Science: Health benefits of heavy metal (video)

Philip Trapp (Loudwire); Eric S. Smith; Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

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Metal music's mental health benefits

I like listening in cars.

Metalhead professor Dr. Nick Perham, Ph.D. once made the case that heavy metal music helps the mental health of it enthusiasts.

He pointed to a recent finding that fans "who were made angry and then listened to heavy metal music did not increase their anger, but increased their positive emotions, suggesting that listening to extreme music represents a healthy and functional way of processing anger." Who knew?

Heavy metal listeners could have lower blood pressure

Putting the met in metal music for heart rate

Vera Clinic, a cosmetic surgery practice in Turkey, ran a study in 2021 that gave stress tests to a group of participants as they listened to various types of music. It concluded that heavy metal was one of the best genres for lowering one's blood pressure and heart rate, second only to 1980s pop in terms of its effectiveness. More*

Alissa White-Gluz* and her band The Agonist screech out "and Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep"

Metal fans are more likely to have a sexual encounter in a car

I'm like more into hip hop nu metal and death.

In 2020 the online ticket marketplace TickPick surveyed drivers about their music listening habits while in transit. The response to one question showed that metal fans were the most likely of any music genre's devotees to have had a sexual experience in a car, with 75 percent of metalheads responding that they had. More*

Rock and metal listeners are among the happiest of music fans

I'm just into metal for the hair and Spandex.

Online marketplace OnBuy.com backed a 2021 experiment that analyzed internet users' language from their comments on the site, cross-referencing their music tastes against the positive or negative words they used most. The results surmised that metal listeners were among the happiest of all music fans, second behind jazz lovers. Rock and grunge listeners also showed high marks for positivity. More*

*Alissa White-Gluz performs "Bohemian Rhapsody" on Canadian Idol (TV)

Listening to black and death metal is good for focus and productivity

Writer Sarah Goff-Dupont, with the help of data scientist Julia Silge and programmer Rob Whitlock, theorized in 2019 that black metal and death metal made excellent background music for computer coding. With a focus on the creation of mobile applications, the research showed that extreme metal can help bolster coders' productivity when concentrating on intensive tasks. More*

Death metal makes fans happy

Where the wild things really are, Maurice Sendak

Does listening to death metal make fans angry? No, it makes them happy! That's what Professor Bill Thompson suggested in 2019 of results he and other researchers deduced from a music lab at Australia's Macquarie University. On top of that, an adjacent experiment Prof. Thompson conducted found that metalheads were no more desensitized to violence or gruesome imagery than other listeners. More*

Heavy metal music makes fans happier (Gina Wetzel/Getty Images)

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You actually can judge metalheads by their music taste

A 2021 study about how musical preference drives a listener's cognitive styles proposed that someone's favorite type of music relates to whether they're more empathetic or logical in everyday life. Lending credence to the idea that one could accurately judge another by their music taste, the results determined that adherents of "mellow" music were more outwardly compassionate; loud music lovers were labeled more "systemizing." More*

You can get a PhD studying heavy metal

In 2019 Australia's University of Newcastle hosted two Ph.D. scholarships that could focus on heavy metal and its unique "social geography" and culture. The program was administered by Prof. Simon Springer, a professor of human geography and the director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the college. *MORE

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