Does metal make you mental?

A researcher at the University of Melbourne, Dr Katrina McFerran, has just released findings claiming that:

"... young people at risk of depression are more likely to be listening to music, particularly heavy metal music, in a negative way. Examples of this are when someone listens to the same song or album of heavy metal over and over again and doesn't listen to anything else. They do this to isolate themselves or escape from reality. If this behavioural continues over a period of time then it might indicate that this young person is suffering from depression or anxiety, and at worst, might suggest suicidal tendencies."

Exactly what this research means by 'heavy metal music' is unclear. Is it referring to classic metal bands in the Black Sabbath or Slayer mould, 80s bands like Van Halen, Iron Maiden or Aerosmith; the Metallica school, or are they lumping all the variations such as hardcore, thrash, death metal, grindcore etc into the one basket?

This debate about whether certain types of music can affect one's mental health and behaviour has been going on for years. In the days of LPs, it was alleged that if you played certain records backwards evil messages could be heard. Playing a particular Beatles album backwards would subtly inform you that "Paul is dead", part of a strange belief that Mr McCartney perished years ago and for the past 30 years an impersonator has been issuing trite pop albums in his name.

It surprised many people who attempted to hear these dangerous messages that when they tried to play an LP backwards it either snapped the stylus or destroyed their turntable. A specific DJ or 'scratch' stylus is needed to play LPs backwards and belt-drive turntables tended to rebel when forced to rotate in the opposite direction.

Nevertheless, the apparent dangers of metal music were brought to the fore in the US in 1985 when 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Raymond Belknap, who had binged on alcohol, dope and the music of metal band Judas Priest, attempted to kill themselves. James died from shotgun wounds but Raymond lived, albeit with horrific injuries. Their parents blamed the music and initiated a civil suit claiming the Judas Priest song Better By You, Better By Me (which was a cover version) contained a subliminal message saying "do it", which the parents reckoned commanded their children to suicidal behaviour. One member of Judas Priest commented that sending messages suggesting their fans take their own lives would be counterproductive and if they were to insert a subliminal message it would be "buy more of our records".

The subliminal message merchants never adapted to the compact disc. Since CDs superseded LPs, the claims that certain albums or songs played counterclockwise directly lead to suicide or violence seem to have disappeared but the debate about metal music and mental health continues.

The question is whether it is heavy metal music played endlessly that impacts on young people's mental health and resilience, or are we talking about young people at risk that may gravitate to any cultural form that either reinforces or triggers existing mental health issues?

Why doesn't constantly listening to 12-bar blues, with its maudlin sense of loss and hardship, its downbeat attitudes born out of racism and exclusion, its weeping guitars and heartfelt vocals, also trigger depression and anxiety? Country music hardly uplifts the spirit or inspires one to cherish life's rich pageantry. Listening to the tale of Billie Joe McAllister jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge or discovering that by the time Glen Campbell did get to Phoenix, his girl wouldn't be laughing at the note he left telling her he's leaving, is equally melancholy.

Music is rife with songs about death, despair and suicide. The theme to the popular movie/TV show M.A.S.H (and a number-one hit in the US) was titled Suicide Is Painless, yet this hardly rates a mention when linking music to mental illness and suicide.

Metal music certainly has some worrying aspects that go beyond taste and musical ability. The lyrics can be nihilistic and reinforce alienation and exclusion and the repetitive song structure may indeed be detrimental if listened to endlessly - but this holds true for other musical forms, especially gangsta and hardcore rap. Some rap music is misogynistic and celebratory of violent gang culture; women are hos and aggression, drugs and sexism abound.

Heavy dance music too can also be repetitive and droning. Some dance music is associated with a certain drug culture, whereas the style of music known as 'straight-edge hardcore' eschews drugs, alcohol and hedonistic behaviour. Which is more likely to affect young minds?

While heavy metal, like all forms of modern music, has aspects that might be negative, it is also a style of music that brings young people together and provides enormous benefits in ways non-fans don't appreciate. Thirty years ago parents feared Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne; today bad hair bands like Poison, Bon Jovi, Vixen or fat Axl Rose seem unintentionally funny. Even at the fringes, death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse, Entombed and Napalm Death carry a sense of absurdist humour reminiscent of punk rock. And like punk, there is a lot of intended and unintended humour in metal music.

Of a more serious concern is that research is not telling us how many young people didn't take their life or were 'saved' because of a song or album. For example, Pearl Jam's Alive has been credited by people at risk as being life affirming and lifesaving.

Music, in whatever form or style, also brings a sense of community and belonging, especially to young people. The theorist Lawrence Grossberg has written about rock music being part of the cultural formation of identity in young people. Youth, says Grossberg, "is a matter of chronology, sociology, ideology, experience, style, attitude" and the way young people invest in and live within the formations of rock music is what changes the construction of both youth and rock music.

In other words, Goth culture, or metal, punk, rap or indeed any style or scene may be difficult to understand from outside, but from within it is shaped by the audience and provides a sense of identity and place, even peer support and resilience, especially to young people at risk.

Any music – not just heavy metal – that is played over and over and exclusively is likely to be detrimental to a young person's mental health. But like all things taken in moderation, heavy metal can be good for your health.

Simon Tatz is the director of communications for the Mental Health Council of Australia.