit its lyrical themes of not just death and violence, but also of political conflict, philosophy, true crime <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2018.200007">and, more importantly, religion</a>. </p>
<p>In 2010, historian James Robertson published an article called “<a href="https://tif.ssrc.org/2010/08/19/pipeline-to-god/">Death metal: A ‘pipeline to God?’</a>” One of the few published articles that examines the connection between death metal and religion, Robertson writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What is fascinating here is the consistency with which black metal has pursued religious forms […] Such religious pluralism begs the question as to whether these are just new and interesting attempts at youth rebellion, or whether something more is playing itself out.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But what is that something more? </p>
<p>Many metal historians such as Ian Christie have said that <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Sound-Beast-Complete-Headbanging-History-Heavy/1276890816/bd">the history of heavy metal begins with Black Sabbath’s debut studio album</a>, “Black Sabbath,” released in 1970. </p>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/black-sabbath-cover-art-keef-keith-macmillan-interview-951578/">album is opened</a> it reveals an inverted cross and <a href="https://twitter.com/korygrow/status/1228050647578271754/photo/1">a disturbing poem</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiY2JsGXrtM">The fourth track on the album is called <em>N.I.B.</em></a>, which was written from Lucifer’s point of view. Thus, the relationship between heavy metal and religion was born. </p>
<p>Christie points out in his book, <em>Sounds of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal</em> that anthropological history is interwoven with metal’s musical history as “the rise of black metal coincided with the thousand-year anniversary of Christianity in Norway, when two pagan kings […] violently imposed religion on the western coast of Norway,” the territory that has most influenced black metal.</p>
<h2>‘Chapel of Ghouls’ and ‘Blessed are the Sick’</h2>
<p>Death metal then appeared with the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478209/">fusion of thrash metal and first-wave black metal</a> in the 1980s. Possessed, Death, Deicide and Morbid Angel are a few of the first bands to fall into the death metal genre. Morbid Angel has written songs such as <em>God of Emptiness</em>, <em>Rapture</em>, <em>Immortal Rites</em>, <em>Chapel of Ghouls</em>, <em>Angel of Disease</em> and <em>Blessed are the Sick</em>. And Deicide has written about ritual sacrifices, the crucifixion, Satan, Jesus and anti-Christian sentiments. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lyPvUIt_YWg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Morbid Angel’s music video for <em>God of Emptiness</em></span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the connection between death metal and religion solidified, so did its controversy. In the mid-80s, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/853600">Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)</a> was born, an institution focused on increasing parental control over access to music that was deemed violent or satanic. This didn’t deter death metal musicians or followers, but hardened their criticism of mainstream religion. </p>
<p>PMRC’s biggest issue was over anti-Christian sentiments. The song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4dFGiHd3Fo"><em>Away from God</em> by Immolation</a> discusses salvation, heaven and hell in a way that could be seen as an extreme form of biblical lament. Part of the song goes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You sit and watch, in all your splendour
Oh creator, it’s you I now renounce
Ever-loving God, your love has failed me
I don’t need your love …”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Compare the lyrics with <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2022%3A1-2&version=NIV">Psalm 22:1-2</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Death metal’s obsession with religious themes</h2>
<p>So, the question remains, why is death metal so obsessed with spiritual and religious themes? Perhaps the only other genre that is so preoccupied with religion and spirituality in such a focused way is gospel music, yet the two seem like complete opposites. </p>
<p>One apparent answer to the proposed question would be that death metal, like other forms of rock, <a href="https://caml.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/caml/article/view/32101/29347">is anti-establishment</a>. Rebelling against religion and the status quo seems to be one of the reasons this kind of music is so popular. </p>
<p>Another possible answer could be that death metal and its parent, heavy metal, are trying to find a <a href="https://neuroanthropology.net/2010/08/27/death-metal-religion-and-the-socialization-of-emotion/">language to express their dark mystical experiences</a> — metal is attuned to spirituality. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Crying angel statue in an old graveyard" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4748%2C3165&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Possessed, Death, Deicide and Morbid Angel are a few of the first bands to fall into the death metal genre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As someone who studies religion, I believe that writers, musicians and listeners of death metal who are attuned to spiritual matters believe there’s more to the world than meets the eye. Many feel the need to attend to their turbulent inner life, and oftentimes value principles that religion has neglected or opposed.</p>
<p>Death metal <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dissecting-the-bloodthirsty-bliss-of-death-metal/">explores the dark side of the human experience</a> with the same vehemence that some forms of organized religion resist it. </p>
<p>So why would anyone want to experience violent, angry music that could lead to having negative experiences? A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000184">2019 study</a> looked into who and why people enjoy listening to violent music, they found that they are not angry people: “They’re not enjoying anger when they listen to the music, but they are in fact experiencing a range of positive emotions.” The catharsis that death metal fans experience is in fact a way to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dissecting-the-bloodthirsty-bliss-of-death-metal/">release negative emotions</a>. </p>
<p>In other words, I believe every one of us wants positive experiences and are attuned to spirituality in the way that we understand it. In the words of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRpikSZHHRY">Venom’s <em>Angel Dust</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I live my life,
Like there’s no tomorrow,
Take no chances
I’m drowning all my sorrows coz’ I,
Need it, want it,
You know I’ve got to have it,
Takes me higher than anything I know.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Channah Fonseca Becar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Not unlike gospel music, death metal seems heavily preoccupied with spiritual matters. Does this mean Death Metal is a form of spiritual music?Channah Fonseca Becar, PhD Candidate, Religious Studies, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1200962019-07-24T19:59:02Z2019-07-24T19:59:02ZThrash not trash 🤘: why heavy metal is a valid and vital PhD subject<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285451/original/file-20190724-110179-7jxmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">I never anticipated the level of interest in a simple call for PhD applicants.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/mawOOCqXhrY">Photo by Juliette F on Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At first glance, heavy metal music and academia seem like odd bedfellows. The former is often looked on with a sense of derision for its assumed lack of refinement; the latter is seen as sophisticated. </p>
<p>Not long after I posted a callout for applications for a <a href="https://anarchistgeography.com/news">PhD scholarship</a> to examine various aspects of social geography – including homelessness, veganism and heavy metal – news about the latter <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=phd+in+heavy+metal&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW48OmxczjAhVTWisKHVcYAakQ_AUIEigC&biw=1243&bih=734">went viral</a>.</p>
<p>Music publication Tone Deaf ran the <a href="https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/phd-heavy-metal-australian-uni/">headline</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You can now get a PhD in heavy metal thanks to an Australian uni</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similar headlines appeared in well-known publications around the world, including <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/this-aussie-uni-is-offering-a-phd-scholarship-in-heavy-metal-music">SBS</a>, <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/australian-university-offers-phd-scholarship-study-heavy-metal-2517927">NME</a>, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/phd-heavy-metal-1446588">Newsweek</a> and <a href="https://www.kerrang.com/the-news/university-offers-scholarship-for-phd-in-heavy-metal/">Kerrang</a>. </p>
<p>I never anticipated this level of interest in a simple call for PhD applicants. But in retrospect it is somewhat unsurprising. For most, the idea of academia and heavy metal coming together under a single roof represents a paradox; it’s a misplaced assumption built on ingrained ideas about these two particular cultural forms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283817/original/file-20190712-173376-11p7m8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heavy metal bands, like Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth, are often misunderstood and sometimes even feared.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amon_Amarth_Rockharz_2019_25.jpg">Stefan Bollmann/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Academia is often seen as an expression of high culture. Heavy metal is frequently misunderstood, typically considered lowbrow, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/qvnd55/america-is-still-afraid-of-heavy-metal">even feared</a>. </p>
<p>But for heavy metal fans the idea of a PhD scholarship focusing on their favourite genre of music suddenly made academia more accessible. People often <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-academics-are-losing-relevance-in-society-and-how-to-stop-it-64579">question the relevance</a> of academic inquiry to their own lives, considering it opaque and distant. </p>
<p>This opportunity reveals how scholarly work can be rooted in everyday experience. </p>
<h2>It’s not rubbish</h2>
<p>Many academics, including geographers, study a range of cultural forms, including literature, poetry, film, art and various forms of music. Some <a href="https://www.rockmyworld.com/heavy-metal-to-be-latest-bullst-degree/">contend studying heavy metal is “bullshit”</a>, but there isn’t much difference to what I have proposed for this scholarship and what many <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/human-geography-overview-1434505">human geographers</a> are interested in. </p>
<p>Human geography is the branch of geography that studies the organisation of human cultures, social practices, economies and political systems across space (hence the geography). This includes the interconnections of human activities with the physical environment. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-i-offer-a-university-course-on-beyonce-one-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-people-22966">Why I offer a university course on Beyonce – one of the world’s most powerful people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some cultural forms that are now revered for their influence and eloquence began their lives under the same shadow of ridicule that heavy metal often receives. Shakespeare wrote for the masses and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/12/13/the_creation_of_william_shakespeare_how_the_bard_really_became_a_legend/">was considered rubbish</a> in his day. </p>
<p>What is interesting is how so-called low culture can be transformed into high culture over space and time, and, equally so, how that transformation often does not occur. </p>
<p>What initiates or prevents such changes in our aesthetic understanding? These are ideal questions for social scientists to consider.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dSIf_KVNsqg?wmode=transparent&start=70" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Who Invented Heavy Metal?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The level of misunderstanding of what my call for PhD students involves reflects a general lack of knowledge of the workings of academia. A <a href="https://www.findaphd.com/advice/finding/what-is-a-phd.aspx">PhD program</a> is not a course of study. It is a higher degree achieved through independent and original research. </p>
<p>While it might make for a quirky story to envision me as a more advanced version of <a href="http://thenewfury.com/an-australian-university-is-now-offering-a-scholarship-to-study-heavy-metal-music/">Jack Black in the School of Rock</a>, you can’t rock your way to a PhD in heavy metal. </p>
<p>The degree is actually in geography and the successful applicant will already have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree with honours in human geography or a closely aligned field. </p>
<p>I anticipate it will be an enjoyable project to work on, but any doctoral program is a rigorous process involving many years of dedicated study.</p>
<h2>Why study heavy metal?</h2>
<p>The amount of interest in the PhD scholarship I am offering, in part, provides an answer to why we should study heavy metal. People are <a href="https://theindustryobserver.thebrag.com/heavy-metal-fastest-growing-genre/">genuinely interested in heavy metal</a> as a particular cultural form. </p>
<p>It is a global phenomenon, representing a major social and cultural trend for the past five decades – one that has diffused to every corner of the globe. </p>
<p>While the bulk of heavy metal bands originated in the northern hemisphere, particularly in northern Europe and the United States, we have witnessed the innovative melding of heavy metal into local cultures in places as diverse as <a href="https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2108130/headbangers-hijabs-inside-indonesias-heavy-metal-scene">Indonesia</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/09/middleeast/lebanon-all-girl-metal-band/index.html">Lebanon</a>, <a href="https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/hellbangers-botswana-underground-heavy-metal-culture/">Botswana</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/01/05/680528912/how-a-mongolian-heavy-metal-band-got-millions-of-youtube-views">Mongolia</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-politics-of-heavy-metal-87999">Explainer: the politics of heavy metal</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although remote from the geographical heart of heavy metal culture, Australia has developed its own unique and passionate approach. This interest has resulted in a number of high-profile bands such as Psycroptic, Mortification, Thy Art Is Murder and Deströyer 666 coming out of some of the major cities. </p>
<p>And we’ve also seen a surprising amalgamation of <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yv3gx5/aboriginal-headbanging-167-v15n8">heavy metal culture and Indigenous traditions</a> in remote locations like Wadeye in the Northern Territory. </p>
<p>It is precisely the widespread geographical diffusion of heavy metal in the face of ongoing misunderstanding that makes it worthy of academic inquiry. My proposed area of study is not alone. The distinctiveness of <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Australian-Metal-Music/?k=9781787691681">Australian heavy metal</a> in terms of its experimental nature has meant it has already begun to attract serious academic attention. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283822/original/file-20190712-173329-11qgngy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Polish blackened death metal band Behemoth shows how heavy metal has diffused to all corners of the globe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Behemoth_-_Wacken_Open_Air_2018#/media/File:20180802_Wacken_Wacken_Open_Air_Behemoth_0101.jpg">Markus Felix/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There have been a number of exciting developments in recent years, including the University of Helsinki offering a summer school program on <a href="https://www.helsinki.fi/en/admissions/helsinki-summer-school/courses/heavy-metal-music-in-contemporary-history-and-society">Heavy Metal Music in Contemporary History and Society</a>, and the <a href="https://www.metalstudies.org/">International Society for Metal Music Studies</a> organising a number of conferences that have drawn participants from universities all around the world. </p>
<p>These events have been about bringing people with shared interests together, which is the single most important implication of heavy metal’s lasting legacy: the ability to connect people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Springer receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>For most people, the idea of academia and heavy metal coming together under a single roof represents a paradox. It’s a misplaced assumption built on ingrained ideas about these two cultural forms.Simon Springer, Professor of Human Geography, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1184762019-06-12T11:57:25Z2019-06-12T11:57:25ZHeavy metal’s bad rep is unfair – it can actually have numerous health benefits for fans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278916/original/file-20190611-32342-182ygu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/excited-young-man-black-leather-jacket-390554533?src=Amt8Eyo3fddLzH7yQy2HTw-1-4&studio=1">Dan Drobot/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Due to its extreme sound and aggressive lyrics, heavy metal music is often associated with controversy. Among the genre’s most contentious moments, there have been instances of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-story-of-the-most-controversial-shirt-in-rock-history-61183/">blasphemous merchandise</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/an-ozzy-osbourne-fan-commits-suicide">accusations of promoting suicide</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/21/columbine-destroyed-my-entire-career-marilyn-manson-on-the-perils-of-being-the-lord-of-darkness">blame for mass school shootings</a>. Why, then, if it’s so “bad”, do so many people enjoy it? And does this music genre really have a negative effect on them? </p>
<p>There are many reasons why people align themselves with genres of music. It may be to feel a sense of belonging, because they enjoy the sound, identify with the lyrical themes, or want to look and act a certain way. For me, as a quiet, introverted teenager, my love of heavy metal was probably a way to feel a little bit different to most people in my school who liked popular music, and gain some internal confidence. Plus, I loved the sound of it. </p>
<p>I first began to listen to heavy metal when I was 14 or 15 years old, when my uncle recorded a ZZ Top album for me and I heard singles by AC/DC and Bon Jovi. After that, I voraciously read music magazines Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Metal Forces, and RAW, and checked out as many back catalogues of artists as I could. I also grew my hair (yes, I had a mullet … twice), wore a denim jacket with patches (thanks mum), and attended numerous concerts by established artists like Metallica and The Wildhearts, as well as local Bristol bands like Frozen Food.</p>
<p>Over the years, there has been much research into the effects of heavy metal. I have used it as one of the conditions in my own studies exploring the impact of sound on performance. More specifically, I have used thrash metal (a fast and aggressive sub-genre of heavy metal) to compare music our participants liked and disliked (with metal being the music the did not enjoy). This research showed that listening to music you dislike, compared to music that you like, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-012-9141-6">can impair</a> spatial rotation (the ability to mentally rotate objects in your mind), and both liked and disliked music are equally <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/acp.1731">damaging to short-term memory performance</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278918/original/file-20190611-32331-12catmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278918/original/file-20190611-32331-12catmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278918/original/file-20190611-32331-12catmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278918/original/file-20190611-32331-12catmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278918/original/file-20190611-32331-12catmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278918/original/file-20190611-32331-12catmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278918/original/file-20190611-32331-12catmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heavy metal has positive effects on fans of all ages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/heavy-metal-kidrock-roll-child-673660963?src=jd3t099rXGRtyXFtJ9y4SQ-1-20&studio=1">Sandy Morelli/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Other researchers have studied more specifically why people listen to heavy metal, and whether it influences subsequent behaviour. For people who are not fans of heavy metal, listening to the music seems to have a negative impact on well-being. <a href="http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/ndemers/sciproc/coping%20with%20stress.pdf">In one study</a>, non-fans who listened to classical music, heavy metal, self-selected music, or sat in silence following a stressor, experienced greater anxiety after listening to heavy metal. Listening to the other music or sitting in silence, meanwhile, showed a decrease in anxiety. Interestingly heart rate and respiration decreased over time for all conditions. </p>
<h2>Metalheads and headbangers</h2>
<p>Looking further into the differences between heavy metal fans and non-fans, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2013-35730-001">research has shown</a> that fans tend to be more open to new experiences, which manifests itself in preferring music that is intense, complex, and unconventional, alongside a negative attitude towards institutional authority. Some do have lower levels of self-esteem, however, and a need for uniqueness.</p>
<p>One might conclude that this and other negative behaviours are the result of listening to heavy metal, but the same research suggests that it may be that listening to the music is cathartic. Late adolescent/early adult fans also tend to have <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2013-13053-002">higher levels of depression and anxiety</a> but it is not known whether the music attracts people with these characteristics or causes them.</p>
<p>Despite the often violent lyrical content in some heavy metal songs, recently published research has shown that fans <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.181580">do not become sensitised to violence</a>, which casts doubt on the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-3514.84.5.960">previously assumed negative effects</a> of long-term exposure to such music. Indeed, studies have shown <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15298868.2015.1036918?journalCode=psai20">long-terms fans</a> were happier in their youth and better adjusted in middle age compared to their non-fan counterparts. Another finding that fans who were made angry and then listened to heavy metal music did not increase their anger but <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00272/full">increased their positive emotions</a> suggests that listening to extreme music represents a healthy and functional way of processing anger.</p>
<p>Other investigations have made rather unusual findings on the effects of heavy metal. For example, you might not want to put someone in charge of adding hot sauce to your food after listening to the music, as a study showed that participants <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Mcandrew2/publication/235910144_Violent_Lyrics_in_heavy_Metal_Music_Can_Increase_Aggression_in_Males/links/578e924e08ae35e97c3f7432.pdf">added more to a person’s cup of water</a> after listening to heavy metal than when listening to nothing at all.</p>
<p>Finally, heavy metal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00146/full">can promote scientific thinking</a> but alas not just by listening to it. Educators can promote scientific thinking by posing claims such as listening to certain genres of music is associated with violent thinking. By examining the aforementioned accusations of violence and offence – which involved world-famous artists like Cradle of Filth, Ozzy Osbourne, and Marilyn Manson – students can engage in scientific thinking, exploring logical fallacies, research design issues, and thinking biases.</p>
<p>So, you beautiful people, whether you’re heading out to the highway to hell or the stairway to heaven, walk this way. Metal can make you feel like nothing else matters. It’s so easy to blow your speakers and shout it out loud. Dig!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Perham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you love heavy metal, it can boost your well-being in several different ways.Nick Perham, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1174032019-05-21T02:12:53Z2019-05-21T02:12:53ZRockabul, a tale of a metal band in Kabul, reinvigorates the radical spirit of rock ‘n’ roll<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275524/original/file-20190520-69178-1pjuojw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The members of Afghani metal band District Unknown pose after a music video.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ellie Kealey </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s an axiom that the effectiveness of documentary typically rests on two things: if its subject matter is interesting, and if we more or less believe in the film’s accuracy regarding its representation of reality. </p>
<p>Of course any representation requires framing that reflects the values of the artist. But Australian photojournalist Travis Beard’s documentary Rockabul certainly bears this proposition out. It is concerned with a very interesting subject – “District Unknown,” a heavy metal band forming in war-torn Afghanistan – and the film never allows technical concerns to get in the way of its presentation of people and events. </p>
<p>The film follows a group of young rock and rollers in Kabul as they form the band, rehearse a great deal – in some cases learning to play their instruments for the first time – and begin to gig at underground parties. They then become more publicly recognised (and, in deeply conservative Afghanistan, imperilled) and perform on bigger stages, including the South Asian Bands festival in India in 2012. </p>
<p>They’re not very good musicians, but this doesn’t really matter, and we do see a marked improvement, from terrible at the beginning of the film, to pretty bad by the end. Then again, the individual musicians don’t have 20 years of lessons under their belts, and the band isn’t recorded by Quincy Jones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275523/original/file-20190520-69199-1ypoved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The band: we do see a marked improvement, from terrible at the beginning of the film, to pretty bad by the end.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Potential films</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Rockabul concurrently follows the efforts of its director Beard – who mentors and manages the band, giving its members a rehearsal space and lending them his gear – as he sets up the Sound Central Music Festival in Kabul, the first of its kind. He appears throughout as filmmaker, facilitator, interviewer, and fellow musician, using his access to resources to assist the band’s development. </p>
<p>The whole thing is, of course, situated in the context of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by America and its allies (including Australia), and the attempts of the Taliban to wrest control from the US-supported government. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h2a_joOXGHI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Life and death stakes</h2>
<p>The film opens, for example, with an interview with a Taliban judge, who declares that he would without doubt kill any infidels, delivered to him by Allah, who listened to rock music - let alone played it. Thus the viewer is aware, from the beginning, of the life and death stakes of these characters’ desire to rock. </p>
<p>This is exemplified when, at one stage, the band perform in masks to protect their own and their families’ identities. This is a very different reason for disguising themselves, one suspects, from that of metal bands of the past, like Kiss, and present, like Ghost. </p>
<p>Like many of the most effective documentaries, Rockabul isn’t always pretty. Whereas, for example, Werner Herzog’s documentaries are frequently buoyed by his ineffable style as a filmmaker, and his penchant for hypnotic images and sounds, the energy behind Rockabul clearly goes into capturing as much as possible of the thoughts and worlds of these characters, rather than stylish framing shots or expensive songs for the soundtrack. (It’s notable that, for a film about heavy metal, there are no well known heavy metal songs used – for financial reasons, perhaps.) </p>
<p>There are some problematic elements underpinning the whole project, as Beard acknowledged in a recent Q and A session, concerning the presence in Afghanistan of Americans and American allies, in relation to an imperial war. Indeed Beard pointed out that he is now making another film that looks more critically at the symbiotic relationship, as he put it, between “the war machine, the aid machine and the diplomacy machine” in the country. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275522/original/file-20190520-69209-15y9n97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rockabul director Travis Beard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Gill</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His claim that one cannot put everything in a single film is fair enough. But I suspect Rockabul might have been strengthened with a slightly more overtly critically aware approach to the cultural politics of the region at the time. </p>
<p>The film notes, for example, through archival footage, how much of a splash news of the band made internationally and in the US, with a major article, “Amps in Kabul,” appearing in Rolling Stone. But one cannot help but think that this interest is, at least in part, in service to the aims of the American invasion. </p>
<p>A story about some poor kids who love American culture and are repressed by a despotic community and regime is perfect fodder for ideologically sustaining the more brutal forms of military coercion underpinning the invasion. The US mainstream media seemed predictably quick to jump onto this story of the struggle for individual “freedom” against Islamic oppression, whilst remaining, for the most part, conspicuously silent about the US <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-us-led-coalition-is-bombing-afghanistan-at-record-levels-2018-11?r=US&IR=T">bombing the hell out of the region</a> in the first place. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275525/original/file-20190520-69182-3nm13o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Rockabul performance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Potential Films</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The very fact that Beard’s music festival was funded by ten different embassies in Afghanistan, as he noted in the Q and A session, is worth closer consideration. An embassy is an offshoot of the power of a country. Embassies attempt to influence, through diplomacy, the relations between the host nation and the home nation in favour of the latter. </p>
<p>The fact that all of these embassies were willing to put a bunch of money behind the festival may show that cultural attaches like supporting artistic projects, but it <em>definitely</em> shows the interest these countries had in spreading American culture and cultural values. As political economist Joseph Nye famously pointed out, <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2004-05-01/soft-power-means-success-world-politics">“soft power”</a> is always a vital complement of hard power. </p>
<p>This is not a criticism of Beard, the festival or the film itself, and, without doubt, the more people rocking and rolling in the world the better. </p>
<p>In any case, Rockabul is an engaging, low-key documentary that does at least one truly great thing: it reinvigorates the viewer’s belief in the subversive and radical potential of rock and roll. In an era of hyper-consumerism, this is an impressive feat indeed.</p>
<p><em>Rockabul screenings can be found <a href="https://www.rockabul.com/">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ari Mattes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An Australian documentary about a group of young Afghanis who form a heavy-metal band highlights rock’s subversive power.Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Media Studies, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155332019-04-30T10:44:09Z2019-04-30T10:44:09ZHow a music genre known as black metal came to be related to church burnings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270495/original/file-20190423-175524-j7k4eh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The burnt ruins of the St. Mary Baptist Church, one of three that recently burned down in Louisiana.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Church-Fires-Louisiana/d1340d651ebc4a009666bf20a2b445fe/9/0">AP Photo/Gerald Herbert</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When three historically African American churches were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/us/louisiana-black-church-fires.html">burned down</a> recently in southern Louisiana, it <a href="https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2019/rebuilding-burnt-churches-and-the-role-of-the-news-media-an-inspirational-lesson-from-1962/">evoked memories</a> of the violence of the civil rights era. </p>
<p>A 21-year-old white male, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/holden-matthews-varg-wikernes-norwegian-black-metal-lords-of-chaos-820995/">Holden Matthews</a>, was later arrested on charges of arson. As media reports noted, Holden may have been influenced by a subgenre of heavy metal music – black metal. <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/holden-matthews-arrested-in-string-of-louisiana-church-fires">The Daily Beast</a> reported that a Facebook page “that appeared to belong to Matthews showed he was active in pagan and black metal pages.” </p>
<p>The church burnings are still under investigation. But as a scholar who studies religion’s connection with several <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/spirits-rejoice-9780190230913?cc=us&lang=en&">genres of popular music</a>, including <a href="http://california.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1525/california/9780520291447.001.0001/upso-9780520291447-chapter-006">heavy metal</a>, I know that a small subset of black metal came to be linked to sensational violence in its early days.</p>
<h2>History of metal</h2>
<p>Heavy metal has its roots in the 1960s. To early bands and listeners it provided what musicologist <a href="https://music.case.edu/faculty/robert-walser/">Robert Walser</a> called “<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/23384">a ‘harder’ sort of hard rock</a>.” </p>
<p>The rock genre of metal distinguished itself from other genres through its <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520257177/this-aint-the-summer-of-love">dark worldly outlook</a>. Many of its lyrics dealt with themes of demonology and death that contrasted with the popular music of the times.</p>
<p>Some early bands like Black Sabbath explored Satanic imagery in their songs and reveled in the controversy that they generated. Many <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/09/oral-history-tipper-gores-war-explicit-rock-lyrics-dee-snider-373103.html">parents were concerned</a> that young listeners would be seduced into evil with such songs.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0lVdMbUx1_k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Black Sabbath.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the 1980s, metal as a genre had become <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-19-ca-4859-story.html">commercially successful</a> in Europe and North America. Around that time, other bands also emerged that believed metal should <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1260727">shock listeners</a> rather than seek only commercial success.</p>
<p>One such band was England’s Venom. Scholar <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/people/titus-hjelm">Titus Hjelm</a> has argued that the band’s 1982 album “Black Metal” was the <a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/heavy-metal/">starting point of black metal</a> as a subgenre. </p>
<p>Obsessed with Satanic imagery, Venom’s noisy and aggressive style became the <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/metal-rules-the-globe/">musical template</a> for subsequent bands.</p>
<p>The bands following Venom often combined extravagant theatricality, such as makeup and props like pentagrams or inverted crosses, with fiercely <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Extreme_Metal.html?id=j498eOosXxEC">anti-Christian lyrics</a>.</p>
<h2>Black metal</h2>
<p>Among some black metal bands that sprang up in the mid-1980s, reliance on Satanic imagery was often replaced by an interest in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76v8x.17?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">alternate religious themes</a> that were opposed to Christianity. These ideas took hold most deeply in Scandinavia.</p>
<p>Many of the younger Scandinavian black metal bands believed that the “purity” of their ancient Norse culture had been diluted by the influence of <a href="https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/PMH/article/view/14445">Judeo-Christian religions</a>. Many of these musicians publicly embraced religions like <a href="http://www.religionfacts.com/asatru">Asatru</a>, which worships the old Norse gods that predated the arrival of Christianity in Scandinavia. They professed admiration for <a href="https://www.academia.edu/26588672/_Sons_of_Northern_Darkness_Heathen_Influences_in_Black_Metal_and_Neofolk_Music1">Viking resistance to Christianization</a> and for the strength of Norse deities like Thor. </p>
<p>Some bands also called for purging metal of the influences of American rock. What they emphasized was shifting to a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36272800/True_Kvlt_The_Cultural_Capital_of_Nordicness_in_Extreme_Metal">purely European</a> musical form that expressed their reverence for their culture. </p>
<p>But beyond aggressive song lyrics, there were no links to violence until this period.</p>
<h2>Ideas spread in Norway</h2>
<p>In early 1990s, these ideas caught on with a small group of Norwegian musicians. These young men often gathered at Oslo’s record shop <a href="https://www.overlandmetalhead.com/visiting-helvete-in-oslo.html">Helvete</a>, meaning Hell, for conversation and music.</p>
<p>They were attracted to the ideas of self-reliance and personal strength found in the writings of 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.</p>
<p>More importantly, as scholar <a href="https://kennetgranholm.com/">Kennet Granholm</a> writes, they embraced the idea that <a href="https://www.academia.edu/26588672/_Sons_of_Northern_Darkness_Heathen_Influences_in_Black_Metal_and_Neofolk_Music1">strength and nonconformity thrived</a> in Scandinavia’s pre-Christian past, which “provided legitimacy both by being outside the mainstream and part of a perceived ‘authentic native culture.’” They began to contrast <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76v8x.17?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“heathen” culture</a> with what they called the weak outsider religion of Christianity.</p>
<p>To demonstrate their idea of religious irreverence, the black metal bands emerging from this scene <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/metal-rules-the-globe/">painted their faces</a> to look like corpses, wore spiked gauntlets and bandoliers, and sometimes performed with animals’ blood onstage.</p>
<h2>Black metal’s violence</h2>
<p>In the early 1990s, a small number of the musicians who regularly gathered at Helvete began plotting ways to demonstrate their desire to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/26588672/_Sons_of_Northern_Darkness_Heathen_Influences_in_Black_Metal_and_Neofolk_Music1">crush what they saw as weakness and impurity</a>.</p>
<p>This took several forms, ranging from murder to grave desecration. One of these men, for example, <a href="https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/PMH/article/view/14445">murdered a homosexual man</a> because the musician was revolted at being propositioned while walking in a park known to be a place where gay males met for sex. </p>
<p>Black metal’s opposition to Christianity also led to a series of <a href="https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/PMH/article/view/14445">church arsons</a>. In various Norwegian cities in 1992, several black metal musicians <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285066447_Musical_Style_Ideology_and_Mythology_in_Norwegian_Black_Metal">burned eight separate churches</a>, some many centuries old. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285066447_Musical_Style_Ideology_and_Mythology_in_Norwegian_Black_Metal">Arsons continued</a> in both Norway and Sweden through 1995.</p>
<p>Since this period of great violence and controversy, black metal continued to thrive in the form of multiple subgenres. It is important to note, however, that most black metal musicians and fans then and now <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1367549404039862">criticized physical violence</a>.</p>
<h2>Racist ideology</h2>
<p>In the mid- to late-1990s, however, some black metal bands expressed the belief that fierce <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/30854931/mmp1ever3150410.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1556215535&Signature=EOPCKQKEZgojI0s2dgHsISci%2BnM%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DTurn_or_Burn_Approaching_The_Peculiar_Ca.pdf#page=96">racist and anti-immigrant positions</a> were integral to their music. Borrowing from Nazi ideology, a small number of Norwegian musicians believed that people of European descent should return to Aryan racial identity. These ideas <a href="https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/PMH/article/view/14442">found a home</a> with a small but virulent subset of U.S. black metal bands and fans.</p>
<p>In time, such views led to the emergence of a small subgenre of black metal: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/heavy-metal-confronts-its-nazi-problem">national socialist black metal</a>, the variant of black metal that most explicitly espoused racial separatism and extreme violence. In countries like Australia, Poland, Greece and the United States, National Socialist Black Metal has maintained a steady, if highly marginal, existence.</p>
<p>While most people involved in black metal rejected these views explicitly, the genre’s sometime emphasis on ethnic and cultural purity was interpreted by extremists as having a racial implication.</p>
<p>Many of these ideas were also be embraced by the <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/84tdt4qt9780252022852.html">American Nazi Party</a> of the mid-20th century, which in turn had drawn on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0031322X.2016.1243349">Odinism</a>, an explicitly racist brand of Norse paganism begun by a Norwegian Nazi sympathizer.</p>
<h2>Fun and cathartic for most fans</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271070/original/file-20190425-121233-1m6bh47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271070/original/file-20190425-121233-1m6bh47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271070/original/file-20190425-121233-1m6bh47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271070/original/file-20190425-121233-1m6bh47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271070/original/file-20190425-121233-1m6bh47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271070/original/file-20190425-121233-1m6bh47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271070/original/file-20190425-121233-1m6bh47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Swedish heavy metal band Ghost B.C. performing in Baltimore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/inVision-Owen-Sweeney-Invision-AP-A-ENT-MD-USA-/5714de4752984432a0421a6fb41d5d8d/61/0">Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To be clear, heavy metal in general is as inclusive and nonviolent as the majority of rock genres. Some of the more aggressive variants of metal have actually been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47543875">linked by psychologists</a> to joyful attitudes. </p>
<p>And today, most fans of black metal enjoy the music in conventional ways, finding it fun and cathartic. There are also variants of black metal that promote environmental consciousness and even <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xdv89d/fashion-se-v13n10">Christianity</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason C. Bivins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When three African American churches were burned down in southern Louisiana, the man accused was said to be linked to black metal, a subgenre of heavy metal with a history of violence.Jason C. Bivins, Professor, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069672018-11-21T11:49:39Z2018-11-21T11:49:39ZRock ‘n’ roll is dying in Bangladesh<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246524/original/file-20181120-161621-1o0xso5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'It's really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh," says Samir Hafiz, a guitarist in the heavy metal band Warfaze. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/warfazefans/photos/p.10157052113310832/10157052113310832/?type=1&theater">Facebook</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The seeds of rock ‘n’ roll culture were planted in Bangladesh during the birth of the country in 1971, after a war for liberation separated this majority-Muslim territory from Pakistan. </p>
<p>For most of the 20th century, the region was a traditional Southasian agrarian society. Its soundtrack: Bengali folk music, featuring instruments like the tabla drum set, harmonium pump organ and the ek tara, a one-stringed guitar.</p>
<p>Then came a bloody war for freedom. And that political rebellion allowed some musical rebellion to take root, too, as my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NVrdzV4AAAAJ&hl=en">historic research in the country shows</a>. </p>
<h2>Rock spurs social change</h2>
<p>After independence, a handful of Bangladeshi performers – top among them <a href="http://www.theindependentbd.com/arcprint/details/2287/2015-06-05">Azam Khan</a>, a freedom fighter-turned-musician – began looking West for artistic inspiration, listening to Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison and The Doors. </p>
<p>Khan’s band Uccharon introduced drums, guitars and keyboards into their renditions of local music. Bangladeshi audiences had never heard anything like it. With his long hair, bell-bottom jeans, stadium concerts and powerful lyrics – which often delivered a social and political message – Khan became a pop culture phenomenon. </p>
<p>In one famous track from 1970s, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBmFwuYzms&start_radio=1&list=RDkFBmFwuYzms&t=53">Bangladesh</a>,” Khan paints a grim picture of his young nation, which was gripped by extreme poverty and <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eneudc2012/docs/paper_289.pdf">famine</a>. </p>
<p>He sings of a boy “born in a slum near the rail lines” whose death leaves “his hopeless mom crying.” Throughout the melancholic, guitar-driven song, Khan depicts the desperation of Bangladesh’s early years, punctuating his lament with cries of “Oh, Bangladesh!”</p>
<p>Khan, who died in 2011, influenced a generation of young Bangladeshis to critically reflect on their country’s traditions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kFBmFwuYzms?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The late Azam Khan, performing here in 2005, brought rock to Bangladesh in the 1970s.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As in the United States a decade prior, where rock music helped <a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Shook-Up-Changed-American/dp/0195177495">change cultural values</a> about race, religion and sexuality, Bangladeshi rock ‘n’ roll – dominated by Azam Khan’s star power – showed people that a different life was possible. </p>
<p>Khan “was a rebel to the dominant culture,” said one man I interviewed, who saw Khan live in the 1980s. He traded his traditional Bengali garb for jeans, he said, because “I saw Azam Khan used to wear jeans.”</p>
<p>The changes Khan pushed went beyond aesthetics. </p>
<p>“He was redefining Bangladeshi culture and promoting liberal values like freedom,” the man told me. “Freedom from conservative values.”</p>
<p>As another fan said, “We were becoming politically aware.”</p>
<h2>Bangladeshi rock goes mainstream</h2>
<p>Political awareness was a subversive thing in newly independent Bangladesh.</p>
<p>Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the government alternated between <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/article/shifting-tides-south-asia-bangladesh%E2%80%99s-failed-election">military dictatorship, illiberal democracy and autocracy</a>. And though rural development spurred some economic growth, 41 percent of <a href="https://www.theigc.org/blog/can-we-eradicate-extreme-poverty-in-bangladesh-2/">Bangladeshis still lived in extreme poverty</a> by the early 1990s. </p>
<p>Founded as a secular nation, Bangladesh – which has a Muslim population <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religion/article/who-supports-suicide-terrorism-in-bangladesh-what-the-data-say/F2A83C327946BBA345752E09A7A64DFE">bigger than</a> that of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt combined – adopted Islam as its state religion in 1988. </p>
<p>That decision, which the nation’s highest court <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/bangladesh-court-upholds-islam-religion-state-160328112919301.html">upheld in 2016</a>, made Bangladesh more socially and religiously conservative. </p>
<p>Rock culture was a kind of alternative universe – one where criticism of the government was encouraged and religious zealotry was uncool. </p>
<p>Guns N’ Roses, Pink Floyd and Aerosmith all became popular in Bangladesh in the 1990s. Local groups with English names – the metal pioneers <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/feature/2018/09/04/rockstrata-to-premiere-reunion-show-dvd-on-silver-screen">Rockstrata</a>, hard-rocking <a href="https://www.facebook.com/warfazefans/">Warfaze</a>, the popular <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Runs_Blind_(LRB)">Love Runs Blind</a> and a dozen others – performed to stadiums full of long-haired fans wearing tee shirts, boots and chain necklaces. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bangladeshi band Rockstrata, in 1985.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstrata#/media/File:RS_First_Lineup.jpg">Mahbub19702002/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was revolutionary in a place where musical performances were historically quiet, calm and disciplined.</p>
<p>Rock concerts were loud. Fans smoked cigarettes, headbanged, and got in fights. Artists used alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, if not as heavily as their American or British counterparts. </p>
<h2>A rock democracy</h2>
<p>As Bangladesh’s economy opened up to the world in the late 1990s – its <a href="http://www.ide.go.jp/library/Japanese/Publish/Download/Report/2011/pdf/410_ch6.pdf">textile exports</a> leaving the country while Hollywood films and luxury vehicles <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alyssaayres/2014/10/28/bangladesh-capitalist-haven/">flowed in</a> – inequality also <a href="https://www.jica.go.jp/activities/issues/poverty/profile/pdf/bangladesh_e.pdf">rose quickly</a>, particularly in rapidly growing cities, where poverty persisted and new wealth accumulated.</p>
<p>Bangladeshi rockers were unsparing critics of these disparities.</p>
<p>In the 1998 track “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yckKfuVqkkI">Dhushor Manchitro</a>,” or “Faded Map,” the metal band Warfaze sings of a “hopeless time,” with “dead bodies on the street every day” and “arrogant blue Mercedes” rushing past, “democracy winking” at the injustice.</p>
<p>In the 1997 track “Gonotontro,” or “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLr2nPdWnGI">Democracy</a>,” singer Maqsood O’ Dhaka calls Bangladesh’s democracy a “constitutional thugocracy.” </p>
<p>Rock artists also denounced Bangladesh’s growing religious conservatism. </p>
<p>In the video for his anti-militancy song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtOlVObjbLo">Parwardigar</a>,” Maqsood O’ Dhaka opens with an anti-extremist message. Over images of terrorist attacks and peace rallies, he insists that “blind fanatics and fundamentalists simply cannot snatch away our future.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RtOlVObjbLo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The decline of Bangladeshi rock</h2>
<p>Most of those social and economic problems have only <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/bangladesh">worsened since then</a>.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who took power in 2008, has overseen some remarkable <a href="https://editorials.voa.gov/a/outstanding-progress-bangladesh/4227027.html">economic development</a>. Today, Bangladesh is a <a href="https://medium.com/@stitchdiary/what-makes-bangladesh-a-hub-of-garment-manufacturing-ce83aa37edfc">manufacturing hub</a> with a <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/bangladesh-sources-of-economic-growth-by-kaushik-basu-2018-04">booming economy</a>.</p>
<p>But while there’s good news economically, Hasina’s administration has suppressed <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/10/04/bangladeshs-slide-towards-authoritarianism-is-accelerating">dissent</a> in Bangladesh. </p>
<p>In the past year, two outspoken government critics – the photographer <a href="http://www.bjp-online.com/2018/10/alam-award/">Shahidul Alam</a> and sociology professor <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/court/2018/10/30/cu-teacher-maidul-islam-freed-on-bail">Maidul Islam</a> – were jailed for spreading “propaganda and false information,” a charge that carries up to 14 years in prison. </p>
<p>The nonprofit group <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/08/bangladesh-end-crackdown-opposition-supporters">Human Rights Watch</a> has called on Hasina’s government to stop the arbitrary arrests of opposition activists. Bangladesh’s <a href="http://www.newagebd.net/article/42635/jails-crammed-with-85859-inmates">prisons</a> reportedly house <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-09/hasina-looks-to-extend-10-year-bangladesh-rule-in-dec-23-vote">thousands</a> of people <a href="https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/bengali/opposition-arrests-10092018173451.html">charged</a> with “subversive activities.” </p>
<p>Religious extremism is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/faith-dissent-and-extremism-how-bangladesh-is-struggling-to-stay-secular-68927">rising</a> in Bangladesh. Since 2013 a string of violent attacks targeting <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22424708">secular bloggers</a>, artists, religious minorities and free thinkers has shown the narrowing scope of civil liberties and acceptable public discourse. </p>
<h2>The decade the music died</h2>
<p>Bangladeshis could use a protest music like rock. Instead, rock culture is fading away.</p>
<p>Partly, it has lost ground to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714420601168491?src=recsys&journalCode=gcrv20">Bollywood music</a> from neighboring India, with its colorful power anthems celebrating life and love. Bollywood songs dominates Bangladeshi radio, and pirated versions are available online for free. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a budding underground hip-hop scene <a href="https://theconversation.com/bangladeshi-rappers-wield-rhymes-as-a-weapon-with-tupac-as-their-guide-96324">has largely replaced rock as music of Bangladeshi rebellion</a>.</p>
<p>Domestic law has also failed to protect the financial interests of the artists who once drove Bangladesh’s vibrant rock scene. Industry groups <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/uncategorized/2013/09/14/stop-piracy-to-protect-music-industry-urge-musicians">say</a> that just 10 percent of music in Bangladesh is purchased legally and estimate that music piracy annually costs US$180 million in lost earnings. </p>
<p>“Ideas such as intellectual rights and royalties are not strongly embedded in our culture,” Samir Hafiz, Warfaze’s guitarist, told me. “It’s really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh.”</p>
<p>Increased religiosity, which rejects all things Western in favor of a traditional lifestyle, has also hurt Bangladesh’s rock scene. Some young Muslims I spoke with even <a href="https://resolvenet.org/research/language-youth-politics-bangladesh-beyond-secular-religious-binary">see rock ‘n’ roll as a sin</a>. </p>
<p>Rock music helped change Bangladesh. Now, there’s little room left for it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mubashar Hasan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For decades, Bangladesh had a very vibrant – and highly political – rock scene. But the genre is struggling to survive the country’s crackdown on dissent and increasing Islamic conservatism.Mubashar Hasan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of OsloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1025152018-10-02T14:42:07Z2018-10-02T14:42:07ZFive reasons to end the conspicuous silence of music in classrooms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236185/original/file-20180913-177947-1tnag05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kendrick Lamar performing in Portugal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jose Sena Goulao/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the main challenges that we educators face is getting our students to actively interact with course content, and perhaps explore its application to “real life”. One of the solutions to this age-old problem seems to be right under our ears. </p>
<p>A few years back I stumbled upon the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1318699?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">article</a> “Music and Cultural Analysis in the Classroom: Introducing Sociology through Heavy Metal” by Jarl Ahlkvist. He explores cultural analysis of music as a pedagogical tool for enhancing the learning experience of sociology students who are new to the discipline. Ahlkvist beautifully illustrates the value of using music as a bridge between theory and reality, and as a way to get students to actively interact with course content. Since this chance encounter I try – perhaps, not enough – to use music in more or less the same way in my course.</p>
<p>On hearing that hip-hop artist <a href="http://www.kendricklamar.com/">Kendrick Lamar</a> was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/04/regina-carter-kendrick-lamar-pulitzer/558509/">awarded</a> the Pulitzer prize for his album <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/21/the-best-albums-of-2017-no-2-kendrick-lamar-damn">“Damn”</a> earlier this year I couldn’t wait to share the news with my class and my colleagues teaching English literature. I imagined that they would share my excitement and enthusiasm about what the award meant for the hip-hop community and Lamar’s fans. </p>
<p>But this wasn’t the case.</p>
<p>Many of my colleagues didn’t even know who the iconic artist was. Students didn’t understand the big deal as they hadn’t really listened to the album as social commentary. My exchanges highlighted what I believe is the general disregard that South Africa’s schools and universities have for music as a tool for teaching. They haven’t grasped that it’s of equal scholarly importance to the written word.</p>
<p>This palpable absence of music in the lecture halls of South Africa’s universities and schools is problematic for a range of reasons. At some point it must be addressed, either for the sake of progress or at least experimentation. </p>
<p>But, for now, let me share my initial thoughts. To stimulate discussion around music and its potential role within the context of higher education I have distilled these into five concrete ideas.</p>
<h2>Literature is not superior to music</h2>
<p>As a record collector it’s glaringly obvious to me that an album is capable of providing as much social commentary, intellectual depth and perspective as a novel could. In fact, an album might, in addition, provide a more robust text for analysis within the context of lecture. </p>
<p>If, for instance, one is teaching a class on colonialism in Zimbabwe, you could draw on the text of the novel <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270683743_Nervous_Conditions_by_Tsitsi_Dangarembga">“Nervous Conditions”</a> by <a href="https://blogs.stockton.edu/postcolonialstudies/body-in-the-context-of-postcolonial-studies/tsitsi-dangarembgas-nervous-conditions-a-postcolonial-feminist-reading/tsitsi-dangarembga-biography/">Tsitsi Dangarembga</a> to explain colonial subjectivity. But you could also play <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/zimbabwes-powerful-music-of-struggle"><em>Chimurenga</em></a> music and analyse it beyond the constraints of the written word. <em>Chimurenga</em> is music from Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle against colonial rule.</p>
<h2>Music is the literature of the streets</h2>
<p>There’s another reason for the urgent need to include sonic literacy in curricula. It’s to do with access.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, people engage with music more than with books. For example, someone might not read a book on <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/">“Black Lives Matter”</a> – the movement started in 2013 that grew in opposition to violence against black Americans – but they will engage with an album like Lamar’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/18/best-albums-of-2015-no-1-to-pimp-a-butterfly-by-kendrick-lamar">“To pimp a butterfly”</a> from 2015. It not only provided the soundtrack of the times, but also provided <a href="https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-oral-history-of-kendrick-lamar-s-to-pimp-a-butterfly-622f725c3fde">social commentary</a> as impactful as any book published on the topic. </p>
<p>Also, music is more accessible and readily available than books. It’s therefore often the best medium to reach larger numbers of people. </p>
<h2>Music reflects the times</h2>
<p>The music of Afrobeat pioneer <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/fela-kuti-mn0000138833/biography">Fela Kuti</a> is a powerful telling of what was happening in Nigeria in the 1970s. It also reflects what ordinary people were experiencing and addresses the burning issues of the time. </p>
<p>The same can be said of artists like American icon <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/nina-simone-mn0000411761">Nina Simone</a>, Jamaican reggae superstar <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bob-marley-mn0000071514">Bob Marley</a> and the “Lion of Zimbabwe”, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/thomas-mapfumo-mn0000581262">Thomas Mapfumo</a>. </p>
<p>These artists have managed to be the mouthpieces of particular generations and social movements. Their music has provided guidance in periods of turmoil. With this understanding in mind, how can we ignore these iconic voices when we engage with the context in which they are embedded?</p>
<h2>Music is a vehicle toward the ‘decolonial’</h2>
<p>As academics endeavour to decolonise learning spaces they need to consider why the written word takes priority over the spoken. Also, they should question why certain texts are treated with greater respect despite their obvious chronological and socio-cultural irrelevance. </p>
<p>And, why do academics generally treat text that’s accompanied by music as non-intellectual and inferior? I believe that music is an underutilised tool when it comes to steering curricula away from strictly Western and colonial models that have cemented the privilege of certain texts and modes in the knowledge economy.</p>
<h2>Remain in the groove</h2>
<p>It’s fairly safe to say that a substantial section of the novels and poems that have become permanent, canonical fixtures in curricula across the globe are outdated. This is particularly true since the advent of the internet and social media which have dramatically changed our reality, and how we (and our students) relate to it. </p>
<p>Within a fast moving, highly technologised and globalised era, music provides an analytical framework and sounding board for understanding a rapidly transforming society. To engage with society in real time we can’t always afford to wait for books to be published. We have to listen to the music, and dance while we’re at it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102515/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Shakib Bhatch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Music is an underutilised tool when it comes to steering curricula away from strictly Western and colonial models.Michael Shakib Bhatch, Lecturer of English. PhD Candidate in Afrofuturism and African Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/919092018-02-21T17:23:52Z2018-02-21T17:23:52ZDeath metal is often violent and misogynist yet it brings joy and empowerment to fans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207215/original/file-20180221-5540-1iafrn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Heavy metal concert fans: there are striking differences in the emotional responses of fans and non-fans of death metal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Parth Joshi/flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Death metal is a baffling genre to many people. The music is aggressive, the lyrics are often violent and misogynistic, and it has been blamed for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2001/01/23/did-death-metal-music-incite-murder/63cf6de7-fdd1-4067-a49f-9946f111e6a2/?utm_term=.14d0b7d54306">inciting violent crimes such as rape and murder</a>. </p>
<p>Cannibal Corpse, one of the most successful death metal bands, <a href="http://teamrock.com/news/2015-02-12/cannibal-corpse-celebrate-selling-2-million-records">has sold over 2 million units worldwide</a> and sings about topics such as murder, rape, torture, infanticide, decapitation and necrophilia. The sale of Cannibal Corpse recordings was even <a href="https://tonedeaf.com.au/band-music-banned-10-years-australia/">banned in Australia from 1996-2006</a>. </p>
<p>Why are millions of music lovers around the world so powerfully attracted to aggressive music? Should we <a href="https://www.generationnext.com.au/2012/09/does-too-much-violent-music-and-media-muddle-a-kids-mind/">be concerned</a>? There is evidence that exposure to music with violent themes <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-00420-007">can leave people feeling hostile</a>, but most of this research has not considered the experiences and motivations of its fans.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322755888_Who_enjoys_listening_to_violent_music_and_why">recent research</a>, soon to be published in the American Psychological Association’s journal, <a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/ppm/">Psychology of Popular Media Culture</a>, addressed this gap by comparing the experiences and motivations of fans and non-fans of death metal music. </p>
<p>We asked 48 fans and 97 non-fans to listen to music from bands such as Cannibal Corpse. They then rated their emotional experiences, using a range of psychological scales, and described why they believed the music elicited such responses. We also assessed their motivations for listening to music, and asked them to list any other feelings or attitudes towards it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-politics-of-heavy-metal-87999">Explainer: the politics of heavy metal</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our results revealed striking differences in the emotional responses of fans and non-fans of death metal. For non-fans, listening to music with violent themes resulted in uniformly negative experiences. It left them feeling tense, afraid and angry.</p>
<p>But the music had the opposite effects for its fans, giving rise to positive experiences such as power, joy and peace. Fans, it seems, can selectively attend to particular acoustic and lyrical attributes of violent music in a way that promotes psychosocial goals.</p>
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<p>Instead of leaving them feeling hostile, the music helps fans to discharge or distract from their own negative feelings, increase energy levels, and generate powerful, visceral emotional states.</p>
<p>Non-fans were understandably troubled by the violent, often misogynist lyrics, which typically lack the narrative context and moral point that justify representations of violence in theatre or film. </p>
<p>In the popular hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvqMQhpEqu0">Hammer Smashed Face</a> by Cannibal Corpse, the lyrics include lines such as “I smash your f…ng head in until the brains seep in through the cracks” and “violence is now a way of life”. Many non-fans in our study expressed incomprehension as to how anyone could possibly endorse such repugnant lyrical content.</p>
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<p>However, fans typically expressed no such concerns about the lyrics. When describing their motivations for listening to the music, one fan explained that “when I’m feeling low or lazy it helps me feel energised”.</p>
<p>Another suggested, “when I’m angry it brings me to a dark place internally so I can work through it”. </p>
<p>A third speculated that “it has something to do with the primal scream in us, it’s a release, accepting and empowering”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-extreme-metal-45770">The case for extreme metal</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Why are fans seemingly untroubled by lyrics that depict themes such as the rape, murder and decapitation of women and children? One possibility is that fans <a href="http://neurosciencenews.com/movies-negative-emotions-8104/">distance themselves psychologically</a> from the offensive lyrics because they know those depictions are fantasy and not reality. This process allows violent content to be compatible with their enjoyment of the music. </p>
<p>A second possibility is that the shocking nature of the lyrics, which boldly cross internal censorship lines, fuels and amplifies the visceral experiences that they seek while listening to this music. </p>
<p>A third possibility is that the offensive lyrical content of death metal partly functions as a deterrent for non-fans, defining a sharp boundary between “insiders” and “outsiders”, and enhancing a sense of identity and belonging within the community. </p>
<p>One thing is certain: death metal fans don’t listen to music for its “aesthetic beauty” – an important motivation for people who <a href="http://mp.ucpress.edu/content/29/3/311">listen to “sad” music</a>. Rather, they appreciate its energetic, empowering appeal. For fans, violent music provides both a source of powerful visceral emotions and a form of social surrogacy, leading to a strong sense of community and shared identity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Thompson receives funding from the Australian Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirk N. Olsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For non-fans, listening to death metal is a negative experience. But research has found the music has the opposite effect on fans, giving rise to positive experiences such as power, joy and peace.William Forde Thompson, Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie UniversityKirk N. Olsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychology, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879992017-12-14T03:55:51Z2017-12-14T03:55:51ZExplainer: the politics of heavy metal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197241/original/file-20171201-30943-vqxhg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Black Sabbath fan on stage at a rock concert in Finland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ansik/2722667819/in/photolist-59AohB-J6VKcw-RPQ24y-CYyu95-8XWPgU-hczq4h-71t8up-o6XPRE-pZRVr9-hczVr5-CYtDVE-8ge6Dm-hp6MDc-8PH8co-ayPuvJ-8vUoxC-CYqf7y-dzv5my-212KQUQ-cKiWx3-5T2WXp-qWJrYK-aNm4jt-pfCeFt-ia5FdY-hcA9ZA-ZZPx1G-hcB5YM-mPn4ic-hczfYG-abvGxg-GCEHuc-nVazMo-95pbQ9-orkrA-aNm3Zr-7FX6EG-5SK16F-qWMpCh-N5vEZ6-9MUfzK-o6YZjy-9MUgKD-ZZFXKs-YZTbWw-buUnrq-ac7vLB-fDxTdw-9zWE4E-6oGYsT">Anssi Koskinen/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The popular mythology of heavy metal begins with an amputation. In the mid-1960s, teenage guitarist Frank Anthony Iommi lost the tips of several fingers in an industrial accident. To compensate for this loss, he tuned his guitar lower, slackening the strings to make them easier to bend. Heavy metal was ostensibly born from this unholy union of dismembered fingertips and a sheet metal factory.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ARPFKMmNGI&list=PL_mJBLBznANx1C5-eDOMuAzmYjwzchhsR">here</a> for a playlist of further listening selected by the author, including Girlschool, Sepultura and Gojira.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>The much-exalted missing fingertips of Tony Iommi, who went on to become lead guitarist in Black Sabbath, highlight how heavy metal’s foundational mythology is rooted in working class masculinity. </p>
<p>In 1991, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91308.Heavy_Metal">Deena Weinstein</a> argued that the heavy metal genre was by definition white, young, working class, and male. Such characterisations have persisted, but heavy metal has actually diversified over time, even embracing left-wing and environmental politics with causes ranging from whale protection to labour conditions.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197245/original/file-20171201-30931-1ueifga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197245/original/file-20171201-30931-1ueifga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197245/original/file-20171201-30931-1ueifga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197245/original/file-20171201-30931-1ueifga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197245/original/file-20171201-30931-1ueifga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197245/original/file-20171201-30931-1ueifga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197245/original/file-20171201-30931-1ueifga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Black Sabbath in 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Sabbath_(1970).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<h2>Metal’s evolution</h2>
<p>The term “heavy metal” began to circulate in the late 1960s, denoting a musical style broadly characterised by highly amplified, distorted guitars, and emphatic drums and bass. Metal’s aggressive vocal styles can range from the high-pitched vibrato of Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, to the deep, guttural death growls of Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation.</p>
<p>With the emergence of Black Sabbath, the “first” heavy metal band, the mythos of metal started to solidify. Black Sabbath’s origins in the British industrial city of Birmingham were taken to be a core factor in their sound – heavy, chugging riffs and thunderous drums echoed the bleak repetition of factory floors and deafening manufacturing conditions. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ - Black Sabbath (1973).</span></figcaption>
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<p>Metal as the music of the white working class was a narrative that followed a swathe of English bands that formed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 1970s – including Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Motörhead – and affirmed metal’s sense of self, even as the genre continued to expand. </p>
<h2>Metal and the market</h2>
<p>While metal was at the centre of<a href="https://theconversation.com/gwar-is-over-the-subcultural-politics-of-thrash-metal-24789"> several moral panics</a> in the 1980s, and was chastised by claims of Satanism, sex and violence, tensions within the metal scene itself saw the development of various subgenres. The pop commerciality of glam and hair metal was countered by the “fundamentalism” of speed and thrash metal scenes spearheaded by bands such as Metallica and Slayer, who sought to make metal harder and faster. </p>
<p>The desire in the late 1980s for even heavier, faster metal saw a push towards death metal, grindcore, and later black metal. The enormous success of Metallica’s 1991 self-titled release cemented these subgenres, collectively referred to as “extreme metal”, as the last hold-outs for metal’s anti-commercial aspirations. Extreme metal can appear bizarre or terrifying to the unfamiliar – the series of murders and church arsons which implicated members of the Norwegian black metal scene in the early 1990s have overshadowed the music itself. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Metallica’s 1991 self-titled album.</span></figcaption>
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<p>There are now over 100,000 metal bands worldwide, playing more than 50 subgenres of metal. Metal fans are the <a href="https://insights.spotify.com/us/2015/04/02/loyalest-music-fans-by-genre/">most loyal listeners of any style of music</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, extreme metal has become the dominant movement, with black and death metal accounting for over 72,000 of the roughly 119,000 band entries on <a href="https://www.metal-archives.com/">metal-archives.com</a>. The splinter genres of metalcore and deathcore, which fuse metal elements with hardcore punk, also account for a substantial market share. </p>
<h2>Political activism</h2>
<p>Even as thrash metal, and later death metal, encountered moral panics, these scenes were crucial sites for political discourse. US acts Sacred Reich and Evildead protested environmental destruction in the late 1980s, while South Africa’s Retribution Denied spoke out against the lingering corruption of Apartheid in the early 1990s. Although these scenes remained largely white and male, they also offered visibility to people of colour within metal.</p>
<p>With bands such as Mexico’s Brujeria, Brazil’s Sepultura, and Slovakia’s Gladiator, thrash and death metal scenes also became an outlet to express identity narratives which moved beyond the mythologised factory floors of the British midlands. </p>
<p>Metal acts continue to engage with international politics. Environmentalism is a key theme: French progressive death metal band Gojira, alongside British metalcore act Architects, have partnered with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Labour conditions are another concern, in a more explicitly political sense than metal’s foundational acts. Grindcore pioneers Napalm Death and blackened folk metal act Dawn Ray’d are staunchly anti-capitalist and anti-fascist. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gojira lead singer Joseph Duplantier voices his support for Sea Shepherd.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Metal can also offer nuanced responses to localised politics. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12166029-metal-rules-the-globe">Jeremy Wallach</a> writes that young people in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have used metal to express anger at uneven economic development. Israel’s Orphaned Land and Palestine’s Khalas toured together in 2013 to send a message of coexistence. In Australia, blackened death metal duo Hazeen have used metal to respond to Islamophobia. </p>
<p>Metal nonetheless battles ongoing issues of racism, misogyny and homophobia. Limited representation for women in mainstream metal press beyond “Hottest Chicks” annuals remains a core concern, as does the proliferation of extreme-right sentiment within metal scenes. Representation for trans folk in metal scenes is also minimal, though <a href="http://www.metalsucks.net/2017/11/07/transgender-metal-vocalist-danica-roem-wins-election-to-virginia-house-of-delegates/">metal vocalist Danica Roem’s</a> recent election to Virginia’s House of Delegates may go some way to renegotiate this. </p>
<p>Metal still has much work to do to adequately represent and engage its diverse populations. Yet the increased willingness of metal acts and media outlets to have important discussions around representation and identity points to a vital new era for metal’s public image, beyond its original mythology of working class masculinity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Hoad received funding through an Australian Postgraduate Award for her Phd. </span></em></p>Heavy metal music was traditionally associated with white, working class masculinity. But the genre has diversified - with many subgenres -
and now embraces causes ranging from whale protection to labour conditions.Catherine Hoad, Sessional academic in Communications, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509352015-12-10T11:13:25Z2015-12-10T11:13:25ZFighting for the right to party: live music after the Paris attacks<p>When Zoot Sims <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/jazz-anecdotes-9780195187953?cc=gb&lang=en&">was asked</a> what playing with Benny Goodman in 1962 Cold War Russia was like, following a tour beset with official and personal aggravations, he was typically sardonic: “Every gig with Benny is like playing in Russia.” Sims could at least afford a wry quip. The tensions of those Cold War concerts, political or otherwise, fade to nothing against the trauma that beset the recent Eagles of Death Metal gig in Paris.</p>
<p>That those atrocities were an assault not just on Western values, however defined, but on all civilised discourse is beyond argument. But as the fallout spreads and discussion moves to the policies and actions of nations, it’s worth dwelling briefly on an aspect of modern culture that was both at the centre of events and, understandably, swamped by their magnitude.</p>
<p>It’s apposite that one focus of the attacks was a rock concert. Given that rock and pop are commercialised and transnational cultural forms, we tend not to regard them as particularly fragile. But economic status aside, they are still often subject to hostility from reactionaries and fundamentalists of all stripes, particularly at grassroots. The draconian reaction to <a href="http://livemusicexchange.org/blog/theres-a-riot-going-on-notes-on-pussy-riot-music-and-politics/">Pussy Riot’s “punk prayer”</a> stood out and drew international attention, but punks and metalheads across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have also <a href="http://freemuse.org/archives/1540">been subject to repression and censorship</a>.</p>
<p>The low-slung, sleazy aesthetic of the Eagles of Death Metal may have seemed a fitting avatar for the “prostitution and obscenity” of the decadent West, as IS would have it. It’s also possible that the Bataclan was targeted as much for its history of Jewish ownership and past events as for that gig in particular. But popular music, rock as a case in point, has historically irritated zealots and censors across the board – from the bonfires of Beatles records following Lennon’s cocky “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/lennon/jesus.shtml">bigger than Jesus</a>” remarks in 1966 to a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s026114300000903x">campaign</a> against metal in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Obviously censors of this ilk should not be compared to the murderers who carried out the Bataclan attacks. But there’s an irony in the fact that the consumption of hedonistic, neon sub-metal has provided a rallying point for conservatives – the censors of old – and liberals alike. It stands as an implied rebuke to the joyless, fascistic ethos of the attackers. One of popular music’s historical strengths has been a show of defiance through having a good time.</p>
<h2>Music across borders</h2>
<p>But there’s another, slightly more troubling, irony in the fact that the response to these attacks could make life more difficult for artists. If, as looks to be the pattern, border controls tighten and international movement becomes more difficult, this will put extra constraints on a form of cultural activity for which touring is crucial, and increasingly so. British musicians have had problems in the past, such as, for instance, getting visas to play the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/mar/21/uk-bands-visa-problems-sxsw">South by Southwest</a> festival in Texas. World music expo <a href="http://freemuse.org/archives/4536">Womex</a>, likewise, has encountered visa issues and associated difficulties regarding the mobility of artists.</p>
<p>Travel has been intrinsic to the practice and consumption of popular music – all music, in fact – since at least the 19th century. From Jenny Lind’s <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/20442081111180331">Barnum sponsored American tour</a> to the festival circuit today, touring is how musicians build audiences and hone their skills. Audiences, too, assume that local venues will feature a stream of international performers.</p>
<p>It’s also central to the modern popular music economy, especially since the massive disruptions wrought by the internet on the recording industry. <a href="http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/hang-ar-hit-rate-uk-major-labels-just-5/">Under 6%</a> of the new artists signed to UK major labels last year managed to achieve <a href="http://www.ew.com/article/1991/03/01/real-meaning-gold-and-platinum-records">gold album</a> status – with only three gold-selling debut records yet this year. Of course, there’s still big money in music. Increasingly, though, it’s live revenues that count, especially for artists without a back catalogue of hits, trying to build a career.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to feel sorry for stars jetting between stadiums. Restrictions won’t hurt them much. But putting a show on the road with a shoestring budget, on the other hand, is hard at the best of times. Tighter borders and jumpier legislators could easily increase the touring logistics and costs for artists looking to grow internationally, still more for those from outside the West. The US has already announced <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34972383">stricter visa controls</a>. The current mood in Europe is also inimical to open borders and free movement, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/29/europe-2015-walls-1989-paris-refugee-crisis">even within the Schengen area</a>. We can add to this the chilling effect of the knowledge that gigs – long a soft target – are now openly in the crosshairs. </p>
<h2>Cultural exchange</h2>
<p>Musicians <a href="http://freemuse.org/archives/11445">remain steadfast</a>, of course, and the language of defiance and determination certainly runs throughout rock’s core myths. The Eagles of Death Metal have already stated their intention to be the <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/6785690/eagles-death-metal-u2-paris-2015-december-accorhotels-arena-bono-2016-tour">first band to play the Bataclan when it reopens</a>. It is telling, though, if also unsurprising, that early responses were more marked by recoil. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/17/prince-cancels-european-tour-paris-attacks">Prince</a>, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/u2-coldplay-foo-fighters-cancel-concerts-paris-attacks_564769d5e4b045bf3def60c9">Foo Fighters, Coldplay</a> and a host of others cancelled or postponed European dates, partly from shock and partly a desire for a period of respectful silence. The Eagles of Death Metal were supposed to be playing Madrid and Lisbon on December 9 and 10.</p>
<p>Turning down the volume on any kind of an ongoing basis would be a pity. Music has a rich history of reaching across barriers – a projection of <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1148580">soft power</a> long before Joseph Nye coined the term in the 1980s. Like Goodman in Russia, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie played internationally, including in the <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674022607">Middle East and behind the Iron Curtain</a>. Those tours weren’t without tensions and contradictions, not least that black musicians bearing the brunt of repression at home were carrying the US standard abroad. There’s room for unease. Yet the capacity for popular music to bridge gaps is established and is surely preferable to cultural silos and their consequences.</p>
<p>And it won’t be sanitised or officially sanctioned activities that suffer in the wake of Paris but exactly the kind of good-time, internationalist, hybrid or just plain rude musics that serve as counterweights to extremism. Touring musicians are already at the sharp end of practical and ideological issues surrounding cultural exchange. Recent events look to be tightening the squeeze from both ends.</p>
<p>The Beastie Boys may have been joking when they sang “Fight for Your Right to Party”. Turns out, it’s not a laughing matter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr has worked on projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Live music has been targeted by terrorism … but it also offers an antidote to it.Adam Behr, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/465332015-08-31T20:06:39Z2015-08-31T20:06:39ZGetting a bad rap: why problem music isn’t really a problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92778/original/image-20150824-10289-12ou2x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hip-hop artists such as American rapper Method Man are often accused of creating music than incites anti-social behaviour. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jazminmillion/2897169995/in/photolist-5q1KGP-5ubxKG-8uNwTE-cT8ffE-pSU6vb-nh3Hng-aapgY3-5VsDYQ-aRPDXr-rdsvkY-o9kqL-6D7pwz-dperwh-dWUeLH-4koxrB-oBRAiG-kakzty-aJiqnT-b5PdeX-pJHnDB-cFv2Xm-hzEnnT-ifvgn8-pLx5XJ-e5ZyQb-gMG8Ws-8NLJya-duQnwY-awMvRE-73SrbX-duQgMs-duQm3G-duQj8o-mZ9Khr-2VUAn-8j1Ycb-9vmMWT-eFgZ8f-aA2TdD-duQhCE-oyVseB-52Fwb-9g1Sbk-DQwRm-8Domuu-8BoexU-8vuLmn-qQdtBb-eh2b6z-duJJBg">Jazmin Million/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The experience of music making and listening is foundational in every observed culture and society, producing extraordinary effects on thoughts, emotions, and physiology. Due to this power, we are not only conscious of its positive effects, but also potentially negative ones. </p>
<p>So we tend to classify certain forms of music, often reflecting cultural beliefs and identities of the downtrodden and misunderstood, as controversial. Sometimes it’s just new and unconventional music that gets a bad rap – even Elvis and The Beatles were considered morally threatening to the population’s wellbeing when they first hit the airwaves. Now, of course, they are celebrated as some of the greatest musicians in recent history. </p>
<p>The current focus of controversy has shifted to rap, hip-hop and other “problem” music genres such as heavy metal and emo. This controversy often leads to conflict and censorship attempts because of a perceived link between listening to this music and anti-social behaviours.</p>
<p>Often we find ourselves forming opinions of music because of how aggressive or depressing we perceive it to be from lyrics or tone. Because of this, we might view rap and hip-hop listeners as prone to delinquency and substance abuse, heavy metal users as more violent, and emo listeners as more depressed. </p>
<p>But much of the evidence regarding “problem music” actually opposes these views. Rather, many problem music users engage in music listening to <a href="http://mp.ucpress.edu/content/29/3/311">self-regulate their emotions and improve emotional wellbeing</a> . </p>
<p><a href="http://pom.sagepub.com/content/43/5/641.abstract">One such study</a> compared the psychological attributes of problem music fans (identified as rap and hip-hop, heavy metal, alternative rock, punk and rave) and non-fans. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92783/original/image-20150824-10303-1ijn300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rave music.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/julesyc/15195447857/in/photolist-p9LDfi-p9L8Xb-4kwv8P-tr1drb-u6rvnU-unBLZw-u6zgH2-ppdmjY-pXh4oZ-4kBJnx-4kwto2-5dchNB-e4csXm-u4qrvv-cNMEro-hEKPrC-9Z44nv-7b2xZZ-aABWox-qd2wtG-pXS9eo-hSjx3m-qTwSXz-bMsYS6-a55DEd-9uJY2U-u6rbdj-trbvEi-5trbch-pqYh1Z-4kwtUt-a52CQi-ok9LA5-gcFVcy-9izfpi-9umHVX-u6zfDt-ukGpQd-pF5MAF-4kwuLD-9iCmZq-9uFWUt-trbvAv-cje6vE-9ba3Ue-9X9RWm-LTepw-92fqUV-a55C39-a52N14">Julian Chan/flickr</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The researchers found no differences between the groups in personality traits and, in fact, problem music fans used music significantly more to regulate their emotional states than non-fans. By using music to internally regulate their emotions, the authors described listeners as having lower likelihoods of externalising negative emotions leading to anti-social behaviours. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00272/abstract">our own research</a> debunked the myth that extreme music makes fans angrier. In this study, we brought extreme music fans into the laboratory and made them angry using an anger interview, after which half were allowed to listen to their own music and half waited in silence. </p>
<p>We found that high-tempo music with aggressive themes was capable of reducing feelings of anger, and increasing positive emotions, for fans of those genres. Participants’ heart rates increased with the anger induction, then those who listened to music experienced a level heart rate – but not an increase – while the music was playing. Subjectively they reported equal levels of calm and relaxation as those who did not listen. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92784/original/image-20150824-10303-w5uy71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heavy metal music.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/benhosking/12444025635/in/photolist-jXCTh8-9dAT2Y-dDRL5V-9FUjfM-q4t2g2-7JSdVs-93PX9d-ob9Eyk-oHLt1s-qbq4nT-dv1uTX-jHKwCy-78wbWL-78sw72-9zkn7K-oYFujZ-dkbxjo-pf6jMm-78sqkX-nF6avU-pEo88H-eRqRUj-cQGyCJ-qFdPET-o1GpzX-7n7c7Q-dsyPDJ-pEKVgJ-9yVDrw-dkrvNy-78wd5G-78wfDd-78smyD-uZE4ei-qe2JxZ-oiYDHt-nMrnnH-9Tgek9-4Rt2Rf-nQeVLZ-5XtBNY-ecVWmy-k1qB5J-4XLosj-aTt9Fv-8JLsWE-rnEo1A-pioYK6-9EfQpD-5CBXcP">Ben Hosking/flickr</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But those who listened to music reported greater positive changes to their emotions, such as inspiration. This suggests that listening to problem music is an effective channel for releasing negative emotions passively, and refutes the widely-held belief that heavy metal makes people angry and aggressive.</p>
<p>Sad music also has its place in promoting emotional health. Intuitively, listening to sad music, like “emo”, in order to feel better is paradoxical. And yet one <a href="http://pom.sagepub.com/content/35/1/88.abstracEmotion%20regulation%20through%20listening%20to%20music%20in%20everyday%20situations">study from Finland</a> found adolescents commonly reported listening to sad music when sad to improve their mood. </p>
<p>Interestingly, participants also reported that listening to sad music when venting or reflecting on events strengthened and, at times, increased negative feelings. Yet these processes allowed them to feel better in the long-term. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.youngandwellcrc.org.au/knowledge-hub/publications/young-peoples-uses-of-music-for-wellbeing/">more recent study</a> found very similar results regarding young people using sad music to feel better. Participants reported immersing themselves in negative emotions through music to intensify and experience them. </p>
<p>They reported that listening to sad music allowed thorough exploration of their emotions before they attempted to change their mood, and it even helped them to “get over” sadness faster. </p>
<p>As for rap and hip-hop, not only can they be used as a healthy way to internally manage negative moods, but their relationship to deviancy varies greatly. <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FB%3AJOYO.0000013423.34021.45">Researchers in Canada </a> found that relationships to deviance changed depending on different genres and sub genres. </p>
<p>Specifically they found that “French rap” showed a relationship to deviant behaviours whereas hip-hop and soul preferences were shown to have less links to deviant behaviour. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, relationships cannot tell us about causation. People who prefer French rap may actually identify with the lyrics because of their previous experiences. So, be tentative in accepting “findings” about rap music causing deviance. </p>
<p>There are two important caveats to this information:</p>
<p>First, much of this research was conducted on healthy adults and fans of these particular genres. We don’t yet know what the effect of various music genres may be on those at risk of depression or other mental health problems. </p>
<p>Second, the music must be personally meaningful to the listener. If you don’t enjoy headbanging to Megadeth, or busting a rhyme with Ice-T, you are unlikely to gain much emotional solace from them. You might deal with emotional upheaval through jazz or opera! But keep in mind that even jazz was once the Devil’s music.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Often we form opinions of music because of how aggressive, depressing or joyful we perceive it to be. But studies into the effects of different music genres on listeners’ moods throw up some surprises.Genevieve Dingle, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology and Director of the UQ Psychology Clinic, The University of QueenslandLeah Sharman, PhD Candidate School of Psychology , The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/448762015-08-19T10:04:58Z2015-08-19T10:04:58ZThe fate of the metalheads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92185/original/image-20150817-5117-r4mfri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fans cheer on the heavy metal band Motörhead.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brandi666/4024619966/in/photolist-78Deiq-78DecY-78De4o-78DdUN-78DdLG-5wcBdr-5iBgf4-5iBfmn-5iBf5x-5iFvBJ-5iFv1C-5iBdAg-5iBd5H-5j9Bat-xGasL-6V4jLe-6V4jLn-6V4jKR-aeHxWU-4yehAU-9k6Dkh-9k3vy6-4yefRE-8XpUP8-aeEJb4-6poog9-2kyMBv-5mH6e8-5mMbtm-5iBP3x-aJ3Ydz-aJ3XWr-qbXw8-5mMjoQ-nYHaB-5mMrD3-5mMiXj-5mH1PB-5mMsPE-5mH4AM-5mH34R-nnSRni-7nf5c2-Jbkh7-dBk4F3-dBeAUv-dBk4kj-aJ3YvK-aJ3YsH-aJ3YpT">brandi/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Adults often worry about adolescents who identify with fringe-style cultures, whether it’s emo, hip hop or <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/see-freaky-fiery-photos-from-the-2015-gathering-of-the-juggalos-20150727">juggalos</a>.</p>
<p>But every generation has its own set of musical cliques that draw millions of teenage fans. In the 1980s, heavy metal – a style of music characterized by blistering guitar solos and soaring vocals – was, <a href="http://metal.mit.edu/brief-history-metal">by some measures</a>, the most popular musical genre. </p>
<p>Adults were up in arms. There were <a href="http://www.csicop.org/si/show/scientific_consensus_and_expert_testimony">congressional hearings</a> about heavy metal’s inherent “dangers.” Parents (and their elected representatives) feared that their kids, in identifying with the subculture, might be lured into devil worship, sex or drugs. Tipper Gore and the Parents’ Music Resource Council (PMRC) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/04/arts/tipper-gore-widens-war-on-rock.html">sought to ban recordings</a>, while artists like Judas Priest were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/17/arts/2-families-sue-heavy-metal-band-as-having-driven-sons-to-suicide.html">put on trial</a>, blamed for the suicides of two teenagers. </p>
<p>Growing up as a heavy metal groupie in Hollywood in the 1980s, I was certainly exposed to a lot of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. But I was also part of a community of like-minded peers who loved the music and lyrics. My friends and I donned micro-mini skirts, leather jackets over lace bras and stiletto heels. We gave the hypocritical “establishment” the middle finger.</p>
<p>Cut to the present day: I’m a psychology professor and two-time Fulbright Scholar. Did metal affect me? I believe it did. I believe it helped me cope with a very difficult and dysfunctional home life. I found friends and boyfriends and an aggressive style of music that helped me safely vent my anger over my lot in life. </p>
<p>But a few years ago, while I was writing a memoir, I began to wonder: what happened to the metalheads I’d known in the 1980s? I may have emerged relatively unscathed, but had the others become drug-addicted and destitute, like so many parents predicted? </p>
<p>My mentor, social psychologist Howard Friedman, suggested I conduct a study to find out. </p>
<p>Early 1980s research on teenage metalheads suggested that they were more aggressive, more emotionally disturbed and less well-adjusted than non-metal fans. However, <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=144462">other research</a> suggested they were more intelligent or that it was really family dysfunction that led to their poor adjustment. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, no one followed these kids over time; no one had examined what became of them as they reached adulthood. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15298868.2015.1036918?journalCode=psai20#.VdNLbkuJluY">In our study</a>, we used social media networks to recruit people between the ages of 35 and 60 to answer questions about their adolescent years during the 1980s. We reached out to metal groups on Facebook and used “snowball sampling,” in which we had individuals ask their friends to participate, who then asked their friends and so on. (This is a typical method for recruiting specialized or hard-to-find populations.) </p>
<p>We ended up with a sample of 377 people, which included two comparison groups: middle-aged folks who did not like metal in the 1980s and current college students. We needed to be sure that anything we found about the metal group was not also true of other people who grew up in the 1980s or of youth in general. </p>
<p>In the first question, we asked participants what their favorite music was in the 1980s. Those who picked anything but metal (like pop or new wave) were put into a comparison group, as were students. Those who chose metal (like Metallica or Guns-N-Roses) were then asked whether they were groupies, paid musicians or simply fans. Groupies self-identified as sleeping with rock stars and doing anything possible to get backstage. Musicians were not in garage bands but were paid to play.</p>
<p>Then we developed an 85-page questionnaire asking them about personality traits, education, income, marital status, childhood trauma and abuse, past and current sexual behavior, how happy they were as kids and how happy they are now, in addition to a number of other variables.</p>
<p>We expected that the metal groups would be similar to the other middle-aged adults. But we never expected how much <em>better</em> they fared in important ways. </p>
<p>First, some of the stereotypes from the 1980s ended up being generally true of metalheads in their youth. Metal fans took a lot more drugs and engaged in a lot more sex than either comparison group. </p>
<p>In fact, groupies reported some serious drug problems in the 1980s. Groupies also experienced more childhood trauma than other groups. On the whole, the metal group had more adverse childhood experiences and engaged in more risky behaviors than the other two groups. On the other hand, many of the metalheads reported that they found a sense of belonging and acceptance in their musical clique.</p>
<p>What was fascinating, however, was that metalheads also reported being significantly happier in their youth compared to the other two groups. They also reported having significantly fewer regrets about anything they did in their youth. The comparison groups were more impulsive, more likely to experience manic symptoms like hyperactivity and sleeplessness, and were more likely to seek psychological counseling for emotional problems. </p>
<p>And despite politicians’ fears about metalheads not amounting to anything, they ended up, on the whole, not differing on education attained, income, marital status or on any personality traits measured, such as neuroticism. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92184/original/image-20150817-5088-101w699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92184/original/image-20150817-5088-101w699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92184/original/image-20150817-5088-101w699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92184/original/image-20150817-5088-101w699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92184/original/image-20150817-5088-101w699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1107&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92184/original/image-20150817-5088-101w699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1107&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92184/original/image-20150817-5088-101w699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1107&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Associating with subcultures can offer emotional support and a sense of belonging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Young_punk_US-c1984.jpg">Tim Schapker/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>In response to open-ended questions, the metalheads discussed feeling like they were part of an important social movement, rebelling against the status quo. They were living in the moment, enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle and feeling connected to like-minded peers. They loved the lyrics, the complexity and the intensity of heavy metal music. They felt a sense of freedom and social support as part of the metal clan.</p>
<p>It appears that “fringe” style cultures may actually act as a protective salve for youth: metal, with its ready-made set of beliefs, styles and behaviors, acted as a path to identity formation for many of our subjects. </p>
<p>We hypothesize that this is true for all youth cultures: <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7YiaFKc2NnIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA123&dq=Spencer,+Fegley,+%26+Harpalani,+2003&ots=419B66wOia&sig=rtLkZZhaT_FRO5zguvMjdpeT1Po#v=onepage&q&f=false">all youth need a sense of belonging</a> to a group that is different from that of their parents, that is their own, one that speaks their own language and <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.83">convinces them that they matter</a>.</p>
<p>This is especially true for kids like the 1980s metalheads, many of whom had dysfunctional families at home. Social support for the developing adolescent identity is perhaps the most important function any group can provide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tasha R. Howe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parents and politicians once feared heavy metal music would inspire devil worship, reckless sex and rampant drug use. A new study investigates what became of young metal fans.Tasha R. Howe, Professor of Psychology, Humboldt State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/282682014-06-20T06:22:40Z2014-06-20T06:22:40ZWhat does your musical taste say about your personality and lifestyle?<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iUrzicaiRLU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Abba - Knowing me, knowing you.</span></figcaption>
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<p>I’m quite used to receiving abuse concerning the content of this column, but in contrast my previous post (about <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-heavy-metal-fans-from-pubs-isnt-just-unfair-its-simply-inaccurate-27724">why fans of heavy metal shouldn’t have been banned from a pub</a>) seems to have caused some interest in what one can infer from somebody’s musical taste about their personality and lifestyle.</p>
<p>The simple answer is an awful lot! In 2010 <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.2.0199?uid=3737536&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104178269017">I surveyed 36,518 people about their liking for 104 musical styles and their personality</a>. Self-esteem was highest among fans of blues, funk, jazz, classical music, opera, and rap, but lowest among fans of heavy metal, indie, and punk. </p>
<p>The most creative fans were those who liked jazz, classical music, opera, and indie, whereas lower creativity was linked to liking for easy listening and chart pop. The hardest-working fans were those who liked country and pop, whereas those who regarded themselves as relatively lazy tended to like funk and indie. </p>
<p>The most sociable and outgoing fans were those who liked funk, country, rap, and dance music, whereas more reserved people tended to like classical music and heavy metal. The gentlest people in my sample liked opera, easy listening, and heavy metal, whereas the most headstrong tended to prefer dance music, indie, and punk. The most nervous fans were those who liked chart pop, whereas those who were most at ease with themselves preferred blues, funk, jazz, classical music, and heavy metal.</p>
<p>Links between musical taste and people’s more general lifestyles are also manifold and wide-ranging. Factors concerning <a href="http://pom.sagepub.com/content/35/3/473.abstract">money, education, employment and health</a> tended to show that those who like high art music are wealthier, better educated, and in higher status jobs. Fans of jazz, opera and classical music in particular seem to lead blessed lives with the highest income, and greater access to financial resources (e.g. several bank accounts, credits cards, and owning shares in companies). </p>
<p>This greater wealth means they also spend more on food than others, and prefer to drink wine. As an academic, I might also add that this wealth is probably because they were more likely to have a Masters degree or PhD; and it is interesting that they are also more likely to give something back to the community by doing voluntary work.</p>
<p>But income and education can’t explain all the differences between the lifestyles of fans of different styles. Fans of opera and jazz were more likely than most to <a href="http://pom.sagepub.com/content/35/1/58.abstract">vote for right-wing political parties</a>, but this conservatism was shared with country music fans. Similarly, despite their typically right-wing voting habits, fans of classical music and opera were among the most likely to favour development of green energy sources, whereas fans of hip hop and R&B, despite their radical counter-culture stereotype, were happiest with the fossil fuel status quo.</p>
<p>What is also interesting about these findings is the extent of overlap between those who like musical styles that are, on the surface, very different. Country and classical music fans overlap considerably in everything but their income, in reflection of a shared conservative worldview; and opera and heavy metal fans also united on more than just their love of dramatic music, as they share similarly creative and gentle personalities.</p>
<p>So someone’s musical taste does tell you a lot about them, but as these examples show, many of the stereotypes of the fans are nothing more than that. Moreover, the gross differences between fans that do exist in terms of, for example, income and conservatism, express themselves in some very specific ways in everyday attitudes and behaviour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
I’m quite used to receiving abuse concerning the content of this column, but in contrast my previous post (about why fans of heavy metal shouldn’t have been banned from a pub) seems to have caused some…Adrian North, Head of School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/277242014-06-06T08:57:55Z2014-06-06T08:57:55ZBanning heavy metal fans from pubs isn’t just unfair - it’s simply inaccurate<p>The headline says it all. The Chronicle, which reports all the news that is fit to print in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in England notes that “<a href="http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/city-tavern-newcastle-rock-fans-7176377">Rock Fans Were Kicked Out Of A Newcastle Pub Because Of Their Outfits</a>”. The seven giants of rock were booted out of the City Tavern solely for wearing the standard metal uniform. Prior to a refurb, the bar ran regular rock nights and still has no dress code; 93% of respondents to the newspaper’s own poll disagree with the move, which is simply the latest in a long history of bizarre acts of censorship aimed at music fans.</p>
<p>Eric Nuzum’s book, Parental Advisory, and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/free-speech/brief-timeline-censored-music">The American Civil Liberties Union</a> website both provide some other wonderful examples of this nonsense. The ACLU report, for instance, that in 2000 a Louisiana judge ordered officials to return music to a skating rink owner, which had been confiscated in the belief that it had caused a car park fight: the fact that the music included some Britney Spears and even Disney’s Tarzan soundtrack might make this measure seem heavy-handed to some. The site similarly reports that attending a Backstreet Boys concert was sufficient to cause school students to be suspended in Texas (and not on grounds of their poor musical taste either), and that wearing a Korn t-shirt that simply features the band’s name has similarly been enough to get you suspended from school in Michigan.</p>
<p>The academic literature similarly details the pervasiveness of the stereotypes of musical subcultures. One study showed that simply presenting a criminal defendant as an author of rap lyrics cause him to be perceived as more likely to be guilty; and whereas rap fans are portrayed as a threat to others, heavy rock fans are stereotyped as more likely to self-harm. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, clear differences do actually exist in the personality and lifestyles of the people who like different musical styles. Rock fans score higher than most on measures of having a personality that is sensation-seeking and open to new experiences, and I have also found evidence that fans of 35 different musical styles differ on such wide-ranging variables as political beliefs, number of holidays taken, whether they would like more friends, frequency of taking a bath, and the types of alcoholic drinks they consume.</p>
<p>So given that real differences exist, it is possible to some extent to understand why certain groups of fans get picked upon. However, the problem is that the stereotypes are so often inaccurate. The manager of the City Tavern might like to know that my data shows that the fans who apparently take least care of their appearance are those who like opera, as they take the fewest baths and wash their hair least frequently. </p>
<p>The fans most likely to be a real danger to themselves are not metal-heads, but instead those who like blues, as they smoke more than others. Perhaps most importantly for a publican, I should also point that, with the exception of those who go to nightclubs a lot, fans of jazz drink the most. Given all this, I would imagine that the Newcastle Seven are much more desirable customers than the boss of the City Tavern seems to think. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The headline says it all. The Chronicle, which reports all the news that is fit to print in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in England notes that “Rock Fans Were Kicked Out Of A Newcastle Pub Because Of Their Outfits…Adrian North, Head of School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.