On the twelfth of December 1996, Raymond Kuntz’s wife woke up early to wake her son Richard. She went to his bathroom to turn on the shower for him, and then proceeded to his room. She nudged him to realize that he was not breathing; Richard Kuntz had killed himself. Shortly after discovering Richard’s body, Raymond Kuntz, Richard’s father realized that his son was listening to the heavy metal singer Marilyn Manson’s “The Reflecting God” from the album “Antichrist Superstar”. Richard’s friends told his father that the song was the only thing he was listening to, whenever they were over, and the lyrics of that song read as an unequivocally direct inducement to take one’s own life. There are many of children like Richard Kuntz who have considered suicide after listening and interpreting heavy metal lyrics in such a way. Raymond Kuntz, along with the several other parents in similar situations blame heavy metal music to promote suicide and contradicts community values that people of good will and of any race, ideology, economic or social position share.
Raymond Kuntz and the other families, however, misunderstand heavy metal music. Heavy metal music was admittedly created to express anger and frustration about cultural issues in a non-harmful method. However, the connection that has been made between heavy metal and teenage suicide is really unfounded.
Heavy metal bands use such music as a way of expressing their anger and frustrations about cultural issues through loud music and screaming, which have been well known forms of relieving frustration. These cultural issues include anything from wars to global warming. Such issues clearly indicate that heavy metal music is a form of cultural resistance, which is described by Stephen Duncombe as “culture that is used, consciously or unconsciously, effectively or not, to resist and /or change the dominant social structure ”. For example, the lyrics to the Black Sabbath song “Wicked World” are as follows:
The world today is such a wicked thing
Fighting going on between the human race
People give good wishes to all their friends
While people just across the sea are counting the dead…
Reading these lyrics, we see how the singer has tried to personify the world as wicked, which is a term one would refer to a witch or an evil person. The singer also sings about the wars are going on between brothers and sisters all born on the same planet, and that people on one land are happy and peaceful, whereas the country across the sea are at a constant war. The singer is trying to emphasize great forms of contrast by using words such as “wicked”, which is also noticeable in the last two lines. It is interesting to notice how the song emphasizes extreme contrasts, which is what the teenagers’ emotions are like. When one is a teenager, they are either extremely happy, or extremely sad.
What is also most important to address is the fact that teenage suicide is rarely about one thing. There are several factors that make a teenager want to commit suicide – Depression, domestic violence, divorce of parents, the feeling of worthlessness, rejection by the “cool kids”, substance abuse or death of a loved one. Teenagers are at a certain stage in their life where their hormones are all over the place – they have extreme emotions, or none at all, there are several ups and an equal number of downs. It is these ups and downs in a teenager’s life that give peers the feeling that they are “all over the place”. And in a way, it is also the partial fault of the parents, who must notice whether their teenage child shows signs of depression, and should take care of it as soon as possible. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, approximately nineteen percent of high school children have considered killing themselves. It is this music that gets teenagers to realize that they are not the only ones with unique problems. Just like Stephen Duncombe’s experience with punk rock. He felt alone, until he found others who shared the same problems as he did.
Teenagers are at a certain stage in their life where they go through various ups and downs. Sometimes, when a teenager is at a low point in their life, they would hear a heavy metal song while surfing through the Internet. It is not only the music that captures them, but it is the lyrics that prevents them from going to another website. They hear this song on a radio channel and stop. After hearing this song, they realize that they aren’t the only ones with such thoughts.
The idea that all teenagers who listen to heavy metal music commit suicide is not true. As found out by Deena Weinstein, author of the book “Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture”, she says “For every heavy metal fan who commits suicide, there are hundreds who claim that heavy metal music saved them from killing themselves.” For example, a letter published in the heavy metal magazine Hit Parader describes the use of heavy metal music “to forget my problems!” Heavy metal music was created in order to let out ones problems and frustrations in a non-harmful way – by playing extremely loud music and screaming about how its not worth depressing oneself over such trifle matters. It is not a major percentage of teenagers committing suicide, it is only imagined that way. Quoting Deena Weinstein, “associating particular cases of suicide to heavy metal makes all heavy metal fans seem suicidal.” (Weinstein 254).
In contradiction to the popular belief that heavy metal is based on a lot of negative issues, it is extremely interesting, and perhaps shocking to notice that some metal music songs take up resistance for the purpose of positive change in the world. These songs address issues of global concern and, in fact, address it in such a way that they would make anyone want to listen to them. For example, the song “Global Warming”, by the heavy metal band ‘Gojira’ has a song addressing the idea of a world without the worldwide concern of global warming:
A world is down
And none can rebuild it
Disabled lands are evolving
My eyes are shut, a vision is dying
My head explodes
And I fall in disgrace
I hold my inner child within
And tell him not to cry
"Don’t fear the living"
One day you will stand as a king
And now fear can erase
This light below us
Each one of us is now engaged
This secret we all have
This truth is growing
And as a warrior I have to fight
I can already feel
The love I'll discover…
These lyrics clearly explain that the singer in this band is concerned of global warming. He claims that the world is “down”, personifying the world to be a wounded soldier, and no one can fix it. The singer, as a citizen of the planet Earth, feels ashamed of the way the world is being treated and ‘falls in disgrace’. He then proceeds to personify his conscience as a child, and tells “him” not to be distraught, for one day “he” will stand tall and proud of this world he lives in. The singer goes on by stating that everyone is now involved in taking care of the Earth and in doing so, performs the act of a warrior, and will discover a newfound love for the world he lives in. On understanding these lyrics, it is noticeable that heavy metal composers tend to use a lot of personification in their music, in order to make the public understand the feelings, which is the main intention of heavy metal bands.
It is well known to the world that teenagers go through a great emotional change during adolescence, and most of the time, have no one to talk to. At such a stage in life, talking to one’s parents about such changes is considered “weird” among a teenager’s peers. At such a time, the teenager would turn to music for help. According to The Academy of child and Adolescent Psychiatry, “Music is often a major part of a teenager’s separate world.” Heavy metal music has a wide variety of themes to match the issues that occur during adolescence. For example, the song titled “Welcome to my Life” by Simple Plan clearly gives listeners the idea that there is someone feeling the same way as they are:
Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don't belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever wanna runaway?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming…
…To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around…
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life…
These lyrics clearly show that the singer is inquiring whether the listener feels like they feel like an outcast, alone, that they do not belong, and feel like they deserve to be alone, with loud music on so that no one hears them screaming their pain away. The singer then goes on by saying that the listener does not know what it is like, to live his life. Finally, the singer ends by saying “Welcome to my Life”, which indicates that the singer ‘welcomes’ listeners to his life. What he really means when he says those words is that people are practically living the same life as the singer. This feeling the singer gives the listeners makes them want to listen to more such music, which is what turns the listener into a fan. If there were someone feeling alone and depressed, they would not kill themselves over this song. On the contrary, it would make the person feel quite the opposite; that there is someone with the same feeling. That small feeling would prevent them from killing themselves.
I myself have had a positive reaction from heavy metal. At times during early adolescence, there were several moments where I was depressed and felt completely alone. After being introduced to heavy metal music, I was given a second chance, and realized that being constantly depressed is not the way out. It was not only the intensity and type of music of the music that captured me, but it was the lyrics that really related to me. Heavy metal music helped me through the low points of my teenage years, and I am certain it could help all other teenagers going through tough times as well.
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