Heavy Metal Bad For The Teenage Mind

Essay, Research Paper

Evil and Satanic, is what you would probably call heavy metal music today. Marilyn

Manson, Anthrax, Metallica and Cannibal Corpse are a few of the many heavy metal groups of

todays music world. Heavy metal contains music that should be more carefully analyzed by

parents.It also affects the way teens think. Also this music can imply outward violence

toward others. Heavy metal is a partial cause for teen violence and suicide.

Numbing and influencial, teen violence and suicide can start with heavy metal music,” I

failed to recognize my son was holding a hand grenade and it was live and it was going off in his

mind.”, is what Raymond Kuntz said after his 15-year-old son Richard had shown him a CD by

Marilyn Manson and later killed himself after listening to his music. Dr. Frank Palumbo from the

American Academy of Pediatrics said:

Make no mistake about it, music can summon a range

of emotions, most of which are wonderful. Yet there is

some music that communicates potentially harmful health

messages, especially when it reaches a vulnerable audience.(Palumbo)

The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) believes parents should better research the

music their teens listen to more carefully and that the music industries should make more

positive video themes. The more the parents research and monitor their teens music, the less they

have to worry about fatal reactions toward it and other violence that would come from the music

of their teens. “Almost every parent in America would do what you did. It didn’t look like a hand

grenade. It looked like a CD.” said Joseph Liberman who was trying to comfort Mr. Kuntz

(Kenen). If we research what teens listen to we could prevent violence and suicide from

happening.

Thus, from a testimony from the American Academy of Pediatrics there are many

statements that imply that heavy metal music is partially to blame for suicide and violence by

teens because of it’s dangerous lyrics. One part of this testimony states:

To date , no studies have documented a cause-and-effect relationship

between sexually explicitor violent lyrics and adverse behavioral effects,

i.e., I’ll listen to a song about killing someone and therefore I go out and

kill. But we can all acknowledge the overall effect music has on people,

including adolescents and children. Otherwise , we wouldn’t listen to it…

and teenagers become absorbed in songs they believe help better define

them during this rocky transition into adulthood.(Palumbo)

If teens are exposed to music daily the more they accept the devastating implications in the

music as if it was their lunch or daily schooling. The only way to stop teens from listening would

be to totally get rid of the heavy metal genre itself or stop the use of the violent and suicide

implicating lyrics in the music. Teens are vulnerable to many things especially music. According

to the American Academy of Pediatrics, they conducted a study which found that teens on

average listen to 40 hours of music per week(Palumbo). That is 7 and one half hours more

than an average school week. It sounds like teens are getting more from music than they are from

their teachers they see 5 out of 7 days per week. This music can affect their school life and affect

the way they think and act while in and around school.

Heavy metal can lead to violence and suicide in teens from listening to the music they do.

One study done by David Merrell from Suffolk,Virginia, somewhat proves heavy metal is bad

for teens. However, his study was done on 72 male laboratory mice. He used 3 groups of 24

mice, a control group with no music, a heavy metal group that listened to Anthrax, and a

classical group that listened to Mozart. Each group had 12 hours of light each day while they

were running the maze with no music and each group had an average time of 10

minutes(Eaton). But after listening to their group’s music for 10 hours each day and running

the maze 3 times per week, each group came up with a different average after one month of the

maze. The control group ran the maze in 5 minutes.The Mozart group ran the maze in 1 minute

and 30 seconds and the Anthrax group ran the maze at an average of 30 minutes(Eaton). Then, at

the end of David’s experiment, the Anthrax group all killed each other. If heavy metal can have

this effect on mice just think of what this music might do to a teenager in todays world with all

the violence in the school and “normal” community that they see every day. One thing that might

point out the effects of this type of music may be the teen’s grades dropping and the teen not

caring at all about it, or maybe they”go” to school and all they do is skip class. The violence they

may take forth could be very dangerous and harmful not toward others but also toward

themselves. Not only something like physical damage toward them but also mental damage that

may never heal. This damage is a possible reason to retaliate against others not just in the

community but also in the school, like Kip Kinkle in Oregon or the teens in the Columbine High

School shootings in Colorado or possibly toward their immediate family they live with or their

further relatives. You could relate this to the mouse experiment that David Merrell did as all of

the heavy metal mice killed each other which portrays the outward violence toward others in

school and in the community(Eaton). Also Raymond Kuntz’s son Richard was writing a school

term paper on Marilyn Manson when he committed suicide(Kenen). Coincidence? Probably not.

If mice can be influenced by something they can not comprehend something is up. There has to

be something like mind numbing radio waves or tones in some kind of a sequnce to mentally

dismantle some one from the inside-out. Also, if a term paper and a little music can kill you,

stopping this assisted-suicidal music at its source does not sound bad at all.

Heavy metal influences outward violence towards others in many ways.

“Drawn to an act of complete domination-violent urges of decapitation pre-meditated

murder,invidious-soon she will be vanquished, insidious” is a disturbing verse from “Cannibal

Corpse:Gallery of Suicide”. It sounds to be a very disturbed band who has probably influenced

many people to do “not nice” things. In the verse above one can depict a message to beat and kill

an innocent woman or girlfriend. Lyrics such as these are probably what teach teens to go out

and kill, beat, or rape someone for fun or as a group activity. The Columbine school shooting in

Colorado probably had something to do with explicit lyrics in music the teens were listening to.

These lyrics are probably also incorperated with hate and anger for other people at that school

that had some effect on discrimination and ridicule of the teens who let loose a barrage of

ammunition and hatred in Columbine on that day. Many lead singers have commited suicide due

to their music and music from others as well. For example, Curt Kobain from Nirvana; a death

which devastated the alternative/heavy metal genre for a long while. During many news casts

after the Columbine shooting the media blamed one particular group for the murderous rampage

at the school and that group was Marilyn Manson. The Anti-Christ superstar has been the most

targeted musician for teen deaths in the past 5 years(Rosen). However the media still only points

him out instead of the entire heavy metal world and how it has effected thousands of peoples

lives through a little thing called a CD. Its like passing out live ammunition at stores all over the

world, to all ages of people of all genders as a sort of mental weapon to be used at home and

store thoughts of death and destruction for all to have. After all you have to have something to

blame the lives of young innocent people for being corrupted by a few explicit lyrics.

Temptation to kill again- The sensation comes over me, An addiction to murdering-I can’t

stop killing” Another verse from “Cannibal Corpse: The Bleeding” sounds like the mind of a

killer and tempts teens to go out and start shooting rampages and killing schoolmates, family and

innocent others.If your child thinks like this get them help. They really need it. Try to get them

away from the music that will probably condem them to a bad way of life. Teens that are violent

toward others probably could use a good role model to look up to and be a positive way to do

things with. Show them they have been missing out on the fun things in life that have nothing to

do with hate, death, or destruction towards themeselves or others as a way of life. Role models

are things everyone needs in their life no matter if it’s a cartoon or a real person they see

everyday.

A partial cause for the violence and suicide of teens is what you would call heavy metal.

Parents have a large effect on what their teens do. They should more carefully review the music

their teens are listening to, to prevent things like the suicide of their teen which has happened to

many parents across the country today. So read the label next time at the mall.

Just as in the 72 laboratory mice that ran through the maze, heavy metal may affect the way that

teens think during school, at home,even while sleeping(Eaton) Just think about monitoring the

time that they listen to their music during the day and their mentallity should stay normal as far as

tests have shown. Just don’t treat your teen as a mouse. And last, the suicide and violence toward

others can be stopped or prevented by stopping the music at its source. The musicians and groups

that pump out the music that can kill others and even your teen just as it did to Raymond Kuntzs’

son Richard.

In closing, music is a big part of the human experience and there is no possible way to

avoid it. So while your taking the journey of life be careful of what music you stop and listen to

because it can make your journey smooth or it can make it a rough one not just for you but the

people around you and the people who care about you. So remember, read the label, take care of

your mind, its the only one you have. Treat each other with kindness and respect because you

don’t know if it could come back and haunt you some day.

Cannibal Corpse. “The Bleeding.” 1994 Metal Blade Records Inc. 2345

Erringer Rd., Suite 108 Simi Valley California

Cannibal Corpse “Gallery of Suicide.” 1998 Metal Blade Records Inc.

2828 Cochran St. Suite 302 Simi Valley California

Eaton, Lorraine. “Teen Proves Hard Rock’s Bad for You.” 3 Aug. 1997

Online. Available. http://newsherald.com/education/rock86.htm

15 Dec. 1999.

Kenen, Joanne. “Senate Panel Tunes into Music Violence.” 8 Nov. 1997

Online. Available. http://www.cnn.com/ 15 Dec. 1999.

Palumbo, Frank. “Social Impact of Music Violence.” 6 Nov. 1997

Online. Available. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/washing/t1106.htm

15 Dec. 1999

Rosen, Hilary. “Recording Industry Responds to Attack on Lyrics.”

10 Dec. 1996. Online. Available. http://www.riaa.com/censorship/

pressrelease.htm 15 Dec. 1999.

Works Cited