Listening to punk and heavy metal may calm your nerves: study

[octoberlib]

The next time you need to kick back after a long day at the office, maybe try listening to The Stooges’ skittering 1970 album Fun House. A new study in Frontiers in Neuroscience suggests that “extreme music” such as punk and heavy metal may help listeners decompress, and contrary to some people’s idea that the music may stir anger, it “may represent a healthy way of processing anger.”

The study examined 39 participants ages 18 to 34 who listened to extreme music. Researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia induced anger in participants through a brief “anger interview,” and then assigned some of them to listen to 10 minutes of high-paced tunes from their own collections; others were instructed to sit in silence for 10 minutes following the anger interview. To measure participants’ responses while they were listening to the music, researchers measured their heart rates and regulated emotional shifts demonstrated by the Positive and Negative Affect Scale.


Researchers found that rates of irritability, stress and hostility increased during the induced anger period, and then significantly decreased after the participants had listened to the extreme music or dealt with the silence. Even though the music was fast-paced, heart rates weren’t shown to increase further during the listening period than they reached during the anger induction. Participants listening to the likes of the Sex Pistols and Slayer not only emitted positive emotions, but were found to be as relaxed as those who had been sitting in silence.



Up to now, little research has been done to chart physiological responses to chaotic forms of music such as punk, emo and metal. Extreme music has historically been conflated with aggression and violent behaviors, as many of the songs’ lyrics orbit themes of anxiety, death and depression. Yet researchers speculate that it’s possible listeners choose extreme music not so much as a way to exert anger but to allow themselves to process these emotional states in a productive way.


http://www.newsweek.com/nevermind-bollocks-study-shows-punk-metal-help-calm-nerves-347914

[Initech]

1. How about some System Of A Down for this thread?

http://wwq.

[AwakeAtLast]

20. Read my sig line

Hell yeah!

[shenmue]

2. Oh yeah

[snagglepuss]

3. Interesting but would it work on people who hate extreme music.

Maybe the reason they were calm after listening to extreme music is that they were listening to something they like???? Could someone who listens to Japanese flute music process their anger listening to Heavy Metal???

[intheflow]

21. Exactly.

I hear heavy metal and immediately tense up. Sounds like every asshole I've ever met screaming at me, and I've met a lot of screaming assholes in my day. Anything but relaxing!

[Cal Carpenter]

4. "...may represent a healthy way of processing anger..."

said most teenagers in America in the last 40 years. Well, not so eloquently, but we knew.

[neverforget]

5. Opeth A Fair Judgement and Blackwater Park are 2 of my favorite songs

i listen to them when I need a little motivation

[Initech]

31. Opeth - hell yes!!!

[neverforget]

35. I know right?

[Initech]

37. Opeth + Steven Wilson = best combo ever.

Ghost Reveries and Deliverance were both produced by Steven Wilson and they are both incredible.

[neverforget]

40. My 2 favorite albums!

I remember when my friend sent me a tape with some new songs on it. Deliverance was one of them. I was hooked immediately. They rule! Favorite band since.....

[Initech]

42. I saw Opeth do an acoustic tour with Porcupine Tree when Damnation came out.

Still ranks as one of the single best concerts I've ever seen.

[Gregorian]

6. Excellent! And I'm in need of relaxation right now!

I'll just skim a few off the top. I spent years researching one of my favorite genres. Mind, I have seen Count Basie live.

&feature=related

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[lovemydog]

7. I had a professor in college

who taught film and was very open minded. Gave him a tape of the first Clash record. He told me he and wife listened to it a lot. It reminded them of opera music. I'm not sure about that connection but hey what the heck. He loved it too.

[Starry Messenger]

8. Calms me right down. :)

[Gregorian]

9. Amazing. The things on youtube...

There's some rarities.

[johnp3907]

11. Can't believe you whipped out the Dickies!

[Starry Messenger]

15. I got to see them a few times in college.

I'm glad I did while I could still stay awake past 11 pm, lol. Totally riveting and insane energy.

[johnp3907]

17. I hadn't even thought of them in years.

But I saw someone wearing a Dickies t-shirt at a punk show last Saturday (the Adolescents and the Weirdos).

[longship]

10. Huh? What did you say? Please repeat it.

(IMO a lotta loud noise.)

Of course, there's always Gwar...
Heh-heh-heh-heh!

[Tikki]

12. ABSOLUTELY...OSPunk, still my go to 40 years or so later...

The Screamers.... The Scream


Tikki

[Gregorian]

23. I was just listening to them a few weeks ago.

Somewhere in this video there appears to be a young Jello Biafra jumping on stage.
Unlimited bandwidth, and youtube are a great way to get lost.

[Tikki]

25. So smart, the Screamers were,....been listening to Ausmuteants lately..they toured this year IB.

Tikki

[Gregorian]

29. So many great gems if you look.

I wonder if that band was named after this one. The backstories are also amazing. Like the lead singer of the Screamers being a really bright artist, and Os Mutantes being banned in their own country for being too something. Music and politics.

[Tikki]

33. Amazing.....

Thanks....



Tilki

[Tikki]

36. just Mutants....

Tikki

[MrScorpio]

13. Personal taste is the ultimate arbiter of this...

Apparently the author forgot to take that into consideration.

[Bjorn Against]

14. This is currently my favorite hard rock band...

The Winery Dogs...

They are more hard rock than heavy metal, but they are one of the most talented bands in the world today. I believe their debut album ranks among the greatest albums of the past few decades.

[Bjorn Against]

18. I can't leave out Steven Wilson either...

People will debate whether or not his music can be classified as metal, but there is no debating that the guy can seriously rock.

[Initech]

38. I saw Steven Wilson two weeks ago. Kicked major amounts of ass.

[Bjorn Against]

39. I saw him just three weeks ago when he was in Minneapolis

And yes, it did kick major ass.

[Initech]

41. I love the new album Hand.Cannot.Erase, I think it might be his best since In Absentia.

I actually bought a hard copy of it at the show along with a t-shirt and a tour program.

[Bjorn Against]

45. It is definitely one of his best

I like it better than In Absentia myself, I would say it is his best since The Sky Moves Sideways which is an underappreciated masterpiece.

[ismnotwasm]

16. I knew that

Or at least it always works for me...

I'll add a little Otep

[Lizzie Poppet]

19. Indeed! More of a goth/industrial girl here, but metal has its charms:

[SMC22307]

22. "Dirt" works for me.

[Gregorian]

24. This one does the trick every time.

[Warpy]

26. It always worked that way for me.

People who have read down the titles of my CD collection tend to have looked really, really puzzled, like I must have someone completely different stashed in a closet.

Silly people.

[TM99]

27. I would suspect

that Industrial music would act the same way.

I have 'worked out that anger' with Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, Nietzer Ebb, and Ministry among others for decades.

[Aerows]

30. ^ THIS!!!! ^

Hell yeah!

And here's an oldie but goodie:

And here is a relatively new favorite from an old favorite:

All great workouts, as well, begin and end with fucking loud industrial music.

I don't discriminate, though, Joan Jett or Within Temptation at ear pleasing (loud, of course) levels work, too.

[TM99]

34. LOVE TKK and NiN!

Saw them both perform live.

It is therapeutic for me to listen and compose this type of music.

I love music from all genres, but I compose and listen the most to vintage Electro, House & Techno, Industrial EBM, and Synthwave.

I admit to enjoying Within Temptation and other symphonic gothic metal bans more and more these days.

[Initech]

43. NIN is my favorite live band of all time.

Words cannot describe how awesome the 2008 tour was, even videos don't do it justice. I was at this show on the tour:

[TM99]

44. I can not disagree.

I saw them for the first time with Skinny Puppy on the Pretty Hate Machine tour and have seen them quite a few times since as well.

I missed the 2008 tour but I am sure it was awesome!

[Aerows]

47. I saw

NIИ at Tipitina's when they were the opening act for Peter Murphy (Pretty Hate Machine), and then again as the headliners for The Downward Spiral.

I am digging some symphonic goth metal bands more these days, too. I'm old enough to not be ashamed to admit it, but young enough to enjoy the hell out of them

[TM99]

48. I so wanted to see NiN open for Murphy on the

next part of the tour but didn't get the chance.

I am exploring those bands more and more myself. I look to other countries a lot these days for new and inspiring genres, bands, and solo performers.

I love the operatic female voices - amazing!

I will always be young when it comes to exploring music.

[unblock]

28. "high-paced tunes from their own collections"? sounds like a big methodology problem....

if you listen to anything from your own collection, you get the comfort of hearing something familiar, a piece of music you like, a piece of music you wanted to have and to hear again and again.

i wonder if they controlled for this. i would think people would react differently to unfamiliar tunes, even if they like the genre; and certainly, those who don't care for the genre might be unsettled by it.

[kentauros]

32. While I like that kind of music,

I've found I relax better with noise:

Shepard Madness

Demolition Site

RPG Dungeon

Deserted

Flying Fortress

RPG Evil Charm

[KentuckyWoman]

46. Turns me into a baseball bat wielding Grinch

anything to stop that Noise! Noise !! Noise !!! If stealing their contuckas would stop the heavy metal from vibrating my sternum at 2am I'd gladly do so.

[Bosonic]

49. What about Heavy Metal jingles?