Heavy Metal And Aggressiveness: Does Extreme Music Make Us Violent?
Punk, metal, hard rock… are genres that we almost automatically associate with aggressiveness and the strain
However, an article recently published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience suggests that, far from transforming all their listeners into angry beasts, these musical genres could help them regulate their emotions and promote the emergence of positive emotions and moods.
Extreme music derived from rock meets all the requirements for bad press: a young audience with strange aesthetics, often politically incorrect lyrics, and cultural references that seem straight out of Game of Thrones . But it is possible that what most characterizes this type of music is its energetic spirit the bursts of aggressiveness that are reflected both in the instruments and in the voices of the vocalists and, many times, also in the lyrics of the songs.
In previous articles we already talked about the relationship between musical tastes and intelligence. In addition, we also echoed a study that related musical preferences to personality.
As has happened with the video game , a large part of public opinion and media opinion leaders have tended to condemn and stigmatize extreme music due to the representations of violence with which it is often associated. It seems almost obvious that listening to aggressive music inoculates aggression in people, yet there is practically no scientific evidence in this regard.
Instead, Yes, there are studies that point in the opposite direction According to some research, music does not serve to induce extreme emotional states, but is usually used to regulate emotions and return a certain emotional balance to the body.
The article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience reinforces this last hypothesis. The research team that wrote it had set out to find out whether these regulatory effects of music were also applicable to extreme genres such as metal, characterized by frenetic drum rhythms and a singing style that often turns into heart-rending screams.
How was the experiment carried out?
The researchers used a sample made up of 39 people, men and women between 18 and 34 years old, who were fond of some genre of extreme music (metal in all its variants, punk, hardcore punk, screamo, etc.). Specifically, participants had to be in the habit of listening to one or more of these genres for at least 50% of the time they spent listening to music on a daily basis.
All participants in the experiment underwent the so-called “anger interview”, a 16-minute interview that was intended to induce a state of anger in the experimental subject through the memory of specific situations capable of arousing feelings of anger or indignation. Right after this experience, some of these people spent 10 minutes listening to music of their choice (they brought their music playing devices with them). In this way, the researchers made sure that the people in the group of volunteers who had to listen to music would choose pieces of music that they would normally listen to when they were angry. For their part, those who did not have to listen to anything remained waiting for 10 minutes.
The researchers focused on verifying the effects that this short musical session had on the volunteers’ emotions. To do this, before, during and after the 10 musical minutes, These people were subjected to various mood measurement instruments Specifically, they used the reading of heart rate and the application of several questionnaires on subjective psychological states.
The results show how levels of hostility and anger decreased while listening to extreme music to the same degree to which these emotions decreased in people who waited in silence, away from their audio devices. This could be explained by the regulating effect of the music or also by the passage of 10 minutes. Besides, The group of people who went through the 10 minutes of extreme music tended to feel greater relaxation and well-being
This means that the extreme music not only did not produce any feelings of anger, but it did not accentuate the slight anger that people felt when they turned on the audio playback devices.
In general terms, this research shows how fans of metal and other similar genres listen to this type of music during episodes of anger, perhaps to regulate themselves emotionally, and that this type of music does not translate into a maintenance of these negative moods.
