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10 - Metal Identities and Self-Talk

Internal Conversations of Belonging, Empowerment, Well-being and Resilience

from Part III - Metal and Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2023

By
Paula Rowe
Edited by
Jan-Peter Herbst
Jan-Peter Herbst
Affiliation:
University of Huddersfield
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Summary

Contrary to decades of speculation about the poor mental health of heavy metal fans, newer research (and research conducted with heavy metal fans) has begun to reveal some of the more positive and nuanced outcomes of heavy metal music and culture for well-being (for examples see Dingle and Sharman 2015; Rowe and Guerin 2018). Moving beyond a focus on the music itself, this chapter builds on notions of metal as a protective factor for mental health by exploring three domains of psychosocial well-being through a lens of heavy metal identity formations. Those being stress and coping, belonging and purpose, and certainty of self in an unpredictable world. Concluding comments propose that the internal identity dialogue of metal fans and its interplay with the embodiment of metal identities have significant value for steeling oneself against some of the most pervasive social and emotional threats of modern life.

Keywords

metal musicmetal identity formationsmental health and well-beingresilienceempowermentsocial protectionmetal communitybelongingaspiration biographies
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music , pp. 131 - 143
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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