| Article Review of Michael Bradley's "A Fine Line Between Pleasure and Pain' In The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, dated May 15 2003 Bradley's (2003) article was oringally posted on my friend Susie's 'Heavy Metal Heaven' discussion forum, before I decided to forward it on to my own, 'The Power and the Glory'. Although I was dismayed at the 'findings' (which appeared to reflect some bias against modern music in general, and heavy metal in particular), it did attract my interest (due to my studies in psychology). It begins by stating that 'violent song lyrics can cause listeners to feel more aggressive and develop more hostile personalities, even when they are intended to be humourous'. The article then stated that an American University conducted some experiments on more than 500 students to examine the relative impact of 'violent' and 'non-violent' song lyrics. The results supposedly showed that the 'violent' songs lead the subjects to interpret ambigous words like 'rock' and 'stick' in aggressive contexts. Also, the subjects allegedly filled in word fragments (like 'h-t') to make aggressive words (like 'hit'). The results were still the same, even when humour was added. The Head of Psychology at Canberra University, Professor Bob Montgomery, seemed to agree with these findings, stating that the media is capable of affecting one's mood and behaviour. He also added that most modern music is aimed at young people, who use music to 'identify themselves as different' and (if already alienated) are likely to 'lash out aggressively' and be 'pushed on' by the music. Meanwhile, Sydney psychologist, Craig Forbes stated that 'this sort of music .... alienates the listener while devaluing other people' and that 'the less you value others, the more likely you are to be aggressive to them'. As a psychology student myself, I don't dismiss these findings entirely. However, I found the conclusions drawn about the 'findings' relationship somewhat erroneous. The article concludes that: "Repeated short-term media violence can INDIRECTLY CREATE a hostile social environment which further promotes the development of chronically hostile biases in a person's internal make-up"; and that it also contradicts Freud's theory of 'catharsis' (the idea that releasing pent up emotions can make one feel less hostile). I find these conclusions erroneous because they fail to take into account the confounding factors which can contribute to the adoption of hostile attitudes and aggressive behaviour: social background, sociocultural norms, upbringing, temperament, stress or trauma, state of health, drugs and alcohol and even genetic and biochemical factors - not just preferred styles of music. I have mentioned this in previous postings on this site, but I have noticed that aggression and hostility exist independently of 'heavy' music: my own personal experience has shown me that not all people listening to heavy music are necessarily aggressive towards others (and, in fact, I have found some of these people to be very 'mellow'); ironically, there are many people out there who have aggressive temperaments, yet they have not listened to a 'heavy' song in their lives. If you don't believe me, I suggest you watch the news or read the paper - there are lots of countries that are violent and 'war-torn' yet heavy metal is non-existent in these nations. Along with many other fellow 'headbangers' who read this posting, I found that it could have been easily construed as being biased against modern music in general, and heavy metal in particular. It does not state specifically what music was played during these experiments; however, many a heavy metal fan has noted that they have had many media stereotypes thrust upon them, and they resent this because they don't necessarily take everything in the song lyrics that seriously anyway. My answer to this problem, for the 'experts', is to 'research the research'. If you are a professional who knows alot of people who like a particular music style (like Heavy Metal, rap, or punk for instance), then you should find out as much as you can about them. Get to know them as people, find out about their experiences and backgrounds, and don't make such 'blanket judgements' about their character based on their preferred music. If you do happen to find out something interesting that contradicts Bradley's (2003) article, chances are that you may just find that the 'cause-and-effect' relationship may just go the other way: that people who like a certain type of music and wear certain types of clothes have often been the targets of aggression as well as the 'perpetrators'; often from people who don't share their taste(s) in clothes and music. One needs to realise that they are just like everyone else - people with rights, feelings, intelligence, talents, hopes, dreams, aspirations and the like; and would otherwise be 'normal' had they not got the 'second-class' treatment that they got from those different from themselves. RELATED LINX: Headbangers Vs YPAHMTS, Headbangers Vs BibleBashers, Headbangers Vs the Fashion Police BACK TO THE PSYCHOLOGY PAGE BACK TO LOGSNAPPER'S SOAPBOX |