EXTREME METAL AND
ANGER ISSUES
Introduction
Music is a
widely available form of media with the ability to influence attitudes and
manipulate emotions (Juslin and Sloboda, 2010; Wheeler et al., 2011), and
listeners are drawn to music that reflects or improves their emotional state (Saarikallio, 2011; Thoma et al., 2012; Papinczak et al., 2015). Heavy
metal, emotional (emo), hardcore, punk, screamo, and each of their subgenres
form the category of “extreme” music. Extreme music is characterized by
chaotic, loud, heavy, and powerful sounds, with emotional vocals, often containing
lyrical themes of anxiety, depression, social isolation, and loneliness (Shafron and Karno, 2013).
Perhaps, due to these musical characteristics, it has been claimed that extreme
music leads to anger, and expressions of anger such as aggression, delinquency,
drug use, and suicidal acts (Selfhout et al., 2008).
Certainly, evidence is available regarding the effect of a listeners’ emotional
state on their choice and preference for music listening even when angry.
Research on anger processing has found that approach motivation (defined as the
impulse to move forward) may be activated by anger (Carver and Harmon-Jones, 2009), such
that after experiencing anger we then look to act out approach motivated
behaviors, for example, angry facial expression and physical retaliation.
Considering the highly arousing nature of the music, along with negative themes
commonly contained in the lyrics, extreme music has been interpreted as eliciting anger
among its listeners, and that this may activate aggressive behaviors (Gowensmith and Bloom, 1997). It is
equally plausible, however, that extreme music may be chosen when a listener is
angry, because the arousing nature of the music may match the already present
internal arousal of the listener and allow him/her to explore and process this
emotional state. This study will explore these alternative hypotheses about the
influence of extreme music listening on anger processing in a sample of extreme
music listeners under controlled experimental conditions.
Extreme
Music
Extreme
music genres began to emerge in the early 1970s with the decline of the “free
love” and optimistic culture of the 1960s (Stack et al., 1994). Due to
the consequences of the 1960s era of drug experimentation, decline of peaceful
protest movements, and the continuation of the Vietnam War, angry and
pessimistic themes began to emerge in new genres of music (Reddick and Beresin, 2002). Thus,
punk and heavy metal music were dedicated to notions of anarchy and destruction
(Stack et al., 1994; Reddick and Beresin, 2002; Lozon and Bensimon, 2014).
Following the rise of punk and heavy metal, a range of new genres and subgenres
surfaced. Hardcore, death metal, emotional/emotional-hardcore (emo), and
screamo appeared throughout the 1980s, gradually becoming more a part of
mainstream culture. Each of these genres and their subgenres are
socio-politically charged and, as mentioned earlier, are characterized by heavy
and powerful sounds with expressive vocals.
At the
forefront of controversy surrounding extreme music is the prominence of
aggressive lyrics and titles, such as “Pure Hatred” by Chimaira and “Violent
Revolution” from the band Kreator. In a series of five experiments involving first
year psychology students and student volunteers (unselected in terms of
demographic characteristics or musical preference), Anderson et al. (2003) played
musically equivalent songs with and without violent lyrics to the participants.
They found that listening to songs with violent lyrics increased participants’
state hostility relative to listening to non-violent songs. However, this
effect was fleeting and it was disrupted when the participants did intervening
tasks. Other research shows that lyrical content is one of the mechanisms
linking music with emotional response, although many other musical variables,
contextual variables, and individual listener variables also play a role (Juslin and Västfjäll, 2008; Juslin et al., 2008).
The
powerful vocals that exist in the most extreme genres such as screamo, where
nearly all lyrics are screamed at the listener, may account for the perception
by outsiders that this music is angry. From this stems a stereotype that
extreme music fans, and especially heavy metal fans, are more aggressive,
agitated, and more aroused than the general public (Arnett, 1991; Alessi et al., 1992).
Furthermore, extreme music has been held responsible for social problems like
depression, suicide, aggressive behavior, and substance misuse (Shafron and Karno, 2013). Some
researchers have used the term “problem music” in reference to these genres,
meaning music that is associated with psychological vulnerability and social
deviance (North and Hargreaves, 2006; Bodner and Bensimon, 2014; Lozon and Bensimon, 2014). In the
case of substance use, for example, a correlational study of 7,324 Dutch
adolescents found that when all other factors were controlled, preferences for
punk/hardcore, techno/hardhouse, and reggae music were associated with more
substance use, whereas preferences for pop and classical music were linked to
less substance use. A preference for rap/hip-hop only indicated elevated
smoking among girls and, interestingly, a preference for heavy metal was
associated with less smoking among boys and less drinking
among girls (Mulder et al., 2009). This
evidence does not support a causal view. Extreme music typically does not
contain themes of illicit drug use, although some songs do contain lyrics
related to alcohol use. Indeed, the movement known as “straight edge” is a
subgenre of hardcore punk, whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco,
and other recreational drugs. Furthermore, there are documented examples of rap
music being used in therapeutic ways with samples of people who misuse
substances (Baker et al., 2012; Lightstone, 2012).
A review
by Baker and Bor (2008) found
a relationship between various genres of music and antisocial behaviors, vulnerability
to suicide, and drug use among young people. However, there was no evidence in
these studies for a causal link, and it was instead suggested that music
preference is a reflection of emotional vulnerability in these young listeners.
More recently, Bodner and Bensimon (2014) investigated
personality traits and uses of music to influence emotions among 548 middle
class university students aged 18–43 years, who were subdivided into two groups
based on their preference for “problem music” genres (N = 255 fans
of heavy metal, punk, alternative rock, hip-hop, and rap) or “non-problem
music” (N = 293 who did not endorse any of these in their top three
musical genres). There were no differences between the two samples across the
big five personality dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism, openness to
experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness). In terms of uses of music to
influence emotions, there were no differences between groups in their use of
music for entertainment and strong sensation; however, there were small
differences in use of music for revival, diversion, emotional discharge, mental
work, and solace. In each case, the problem music fans used music for emotion
regulation slightly more than the non-problem music fans. The authors
interpreted their findings to mean that listening to these types of music
allows problem music fans to regulate their mood in a more sublimated way,
instead of externalizing negative emotions, which in turn could lead to
engaging in antisocial acts.
Extreme
Music and Anger
Some
evidence is available regarding the effect of listeners’ emotional states on
their choice and preference for music listening when angry. Shafron and Karno (2013) examined
music preferences in a sample of 551 university students and divided the sample
into two groups: those who preferred heavy metal and hard rock genres (57%) and
the rest. The heavy music fans showed significantly higher symptoms of
depression and anxiety than the non-fans; however, there was no difference
between the two groups on trait anger. Gowensmith and Bloom (1997) found
that heavy metal fans did not show an increase in anger after listening to
heavy metal music. In this study, heavy metal music was highly arousing to both
fans and non-fans, and in fact, measured state-arousal was greater among heavy
metal listeners. Despite the arousing influence of the music, heavy metal fans
displayed no difference in self-reported anger whether they were listening to a
non-preferred music genre (country) or heavy metal. Non-fans, on the other
hand, did display greater self-reported anger after listening to heavy metal.
It is unclear whether the non-fans were angry as a result of the musical
characteristics, or because they were being asked to listen to something they
did not enjoy. So, although there is evidence that heavy metal increases state
arousal (Stack et al., 1994; Gowensmith and Bloom, 1997), there
is as yet insufficent evidence that it causes increased anger.
In a more
naturalistic study, Labbé et al. (2007) found
that after experiencing a state of induced stress or anger, participants
listening to classical music chosen by the experimenter or their own
self-selected “calming” music (of any genre) showed significant reductions in
anger and anxiety. These reductions were evident in both self-reported ratings
and in reduced physiological arousal (heart rate, respiration, and skin
conductance) during music listening. In contrast, participants who listened to
heavy metal after the stress induction did not reduce self-reported negative
emotional states or physiological arousal. However, it is important to note
that heavy metal was not a preferred music genre for these participants. This
finding highlights the importance of personally selected music in determining
the emotional response. Although this research suggests that a song considered
relaxing by the listener should reduce anger and stress in the presence of a
stressor, it remains to be seen whether this effect generalizes to extreme
music genres.
Considering
the Case of Music and Sadness
Related
research on another negatively valenced emotion, sadness, might help to shed
some light on music and anger processing. Some studies show that people listen
to sad music when they are sad in order to improve their mood (Saarikallio and Erkkila, 2007). For
instance, Papinczak et al. (2015) showed
in both qualitative and quantitative studies with participants aged 15–25 years
that they used music to immerse in negative moods such as sadness – a strategy
that helped to process their sadness and to feel better. Similarly, a study of
65 adults from five countries found that when they were feeling sad, sad music
helped these individuals to connect with their emotions through the music to
fully experience sadness and consequently improve their affect (Van den Tol and Edwards, 2013). Despite
evoking sadness, Finnish university students reported that they enjoy listening
to sad music, and this effect was partly explained by personality traits such
as openness to experience and empathy (Vuoskoski et al., 2012). On the
other hand, some studies have reported that listening to sad music results in a
more depressed mood among participants (Chen et al., 2007; Dillman Carpentier et al., 2008; Garrido and Schubert, 2015) – an
effect that may be related to participants’ use of maladaptive emotion
regulation strategies such as rumination. So, the influence of negatively
valenced music on listeners appears to depend on the listening context, their
current mood, and moderation by other personality traits.
Study Aims
and Hypotheses
To
summarize the literature reviewed here, research on music and emotion supports
the function of music to convey and elicit strong emotion. However, to date
there has been a limited amount of research on extreme music genres and anger,
with the exception of correlational studies showing an association, and one
series of experiments claiming that listening to extreme music increases state
hostility (Anderson et al., 2003). Thus,
the current study sought to explore this question by recruiting extreme music
listeners for an experimental study on the effects of extreme music listening
(compared to a no music control condition) on anger processing. Given that
personally selected music is capable of determining emotional responses (Labbé et al., 2007),
participants were asked to bring along their personal music players to the
experiment. In contrast to Labbé and colleagues’ study in which the
participants were instructed to bring along music that they found relaxing, in
the current study participants were allowed to listen to any music from their
personal listening device that they preferred at the time.
Anger was
operationalized in this study in terms of both subjective ratings of hostility
and irritability and physiological recording of heart rate, which were expected
to increase when participants experienced an increase in anger. The
cardiovascular system is complex and has multiple regulatory subsystems from
central and peripheral autonomic nervous systems and humoral influences (Bernison et al., 2007). Resting
heart rate may be influenced by an individual’s age, aerobic fitness, posture,
and activity levels. This is less of a concern with within-subjects designs
such as was used in the current study, where the participant related factors
are kept constant while the experimental factor (e.g., music listening or
silence) is varied. Nevertheless, an increase in heart rate may reflect various
psychological states including anger, stress, excitement, or fear. Heart rate
should therefore be interpreted in combination with participants’ subjective
ratings (of these psychological states) for a more accurate assessment of
emotional response (Bernison et al., 2007).
According
to the “problem music causes anger” line of reasoning, extreme music listeners
who are angry would be expected to experience an increase in anger during
music listening (as shown in an increase in heart rate during music listening
and an increase in subjective anger ratings immediately following music
listening). Thus, the first two hypotheses for investigation are:
Hypothesis 1a: that on a self-report
measure of music and emotions, participants will endorse the statement that
they listen to extreme music to fully experience their anger but will disagree with
the statement that they listen to music to calm themselves down when feeling
angry; and
Hypothesis 1b: that the participants’
subjective ratings and physiological measure (i.e., heart rate) of anger will
increase during the anger induction and will continue to increase during
music listening, and relative to participants in the no music (control)
condition.
Another
body of research indicates that listeners are drawn to music that is concordant
with their current emotional state, and are able to use music as an emotion
regulation technique (Saarikallio, 2011; Thoma et al., 2012; Papinczak et al., 2015).
According to this “music regulates anger” line of reasoning, angered extreme
music fans would be expected to listen to music that matches their anger and
helps them to process it and feel better. Further, in Lozon and Bensimon (2014) review
on problem music, they also concluded that listeners of music containing themes
of aggression and suicidal ideation seemed to feel alleviated of angst and
aggression after listening. Thus the alternative hypotheses are:
H2a: that on a self-report measure of
music and emotions, participants will agree with the statements
that they listen to music to fully experience anger, and that listening to
music helps them to calm down when they are angry;
H2b: that the participants’ subjective
ratings and physiological measure (i.e., heart rate) of anger will increase
during the anger induction but will not continue to increase during
music listening, and relative to participants in the no music (control)
condition.
H2c: that, in accordance with the idea
that extreme music may be a method for processing anger, participants in the
music listening condition will feel better after music listening compared to
the no music control participants, as shown by their endorsement of positively
valenced emotions such as “relaxed” and “inspired.”
A
secondary aim for the study was to analyze what the participants in the music
condition selected from their own playlists to listen to when they were angry.
This analysis will investigate the features of their chosen music in terms of
genre, whether the songs contained angry lyrics, and the speed of tempo
(beats/min).
H3: it was
predicted that angry participants would select extreme music from their
playlists that matched their anger in terms of high tempo and angry lyrics.
Materials
and Methods
Participants
There were
40 people recruited to the study; however, one person’s data were unusable so
the final sample consisted of 39 participants (72% male), with ages ranging
from 18 to 34 years (M = 22.36, SD = 3.19 years). Advertisements
requested participants for a study of the potential benefits of extreme music
listening. It specified that participants should enjoy one or more extreme
genres of music, such as heavy metal, punk, hardcore, and screamo, and listen
to these at least 50% of the time they chose to listen to music. When
individuals confirmed their participation, they were asked to bring along their
personal music listening device to the laboratory. Three quarters of the
participants (74%) were born in Australia, with the remainder born in New
Zealand, USA, New Caledonia, South Africa, Indonesia, Sweden, and Oman. Seven
participants were recruited via the online recruitment site (SONA) at the
University of Queensland, receiving course credit for respective first year
psychology courses. The remaining participants were recruited from the wider
community via word of mouth and advertising on social media and community
websites. They received a $10 iTunes voucher as compensation for their time and
interest.
In regards
to musical involvement, 41% of the participants currently played a musical
instrument or sang, 51% attended live concerts on a regular basis (at least
once a month), 44% composed music, and 23% had taught music, although it was
not the same subsample engaging in all of these musical activities. Of the six
activities included in the questionnaire, participants engaged in an average of
three, which is similar to other research conducted in unselected adult samples
(authors, unpublished research). The average number of years playing an
instrument or singing was 6.19 years (SD = 5.22 years). The most commonly
reported musical preferences were: classic metal 60%, death metal 17.5%,
progressive metal 15%, punk 12.5%, power metal 7.5%, melodic metal 7.5%, folk
metal 5%, black metal 5%, thrash metal 5%, death core 5%, and hard core 5%.
Note that, as most participants indicated more than one preferred genre, the
overall figure is above 100%. Table 1 shows means and SDs on the demographic,
musical, and mood variables for the two conditions (music listening and
control), and t-tests indicated no differences between the two
conditions on these variables.
Procedure
Participants
were randomly assigned to either the music or control condition before the
study began. To avoid extraneous influences on heart rate, participants were
asked to refrain from smoking, exercise, and drinking caffeinated and alcoholic
beverages for at least 3 h before participating (this was checked with questions
in the questionnaire). For the baseline heart rate recording, participants were
given a diagram and instructions on how to attach their recording electrodes,
and then asked to sit silently for 5 min and “not to think about anything in
particular.” Following this, participants were asked to complete the first set
of Positive and Negative Affect Scale (see PANAS in Measures) questions (T1).
The experimenter then conducted the 16-min anger interview. Following this,
participants completed the second set of PANAS questions (T2). Those assigned
to the music condition were instructed to select song(s) of their preference
from their personal music device, and were instructed to listen for 10 min.
Although all participants were asked to bring their music devices to the
experiment, this was the first moment that participants were told they would be
listening to music. This was done to ensure that participants would select
songs that they would typically listen to when feeling angry. Participants in
the control condition were asked to “wait quietly for the next part of the
experiment” and sat in silence for the next 10 min. All participants then
completed the PANAS items for a third time (T3) followed by a structured
interview about the emotional influence of music and the final questionnaires,
which included the emotional influence of music questions, DASS, and
demographic and musical involvement questionnaire (refer to measures).
Participants were then debriefed. The average time for experiment completion
was 50 min. Ethical clearance for the procedures and materials was granted
through the university ethics committee.
Measures
Demographics and Musical Involvement
Participants
responded to demographic questions such as age and gender. Participants’
musical background and current musical involvement was assessed in a
questionnaire consisting of seven dichotomous (yes/no) questions, such as “do
you attend concerts or live music on a regular basis (i.e., at least once a
month)?” Participants were also asked to identify the number of years (to the
nearest 6 months) that they had played an instrument or sung during their
lifetime. These seven items have been used in previous research by the authors
and colleagues (blinded for review), and found to have good internal
consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.76).
Physiological Measure of Emotion
Heart rate
was recorded according to published guidelines (Bernison et al., 2007): 10-mm pre-gelled
Ag/AgCl disposable electrodes were attached over the lower rib on the left side
of the torso and to the participant’s chest on both the right and left to
record a lead III electrocardiogram (ECG). These leads were attached to a MP150
Biopac ECG system. Signals were digitized at 1000 Hz and saved for offline
analyses. Heart rate, expressed as the number of beats per min (bpm), was
sampled across the following time periods: 5 min baseline, 12 min anger
induction, 10 min music or no music listening, and final 2 min of music
listening and silence to yield an average heart rate (bpm) for each segment.
Modified Positive and Negative Affect
Scale
Repeated
measures of participants’ subjective emotional state was assessed with a
modified version of the PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) using
the time instructions “at the moment”. Participants were instructed to indicate
how they felt at that very moment and rate 10 emotional words on a 5-point
Likert scale from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Five
emotions had positive valence (e.g., “inspired” and “enthusiastic”), and five
emotions had negative valence (e.g., “irritable,” “hostile,” and “guilty”).
Emotional Influence of Music
Participants
were asked nine dichotomous (yes/no) questions during a structured interview,
regarding the extent to which they listened to extreme music in order to change
an emotion (e.g., “when you are sad, do you listen to music that improves
your mood?”) or to fully experience an emotion (e.g., “when you are
angry, do you listen to music to fully experience that anger?”). The
emotions were: happy, sad, angry, and anxious, with two extra items relating to
“in love” and “well-being”. This questionnaire was adapted from a Likert-type
scale version used in an international survey of 394 adults (authors blinded
for review), which found an adequate internal consistency of items on the
Change Emotions subscale of α = 0.73 and on the Experience Emotions subscale of
α = 0.71 (Papinczak et al., 2015).
Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale
The
Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS) is a 42-item questionnaire
assessing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress over the past week (Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995).
Questions were measured on a 4-point Likert-type scale from 0 (did not apply to
me at all) to 3 (applied to me very much, or most of the time), with seven
items summed to produce each of the three subscales scores: depression,
anxiety, and stress. In our sample, the internal consistency values were:
depression (α = 0.91), anxiety (α = 0.84), and stress (α = 0.90). Assessment of
the DASS (42) on a non-clinical sample (N = 1771) (Crawford and Henry, 2003) found
means for depression, anxiety, and stress to be 5.55 (SD = 7.48), 3.56 (SD =
5.39), and 9.27 (SD = 8.04), respectively.
Anger Interview
The stress
interview proposed by Dimsdale et al. (1988), and
modified by Lobbestael et al. (2008), was used
for anger induction. The interview involved participants describing one or more
events that produced a strong feeling of anger over a period of 16 min.
Participants were presented with a list of topics to help with prompting their
recall of angering scenarios, based on those used by Dimsdale et al. (1988) such
as “partner/spouse”, “work/work colleagues,” and “finances”.. Other
researchers, such as Burns et al. (2003) and Malatesta-Magai et al. (1992), have
demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique in their respective studies,
finding effects with only a 10-min interview.
Music and Headphones
As
mentioned, participants were asked to bring in their personal music players to
the laboratory, and those in the music listening condition were asked to play
music from their own collection during the listening phase. Those in the experimental
condition listening to their preferred music were provided with Sennheiser
HD201 closed headphones.
Results
Self-Report
Results
The means
and SDs on the DASS show that symptoms of depression, anxiety, or stress were
in the normal range, and there were no differences between participants in the
two conditions. Responses to the nine questions about extreme music influence
on emotions are displayed in Table 2. A majority agreed with the statements
that they listened to extreme music to fully experience anger (79%) and to calm
themselves down when feeling angry (69%). They also listened to extreme music
to improve other negative moods such as sadness (74%) and less commonly,
anxiety (33%). An overwhelming majority stated that they listen to extreme
music to enhance their happiness (87%) and to enhance their well-being (100%).
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