From the Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main....21/nmetal21.xml

 

Intelligent teenagers often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressures associated with being talented, according to research.

 

The results of a study of more than 1,000 of the brightest five per cent of young people will come as relief to parents whose offspring, usually long-haired, are devotees of Iron Maiden, AC/DC and their musical descendants.

 

Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent "metalheads" are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.

 

Stuart Cadwallader, a psychologist at the University of Warwick, will present the findings at the British Psychological Society conference in York today.

 

He said: "There is a perception of gifted and talented students as being into classical music and spending a lot of time reading. I think that is an inaccurate stereotype. There is literature that links heavy metal to poor academic performance and delinquency but we found a group that contradicts that.

 

"We are looking at a group with lower than average self-esteem that does not feel quite as well adjusted. They feel more stressed out and turn to heavy metal as a way of relieving that stress.

 

"Participants said they appreciated the complex and sometimes political themes of heavy metal music more than perhaps the average pop song. It has a tendency to worry adults a bit but I think it is just a cathartic thing. It does not indicate problems."

 

The researchers surveyed 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth - a body whose 120,000 student members are within the top five per cent academically in the 11-19 age range.

 

Asked for their favourite type of music, 39 per cent said rock, 18 per cent R&B and 14 per cent pop. Six per cent said heavy metal and a third rated it in their top five genres.

 

The heavy metal fans in the study had lower self-esteem and more difficulties in family relationships and friendships.

 

Mr Cadwallader then held an online discussion involving 19 members of the academy, 17 of whom were heavy metal fans. They spoke of listening to bands including System of a Down, Slipknot, Tool, Dragon Force, Forward Russia and In Flames when they were in a bad mood and using it to work off frustrations and anger.

 

One student said: "It helps me with stress. It's the general thrashiness of it. You can't really jump your anger into the floor and listen to your music at the same time with other types of music."

 

Mr Cadwallader added: "Perhaps gifted people experience more pressure than their peers and use the music to purge this negativity."

 

Dan Silver, assistant editor of the music magazine NME who has worked for Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, said: "Many themes of heavy metal are about alienation. If you have these kinds of feelings there is a lot you can get out of the music and the community of fans who are into it."

Kinda bears out my experiences with most Metallers as well, the ones I've met are almost to a man/woman highly intelligent, musically and academically inclined, tend to have very good jobs and a fair bit of disposable income...

 

Check out my Metal Faves thread e-motion, you'll find plenty of examples of truly great comfort there.... :lol:

Kinda bears out my experiences with most Metallers as well, the ones I've met are almost to a man/woman highly intelligent, musically and academically inclined, tend to have very good jobs and a fair bit of disposable income...

 

Check out my Metal Faves thread e-motion, you'll find plenty of examples of truly great comfort there.... :lol:

This has been my experience with friends into metal and my own choice of music at times.

I also think some metal music greatly helps let out some pent up energy at times.

 

This has been my experience with friends into metal and my own choice of music at times.

I also think some metal music greatly helps let out some pent up energy at times.

 

Well, pop over to the thread and let out some of that pent up energy mate.... Give me your opinions.... (you have to watch the lot though to get the full picture, it;s gonna be a pretty wild ride for those with the stamina.... :lol: )

 

well its obviously bollox as john likes iron maiden!

 

there does seem to be some correlation between intelligence (or probably domestic situation , housing, environment, income) and tastes in music..

 

however i dont think its very intelligent to like only one genre as many rock fans do. (ok thats not limited to rock fans). surely someone who can take pleasure in many forms from a variety of musical styles would be the most celebraly blessed!

You don't get chavs listening to heavy music and they're the most stupid group of children. :lol:

well its obviously bollox as john likes iron maiden!

 

there does seem to be some correlation between intelligence (or probably domestic situation , housing, environment, income) and tastes in music..

 

however i dont think its very intelligent to like only one genre as many rock fans do. (ok thats not limited to rock fans). surely someone who can take pleasure in many forms from a variety of musical styles would be the most celebraly blessed!

 

Considering that there are many different sub-genres within Rock and Metal these days, even if you stay within those particular umbrellas, you could easily find yourself listening to very different sorts of music - Industrial Rock (eg Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson) sounds nothing like Old Skool Metal (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath), which sounds nothing like Nu Metal (Korn, Slipknot, etc), which sounds nothing like Black/Death Metal (Dimmu Borgir, Darkthrone, Emperor, Deicide, Nile, Behemoth..), which sounds nothing like Progressive/Experimental Metal (Tool, Opeth, Mastodon, Candiria, Machine Head, The Gathering, Anathema..), which sounds nothing like Symphonic Metal (Nightwish, Dragonforce, Stratovarius...) which sounds nothing like Gothic Metal (Type O Negative, Paradise Lost, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation)... I could go on, but I think you get the idea..... :)

 

Pop onto my "Metal Faves" thread when you have the chance and you;ll see for yourself that there are many different sounds and ways of approaching things in the Metal genre....

 

I think what isn't particularly intelligent is to stay rooted in one particular sub-category, I take issue with a lot of these Death or Black Metal fans who make ludicrous claims as to who is and who isn't 'Metal' (when I was DJing once, one 18-year old Death Metal meathead in particular took umbrage to me playing Slipknot, saying that they were "totally gay and not Metal". By the time I'd torn a few strips off him and given him a real Metal education, he shut the fukk up and just sloped back off to his mates with his tail between his legs... :lol: Imagine if that had been some Chav or some rapper kid though, he probably would've pulled a knife or a gun on me instead of just walking away.. Metal fans tend to be more civilised, fact...)

there may well be many sub-genres but at the end of the day its still 'rock', and totally different from r&b, trance, uk garage, britpop, folk or even classical!

there may well be many sub-genres but at the end of the day its still 'rock', and totally different from r&b, trance, uk garage, britpop, folk or even classical!

 

Symphonic Metal is not very far removed from Classical Music at all really, the song structures of Symphonic Metal are very similar to Classical.... You've heard Nightwish I take it...

 

And all Britpop would have to do to be Metal or Alternative is turn up the Overdrive on the amp a bit....

 

A lot of the stuff NIN has done in the past could almost be considered Dance or Techno, the harder end sure, but Techno/Dance nonetheless....

surely someone who can take pleasure in many forms from a variety of musical styles would be the most celebraly blessed!

Yes so that means I must be very intelligent :cheer: :P Part of that varied taste does include some Metal as I like 36 Crazyfists and Jack Off Jill. Also Deftones and Avenged Sevenfold if you'd count those two as 'Metal'.

Yes so that means I must be very intelligent :cheer: :P Part of that varied taste does include some Metal as I like 36 Crazyfists and Jack Off Jill. Also Deftones and Avenged Sevenfold if you'd count those two as 'Metal'.

 

Deftones I see more as being "Alternative Rock" to be honest, but in the truest sense... In the Smashing Pumpkins/Pixies/Dinosaur Jr/Slint/Sonic Youth/Nirvana/NIN sense of the term "Alternative", as opposed to the weak "alternative" (lower-case very much deliberate) of the likes of MCR, Fall Out Boy or Panic at the Disco...

there may well be many sub-genres but at the end of the day its still 'rock', and totally different from r&b, trance, uk garage, britpop, folk or even classical!

 

Deftones I see more as being "Alternative Rock" to be honest, but in the truest sense... In the Smashing Pumpkins/Pixies/Dinosaur Jr/Slint/Sonic Youth/Nirvana/NIN sense of the term "Alternative", as opposed to the weak "alternative" (lower-case very much deliberate) of the likes of MCR, Fall Out Boy or Panic at the Disco...

 

well its all in an alternative rock spectrum (seeing as we have to exclude the cheesy hair metal at this point unlike some guides you can buy in Waterstones),

 

even though some of the above are heading towards pop (which imo should only be used as a negative to criticise the evil tescopoly of those type of supermarket acts and obv manufactured boyband disposable comodities)

 

but its less to do with genres more to do with urban tribes, marketing and demographics as obv with a lot of rock there will be cross overs with things that are 'pop' and pop with dance/r&b

 

and totally different from r&b,

 

this is the hiphop soul of American R&b you are defining here mate innit, not the stuff on BBC4 last Friday

 

 

 

even though some of the above are heading towards pop (which imo should only be used as a negative to criticise the evil tescopoly of those type of supermarket acts and obv manufactured boyband disposable comodities)

 

Alex, the whole original ethos of "Alternative" music was that it was an 'alternative' from what was in the mainstream charts, the original "Alternative" acts never purposefully courted mainstream chart success the way the likes of MCR very blatantly do. The success of Nirvana was a complete bolt out of the blue, even their record company didn't expect it to happen...

 

Deftones are a similar sort of deal, they're not really marketing themselves in the way that bands like MCR do, they dont really have an image, singer Chino Moreno comes across as feeling very awkward in the band's videos, if not downright shy in front of camera.... These guys are very much about the music and not the image or the MTV bullsh!t.... And their music speaks a thousand times louder than any Marilyn Manson-style theatrical "shock" tactic ever could..... One of the best American bands of the past decade or so IMO (along with the likes of Tool, System of a Down and Mars Volta, whom I would also consider truly "Alternative" acts), their five albums truly remarkable, musically diverse and daring and each with their own very clear identity which presents itself on repeated listens.... An amazing band who really dont get the credit they deserve...

 

Alex, the whole original ethos of "Alternative" music was that it was an 'alternative' from what was in the mainstream charts, the original "Alternative" acts never purposefully courted mainstream chart success the way the likes of MCR very blatantly do.

 

then again with Americans its kinda in their blood to court mainstream comercialization its what the place is all about. and i suppose if you can sell out you want to sell out

then again with Americans its kinda in their blood to court mainstream comercialization its what the place is all about. and i suppose if you can sell out you want to sell out

 

It's not true of all Americans - look at Tool.. You think these guys give a fukk about 'mainstream acceptance'.....? They take four or five years off between albums, and only come up with an album when they feel they have a need to impart something as opposed to dancing to some record company's tune.... They've built up a fanbase through their reputation and their music, a Tool album is always going to be greeted with anticipation because Tool's fans are totally obsessive and loyal...

It's not true of all Americans

 

well obv the statement is not = all of america as its a big place. but generally speaking it seems to be the way of the land.

well obv the statement is not = all of america as its a big place. but generally speaking it seems to be the way of the land.

 

Yes, generally speaking, it is true of much of American music.... Which is why that is the "mainstream", and those other guys, who are off in the margins and the leftfield, are the "Alternative"..... MCR and their ilk are not "Alternative", because they are courting mainstream acceptance, rather they are this other, record-company idea of "alternative" which gets heavy rotation on MTV and high Billboard placings and is easy to market and sell... The "angsty teenage rebellion dollar" is a big dollar..... :lol:

 

Yes so that means I must be very intelligent :cheer: :P Part of that varied taste does include some Metal as I like 36 Crazyfists and Jack Off Jill. Also Deftones and Avenged Sevenfold if you'd count those two as 'Metal'.

 

Jack off Jill aren't metal.

Jack off Jill aren't metal.

 

Very true as well, but they are certainly pretty Punk/Alternative (capital 'A'), so that's why they ended up in my "Metal Faves" list.....

 

Very true as well, but they are certainly pretty Punk/Alternative (capital 'A'), so that's why they ended up in my "Metal Faves" list.....

 

k! are doing a heavy rock list thats gonna be on the hits over easter. notice keith flint's in the advert as well