Posted on 07/09/2015 1:01:36 PM PDT by Sopater
Heavy metal was the No. 1-selling music genre in 1989, and parents feared the worst: that Satan worship, drug use, loads of sex, and suicide went along with it, write researchers in the journal Self and Identity. Records were burned, "Parental Advisory" warning labels were born, and some '90s research suggested that teens who were into metal had a boatload of problems. And then decades passed. How did those metalheads turn out? Pretty OK, found the team led by Humboldt State University psychologist Tasha Howe, reports Billboard. It found that while middle-aged metalheads were more likely to have engaged in risky behavior as youths, they in no way differ from both non-metal-loving peers and college students in terms of "life satisfaction and current functioning."
To get to that conclusion, researchers surveyed 377 adults, both metal-lovers (groupies, musicians, and fans), peers who preferred different music, and California college students. It turns out the metal groups' recollections of their youth were "significantly happier" than the comparison groups', and they had fewer regrets (about a third did, compared to 44.9% of students and 51.3% of non-metal peers). As for why they possibly turned out like they did, the researchers point to a "kinship in the metal community ... a way to experience heightened emotions and intense connections with like-minded people, which seemed to contribute to their eventual positive identity development." This suggests, they write, that "fringe style cultures can ... serve a protective function" for youth. The authors do note, however, that "this was a community sample of relatively high functioning individuals who volunteered to participate," which may have skewed the results. (Another study found excessive headbanging could kill.)
Metal tends toward conservatism in my experience.
Bet they turn out a lot better than hip hop fans.
Just sayin’...,.
“Heavy metal was the No. 1-selling music genre in 1989, and parents feared the worst: that Satan worship, drug use, loads of sex, and suicide...”
Yeah man. Society has turned out so much better since 1989.
Ping.
If they wanna look at a group that had a problem, they need to look at the rave scene. Us metalheads mostly got stoned or drunk and except for the off their rocker black metallers who thought they were actual demons in Norway, The satanic stuff was pure camp, not serious. We also didn’t fry ourselves on a rat salad of acid, Heroin Ketamine and meth weekly either.
Sure we had our casualties but most of us made it out alive.
Sort of ;)
“Metal tends toward conservatism in my experience.”
That’s what was so insidious about it.
It was normal kids and young adults who seemed to be drawn most to it.
Thus dumbing down a generation of Americans who ought to be conservative.
It dumbed people down and increased anti-Christian views and increased weird religious beliefs in what would be the normative mainstream.
It really did have a huge impact in bringing about the “new Normal” nightmare of today.
For years I was a big fan of anything Metallica put out before the black album. I don’t listen to it much anymore, and I’ve become a Christian.
You misunderstood. Many metalheads are todays conservatives.
Let’s see hands of those of us who still have our long hair.
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
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And who led the charge?
Why, it was Al Gore's wife, that's who!
I did until about 2011. But only Devin Townsend can work a Skullet ;)
Dee and Frank with an assist from Liberal John Denver set her straight though ;)
Yep.
Having white men as heroes is no longer legal.
define long...
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