Metal music good medicine
Hard rock might ease the pain of hard knocks.
Forget the stereotypes about death-fixated metalheads skulking in the dark. One University of Saskatchewan student’s research has found metal music can have a positive effect on its female fans.
Anna Noura Kuhlmann, a Master’s student in counselling psychology, said her study has found the abrasive music has helped people with anxiety, depression, and even coping with a cancer diagnosis.
“A lot of the research I’ve found focuses on men and I got the impression that, even when studies find positive results, they word the questions with a negative spin,” Kuhlmann said, “I wanted to show that metal music can have positive results for female fans, even though it has such negative stereotypes about it.”
Beginning in the spring, Kuhlmann used an online survey to ask female metal music fans to describe when metal music had a positive effect on their lives. She amassed 224 responses, which correlated into seven common themes.
Metal music, the women said, had helped form or strengthen relationships, and had a positive influence on mental health and wellbeing. “I got a lot of responses where metal music helped fans through their anxiety or depression, or at least made it easier,” Kuhlmann said.
Others talked about how metal music helped to calm them down.
“I found that some fans could not police their emotions and the music expressed emotion for them,” she said, “Sometimes it allowed them to just let out emotions like anger or sadness and then come to positive emotions.”
Metal music also helped some participants overcome hardships. One woman said metal music helped her come to terms with a cancer diagnosis. Another found solace in metal when she was homeless.
“It gave her hope and a sense of, ‘You can get through this,’” Kuhlmann said.
Kuhlmann was inspired to study the positive effects of metal by her own passion for the music, which she fell in love with in high school. She started writing papers about the effects of metal music while working on her undergraduate degree. When she entered the Master’s program, Kuhlmann was paired with professor Jennifer Nichols, an accredited music therapist, as her thesis supervisor. Together, they developed the idea to study the positive influences of metal music on female fans.
Kuhlmann said she hopes to publish her findings in a research journal once her thesis is complete.
While other studies have linked metal music to higher rates of depression and anxiety, Kuhlmann said she is confident her findings will challenge these results and let people see the music she loves in a different light.
“I think it shows how music, no matter what kind it is, can have a really positive influence on people,” she said.
“I FOUND THAT SOME FANS COULD NOT POLICE THEIR EMOTIONS AND THE MUSIC EXPRESSED EMOTION FOR THEM.”
ANNA NOURA KUHLMANN