Does Heavy Metal Have an Effect on Teens' Actions?

Does heavy metal have a negative affect on teens? Does music really drive today's youth to do horrible things? I have been taught since I was a little girl that no one can really tell me what to do or control me. My choices are my choices alone, no one can make them for me. Doesn't that apply to everyone? You can't blame someone else for your actions, including music artists.

When a teenager commits a crime who is the first to be blamed? The music that the child listens to. If you really think that music makes you kill people or yourself, you should really think again. There have been numerous cases where heavy metal music has been blamed for the actions of today's youth. The music is not to blame, those teens were depressed and had a chemical imbalance. They needed someone to talk to but no one would listen. In order to make themselves noticed they went to drastic measures and people ended up getting hurt.

The shock-rock artist, Marilyn Manson was blamed for the Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colorado. In 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris shot 12 fellow students and one teacher before shooting themselves. Who was the first to blame? Marilyn Manson just because the two shooters were said to be fans. Is that really fair? To blame a musician just because some kids who got into some serious trouble were a fan of his? I don't think so. Marilyn Manson has made his career based on trying to make a point about the things that are wrong with the people in today's world. "The whole point of my name was to make a statement about the very same thing I am being blamed for." (Manson)

Heavy metal band Slayer had a lawsuit against them when a trio of young boys murdered a girl. Joseph Fiorella, 14, Jacob Delashmutt, 16, and Royce Casey, 16 brutally murdered Elyse Pahler in California and were sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment. These lyrics to the song "Kill Again: Homicidal Maniac" are said to have been a big influence on the boys, " Trapped in mortal solitude. Lift the gleaming blade. Slice her flesh to shreds. Watch the blood flow free." While the lyrics are violent and can be considered quite disturbing, that is just the way the band's songs are. These lyrics were meant to entertain, not give instruction on how to murder a young girl. True Slayer fans know that the band doesn't even believe in half of the stuff they sing, they just sing it because it caters to their audience. Aside from being truly insane, the three boys who murdered Elyse also devoted their lives to marijuana, methamphetamines and LSD. It would make much more sense to blame a drug, which can actually have an affect on your body, than to blame a song lyrics. Right? The drummer of Slayer, Paul Bostaph makes an excellent point when he says "They're trying to blame the whole thing on us. That's such nonsense. If you're gonna do something stupid like that, you should get in trouble for it."

Another well known heavy metal band, Slipknot, has been blamed for a school stabbing in Krugersdorp, South Africa. An unnamed boy arrived on school grounds with a samurai sword and killed a 16 year old boy by stabbing him in the neck before stabbing another boy and two gardeners. Now why was Slipknot put to blame for this horrible crime? The killer was said to be wearing a face mask similar to the one sported by Joey Jordison, the drummer of Slipknot. That's not all the facts though, the killer was also high on drugs while committing the murders. He most likely thought he doing something smart by wearing the mask to hide his face. Because he was under the influence of drugs I highly doubt he was paying attention to what the mask looked like, he just wanted to hide his face. The real problem seems to be drugs.

The examples listed above are just a fraction of cases where Heavy Metal bands have been blamed for violence among teens today. But you'll find that in almost all the cases, drugs or depression were a factor of the lives of the teens committing the crimes. When under the influence of drugs, you can't think clearly so how can you really be following what a song is supposedly "telling you" to do. Teens who suffer from depression are likely to do anything to get attention or make people feel the pain that they feel, no matter how drastic. There have been numerous murders where the murderer did not even listen to violent music and they still killed people; but in the end I'm sure some other kind of media would be blamed in those cases too. The only true problem is the person themselves, they chose to commit the crimes, the music didn't make them.