The association between listening to heavy metal music and risk behavior in adolescents

Abstract

Background: In 1984, a 19-year-old boy shot himself to death. According to the news at that time, the boy have listened to a heavy metal singer: Ozzy Osbourne's song "Suicide Solution". His parents believed Ozzy Osbourne is responsible for their son's death. Because of this case, listening to heavy metal music induced adolescent risk behaviors and suicidal behaviors became a keen dispute. Especially some parents have proposed that heavy metal music should be banned so as to prevent similar case occur again. Objective: To investigate the association between heavy metal music and adolescent risk behavior, problem behavior or suicide. Methods: Relevant studies which are published from 1983 to 2013 were searched and identified through PubMed and Google Scholar with a combination of keywords. Studies concerning the association between heavy music preference and any of the problem behaviors or suicide were included. Among the 183 studies included, 10 studies were found to be available and relevant so that they were selected in this literature review. The entire studies were carried out in western countries and all of them are observational studies using questionnaires to collect the data. They used different sample sizes and outcome measurements. Results: 9 out of 10 studies indicated that heavy metal music was associated with adolescent risk/problem behavior or suicide. However, the causal relationship between heavy metal music and the risk/problem behavior and suicide of adolescent cannot be determined. Conclusion: In summary, there is evidence that Heavy Metal Music does have an association with adolescent risk/problem behavior and suicide. But further researches are needed in different countries to increase the generalizability and establish the hypothesis of whether there is a relationship between them.