<story><title>Death metal music inspires joy not violence</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47543875</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>RickS</author><text>Great to see research coming to a conclusion I think most metalheads intuitively know.&lt;p&gt;I love walls of sound, I love intensity that feels like it takes a surplus of cognitive bandwidth (ADHD) and gives it a little bit of resistance to tug against, almost like those various rubber stress toys. I think most metal fans hear lyrical gruesomeness as something between fantasy and a cause for more empathy than anything else. And let&amp;#x27;s be real, a lot of it is flat out unintelligible. It&amp;#x27;s an aesthetic.&lt;p&gt;Most of the metalheads I know are absolute teddybears. I listen to some pretty heavy stuff (see links), but the other day I cried at a dog video, and recently had to turn off the police scanner at the mention of a particularly sad crime.  Mosh pits look scary but there&amp;#x27;s a shared ethical framework. Injuries happen, but they&amp;#x27;re almost never due to malice. Somebody falls down, you pick em up. Bigger people stomp around keeping the peace and returning lost shoes, aha. It&amp;#x27;s bounded, consensual violence – just like a martial art.&lt;p&gt;Exceptions exist – there are church burners and skinheads, but they tend to cluster in their own sects and you don&amp;#x27;t get mixed up with them accidentally.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;E9z-Tipz5JQ?t=40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;E9z-Tipz5JQ?t=40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;Y037ZIKckIY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;Y037ZIKckIY&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;9YkSki1qbLA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;9YkSki1qbLA&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cyberferret</author><text>&amp;gt; Most of the metalheads I know are absolute teddybears.&lt;p&gt;In my music hobby as a guitarist, I&amp;#x27;ve been involved in heavy rock and classic blues bands, played in a classical guitar ensemble, and did some sessions in a jazz setting. More recently I&amp;#x27;ve been guitar tech and roadie for my son who plays in a metal band.&lt;p&gt;By far, the nicest people I have come across have been in the metal scene. I&amp;#x27;ve been invited around to try gear, and been offered the lend of more gear from heavy metal guitarists.&lt;p&gt;My former co-founder in my business is a fan of extreme Northern European metal, and she is one of the nicest people I&amp;#x27;ve met.</text></comment>
<story><title>Death metal music inspires joy not violence</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47543875</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>RickS</author><text>Great to see research coming to a conclusion I think most metalheads intuitively know.&lt;p&gt;I love walls of sound, I love intensity that feels like it takes a surplus of cognitive bandwidth (ADHD) and gives it a little bit of resistance to tug against, almost like those various rubber stress toys. I think most metal fans hear lyrical gruesomeness as something between fantasy and a cause for more empathy than anything else. And let&amp;#x27;s be real, a lot of it is flat out unintelligible. It&amp;#x27;s an aesthetic.&lt;p&gt;Most of the metalheads I know are absolute teddybears. I listen to some pretty heavy stuff (see links), but the other day I cried at a dog video, and recently had to turn off the police scanner at the mention of a particularly sad crime.  Mosh pits look scary but there&amp;#x27;s a shared ethical framework. Injuries happen, but they&amp;#x27;re almost never due to malice. Somebody falls down, you pick em up. Bigger people stomp around keeping the peace and returning lost shoes, aha. It&amp;#x27;s bounded, consensual violence – just like a martial art.&lt;p&gt;Exceptions exist – there are church burners and skinheads, but they tend to cluster in their own sects and you don&amp;#x27;t get mixed up with them accidentally.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;E9z-Tipz5JQ?t=40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;E9z-Tipz5JQ?t=40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;Y037ZIKckIY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;Y037ZIKckIY&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;9YkSki1qbLA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;9YkSki1qbLA&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stcredzero</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Most of the metalheads I know are absolute teddybears. I listen to some pretty heavy stuff (see links), but the other day I cried at a dog video, and recently had to turn off the police scanner at the mention of a particularly sad crime.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a weird rule of opposites which can happen with music. I think people often take up art and music as a form of healing, so there&amp;#x27;s some kind of reaction vector involved. Lots of people who take up Irish Trad are tortured souls or have &amp;quot;thorny&amp;quot; sides. Also, the corpus has a lot of happy sounding songs talking about truly horrible things.</text></comment>