Blogspot 1: The psychology of heavy metal

"Ang ingay kaya!", "Wala akong mainitindihan", "Puro sigaw lang," we often hear these phrases from other people who don't listen to heavy metal. They usually tend to judge metal fans as loud, addict, and demonic people. But what does heavy metal mean.

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. The bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are often associated with masculinity and aggression.

I've read an article entitled "The Psychology Of Loving Heavy Metal" by Shaunacy Ferro of  popsci.com that tells most of the British college students who listen to heavy metal music have the same personality traits far from we think of them. The writer found a study made in  Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts a total of 414 metal music listeners have the same five personality traits, he also said that "Somewhat predictably, heavy metal fans were more likely to be male, to dislike authority, and to feel a need to be unique. Enjoying heavy metal was also correlated with openness, possibly because people with more open personalities would be drawn to music that is "intense, engaging, and challenging," as metal can be, the researchers write. Interestingly, the metal fans in the study tended to have relatively low self-esteem. "The catharsis afforded by heavy metal may, in turn, help boost self-worth and promote positive self-evaluations among those with otherwise low self-esteem," the study postulates." 

Unlike the expected effect of heavy metal that it lowers self-esteem, it actually helps on  boosting self-worth and promoting positive self-evaluations. 

According to another article I read entitled "Heavy metal 'a comfort for the bright child" by Nic Fleming of  Science Correspondent, he said that intelligent teenagers who often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressure that they have. He also stated that "Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent "metal heads" are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders." 

There are many articles that say listening to heavy metal will have poor academic performance but this article contradicts that. Heavy metal is not a bad genre, the effect depends on the listeners accept the effects.