Thread: Heavy Metal good for your mental health study shows

I already knew this of course.

https://www.revolvermag.com/culture/...-mental-health

It's one of the most iconic anti-metal talking points, carried down through the years by pundits and parents alike: Heavy-metal fans are troubled, angry people. A study from the University of Australia, published in a recent issue of Journal of Community Psychology, suggests the contrary, however, as Noisey points out. Written by Australian psychologists Paula Rowe and Bernard Guerin, the study, titled "Contextualizing the Mental Health of Metal Youth: A Community for Social Protection, Identity, and Musical Empowerment," draws from researchers' repeated, informal interviews with 28 young, Australian metalheads (23 men and five women). Based on these discussions, the researchers found that the metal identities and community actually helped insulate them from — rather than cause — mental health problems.

In the abstract, Rowe and Guerin single out four common factors connecting the metalheads' mental health profile. They reported being bullied or marginalized through social relationships at school; they felt the music helped cope with feelings of anger and ostracization; they found community in the metal fandom, whether in-person, online, or just in their own heads; and said their metalhead identities allowed them to both keep their tormentors at bay, and forging connections with their fellow fans.