Metal Machine Music

A new study conducted in Australia has revealed that listening to heavy or ‘extreme’ music such as punk and metal can actually have a positive effect, helping people to “process anger”.

That is actual anger as opposed to Metallica’s 2003 album ‘St Anger’- an LP that is enough to drive an entire Buddhist retreat into a catatonic rage.

As reported here in The Guardian, researchers at the University Of Queensland in Australia were looking into the theory that heavy music results in aggressive behavior. Dr. Genevieve Dingle and Honours student Leah Sharman used a sample of 39 regular ‘extreme music’ listeners.

Sharman said: “When experiencing anger, extreme-music fans liked to listen to music that could match their anger. The music helped them explore the full gamut of emotion they felt, but also left them feeling more active and inspired”.

Sharman continued: “Results showed levels of hostility, irritability and stress decreased after music was introduced, and the most significant change reported was the level of inspiration they felt”.

However, the researchers admitted that their findings are somewhat limited as they were restricted to laboratory-controlled conditions as opposed to, say teenage bedrooms or huge fields.

The key message that The Gen is taking away from this study is that everyone should get together and “process” their collective anger to Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’.

Tune into next week’s scoop, where we exclusively reveal that video games are not actually the root cause of all violent crime.