Evil and Satanic, is what you would probably call heavy metal music today. MarilynManson, Anthrax, Metallica and Cannibal Corpse are a few of the many heavy metal groups of todays music world. Heavy metal contains music that should be more carefully analyzed by parents.
It also affects the way teens think. Also this music can imply outward violence toward others. Heavy metal is a partial cause for teen violence and suicide. Numbing and influencial, teen violence and suicide can start with heavy metal music, I failed to recognize my son was holding a hand grenade and it was live and it was going off in his mind.
, is what Raymond Kuntz said after his 15-year-old son Richard had shown him a CD byMarilyn Manson and later killed himself after listening to his music. Dr. Frank Palumbo from the American Academy of Pediatrics said:Make no mistake about it, music can summon a rangeof emotions, most of which are wonderful. Yet there issome music that communicates potentially harmful healthmessages, especially when it reaches a vulnerable audience.
(Palumbo)The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) believes parents should better research the music their teens listen to more carefully and that the music industries should make more positive video themes. The more the parents research and monitor their teens music, the less they have to worry about fatal reactions toward it and other violence that would come from the music of their teens. Almost every parent in America would do what you did. It didn’t look like a handgrenade.
It looked like a CD. said Joseph Liberman who was trying to comfort Mr. Kuntz (Kenen). If we research what teens listen to we could prevent violence and suicide from happening. Thus, from a testimony from the American Academy of Pediatrics there are many statements that imply that heavy metal music is partially to blame for suicide and violence by teens because of it’s dangerous lyrics.
One part of this testimony states:To date , no studies have documented a cause-and-effect relationship between sexually explicitor violent lyrics and adverse behavioral effects,i. e. , I’ll listen to a song about killing someone and therefore I go out andkill. But we can all acknowledge the overall effect music has on people,including adolescents and children. Otherwise , we wouldn’t listen to it.
. . and teenagers become absorbed in songs they believe help better definethem during this rocky transition into adulthood. (Palumbo)If teens are exposed to music daily the more they accept the devastating implications in the music as if it was their lunch or daily schooling. The only way to stop teens from listening would be to totally get rid of the heavy metal genre itself or stop the use of the violent and suicide implicating lyrics in the music. Teens are vulnerable to many things especially music.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, they conducted a study which found that teens on average listen to 40 hours of music per week(Palumbo). That is 7 and one half hours more than an average school week. It sounds like teens are getting more from music than they are from their teachers they see 5 out of 7 days per week. This music can affect their school life and affect the way they think and act while in and around school. Heavy metal can lead to violence and suicide in teens from listening to the music they do. One study done by David Merrell from Suffolk,Virginia, somewhat proves heavy metal is bad for teens.
However, his study was done on 72 male laboratory mice. He used 3 groups of 24 mice, a control group with no music, a heavy metal group that listened to Anthrax, and a classical group that listened to Mozart. Each group had 12 hours of light each day while they were running the maze with no music and each group had an average time of 10 minutes(Eaton). But after listening to their group’s music for 10 hours each day and running the maze 3 times per week, each group came up with a different average after one month of the maze. The control group ran the maze in 5 minutes.
The Mozart group ran the maze in 1 minute and 30 seconds and the Anthrax group ran the maze at an average of 30 minutes(Eaton). Then, at the end of David’s experiment, the Anthrax group all killed each other. If heavy metal can have this effect on mice just think of what this music might do to a teenager in todays world with all the violence in the school and normal community that they see every day. One thing that might point out the effects of this type of music may be the teen’s grades dropping and the teen not caring at all about it, or maybe theygo to school and all they do is skip class. The violence they may take forth could be very dangerous and harmful not toward others but also toward themselves.
Not only something like physical damage toward them but also mental damage that may never heal. This damage is a possible reason to retaliate against others not just in the community but also in the school, like Kip Kinkle in Oregon or the teens in the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado or possibly toward their immediate family they live with or their further relatives. You could relate this to the mouse experiment that David Merrell did as all of the heavy metal mice killed each other which portrays the outward violence toward others in school and in the community(Eaton). Also Raymond Kuntz’s son Richard was writing a school term paper on Marilyn Manson when he committed suicide(Kenen). Coincidence? Probably not.
If mice can be influenced by something they can not comprehend something is up. There has to be something like mind numbing radio waves or tones in some kind of a sequnce to mentally dismantle some one from the inside-out. Also, if a term paper and a little music can kill you, stopping this assisted-suicidal music at its source does not sound bad at all. Heavy metal influences outward violence towards others in many ways.
Drawn to an act of complete domination-violent urges of decapitation pre-meditated murder,invidious-soon she will be vanquished, insidious is a disturbing verse from Cannibal Corpse:Gallery of Suicide. It sounds to be a very disturbed band who has probably influenced many people to do not nice things. In the verse above one can depict a message to beat and kill an innocent woman or girlfriend. Lyrics such as these are probably what teach teens to go out and kill, beat, or rape someone for fun or as a group activity. The Columbine school shooting in Colorado probably had something to do with explicit lyrics in music the teens were listening to. These lyrics are probably also incorperated with hate and anger for other people at that school that had some effect on discrimination and ridicule of the teens who let loose a barrage of ammunition and hatred in Columbine on that day.
Many lead singers have commited suicide due to their music and music from others as well. For example, Curt Kobain from Nirvana; a death which devastated the alternative/heavy metal genre for a long while. During many news casts after the Columbine shooting the media blamed one particular group for the murderous rampage at the school and that group was Marilyn Manson. The Anti-Christ superstar has been the most targeted musician for teen deaths in the past 5 years(Rosen).
However the media still only points him out instead of the entire heavy metal world and how it has effected thousands of peoples lives through a little thing called a CD. Its like passing out live ammunition at stores all over the world, to all ages of people of all genders as a sort of mental weapon to be used at home and store thoughts of death and destruction for all to have. After all you have to have something to blame the lives of young innocent people for being corrupted by a few explicit lyrics. Temptation to kill again- The sensation comes over me, An addiction to murdering-I can’t stop killing Another verse from Cannibal Corpse: The Bleeding sounds like the mind of a killer and tempts teens to go out and start shooting rampages and killing schoolmates, family and innocent others.
If your child thinks like this get them help. They really need it. Try to get them away from the music that will probably condem them to a bad way of life. Teens that are violent toward others probably could use a good role model to look up to and be a positive way to do things with. Show them they have been missing out on the fun things in life that have nothing to do with hate, death, or destruction towards themeselves or others as a way of life.
Role models are things everyone needs in their life no matter if it’s a cartoon or a real person they see everyday. A partial cause for the violence and suicide of teens is what you would call heavy metal. Parents have a large effect on what their teens do. They should more carefully review the music their teens are listening to, to prevent things like the suicide of their teen which has happened to many parents across the country today. So read the label next time at the mall. Just as in the 72 laboratory mice that ran through the maze, heavy metal may affect the way that teens think during school, at home,even while sleeping(Eaton) Just think about monitoring the time that they listen to their music during the day and their mentallity should stay normal as far as tests have shown.
Just don’t treat your teen as a mouse. And last, the suicide and violence toward others can be stopped or prevented by stopping the music at its source. The musicians and groups that pump out the music that can kill others and even your teen just as it did to Raymond Kuntzs’son Richard. In closing, music is a big part of the human experience and there is no possible way to avoid it. So while your taking the journey of life be careful of what music you stop and listen to because it can make your journey smooth or it can make it a rough one not just for you but the people around you and the people who care about you. So remember, read the label, take care of your mind, its the only one you have.
Treat each other with kindness and respect because you don’t know if it could come back and haunt you some day. BibliographyWorks CitedCannibal Corpse. The Bleeding. 1994 Metal Blade Records Inc.
2345 Erringer Rd. , Suite 108 Simi Valley CaliforniaCannibal Corpse Gallery of Suicide. 1998 Metal Blade Records Inc. 2828 Cochran St. Suite 302 Simi Valley CaliforniaEaton, Lorraine. Teen Proves Hard Rock’s Bad for You.
3 Aug. 1997Online. Available. http://newsherald.
com/education/rock86. htm15 Dec. 1999. Kenen, Joanne. Senate Panel Tunes into Music Violence.
8 Nov. 1997Online. Available. http://www. cnn. com/ 15 Dec.
1999. Palumbo, Frank. Social Impact of Music Violence. 6 Nov. 1997Online.
Available. http://www. aap. org/advocacy/washing/t1106. htm15 Dec.
1999Rosen, Hilary. Recording Industry Responds to Attack on Lyrics. 10 Dec. 1996. Online.
Available. http://www. riaa. com/censorship/pressrelease. htm 15 Dec. 1999.
Works CitedCannibal Corpse. The Bleeding. 1994 Metal Blade Records Inc. 2345 Erringer Rd. , Suite 108 Simi Valley CaliforniaCannibal Corpse Gallery of Suicide.
1998 Metal Blade Records Inc. 2828 Cochran St. Suite 302 Simi Valley CaliforniaEaton, Lorraine. Teen Proves Hard Rock’s Bad for You. 3 Aug.
1997Online. Available. http://newsherald. com/education/rock86. htm15 Dec. 1999.
Kenen, Joanne. Senate Panel Tunes into Music Violence. 8 Nov. 1997Online.
Available. http://www. cnn. com/ 15 Dec. 1999. Palumbo, Frank.
Social Impact of Music Violence. 6 Nov. 1997Online. Available.
http://www. aap. org/advocacy/washing/t1106. htm15 Dec. 1999Rosen, Hilary. Recording Industry Responds to Attack on Lyrics.
10 Dec. 1996. Online. Available. http://www.
riaa. com/censorship/pressrelease. htm 15 Dec. 1999.Music
