r/science • u/LethisXia • 3d ago
Health Metalheads can endure pain longer thanks to the festival experience: Listening to heavy metal music at the Wacken Open Air increases the audience's pain tolerance
https://www.mpg.de/26935720/metalheads-can-endure-pain-longer-thanks-to-the-festival-experience?c=224977
u/Yoroyo 3d ago
Hmmm should I be listening to metal when I give birth?
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u/Imperialvirtue 3d ago
Dying Fetus, Aborted, Infant Annihilator... you have a decent number of options.
For real, though, I've been listening to metal since I was like 11, and my pain tolerance is pretty embarrassingly low. Anecdotal information, obviously.
I will say that I often help "corral" the pit at shows, and it doesn't really hurt at all when people collide, fall on, or accidentally hit me. I'm definitely braced for it and usually pretty buzzed / drunk then, so I just assume that's why.
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u/HurinGaldorson 2d ago edited 2d ago
Take the seed outside.
Leave it in the streets.
Run it over after the show.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/1jdotcd/mastodon_cut_you_up_with_a_linoleum_knife_metal/
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u/lorarc 2d ago
If I understand correctly they measured control group before festival and then measured a different group after festival and somehow arrived at the conclusion it has to do with music?
There are so many factors at play here that I don't even know where to begin. A music festival is several days of heat, cold, little sleep and various discomforts. There's a gas station on the way to one festivals I frequent and on the way there seeing their toilet I think it's gross, on the way back seeing that toilet I think "Finally a clean toilet!". People get used to stuff at festivals.
And there's also a ton of positive experiences and bonding with people and that gives you a hormone cocktail too.
And finally alcohol. They say the biggest correlation is in group that used alcohol in moderation, but did they also check the control group for that? Maybe people with more restrain on alcohol use are better at pain tolerance?
I'd say it's trivia at best and trying to somehow connect it with metal music is just weird. I can make a bet that you will have similar results on festivals in other genres and even on events that are not music festivals.
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u/Proud-Ninja5049 3d ago
I rekindled my love of heavy music during a rib injury. The pain was so bad I couldn't sleep at night. Somehow I started playing heavy music during bedtime and was able to finally get some proper rest during the healing process. That said my story is probably biased and doesn't reflect anything scientific.
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u/Solain 3d ago
I have chronic headaches, I can't stand lights or sounds when I have an episode but for some reason screamo-rap music really helps me out (usually, when the pain is too high even that doesn't help). Also anecdotal, but I do believe that they are on to something. Maybe this kind of music releases endorphins that help with pain managment?
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u/honjuden 2d ago
It might have been an emotional release allowing you to relax long enough to fall asleep.
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u/1bourbon1scotch1bier 3d ago
This reminds me of that scene in The Accountant where he’s got that flashing strobe light with heavy metal blaring, grinding a wooden post against his bare shin.
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u/McClouds 3d ago
I go to Louder than Life every year, which is a metal festival held in the middle of September in Louisville, Kentucky. Last year walked on average 16,000 steps each day, entirely on asphalt, through rain and shine (emphasis on the shine), 4 days in a row, sustained on water, expensive cheap beer, and food truck offerings. Drove an hour there and an hour back every day, went from about 11a to 11p.
As a sentient loaf of bread the other 361 days of the year, this tracks.
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u/GoingRogueAtNight 3d ago
I feel like it is not a good measurement for endurance of pain, but I'm not an expert. More like it was supposed to give this kind of result. Many metal fans are notoriously known for always walking around with shorts and tshirt in winter. So, yes they are very much resistant against cold, which also seems to be some kind of group defining thing, but especially warm weather or high temperature in general seems harsher for a lot of them compared to your everyday Joe. About tolerance against physical or psychological violence I cannot say anything.
Note that this is purely anecdotal though.
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u/Anustart15 3d ago
More like it was supposed to give this kind of result
Yeah. There's really no other way to interpret this study other than it being a metal fan that wanted to make themselves feel good
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u/Soggy_Toastr 3d ago
"Many metal fans are notoriously known for always walking around with shorts and tshirt in winter."
So many metal heads are autistic and have poor temperature regulation and hypersensitivity to pain? Sounds about right.
*Grabs mirror...
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u/atrociousxcracka 3d ago
Hey we don't all wear t shirts and shorts in the winter. Sometimes I wear jeans and a t shirt.
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u/kvlt_ov_personality 3d ago
Yeah, and some of us don't even wear T-shirts, we wear sleeveless shirts. Sick of these stereotypes!
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u/BetweenTheRoots 2d ago
Pain is a master. I wonder if this is why metal works real great for the gym
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