Death Metal Music by Natalie J. Purcell

Author:Natalie J. Purcell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2012-06-25T20:00:00+00:00

Behavior

Our glance into the world of Death Metal has revealed much about the sort of people who belong to the Death Metal scene, their basic demographic characteristics, and the nature of their culture. We have achieved insight into the minds and motivations of metal heads through our analysis of their attitudes, philosophies, and ethical systems. In short, we have laid the groundwork for an informed and insightful analysis of actual behavioral norms and tendencies. This section will include faithful reports of behavior in the areas of sexual activity, alcohol use, drug use, suicide, and violent behavior. In many ways, it is the heart of the project because it directly addresses the social illnesses which politicians and popular culture attribute to metal music and its fans.

Christenson and Roberts write that fans of metal show a high instance of “self-reports of specific reckless behaviors, including drunk driving, casual sex, and marijuana and cocaine use” (105). Other statistics are equally disturbing: 96 percent of white students in a school for youth with behavior problems claimed that Heavy Metal was their favorite type of music (Christenson 106). Also, 50 percent more metal fans than pop fans admitted to using illegal drugs (106). Metal fans are also believed to have more casual sex and premarital sex than other groups (107). Christenson and Roberts caution their readers, however, not to assume causality or exaggerate the correlation. Looking at the variety of characteristics associated with a taste for metal might help one to predict that an individual likes metal music; however, the actual patterns in behavior are so low that one absolutely cannot, on the basis that someone is a metal fan, be at all confident in predicting that he or she will be violent, deviant, or depressed (109). For this reason, Christenson reports that “if there is a ‘syndrome’ at work here, it is a ‘troubled youth syndrome,’ not a heavy metal syndrome” (108).

The results of the surveys collected in this study did not reinforce or support many of the negative conclusions drawn in previous studies. First, let us look at sexual behavior, keeping in mind that the aforementioned statistics place metal fans in the sexually devious or promiscuous category. In this study, survey respondents were asked whether or not they were sexually active and how many sexual partners they have had in the past year. The range of responses extended from 0 to 7. A full 31.7 percent of those surveyed were not sexually active. Another 53 percent had only one or two sexual partners in the past year; this is not at all indicative of promiscuity. No more than 9.5 percent had three or four sexual partners, and only 4.8 percent had five to seven sexual partners in the past year. The mean number of sexual partners was 1.365, with median 1.000 and mode 0.000. Thus, there are incidences of promiscuity, but they are neither extreme nor prevalent. In general, levels of sexual activity were very low, and so were levels of promiscuity. (These surveys were completely anonymous, so there was little reason to be dishonest about sexual behavior.

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