# Heavy Metal! It's for smart People! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383 "2007-05-16T23:20:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/21 "2007-05-17T15:05:03Z")
[QUOTE=Lord Ashtar] I don’t know about that one, but I seem to remember a study that showed that plants in a greenhouse that played metal grew faster and stronger than plants in other greenhouses classical playing in the background. They also had one that played a man talking, another that played a woman talking, and one with near silence. [/QUOTE] They did something similar on _Mythbusters_. The plants that were exposed to death metal did the best. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/22 "2007-05-17T15:09:26Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] This article is no surprise to me. Most every serious metal guitarist I ever jammed with was pretty bright (drummers are a different matter). [/QUOTE] Old musician’s joke: Q: How do you know when the stage is level? A: The drummer’s drooling out of both sides of his mouth. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/23 "2007-05-17T15:13:42Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Metal is more oriented towards instrumentation and composition than singing or dancing. A lot of it uses unusual time signatures, more challenging explorations of dissonance and more complex arrangements. It has some of the same qualities as jazz in what it requires from the listener. It requires a more abstract and cerebral sensibility than listening to pop. It aways appealed to me for that reason. Metal heads get tagged with a dumb image, but playing that music actually requires a decent grasp of theory (even if it’s only intuitive). Vocal oriented pop is too simple, too surfacy, too musically shallow to engage me. Pop country is the worst of all. I’d bet that pop country has the dumbest fans of all. It’s the most insubstantial music out there. [/QUOTE] Well said. I think that captures a lot of it. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/24 "2007-05-17T16:22:11Z")
> [@](#): > > I think watching a few episodes of The Osbournes is all that’s needed to disprove the OP’s theory. Quite to the contrary, it demonstrates quite clearly that heavy metal has a prophylactic effect on the brain. With all the drugs he did, he should be a zombie. Instead, we see a person that occassionally strings as many as four words together in meaningful context. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/25 "2007-05-17T17:30:07Z")
[QUOTE=ZebraShaSha] If you include AC/DC, then how many teenagers mostly listen to heavy metal? A vast majority. [/QUOTE] Are the Kids These Days still listening to AC/DC? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/26 "2007-05-17T17:40:34Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] Are the Kids These Days still listening to AC/DC? [/QUOTE] You’d be surprised. I just showed the 14-year-old kid across the street how to play Problem Child… Not that AC/DC is really metal, per se - to me, they are hard rock, but for the purposes of this thread and to answer your question, there’s no need to quibble… I see lots of kids with Hendrix, Zep and other T-shirts. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/27 "2007-05-17T17:52:53Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] I see lots of kids with Hendrix, Zep and other T-shirts. [/QUOTE] Come to think of it, [I see kids with AC/DC shirts too](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/Butt-headprofile.jpg), but that doesn’t necessarily support the OP’s thesis. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/28 "2007-05-17T23:23:50Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] I think watching a few episodes of _The Osbournes_ is all that’s needed to disprove the OP’s theory. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but I’m assuming these are not hard-drinking druggie teenagers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/29 "2007-05-17T23:32:31Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] What about that study that showed that rats who listened to classical music ran mazes better than rats who listened to metal? [/QUOTE] This study, if accurate, shows that smart people tend to prefer metal. The rat study, if accurate, shows that metal doesn’t make you smarter. no contradictions between the two studies. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/30 "2007-05-18T12:34:49Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] Are the Kids These Days still listening to AC/DC? [/QUOTE] Myself, my friend, and, uhhhhh, I’m kind of drawing a blank after that. I’m sure they’re out there, but I cant find them. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/31 "2007-05-18T14:08:37Z")
I _know_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/32 "2007-05-19T12:04:13Z")
Plus, sometimes it can even get downright intellectual. Iron Maiden will sometimes just put long old poems to music. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/33 "2007-05-19T12:28:01Z")
[QUOTE=mr. jp] Asked for their favourite type of music, 39 percent said rock, 18 percent R&B and 14 percent pop. Six per cent said heavy metal and a third rated it in their top five genres. [/QUOTE] The article seems to be slanted towards the heavy metal thing (the author’s probably a metalhead), but the overall numbers look pretty similar to what I think the breakout would be for any random set of 1,000 high schoolers. So I guess heavy metal fans aren’t smart. Some are smart, some are average and **50 percent are below average**! I guess most heavy metal fans are pretty stupid huh? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/34 "2007-05-20T11:42:50Z")
[QUOTE=Queen Bruin[QUOTE] (OK, so he cut his hair actually just _today_, does he still have shred cred?) [/QUOTE] That depends, does Lars Ulrich still have shred cred? ---
**Author:** ![Matt\_Holck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Matt\_Holck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matt_Holck)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/35 "2007-05-20T14:34:31Z")
is not heavy metal about a loud driving based overlaid by a tenor/soprano electro-sustained guitar notes ---
**Author:** ![Rachael\_Rage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rachael\_Rage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachael_Rage)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/36 "2007-05-20T17:03:46Z")
Well, the only band I know to not only actively promote literacy but to have that as the basis of thier entire _oeuvre_ is the extremely heavy metal band **BlöödHag**. As their best t-shirt says: “The Faster You Go Deaf, the More Time You Have to Read.” All of their songs are about science fiction authors. During live shows the singer will talk a little about the authors (since you can’t, you know, actually \*understand \*the lyrics) and they pelt their audiences with paperback books. They get mad if any of the books are thrown back - they’re meant to be taken home and read. My favorite of their album titles is “Appetite for Deconstruction” but the most recent - “Hell Bent for Letters” - is pretty good too. ---
**Author:** ![Rachael\_Rage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rachael\_Rage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachael_Rage)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/37 "2007-05-20T17:08:49Z")
er…like any good metal head, I know how to spell _their_. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/38 "2007-05-20T17:43:39Z")
Wow, I just looked on Wikipedia and this Bloodhag is a real band. I don’t know whether to be frightened or impressed… ---
**Author:** ![Rachael\_Rage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rachael\_Rage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachael_Rage)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383/39 "2007-05-20T18:46:30Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] Wow, I just looked on Wikipedia and this Bloodhag is a real band. I don’t know whether to be frightened or impressed… [/QUOTE] I’m not nearly smart enough to make up something that good: [BlöödHag plays a public library in Queens, NY](http://flickr.com/photos/gingerrox/129294686/in/set-72057594108278086/) From “Douglas Adams” (Hell Bent for Letters): \*His work is permanently burned into every young nerd’s mind The real Hitchhiker’s Guide’s being compiled online \* From “Anne McCaffrey” (Hell Bent for Letters): _Chauvanistic SF was Anne’s complaint Women did more than scream and faint Restoree restored reader’s faith: McCaffrey’s magic on display!_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-its-for-smart-people/404383.md?page=1)