Argumentative Essay On Heavy Metal Culture

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Cursed by controversy since it's inception, heavy metal music has often been thought of as offencive and bombastic in it's approach to music. Even now, the controversy brought about at the top of heavy metal's popularity in the 80's still seems to linger over the genre. Controversy could easily be seen as a part of heavy metal culture as a whole, the committee hearings in 1985 putting the musical genre in the public's eye as offensive and dangerous due to it's lyrical content (Hjelm, Kahn-Harris, LeVine, 2011 p.8). To many, these out of context looks into a larger culture seem to paint a picture of violence and delenquency, but seeing the genre from within offers a new view. Research suggests that heavy metal music can have beneficial psychological …show more content…

In the late 90's, it was suggested that youth who took part in heavy metal culture had higher than average rates when it came to substance abuse, depression, greater delinquency, and problems with both educational systems and family relations (Scheel, 1995). For many, an obvious picture could be woven between these listed behaviors and suicidal tendencies of youth. However, a study conducted on a sampling of fans showed that less than 1% reported feelings of sadness when listening to their music of choice (Scheel, 1999 p.263). This study alone shows that other factors are key in the attitudes and emotions of youth outside of their preference for heavy metal music. An idea suggested by Hereld offers a different view of the thoughts on heavy metal and suicide. This idea is that many youth's are defined by the content of the music they listen to, and that heavy or alternative music choices are to blame for any type of negative behavior that occurs (Hereld, 2014 p.10). With the combination of controversy woven into heavy metal, and the rash of scares incited in the peak times of it's popularity. It becomes easy to see why heavy metal was associated with devience and the coruption of youth, but through taking a closer look at various studies, one can easily find the benefits of such extreme

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