Many things have been written about rock music and its derivatives. Some have claimed that listening to some of the ‘harsher’ styles in music such as punk, heavy metal or hardcore can be the cause of increased anger and more violent behavior . As characteristics of extreme music are hard, heavy, loud and chaotic sounds as well as emotional lyrics with reference to anxiety, loneliness … However, listening to music of these characteristics causes certain negative emotions and reprehensible behaviors has to be good proven even with appropriate scientific studies.
With this objective, an experiment was carried out by Leah Sharman and Genevieve A. Dingle, from the University of Queensland in Australia. To carry out the study, they had the collaboration of 39 extreme heavy metal fans, who were randomly distributed between two different groups: a group that would be 10 minutes in silence and another group whose members would listen to 10 minutes of a personal selection of their Favorite extreme metal bands, including bands like Manowar, Megadeth, System of a Down or Inquisition. Previously, an interview designed to induce an emotion of anger was carried out , making them remember and comment on personal events that caused them a strong emotion of anger both in the workplace and in that of a couple, friendship …
To assess the changes in the emotions of the participants, measurements of the heart rate and a test that is used as a measure of negative and positive affect known as PANAS were taken.
The results of the experiment have recently been published in the magazine Frontiers in Neuroscience (2015) and show that for fans of extreme metal, rather than harming them, listening to their favorite music is a help . More specifically, the researchers found that when the participants were given the anger-inducing interview, the levels of hostility, stress, and irritability increased according to the PANAS scale. However, these levels of negative emotion decreased in the experimental phase, both in the participants who listened to the metal music and in those who remained silent . As for the heart rate, it also increased in the anger induction phase with the interview, and in this case they remained at the same level in the participants who listened to music while they decreased in the group that did not. On the other hand, emotional aspects such as activation and inspiration increased only in the experimental group (music) .
According to the study authors, extreme metal music was not the cause of the participants becoming angry or showing more indicators of anger. Apparently what happens is that listening to this type of music seems to fit their physiological state and subsequently translates into an increase in positive emotions . As the researchers explain, this could be a good way for fans of extreme metal to handle anger or anger , as a way to regulate their emotions.
As always, studies like this show us that not everything is as simple as it seems. Once again music and emotion together in the field of scientific research. Certainly in the future other studies will investigate questions about how all this happens in the brain and if it positively affects other aspects of our mental life such as memory or attention.
Marisa Fernández is Senior Neuropsychologist at Unobrain
