Heavy Metal Bad For The Teenage Mind Essay

Evil and Satanic, is what you would probably call heavy metal music today. Marilyn
Manson, Anthrax, Metallica and Cannibal Corpse are a few of the many heavy metal groups of
todays music world. Heavy metal contains music that should be more carefully analyzed by
parents.It also affects the way teens think. Also this music can imply outward violence
toward others. Heavy metal is a partial cause for teen violence and suicide.

Numbing and influencial, teen violence and suicide can start with heavy metal music, I
failed to recognize my son was holding a hand grenade and it was live and it was going off in his
mind., is what Raymond Kuntz said after his 15-year-old son Richard had shown him a CD by
Marilyn Manson and later killed himself after listening to his music. Dr. Frank Palumbo from the
American Academy of Pediatrics said:
Make no mistake about it, music can summon a range
of emotions, most of which are wonderful. Yet there is
some music that communicates potentially harmful health
messages, especially when it reaches a vulnerable audience.(Palumbo)
The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) believes parents should better research the
music their teens listen to more carefully and that the music industries should make more
positive video themes. The more the parents research and monitor their teens music, the less they
have to worry about fatal reactions toward it and other violence that would come from the music
of their teens. Almost every parent in America would do what you did. It didn’t look like a hand
grenade. It looked like a CD. said Joseph Liberman who was trying to comfort Mr. Kuntz
(Kenen). If we research what teens listen to we could prevent violence and suicide from
happening.

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Thus, from a testimony from the American Academy of Pediatrics there are many
statements that imply that heavy metal music is partially to blame for suicide and violence by
teens because of it’s dangerous lyrics. One part of this testimony states:
To date , no studies have documented a cause-and-effect relationship
between sexually explicitor violent lyrics and adverse behavioral effects,
i.e., I’ll listen to a song about killing someone and therefore I go out and
kill. But we can all acknowledge the overall effect music has on people,
including adolescents and children. Otherwise , we wouldn’t listen to it…

and teenagers become absorbed in songs they believe help better define
them during this rocky transition into adulthood.(Palumbo)
If teens are exposed to music daily the more they accept the devastating implications in the
music as if it was their lunch or daily schooling. The only way to stop teens from listening would
be to totally get rid of the heavy metal genre itself or stop the use of the violent and suicide
implicating lyrics in the music. Teens are vulnerable to many things especially music. According
to the American Academy of Pediatrics, they conducted a study which found that teens on
average listen to 40 hours of music per week(Palumbo). That is 7 and one half hours more
than an average school week. It sounds like teens are getting more from music than they are from
their teachers they see 5 out of 7 days per week. This music can affect their school life and affect
the way they think and act while in and around school.

Heavy metal can lead to violence and suicide in teens from listening to the music they do.
One study done by David Merrell from Suffolk,Virginia, somewhat proves heavy metal is bad
for teens. However, his study was done on 72 male laboratory mice. He used 3 groups of 24
mice, a control group with no music, a heavy metal group that listened to Anthrax, and a
classical group that listened to Mozart. Each group had 12 hours of light each day while they
were running the maze with no music and each group had an average time of 10
minutes(Eaton). But after listening to their group’s music for 10 hours each day and running
the maze 3 times per week, each group came up with a different average after one month of the
maze. The control group ran the maze in 5 minutes.The Mozart group ran the maze in 1 minute
and 30 seconds and the Anthrax group ran the maze at an average of 30 minutes(Eaton). Then, at
the end of David’s experiment, the Anthrax group all killed each other. If heavy metal can have
this effect on mice just think of what this music might do to a teenager in todays world with all
the violence in the school and normal community that they see every day. One thing that might
point out the effects of this type of music may be the teen’s grades dropping and the teen not
caring at all about it, or maybe theygo to school and all they do is skip class. The violence they
may take forth could be very dangerous and harmful not toward others but also toward
themselves. Not only something like physical damage toward them but also mental damage that
may never heal. This damage is a possible reason to retaliate against others not just in the
community but also in the school, like Kip Kinkle in Oregon or the teens in the Columbine High
School shootings in Colorado or possibly toward their immediate family they live with or their
further relatives. You could relate this to the mouse experiment that David Merrell did as all of
the heavy metal mice killed each other which portrays the outward violence toward others in
school and in the community(Eaton). Also Raymond Kuntz’s son Richard was writing a school
term paper on Marilyn Manson when he committed suicide(Kenen). Coincidence? Probably not.
If mice can be influenced by something they can not comprehend something is up. There has to
be something like mind numbing radio waves or tones in some kind of a sequnce to mentally
dismantle some one from the inside-out. Also, if a term paper and a little music can kill you,
stopping this assisted-suicidal music at its source does not sound bad at all.
Heavy metal influences outward violence towards others in many ways.

Drawn to an act of complete domination-violent urges of decapitation pre-meditated
murder,invidious-soon she will be vanquished, insidious is a disturbing verse from Cannibal
Corpse:Gallery of Suicide. It sounds to be a very disturbed band who has probably influenced
many people to do not nice things. In the verse above one can depict a message to beat and kill
an innocent woman or girlfriend. Lyrics such as these are probably what teach teens to go out
and kill, beat, or rape someone for fun or as a group activity. The Columbine school shooting in
Colorado probably had something to do with explicit lyrics in music the teens were listening to.
These lyrics are probably also incorperated with hate and anger for other people at that school
that had some effect on discrimination and ridicule of the teens who let loose a barrage of
ammunition and hatred in Columbine on that day. Many lead singers have commited suicide due
to their music and music from others as well. For example, Curt Kobain from Nirvana; a death
which devastated the alternative/heavy metal genre for a long while. During many news casts
after the Columbine shooting the media blamed one particular group for the murderous rampage
at the school and that group was Marilyn Manson. The Anti-Christ superstar has been the most
targeted musician for teen deaths in the past 5 years(Rosen). However the media still only points
him out instead of the entire heavy metal world and how it has effected thousands of peoples
lives through a little thing called a CD. Its like passing out live ammunition at stores all over the
world, to all ages of people of all genders as a sort of mental weapon to be used at home and
store thoughts of death and destruction for all to have. After all you have to have something to
blame the lives of young innocent people for being corrupted by a few explicit lyrics.

Temptation to kill again- The sensation comes over me, An addiction to murdering-I can’t
stop killing Another verse from Cannibal Corpse: The Bleeding sounds like the mind of a
killer and tempts teens to go out and start shooting rampages and killing schoolmates, family and
innocent others.If your child thinks like this get them help. They really need it. Try to get them
away from the music that will probably condem them to a bad way of life. Teens that are violent
toward others probably could use a good role model to look up to and be a positive way to do
things with. Show them they have been missing out on the fun things in life that have nothing to
do with hate, death, or destruction towards themeselves or others as a way of life. Role models
are things everyone needs in their life no matter if it’s a cartoon or a real person they see
everyday.

A partial cause for the violence and suicide of teens is what you would call heavy metal.

Parents have a large effect on what their teens do. They should more carefully review the music
their teens are listening to, to prevent things like the suicide of their teen which has happened to
many parents across the country today. So read the label next time at the mall.

Just as in the 72 laboratory mice that ran through the maze, heavy metal may affect the way that
teens think during school, at home,even while sleeping(Eaton) Just think about monitoring the
time that they listen to their music during the day and their mentallity should stay normal as far as
tests have shown. Just don’t treat your teen as a mouse. And last, the suicide and violence toward
others can be stopped or prevented by stopping the music at its source. The musicians and groups
that pump out the music that can kill others and even your teen just as it did to Raymond Kuntzs’
son Richard.

In closing, music is a big part of the human experience and there is no possible way to
avoid it. So while your taking the journey of life be careful of what music you stop and listen to
because it can make your journey smooth or it can make it a rough one not just for you but the
people around you and the people who care about you. So remember, read the label, take care of
your mind, its the only one you have. Treat each other with kindness and respect because you
don’t know if it could come back and haunt you some day.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Cannibal Corpse. The Bleeding. 1994 Metal Blade Records Inc. 2345
Erringer Rd., Suite 108 Simi Valley California
Cannibal Corpse Gallery of Suicide. 1998 Metal Blade Records Inc.
2828 Cochran St. Suite 302 Simi Valley California
Eaton, Lorraine. Teen Proves Hard Rock’s Bad for You. 3 Aug. 1997
Online. Available. http://newsherald.com/education/rock86.htm
15 Dec. 1999.

Kenen, Joanne. Senate Panel Tunes into Music Violence. 8 Nov. 1997
Online. Available. http://www.cnn.com/ 15 Dec. 1999.

Palumbo, Frank. Social Impact of Music Violence. 6 Nov. 1997
Online. Available. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/washing/t1106.htm
15 Dec. 1999
Rosen, Hilary. Recording Industry Responds to Attack on Lyrics.
10 Dec. 1996. Online. Available. http://www.riaa.com/censorship/
pressrelease.htm 15 Dec. 1999.

Works Cited
Cannibal Corpse. The Bleeding. 1994 Metal Blade Records Inc. 2345
Erringer Rd., Suite 108 Simi Valley California
Cannibal Corpse Gallery of Suicide. 1998 Metal Blade Records Inc.
2828 Cochran St. Suite 302 Simi Valley California
Eaton, Lorraine. Teen Proves Hard Rock’s Bad for You. 3 Aug. 1997
Online. Available. http://newsherald.com/education/rock86.htm
15 Dec. 1999.

Kenen, Joanne. Senate Panel Tunes into Music Violence. 8 Nov. 1997
Online. Available. http://www.cnn.com/ 15 Dec. 1999.

Palumbo, Frank. Social Impact of Music Violence. 6 Nov. 1997
Online. Available. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/washing/t1106.htm
15 Dec. 1999
Rosen, Hilary. Recording Industry Responds to Attack on Lyrics.
10 Dec. 1996. Online. Available. http://www.riaa.com/censorship/
pressrelease.htm 15 Dec. 1999.


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