The link between metal and violence needs to be broken (an essay)

[Brutally Brutal]

I don't take it as gospel, nor am I saying that he wasn't competent enough to participate in his trial. You can be a socially functioning sociopath or psychopath, which he was, barely. In Lords of Chaos they have some scans of hand written documents by him describe why he named himself Varg. He describes making a diagram of his name and the scribbles he comes up with look like some Charles Manson writings I've seen. He obviously has some delusions.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

Read Lords of Chaos. How can you not think he is insane? He fucking mailed an Israeli black metal band a bomb because they wrote a song about the holocaust. Right before he was going to be paroled, he broke out of jail, raided a military barracks, and then was pulled over with a car full of assault rifles, laptop, gps, explosives, etc. He obviously doesn't give a shit about getting out of prison to visit his family.

It doesn't strike me as an insane person... more like a guy that is crazy to get out of prison and see his family, no matter the cost. That's perfectly sane in my books.

If there was a psychopath in the mix, Aarseth seems to be the most likely candidate.

Very true.


As for the paper, I agree for the most part. Problem with society is, a lot of people are morons and when you get the church involved into the equation, long story-short, you fuck shit up. Truth is, violent behavior is directly linked to one's evironment and experiences growing up. Quite an example of this type of media frenzy is the case of Richard Ramirez, a rock fan who also happened to be a serial killer. Problem of this type of cases is the media will automatically blame the music for his behavior, blatantly ignoring the fact that his life had been tainted by murder and was an avid drug user (not that drug using is a necessary catalyst for murder). In other words, the problem is not the music itself, but the psychological aspects of the person. The person's choice of music is only coincidental (and/or) consequence of his already formed psychological scheme.

If anything, this type of music serves as a therapeutic tool for some people to blow off some steam.

 

[waif]

Not reading the comments. Read the essay. I approve of the sentiment you're trying to convey. I thought in general it was pretty good.

However:
You make some assumptions and generalizations, and too much non-neutral wording; you should try to be more objective. Let the evidence speak for itself. You also tend to inject your own values in at points and make way to many judgements.
Also, you talk a lot about how metal is grim and violent but give no examples. Obviously we here need none, but I imagine if the reader isn't a metalhead they might be wondering what you're talking about. If you quoted some Devourment lyrics or something that might be helpful. Maybe it's unnecessary, though.
You also use some questionable evidence; random people saying "it doesn't make people violent" isn't very authoritative. The Sam Dunn stuff is good. If you could find a quote from an actual psychological study saying that violent music doesn't make people violent that would be sweet.
That said, I'm coming from the angle of the sort of neutral papers written for social studies courses - dunno what you're writing this for.

 

[Brutally Brutal]

It doesn't strike me as an insane person... more like a guy that is crazy to get out of prison and see his family, no matter the cost. That's perfectly sane in my books.



Very true.


As for the paper, I agree for the most part. Problem with society is, a lot of people are morons and when you get the church involved into the equation, long story-short, you fuck shit up. Truth is, violent behavior is directly linked to one's evironment and experiences growing up. Quite an example of this type of media frenzy is the case of Richard Ramirez, a rock fan who also happened to be a serial killer. Problem of this type of cases is the media will automatically blame the music for his behavior, blatantly ignoring the fact that his life had been tainted by murder and was an avid drug user (not that drug using is a necessary catalyst for murder). In other words, the problem is not the music itself, but the psychological aspects of the person. The person's choice of music is only coincidental (and/or) consequence of his already formed psychological scheme.

If anything, this type of music serves as a therapeutic tool for some people to blow off some steam.

Your last sentence perfectly encapsulates my thesis.


And this paper was written for my writing class, not a social sciences class, but I'm going to be taking Criminology next semester (which is social sciences) and hopefully I'll be able to work the metal/crime link in somehow.