Essay: "Metal Made Me Do It" , by Miah J. Davis -29 February 2008

Many researchers have examined the effects of how music provokes violent behavior. The effects of music on the behavior of people become an important issue because of how much time the average person spends listening to music. Be it on the radio, while watching a music video on television, or while shuffling through one’s personal MP3 player or IPOD. Given that many researchers make it their goal to show the link between violent music and violent behavior. What, exactly, is the nature of violent music? What makes it so violent? Is it the hard music? Or is it the lyrics themselves?

Two of the most popular genres of music as it pertains to invoking violence are Rap and Hard Rock. These two genres have been taken criticism for almost every kind of act of violence in the modern world from gang violence, to sexual assault, and have even been linked to massacres such as the shootings in Columbine and Virginia Tech. What the world must come to understand is that music cannot make a person do anything. Music is solely capable of putting thoughts in one’s head, or perhaps altering his mood, but music can not make someone execute an action.

One of the most despondent of events in American history occurred on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Armed with semiautomatic weapons, seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting rampage killing 13 people and wounding 24 others before finally committing suicide. Being that many of their peers classified the seniors as part of the “Goth” subculture, parents and the media immediately looked to their preferred genre of music to blame, and particularly targeted one artist: Marilyn Manson. Well known for his eerily hellish appearance, Manson was harshly ridiculed for his “satanic” music, and fearing for his own life and career, contributed commanding columns to various magazines, of these being Rolling Stone, where he “denies any culpability in the killings or ties to the assailants,” (Geist 93). As a result of the massacre at Columbine, people have been particularly paying attention to the music industry and its effects on people’s thinking patterns.

There have been many studies done to show the effects of violent music on behavior and aggression. Of these was one done by Eliana Tropeano, an undergraduate psychology student at Western Connecticut State University. In her study, she examined 33 students, each in groups of eleven, a group was showed violent music videos, another showed calm videos, and the other being the control, was showed nothing. The purpose of her research was to show if watching violent music videos would make the subjects answer questions with violent, aggressive responses. In her conclusion, Tropeano did notice that the subjects that had watched the violent music videos did in fact respond to the questions posed more aggressively. “When the angry, violent, aggressive, vulgar videos were shown, participants portrayed a massive amount of hostility; their moods were changing as the video continued, as did their behavior. They also answered the scenario questions with the most violent answers,” (Tropeano 3).

The problem with Eliana Tropeano’s undergraduate study is this: answering a question has nothing to do with one’s actions. A man can say he will kill his wife. That does not mean that he will do it. Yes, her research proved that in certain situations where there is violent music present it can invoke violent and aggressive THOUGHT process, thus giving her violent and aggressive answers to her questions. There is no post study showing that after the subjects finished her survey that they went home and inflicted damage or pain upon something. There were no long term effects of this video she showed. Her results are based on a temporary session between 33 college students that does not exceed the surveillance.

The mainstream media has control over the music industry. Too many people blame the musicians for their music, but they have to put out what sells. In most cases, it is not the music that gets in people’s mind, but rather, the images they see to go along with their favorite song. Roger Bourland says, "Music has to be SEEN nowadays, and not just heard. People more readily click on YouTube video clips than mp3 examples. I find myself discouraged by our increasingly visual culture,” (Sound vs. Sight). Many people in the modern culture do not really listen to the words to a song as much as they take in the images placed before them on a 32 inch high definition screen. Thus, if there is a song with a breathtaking guitar riff, just listening to it will not make the average person think anything violently. But if they make that guitar solo into a shootout scene in an arbitrary bar the entire meaning of that part of the song changes for people.

Now back to the question at hand. What, exactly, is the nature of violent music? Well, “violent” music has many elements. It is defined by its lyrics. It is also defined by the music placed in the company of the lyrics. The main definer of violent music is the image that is instilled in peoples’ minds as a result of the music or a music video. And even though violent music videos can bring forth violent thoughts and aggressive reactions to things, it is not responsible for the actions of people. People control themselves. Music is just something used to make time go by faster.

Work Cited

• “Metal Made Me Do It,” by Brandon Geist. Revolver Magazine, Issue September 2007; Article
• “Does Rap or Rock Music Provoke Violent Behavior?” study by Eliana Tropeano; Journal of Undergraduate Psychological Studies, Vol. 1, 2006. Western Connecticut University
• “Musically Miscellaneous Mayhem: Sound vs. Sight” by http://miscellaneousmayhem.blogspot.com/2007/08/sound-vs-sight.html