Slashdot Mirror
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.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
If you are having trouble being gifted, try eating heavy metals rather than listening to heavy metal. That way you won't be gifted very long.
Let's see... I'm 41, have loved metal since I was 14 (Motorhead is the greatest band EVAR) and am the smartest guy on slashdot...
The evidence is overwhelming.
Trolling is a art,
Yeah, I love listening to mercury
It's entirely true. I first dug into Metallica and Black Sabbath when I was about 13, and I find myself hooked on Dream Theater, Shadow Gallery, and Symphony X now.
Hard rock, progressive rock, and heavy metal all usually talk about social and political issues in a manner that is both musical and lyrical, and it's a lot easier to dig into and associate with than the lamenting dorks that populate alternative and indie rock nowadays.
~ C.
Look for the ones with AC/DC and Metallica shirts. Also look for signs of Aspberger's syndrome in their interaction with hippie teachers, redneck neighbors, Daria...
From the article:
The researchers surveyed 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth - a body whose 120,000 student members are within the top five per cent academically in the 11-19 age range.
Asked for their favourite type of music, 39 per cent said rock, 18 per cent R&B and 14 per cent pop. Six per cent said heavy metal and a third rated it in their top five genres.
So no, not 'many adolescent metalheads', but a few happen to be gifted, compared to the rest who listen to other types of music.
Also from the article:
The heavy metal fans in the study had lower self-esteem and more difficulties in family relationships and friendships.
So, if anything, one could hypothesize that gifted teenages that listen to heavy metal are more likely to have shitty self-esteem and quite possibly being perceived as asshats by family and friends, and listened to heavy metal as a way to 'cope' with the anger.
Just you wait until they start playing those tracks backwards....
"We'll need 2000 crickets, 4 cans of Easy Cheese, and the fluid from 18 glowsticks for this plan to work...." - ph0n1c
6% - Heavy Metal
14% - Pop
More of them listed the Britney Spears genre than the Angus Young genre.
I'd say there might be some flaws in this "study".
In my day, we made do Elton John and DEVO. And we LIKED it.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
I suppose some of it might be that gifted children could have a degree of asperger's syndrome and aren't as able to relate to the oh-baby-baby emotive style of typical pop music.
Maybe they just like the music? I'm a member of the International Baccalaureate program and few of my peers have similar tastes in music. I waste my life listening to video game soundtracks, a few other members like classical, one likes techno. And for every smart kid who listens to heavy metal, there's fifty moronic ones that do the same. Only six percent of intelligent students like it and they act like its a massive majority.
If you show keenness or interest in a subject at school, you are already likely to be treated as an outsider. You don't have to be a genius to be an outcast. I think the pressure to conform to the "hive mind" at school is the thing that really holds children back.
You've not experienced The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner until you've read it in the original Iron Maiden.
It's hard to tell the cool to chill, my favorite hotel room has a view to an ill.
This article basically makes no sense.
Gifted children: is there a single type of gifted children? Gifted in what? You can be very gifted in certain areas and suck in other areas.
Also, it's funny that the fellow Slashdot commenters which listen to heavy metal read this as "you listen to heavy metal, so this confirms you're gifted". I don't blame anyone for putting on his rose glasses though. It's only natural.
For the record, gifted children are not a monoculture. There are some gifted children who listen to heavy metal to deal with stress of being a teenager. Nice. There are also gifted children who don't listen to heavy metal, and heavy metal listeners that aren't gifted.
You're walking away from this article slightly less mentally gifted. Slashdot, you suck.
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.
I know for absolute certain that the kids in *my* highschool that listened to heavy metal were most certainly not the best and the brightest. But that was back when bands like Metallica and Megadeth were at the top of the music charts, and Jerry Falwell and Tipper Gore were trying to make a political career out of the genre.
I think that this article is more like "nerdy kids listen to music that isn't cool."
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Most kids are gifted one way or another, some academically, some otherwise. Just most kids don't experience the environments that bring the best out of the kids.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
...when I got my 'gifted' label. It was all about "Why the HELL are you smoking dope and making strangled cat sounds with the guitar when you are flunking out of high school? You're GIFTED...it shoud be EASY for you! Now do your goddam homework!"
For me, Heavy Metal is a way to sooth my anger. The angrier the music (NIN, SoAD, Slipknot, etc.) the quicker I come down from being pissed off. And hey, it's cheaper than therapy :-D
"Klaatu, verada, necktie!" -Ash
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.
'Gifted Child Industry' Preys on Parents' Insecuritiesw &cID=259124&pID=259049
u e_print.html
http://www.alternet.org/story/42644/?comments=vie
The "Gifted and Talented" Fraud
http://borntoexplore.org/unschool/gifted.htm
"The truth is that "gifted and talented" programs are fast-track indoctrination courses, not real academics."
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/15c.htm
"I could regale you with mountains of statistics to illustrate the damage schools cause. I could bring before your attention a line of case studies to illustrate the mutilation of specific individuals--even those who have been apparently privileged as its "gifted and talented." What would that prove? You've heard those stories, read these figures before until you went numb from the assault on common sense. School can't be that bad, you say. You survived, didn't you? Or did you? Review what you learned there. Has it made a crucial difference for good in your life? Don't answer. I know it hasn't. You surrendered twelve years of your life because you had no choice. You paid your dues, I paid mine. But who collected those dues?"
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prolog
"In 30 years of teaching kids rich and poor I almost never met a learning disabled child; hardly ever met a gifted and talented one either. Like all school categories, these are sacred myths, created by human imagination. They derive from questionable values we never examine because they preserve the temple of schooling."
"Old-fashioned dumbness used to be simple ignorance; now it is transformed from ignorance into permanent mathematical categories of relative stupidity like "gifted and talented," "mainstream," "special ed." Categories in which learning is rationed for the good of a system of order. Dumb people are no longer merely ignorant. Now they are indoctrinated, their minds conditioned with substantial doses of commercially prepared disinformation dispensed for tranquilizing purposes. Jacques Ellul, whose book Propaganda is a reflection on the phenomenon, warned us that prosperous children are more susceptible than others to the effects of schooling because they are promised more lifelong comfort and security for yielding wholly: Critical judgment disappears altogether, for in no way can there ever be collective critical judgment....The individual can no longer judge for himself because he inescapably relates his thoughts to the entire complex of values and prejudices established by propaganda. With regard to political situations, he is given ready-made value judgments invested with the power of the truth by...the word of experts."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Consider that some heavy metal is very intellegent music. Sure, when most people hear "heavy metal" they think Slipknot, Korn, Marilyn Manson and the ilk, but I can get into some Iron Maiden (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is singularly the greatest metal song ever, and not only for it's music), Metallica (80's era) has some great political meaning, and Tool is fun to listen to and try to contemplate the possible meanings of the song. Or am I the only gifted nerd who thinks so?
The beauty of metal, especially after it's "death" in the early 90s is that it's been reborn and many new sub genres are born. Everything from Symphonic Metal to Melodic Death to Progressive to Doom to Gothic to whatever!
Some lesser known but very talented bands:
Therion - Sopranos, tenors, baritones, lot of classical instruments. Pure genius. Theli, Vovin, Secret of the Runes are great albums. Their live shows are also very interesting, they usually travel with about 5-6 opera singers.
The Gathering - One of the first gothic metal bands (now more gothic/atmospheric rock). Mandylion, if_then_else, How to measure a planet, are all very good. Due to some experimental guitar work, their style has been labeled sometimes "shoe gazing".
Tiamat - Pink Floyd meets Gothic Metal. Wildhoney is among the best gothic metal albums. Awesome albums are also Prey and A deeper kind of slumber. Another band that evolved from extreme metal to some weird psychedelic gothic style.
Agalloch - Atmospheric, lot of doom/dark ambiance. Every record from this band is worth it's weight in gold. I do have a soft spot for Ashes against the grain.
Nightwish - One of the bands who defines the Symphonic Metal sub genre. Lot of uplifting melodies, great shows. Once, Century Child and Oceanborn are really good.
Katatonia - Everything from doom metal to gothic rock. They started as some extreme metal band and evolved into some weird dark/doom rock/metal mix. Viva Emptiness and The Great Cold Distance are great.
Symphony X - Progressive Metal at it's best. Jazz and classical influences. Albums like The Diving Wings of Tragedy and V are their best.
Iced Earth - How Metallica should have evolved. The Gettysburg 1863 trilogy is a pure masterpiece of symphonic metal. The rest of their work is more classical thrash with Iron Maidenesque melodies and gallops. Something Wicked and Dark Saga are very strong albums.
Opeth - Progressive Death Metal, extreme on some albums and some dark haunting lullabies on some others. Orchid, Damnation and Deliverance are my favorites.
Ayreon - One composer, Arjen Lucassen, almost every album is a concept album. Invites various singers to sing for him. Style is mostly progressive rock/metal.
Tristania - Probably the most beautiful female voice in the metal world (hopefully the future Nightwish singer). Ashes and World of Glass are amazing gothic metal albums.
Did anyone else roll their eyes at academic ability? I admit Britain might be different but I can't say as I've ever seen anything that convinces me academic ability makes someone smart or that lack of it makes them dumb. In fact I've always considered excessive willingness to engage in a system that amounts to government funded daycare as a sign that the other person might lack intelligence.
Metallica circa 90's is a different fan-base then Metallica circa 80's. The black album and everything thereafter fails to be Metal. The black album was still good, just not Metallica. Everything after the black album is simply shit.
That's funny, I thought we were talking about heavy metal.
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
God, I'd be buggered to name a *favourite genre*. I'm curious if they got a list to pick from. I know I've had that problem when asked similar questions. Probably easier to say "none of these" than try to get into:
Singer-songrwriter Folk
Bluegrass esp. New Acoustic/Newgrass
Celtic (stronger toward Scottish or Newfoundland)
Blues, Polka, Jazz, Klezmer, old Country, slightly harder New Age (Jean Luc Ponty or Ralph Towner), Scandinavian (NorthSide records artists), Jam Bands, etc etc.
You know, the stuff that is categorized as "Other" and not even counted in such surveys. Mostly I'm sad that the "gifted" kids have such limited horizons that 80% answered "eh... rock, I guess".
We should remember that today's kids aren't necessarily listening to Iron Maiden and early Metallica. Today when people mention "metal", kids just think of teen angst nu-metal bands like Slipknot and Mudvayne. Actual heavy metal is an entirely different subculture (and a much more varied and informed one, IMHO), and the music tends to be much more complex. One listen to a band such as Opeth or Emperor serves as a good demonstration of this point.
But the parent is right about heavy metal soothing anger. I can't manage to stay angry after a few minutes of listening to death metal. Ironically, it's often the most calming music I have.
Systemd: the PulseAudio of init systems
Whadda you mean stupid lyrics?
That's literary GOLD, man...."I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Like most great creations, Rammstein's best work is about drugs, death, joy, confusion, power, discovery, and/or fucking.
And it's not always silly, but often quite serious, even after being translated. Oftentimes, their music is downright ugly. Sometimes, it helps to know that things could always have been worse.
Courtesy of herzeleid.com: What does a man do
what does a man do
who can't tell the difference
between human and animal
what
He will go to his daughter
she is beautiful and young in years
and then, like a dog, he will
mate with his own flesh and blood
What do you do
What do you feel
What are you
but an
animal
What does the woman do
what does the woman do
who can't tell the difference
between animal and man
She dips the quill in his blood
and write herself a letter
lifeless lines to her childhood
when her father slept by her
What do you do
What do you feel
What are you
but an animal Rammstein, Tier
Kid-proof tablet..
Pretend that was posted AC.
I prefer NiMH, myself. Not as heavy, but a lot more reactive. :-)
I prefer Au"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai