A scientific journal in the field of psychology, “Journal of Community Psychology“, published a study entitled “Contextualizing the mental health of metal youth: A community for social protection, identity, and musical empowerment” in which the authors Paula Rowe and Bernard Guerin attempted to show the influence of metal music on the psyche of young people. Of course, the study shows what we have known for a long time – this type of music is good for the mental health of people for multiple reasons.
Crowd at Belgrade Calling festival 2012, photo Marko Ristić
“Metal identities are popularly represented as leading to mental health issues but with flawed evidence. We documented the community contexts around metal and well-being by talking to young metalheads directly”, authors stated in a brief explanation of this study.
“By talking repeatedly, directly with young metalheads, it was found that metal identities were helping participants to survive the stress of challenging environments and build strong and sustained identities and communities, thus alleviating any potential mental health issues”, they concluded.
You can read this study here.
