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Anxiety, Depression High Among Young Heavy Metal Fans

22.05.13

How would you characterize adolescents who listen to heavy metal music ? Angry? Perhaps prone to violence?

Newly published research suggests “anxious” and “depressed” are more accurate adjectives.

An analysis of 551 college students found “significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression among listeners of heavy metal/hard rock music, as compared with non-listeners.” Furthermore, their underlying level of anger was not significantly different from their peers who prefer other musical genres.

The study, conducted by psychologists Gavin Ryan Shafron of Columbia University and Mitchell Karno of the University of California-Los Angeles, is described in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture. The researchers chose to survey students at Los Angeles-area community colleges, figuring that population would be more representative than a sample of university students.

A majority of the participants—57 percent—described themselves as heavy-metal listeners. They were asked their preference for various sub-genres, including Emo, Hardcore Punk, Death Metal, and Thrash Metal. These more recent offshoots to classic heavy metal “have dark overtones and often use graphic lyrics that express angry, depressed, or painted emotions, in combination with screams, groans, and particularly dense and/or particularly syncopated rhythms,” the researchers write.

Source: Pacific Standard (blog)