Die Vermessung des Metalheads: ein Studienbericht

Nico Rose

A chapter in Menschen, Marken, Moshpits: Wirtschaftliche und kommunikative Aspekte von Open-Air-Veranstaltungen am Beispiel von Metal-Festivals in Deutschland, 2025, pp 59-89 from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Abstract: This contribution presents the results of a survey among +6,000 German-speaking fans of heavy metal music. Apart from better understanding this community's demographics, the survey aims to answer three questions: Does metalheads' big five personality differ from the general population? Does the metal community's happiness as measured by their PERMA level differ from the general population? And in what ways do metalheads "use" their music? Results suggest that, on average, metal fans are more educated and financially better off than the general population. Although the differences should not be overstated, metalheads diverge from the everyday man in that they are more open to new experiences, somewhat more introverted, less conscientious, and less emotionally stable - which leads to the proposition that mental illnesses such as depressive episodes and anxiety disorders might be more prevalent in this population group. Finally, results suggest that, apart from the joy of listening to the music itself, the main purpose of listening to heavy metal is emotional regulation, which sometimes means energizing oneself, and at other times, calming oneself down - which seems counterintuitive given the special aesthetic of this musical genre.

Keywords: Heavy Metal; Persönlichkeit; Emotion; Wohlbefinden; Suizid; Festival (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/320403/1/u ... en_Moshpits_Rose.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:eschap:320403

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in EconStor Open Access Book Chapters from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().