True Stories #413 - Soothe the Savage Beast

Music has been studied for its agitating and calming effects. One series of surveys revealed much about songs and our psyches. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Seth Andrews, and what You're about to hear is
a true story. Martha Harbison is a writer, journalist, and
a former physical chemist based in Brooklyn. Her work has
appeared in The New York Times, magazine, Autuba, and elsewhere,

(00:24):
and recently a piece of hers was featured in Popular Mechanics,
a publication of popular science and technology, with subjects varying
from military and space exploration to weather technologies and how
innovation and invention impact the human experience. Well. She recently

(00:46):
took a look at how music impacts emotional regulation. The
songs we listen to can be pleasant, enjoyable, heartbreaking, enraging, moving, impactful,
just playing, relaxing. In short, music molds minds. It can
identify cultures. It can manage our anger, anger about all

(01:11):
the injustices and cruelties in our lives and in this
crazy world. Oh Yeah. A twenty fifteen survey conducted by
the University of Queensland, Brisbane studied a particular music style
to find out whether it made people feel good or
feel worse. Subjects were asked to remember incidents that made

(01:33):
them intensely angry, and then those same people were asked
to immerse themselves in their own self selected playlists, and
reactions were documented rather than drive them further into their outrage.
The songs they picked became like a release valve for
an activated mind, releasing the pressure as you might release

(01:57):
air from a balloon. And you probably see this one coming,
so I'm going to go ahead and spill the beans.
The music style that was being studied was metal, not oldies,
not easy listening, not eighties pop or millennial rock, not
country or classical metal, a genre long accused of pushing

(02:22):
its fans to greater rage and even violence. This style
of music was actually calming. Really metal emerged out of
seventies rock as bands were starting to really push the envelope.
Metal is defined by distorted guitars, heavy riffs, repetition, exaggerated

(02:43):
vocals ranging from deep growls to soaring screams, a crunchy
and compressed wall of sound designed to be played at
bone shaking volumes, and a format that is still difficult
to completely define. After all, when does a our rock
song cross that subjective line into true metal? And then

(03:05):
you have to start talking about genre crossovers from hip hop, etc.
And what are metal fans often called metal heads accused
of being They've got long hair, they wear black leather,
They've got dark tattoos and even darker souls. Metal means brooding,

(03:26):
lashing out, emotional mayhem or does it? Fans were questioned
and studied by researchers at the University of Westminster and
elsewhere and what were the findings. Metal Heads tended to
care more about being a unique person and not following
the crowd. They're often less religious. Some had self esteem issues,

(03:51):
but that could be said about most people. Psychologists at
Stanford and Cambridge found that metal fans were more apt
to be pattern seas with analytical minds. Brain experts at
Harry and Watt University in Scotland found that headbangers had
something in common with classical music officionados they were often

(04:13):
more theatrical, and research from Macquarie University in Australia published
its twenty eighteen findings revealing that hardcore tunes don't in
fact desensitize people to violence. It was revealed that eighties
metal heads did often engage in riskier behaviors sax, drugs

(04:35):
and rock and roll, yet they were also a significantly
happier demographic and over the fans of other formats. They
often became better adjusted adults with a strong sense of self.
And again that research applied to the children of the eighties.
But still interesting stuff. Tribalism and ritual expression come into

(04:59):
play in the metal concert experience. Cornell University studied live
shows and they noticed that mush pits attract people who
express themselves uniquely without caring about the movements of anybody else.
Circle pit rockers more flock together. Obviously they formed a ring,

(05:20):
and then they had headbangers in the middle doing their
own thing. And then there's the wall of death, crowds
dividing into two opposite ends of an auditorium and then
running toward each other. Obviously, that scenario is chaos, but
it must be said, hardcore often helps to purge hard

(05:41):
feelings and even deal with deep issues. Medicate pain, create inspiration,
foster human connections, build communities, and express the reflections of
and resistance to social issues that affect us. All metal
speaks to to desire and defiance. It addresses ugly truths,

(06:04):
It produces resilience, and it makes friends. And many people
believe that it is time this long maligned genre finally
gets the respect it deserves. Music hath charms to soothe
the savage beast, even if that music kicks you in
the face at over one hundred and fifteen decibels. Now

(06:29):
take care of your ear. Drums, mash and shout without shame,
and proudly put your pedal to the metal. And this
short wandering into the Wall of Sound is a true story.

(06:50):
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