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Gifted Children Find Heavy Metal Comforting
An anonymous reader writes "The Daily Telegraph is reporting that intelligent teenagers often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressures associated with being talented, according to research.
Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent "metalheads" are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders."
Part of me wants to respond in an incredibly cynical manner to this as most "intelligent teenagers" are smart enough to be aware of much of the bullshit associated with growing up and being aware of wider sociopolitical, environmental and other issues and they need a release for the anger. Other cynical parts of me want to say they are also smart enough to be able to recognize the top 40 drivel that is being disseminated by the recording industry.
However, stepping back from the cynicism, I would note that this was always my experience with the punk scene. Specifically, most people I knew in the scene were incredibly talented, highly intelligent and for the most part more articulate than average. I always wondered how it was that we seemed to find one another, self assemble and take part in a scene that was a retreat of sorts from lives and upbringings that were in most cases not "Leave it to Beaver" or "The Cosby Show" type lives.
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Yup that is what I remember. It wasn't even a racial thing. Don't get me wrong, racial slurs were tossed around like candy but in the small town I lived in most of the youth hadn't even met someone of another race. All the 'rapper' kids were just wiggers and we laughed at them.
Then there were the preps. They dressed like the wiggers (because that Nike and sports stuff was expensive and the preps had to flaunt money) and usually listened to rap/hip-hop/etc but at least they didn't usually come up to you and call you G or tell you they were a blood or crypt.
I remember at a small gathering one time a so called blood was bragging about his brotherhood and status. A friend shaped a 'B' out of a wire hanger and branded him with it. Convinced him that it would show his loyalty. The following day he spread it around town that so and so was his bitch and he had branded him to prove it. The kid showed his 'B' all over town and it was a good month before he found out why everyone thought it was so funny.
I've also noticed that the Mozart Effect can apply to certain non-mozart music, as well. It seems to be based on the idea of a 60 Hz beat (now I'm doubting that, since Wikipedia didn't mention it. Someone else back me up?), which most of Mozart's stuff provides. Rob Zombie's "Never Gonna Stop Me" features a baseline that follows this pretty exactly.
I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
Pfft. Mozart wasn't metal. For a real metal musician from the era, look to Niccolò Paganini. "It was common for him to arrive at a concert in a black coach drawn by black horses. Paganini himself would wear black." and "Paganini's technique was outstanding and unusual, but it was his satanic bearing which caused great crowds to attend his concerts." Finally, because "Paganini had refused the final sacrament, he could not be buried. His remains were kept in a basement for five years"
Mozart was more rock star than metal.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
"As a side note, I've seen a couple interviews with Marilyn Manson and he comes across as surprisingly intelligent and well-spoken, even while still wearing the freaky makeup."
Florence Henderson (the mother in The Brady Bunch) said almost the exact same thing after meeting Marilyn Manson on Bill Maher's former show, Politically Incorrect. She was doing an interview and was asked how she felt about the incongruity of the two of them participating in a round table discussion, and she replied that she thoroughly enjoyed talking with him. She said that she was struck by how intelligent and articulate he was, and that she found him to be extremely charming.
I'm posting AC because I'm trying to be brutally honest, not go on an ego trip.
I was one of those kids who was labeled as "gifted" fairly early on in my education. My school didn't have a tag program until 6th grade due to budgetary constraints. I can't speak for every school in the country, but your descriptions don't match my experience and they largely seem the product of philosophical / political beliefs.
- My tag program was comprised entirely of real academics. In the 6th grade we did high school chemistry, some astronomy and physics, learned about stock trading, wrote research papers on 20th century history, read some difficult books, started a debate team, and so forth.
- My experience in high school people was like pretty much any experience with other people. One or two teachers were brilliant, most were just getting by, a few were misleading, and one was downright malicious. Sure, my school didn't seem to be able to provide for me very well, but it was due to a lack of resources, not any kind of malice or conspiracy.
- No matter what you want to believe, some people's brains just work faster than others. One of my best friends in high school was also in the tag program. I did my homework during class, never studied a night in my life, blew away standardized tests without preparing, and spent my nights hacking on linux. She was doing the same work, getting pretty much the same grades, but studying 6+ hours a night to keep it up. Some people couldn't have kept up if they studied 8 hours a night, 7 days a week.
That last link goes into a lot of conspiracy theory bullshit about how the idea of varying intelligence amongst people is an artificial concept, which it coyly blames on some great conspiracy between the Rockefellers, Dewey, Rousseau, blah blah blah. Frankly, a lot of the links you've posted seem politically or philosophically motivated.
Bottom line:
- Some people are smarter than others. These categories are not the product of propaganda, conspiracy, or a bunch of fat rich white men smoking cigars and drafting up a "system of order."
- Teachers get paid shit so many of them are there because the hours are good, or because the competition is not exactly fierce, or because they are genuinely benevolent, caring individuals. At the end of the day, though, I believe far more of them give a shit than most people believe; I suppose it's more comforting to think that you're dealing with a conspiracy or institutionalized malice than to confront the fact that most of what we encounter in life is the product of people doing the best they can under the circumstances.