Clever Kids Listen to Heavy Metal

I stumbled across a few news articles from 2007 confirming what we’ve all known for decades – the Clever Kids Listen to Heavy Metal.

Kitty Empire of the Observer wrote the first piece: Why Heavy Metal Freaks are Kissing to be Clever. She discusses the results of a study conducted by Stuart Cadwallader of Warwick University, who found that one-third of his sample (drawn from the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth) rated metal as their favorite genre. Metal beat out jazz and classical, commonly thought to be the favorite among pimply-braniacs.

Being one of the pimply-brainiac-metal-loving kids, I just wanted to say “Of course it bloody is.”

Metal isn’t what people think it is. First of all, much of it is complex, multi-layered, mind-blowing musicianship. Second, with lyrical themes running the gambit of literature, history, religion, art and human emotion, metal speaks to intelligent people on many subjects and themes. Metal connects with the very aspects of the world clever people find most fascinating.

Thirdly, clever kids in general face exclusion and bullying at school, and pressure from parental units at home. Heavy metal is a culture of inclusion – as Manowar says “If you like metal, you’re my friend.” What pimply-brainiac would be able to resist that message? I sure can’t.

Empire says “In the savage ‘uuuurgh’ of metal you can hear the collective human howl of disgust at a world gone mad. It’s the sound of the rejected getting even, the trampled-on standing up, the unbeautiful settling scores with the buffed.” Its fucking heaven on earth is what it is.

Paul Connolly of the London Lite disputes the case of clever metallers in his article Metal Kids aren’t brighter, they’re just more needy. Connolly argues that the metal kids in the survey admitted to listening to metal to “let off steam” and vent frustrations through aggressive music. “That says more about their upbringing than anything else.” Connolly thinks the kids who appreciate many forms of music – those with “open minds” – are the smartest kids.

I think Connolly makes the mistake of confusing subculture with musical taste, as most metalheads I know listen to a wide variety of music. You can’t love Slayer all the time. Around 60% of my music collection is metal and metal derivatives – the rest is a mixture of … everything else. I bet a lot of these kids are exactly the same – you can listen to a little bit of everything and still consider yourself a metalhead. Being a metalhead has more to do with who you are on the inside.

I think his “metalhead” kids and “open minded kids” are actually one and the same.

What do you think, gentle readers? Do Immortal and Intelligence go hand in hand? Does being clever make you more susceptible to liking metal? Is the rise of “popular” metal and metalcore affecting this statistics? Will true metal prevail against its naysayers? I want your opinions!

Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses
Steff