What's the difference between the dude in the suit headed over to Carnegie Hall to hear a symphony and the ragged metal head wearing a Mayhem t-shirt and crusty, torn black jeans he bumps into on the way? Nothing, apparently. A new study done by scientists over at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh has devled into proving that classical fans and metal fans are deep down very similar people, according to an interview done by The Guardian.
The study consisted of a research team speaking to 36,000 people from six different countries about the music they listened to in order to come to their conclusion. I'll let the lead researcher do a little bit of the talking here to clarify.
"The general public has held a stereotype of heavy metal fans being suicidally depressed and a danger to themselves and society in general," explained Adrian North, the professor who led the study. "But they are quite delicate things."
Metal fans, like classical listeners, tend to be creative, gentle people, at ease with themselves. "We think the answer is that both types of music, classical and heavy metal, have something of the spiritual about them — they're very dramatic — a lot happens," North said to the BBC.
Personally, I think this makes a lot of sense. Classical fans are very, very knowledgeable just like metal fans are about what they're listening to, who they're listening to, what was done when, etc. I think the reason classical fans maybe have a bit of an edge, or a developed sense of what a lot of people deem as "sophistication," is because classical has a lot more history to it. We're what, forty years into the genre? Generally speaking there's not much to know… yet. Though as our history develops I think metal could easily be on the same level of classical in terms of collegiate study and general acceptance, etc.
You gotta love studies involving metal, like the one that says drummers are "natural intellectuals," women are attracted to men holding guitars, metal makes you happy and that screamo haircuts give you lazy eye.
