Heavy metal suicides Music outside of the "mainstream" is typically regarded with wariness. Especially when the music is heavy, hard, loud, and makes full use of the right to freedom of speech and expression (i.e.offensive language). In other words, if the music isn't pleasant and positive, it is targeted for being a "bad" influence on its listeners and performers. While this may be true in some isolated cases, it has been my experience that heavy metal music is simply another genre of the long list of musical styles. Most of the performers and fans of metal music that I've encountered have at first given me an impression of hardness or cruelty, but in talking to them, I've realized that they are just normal people who happen to like their music to have a certain edge. I like jazz music, but that doesn't make me a brainless coke-fiend (I have no good reason for using stereotypes from the 1960s).
Of course, there are isolated cases. Such as the case in 1985 where two families sued the metal band Judas Priest. Their claim was that the music of Judas Priest drove two young men to kill themselves after listening to the band's music. For me, this brings up an interesting question, not unlike the question that Rob Gordon asks in the movie High Fidelity. "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" In my case: Am I neurotic because I am a woodwind player? Or am I a woodwind player because I'm neurotic? The whole chicken vs. egg thing.
So, does metal music make people behave violently or have an adverse reaction (how's that for a euphemism?), or are people who are predisposed to this kind of behaviour attracted to metal music? Just as many violent things happen to (and are caused by) people who listen to other kinds of music.
What do you think?
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