HAVE you listened to heavy metal songs before? Do bands such as Metallica, Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold ring a bell?
According to an article in the Journal of Psychology of Popular Media Culture, heavy metal music is characterised by loud and powerful sounds along with emotional vocals. A sub-genre of extreme music, individuals who indulge themselves by listening to this form of music are stereotypically associated with negative emotions such as anger and depression along with crime, aggression and suicidal acts.
Contrary to popular beliefs, [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]a study conducted by Dr Genevieve A. Dingle and Leah Sharman from the University of Queensland in Australia revealed that heavy metal music alleviates sadness and enhances positive emotions among its listeners.
This study was published in the accredited science journal, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Dr Dingle stated that heavy metal music enabled participants of this study to explore the entire scope of their emotions after being induced to feel anger as well as causing them to feel more active and inspired. The results of this study also exhibited that levels of hostility, stress and irritability decreased among participants of this study during the introduction of songs with themes of anger, aggression, isolation and sadness.
It is remarkable that heavy metal music, which is notoriously associated with dark subject matter can be uplifting to its listeners. Well, as they say, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’.
[/ihc-hide-content]
