“This guy got really mad, and he didn’t know how to control himself. People think I helped him.” “Did you?”

Kat Chandler’s short film, “Black Metal,” is getting its big break at the Sundance Film Festival this month. In just a few minutes, the film explores a gruesome murder loosely tied to the music of a heavy-metal band. Only this time, it looks at the situation from the perspective of the musician whose work is linked to the killing. It’s a sensitive, emotional take on the topic, and doesn’t answer very many questions, leaving the viewer to reflect on whether this common scapegoat is really part of the problem.

Given my perspective on the topic, I have mixed feelings about Chandler’s film. On the one hand, I like the suggestion that this musician is baffled and upset by the blame, and the fact that the film mostly makes that blame appear misplaced. I also like the fact that it doesn’t overtly preach an answer; being too heavy-handed would be less effective. But I wonder whether this film is going to change the mind of someone who is already convinced that extreme music directly encourages its listeners to commit violence. I hope so, but part of me doubts it.

Corey Mitchell, a true-crime writer and metalhead who consulted on the film, said this on Invisible Oranges:

Just to be clear, I would not have taken the gig if Kat’s intention was to declare metal responsible for violent crimes.

What do you think the film says? And what do you think of the way in which it says it?

“Fur Elise” is for the dogs; metal, not so much

Is heavy metal music bad for dogs? Photo by Flickr user Diamond Geyser.

Apparently, Colorado State University professor Lori Kogan felt it was time to find out what kind of music dogs prefer.

Sex Pistols or Debbie Harry? Elvis or the Beatles? Bo Diddley or Miles Davis? Actually, they didn’t listen to any of these — but they did listen to classical and heavy metal.

And, after four months and lots of listens, it’s hard to say whether this was the predictable outcome or not, but it seems the 117 shelter dogs in the study reacted more positively to classical than to metal:

Classical songs ultimately won out, proving so powerful in reducing stress that they even trumped the effect of “psychoacoustic” music designed especially to soothe animals.

Heavy metal, by contrast, appeared to amplify dogs’ anxiety, and was linked with less sleep, more barking and increased shaking.

On the classical side, the dogs listened to Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” and “Moonlight Sonata,” Strauss’ “Blue Danube Waltz,” and Bach’s “Air on a G String.” On the metal side, they heard Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades,” Slayer’s “Angel of Death,” and Judas Priest’s “Turbo Lover.”

Kogan measured three variables: how much time the dogs spent sleeping while the music was playing, how much time they spent shaking and how much time they were silent.

Dogs slept slightly more during the classical music — 3.7 to 6 percent of the time, compared with .8 to 1.2 percent during heavy metal songs. And they were slightly quieter while listening to classical — silent 88.4 to 95.1 percent of the time, compared with 88.6 to 93.5 while the metal was playing. But the differences in shaking were striking: dogs shook 0.8 to 2.3 percent of the time during the classical songs, but 37.8 percent of the time during “Ace of Spades,” 49.9 percent of the time during “Turbo Lover,” and 71.2 percent of the time during “Angel of Death.” Yikes. I’m guessing they weren’t just headbanging.

This isn’t wholly unlike last year’s informal study on heavy metal’s effect on sharks (spoiler: the sharks liked it). The good thing about the dog study is that Kogan doesn’t try to take her results and extrapolate them to other species. On the downside, while it’s clear that the dogs in her study were made more anxious by the heavy metal they heard, it’s not entirely clear why.

I wonder whether there are sounds native to heavy metal (and to these three songs in particular) that are, to dogs, alert/alarm sounds that would make them more anxious, just because of what their DNA tells them might signal danger. Or, I wonder whether these sounds do cause mammals to become more keyed up, but for some humans that has the counterintuitive effect of relaxing them (just as some are relaxed by stimulants).

In any case, Kogan’s takeaway is that shelter dogs — who already lead stressful lives — could benefit from hearing classical music, and probably shouldn’t be played much or any metal.

What do you think? What kinds of music do your dogs like most? Do any of them like a little Sabbath and Slayer?

Expert: Youth violence is complex, media doesn’t cause violence, reporting on it is tough

A mural in Chicago’s Logan Square. Photo by Flickr user Zol87.

This morning, Poynter.org hosted a chat with Carl Bell, acting director of the Institute for Juvenile Research and a professor in the University of Illinois’ Department of Psychiatry and in the School of Public Health, on how journalists can do better when covering youth violence. The chat was prompted by recent coverage of a wave of youth-involved shootings in Chicago.

Most of the time, Backward Messages focuses on all the things that don’t cause youth violence, even though various sources have claimed they do. Things like violent video games, the occult, and heavy-metal music. I also like to look at the ways reporters get off track when reporting on youth crime — and the ways that misreporting leads us to look for the wrong causes.

So when I heard Bell was co-hosting the chat with Poynter.org managing editor Mallary Tenore today, I jumped in to listen, and to ask questions. Here are some of the highlights:

Carl Bell: I have been studying violence since 1976 and I have learned there are several types of violence – predatory violence, interpersonal altercation violence, gang related violence, etc. There is also mob violence, hate crime violence, violence by mentally ill, systemic violence, etc.

Mallary Tenore: As you’ve studied these various types of violence, what have you noticed about journalists’ coverage of them?

Carl Bell: It has been my experience that journalist regularly do not differentiate these types of violence very well and they mostly get portrayed as predatory violence.

Mallary Tenore: That’s interesting … why do you think that is?

Carl Bell: I think that people are often confused with complexity. … I think journalists have a difficult time. They have to report on complex issues, but keep them simple and they have to get past the editor.

Mallary Tenore: Yes, time can definitely a factor.

Carl Bell: Unfortunately, much that is published or reported on has to have a great hook, i.e. something that appeals to the flight, fight, or freeze response in the brain, not the thinking, discernment, wise part of the brain. So, there is a lot of distortion in the media.

Beth Winegarner: Carl, on the topic of mass murder/school shootings, why do you think reporters so often make reference to a youth’s music tastes or video-game habits when describing youth perpetrators of mass violence?

Carl Bell: There are so many ideas that people have for the causes of violence. When we did the Surgeon General’s report on youth violence we learned, based on science, that many of the things we think cause violence do not cause violence at all.

Beth Winegarner: That’s an interesting response, since many people still refer to the Surgeon General’s report. What things mentioned in it don’t cause violence after all?

Carl Bell: The reality is that risk factors are not predictive factors, due to protective factors. So, a lot of kids want violent videos or play violent video games, but the homicide rates are lower than the suicide rates (both are rare), so things protect kids.

To read the full chat, see the Poynter.org and click at the bottom to read the transcript.

Could Egypt’s heavy metal days be numbered?

A band performs at the Heavy Tune Metal Festival at Nile Country Club in Cairo, Egypt, in July 2011. Photo by Flickr user lokha/Lorenz Khazaleh.

In January of 1997, roughly 100 Egyptian heavy-metal fans were rounded up, arrested, and accused of Satanism. Now, almost 16 years later, it looks like it could happen again.

Over the weekend, Ismail El-Weshahy, a lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), filed a complaint to the Egyptian interior ministry against El-Sawy Culturewheel. He claims that the venue, a regular home for rock and metal shows, was hosting “Satanic” rock bands and events. El-Weshahy even claimed that his clients, members of an independent anti-corruption group called “We’re Watching You,” filmed “satanic rituals” at Culturewheel.

The news comes just as the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining power and legitimacy in Egypt. After the 1997 arrests, most were freed because the charges against them were unprovable. However, the metal scene in Egypt was essentially silenced; too many bands were afraid to play, and clubs were afraid to host them. But slowly the scene re-emerged. Today, it’s a healthy scene, but it remains underground for the most part — it hasn’t achieved pop-culture status. Most Egyptian metal bands aren’t known outside the country. That leaves them relatively to these kinds of political and cultural attacks.

Some metal musicians in the scene saw this latest move coming.

Wael Osama, founder and manager of heavy metal band Enraged, said:

“I was expecting that something like this could happen in the future, but I did not think it would be this soon. No matter how absurd the accusations are, the fact they are brought by a well known lawyer from the FJP will generate a big amount of bad publicity with possible serious repercussions.”

What those repercussions could be remains to be seen. Metal musicians in the country are gathering this week to discuss what to do and how to respond to the attacks.

Heba Ahmed, who works at Culturewheel, said the venue will continue hosting events, including heavy metal shows. In addition, a statement on its Web site denies the allegations: “In our ten years of activity, the Culturewheel has not hosted any kind of practice that could be called Satanic,” the statement asserted, going on to express doubt that Satanism in Egypt existed at all.

Certainly, heavy metal is not Satanism.

In Sikh shooting, don’t blame the metalheads

There’s no need for this.

It’s rare, and very sad, to have three mass shootings in the news at the same time. Yesterday in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Wade Michael Page opened fire in a Sikh temple, killing six congregants and wounding others, including a police officer, before police shot and killed him. It comes just as we are still making sense of the movie-theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, two weekends ago, and as Tucson, Arizona shooter Jared Loughner returns to court tomorrow and is expected to change his plea from “insanity” to “guilty.”

One of the problems I’ve seen with the American public’s analysis and understanding of those who commit mass shootings is that we tend to forget the details over time. Right now, as awful as it is, we have the opportunity to look at three suspects — and coverage of them — side by side: Page, Holmes, and Loughner.

Page: His identity was just revealed this morning, and so far the coverage has focused on three things: his military service, his apparent white-supremacy leanings, and the fact that he played in a hardcore band that expressed those leanings. Early on in the reporting cycle, this is typical; we hear about the surface-level stuff, but deeper issues take time for journalists to tease out. Page was also an army veteran. He was never deployed. It’s unlikely he had PTSD, but possible that other mental issues made him unfit for military service. It’s also possible that his political views took him to a rare and extreme place. We won’t know for a while, yet.

Holmes: At first, there was speculation about whether violent movies or video games inspired him to kill 10 people and injure dozens more. Some also questioned whether the Devil — or demonic possession — was involved. We now know Holmes had deep psychological issues that worried his doctors, and that he was dropping out of grad school — often a sign of worsening mental illness.

Loughner: Again, early reports were way off. Reporters pegged Loughner as a metal fan and an occultist, when in reality it looks like he was deeply disturbed. He has spent the better part of the last year and a half in a psychiatric unit. Now, doctors think they have restored him to a level of competency that would allow him to stand trial. The question remains: was he mentally sound when he fired into that Tucson crowd?

Frequently, psychological issues are core to these men’s struggles. I’m not saying all mentally ill folks are time bombs ready to go off. It isn’t like that. Most people with mental-health struggles, just like most video-game fans, most occultists, most Satanists, most goths, most metalheads, and so on, are not going to hurt anyone. Ever.

What I am saying is, since we know that mental-health issues are central to many mass shootings, what purpose does it serve to call Page a “metal head” on the front page of a major news site — other than to make it sound like his affiliation with metal somehow sparked the killing (it didn’t)? Or even to suggest that metalheads are somehow more likely to fire guns into churches where people are congregating peacefully (they aren’t).

Sure, I know that reporters are also trying to give readers a picture of who this guy was. But the way we dissect these reports, we’re looking for clues — why did he do it? Every piece of information becomes part of the blame game. And when we look in the wrong places, not only does it reinforce negative, incorrect stereotypes about unrelated groups (such as metal fans), but it keeps us from looking in the right places. And that’s the only thing that will help us prevent such tragedies in the future.

Looking for answers in the latest Colorado shooting? Don’t be distracted by false explanations

James Holmes is the suspect in the Aurora, Colorado shootings that killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more.

As reporters work to reveal the identity, history, and character of James Holmes, the suspected shooter in this morning’s massacre in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater, they may suggest that his personal interests could have led him to commit a horrific crime.

They’re wrong.

Whenever such a tragedy strikes, we want to understand why it happened, perhaps in the hope of preventing another from happening.

As long as we focus on subjects such as video games, music, faith, or even comic books, we are distracting ourselves from the real clues that may tell us that someone might be on the verge of a violent attack.

Instead, we should be looking at Holmes’ mental state, his life circumstances, his methods of coping — or not coping — with failure and disappointment. These, not patterns of media intake, are the real clues.

I’ll likely have more to say as the story unfolds.

Backward Messages: now on Pinterest!

I wanted to let readers know that I’ve started a Pinterest account, where I’m gathering links related to this blog. Some of them will wind up as blog posts, while others are just along similar lines. Follow me there to keep up with the news I’m tracking.

A hoodie isn’t a death sentence

I want to break with form a little bit today and talk about the controversy sparked by Geraldo Rivera’s comments regarding Trayvon Martin’s outerwear choices last week. On Twitter, he said:

@GeraldoRivera: Trayvon killed by a jerk w a gun but black & Latino parents have to drill into kids heads: a hoodie is like a sign: shoot or stop & frisk me
@GeraldoRivera: His hoodie killed Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman.
@GeraldoRivera: Justice will come to Zimmerman the Fla shooter-but I’m trying to save lives like Trayvon’s-Parents Alert: hoodies can get your kid killed
@GeraldoRivera: My own son just wrote to say he’s ashamed of my position re hoodies-still I feel parents must do whatever they can to keep their kids safe
@GeraldoRivera: Its not blaming the victim Its common sense-look like a gangsta&some armed schmuck will take you at your word
@GeraldoRivera: Critics of my hoodie comments think they’re mad at me but they’re really mad at the undeniably unfair reality of young male black/brown life
@GeraldoRivera: It hurts to be assailed-but anger doesn’t change reality-a minority kid in a hoodie in a hood not his own is a 911 call waiting to happen-

And on Fox News, he said:

“Every time you see someone stickin’ up a 7-11, the kid’s wearing a hoodie,” he said. “Every time you see a mugging on a surveillance camera or they get the old lady in the alcove, it’s a kid wearing a hoodie. You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a “gangsta”… well, people are going to perceive you as a menace.”

I understand where he’s coming from: he’s saying that minority kids might be safer if they don’t wear hoodies, entirely due to the public perception of these kids when they wear such garments. But if they got rid of the hoodies, what would it be then? The baggy jeans? The big sneakers? The puffy jackets? The baseball caps? The bandanas? The sports t-shirts? Do we want minorities to dress like “white kids,” when even white kids don’t dress “like white kids”?

However, the fault isn’t with the clothing. It’s with our culture’s enduring perception of minorities — even kids — as criminals, as threats. And Geraldo — himself a Latino — is doing nothing in these statements to protect vulnerable kids from that perception.

It’s no different from telling goths to stop wearing black clothing and makeup, or telling Middle Eastern metalheads to wear white button-down shirts, or telling Iraqi emos to give up the skinny jeans and eyeliner — because otherwise, they’ll be beaten, arrested, or killed.

Youths, and people who “dress young,” who embrace rebellious clothing styles, have a right to do so — and to pass freely in society without the fear of attack. To say otherwise is to blame them for all who might do them harm because of the way they look. That is not where the blame belongs. And there are many things about their appearance that young minorities can’t change — things that some still perceive as automatically suspect.

By now, I hope, most people know better than to listen to Geraldo Rivera. For those who don’t, I will remind you how he fanned the flames of the Satanic Panic, which in turn destroyed many families.

Marilyn Manson gets burned again

Christina Paz told police that Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails’ music told her to burn her dad’s house. Should we buy it? Photo by Flickr user Pipistrula.

Here we go again.

Christina Paz, a 29-year-old El Paso resident, set fire to her father’s house two days after Christmas. Nobody was hurt in the blaze, though the home was seriously damaged. Paz told police that she set the fire because there were messages in Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails’ music telling her to do it.

Those same bands, she said, also told her that:

“her mom and dad for trying to kill her on Christmas Day, that they had planned to sodomize her and chop her up with the help of a neighbor.”

These are some outrageous, likely psychotic, beliefs. And yet, they’re reported practically as fact by the El Paso Times reporter, alongside facts such as Paz grew up in the house, her father was in a nursing home, and her relationship with him was “complicated.”

Her arson method? She painted a bed with super glue, then struck a match. When police arrived, she was standing in the front yard, and turned herself in. She’s being held on bail.

Unfortunately, her arrest makes it less likely that she will be evaluated for the number of medical causes of psychosis, from brain tumors and infections to hormonal imbalances and some forms of epilepsy. This woman needs a competent doctor, not a prison sentence.

Meanwhile, we see two bands dragged through the mud, however falsely. For the record, neither band has songs that encourage people to set fires (or suggest that their families plan to victimize them in the way Paz believed). Manson was falsely implicated in the Columbine High School shootings, even though Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not fans of the band. Erroneous reporting by overly eager reporters led to the idea that this music could incite violence, and the reputation has stuck, many debunkings later.

There has never been any proof that music alone can provoke violent behavior. The many, many court cases that have attempted to prove a link have been thrown out. And fans of music — loud, angry music especially — says the music soothes them, calms their more aggressive impulses. It doesn’t worsen them.

Who are you going to listen to: the one music fan who claims she heard hidden, arson-fueled messages in the music and acted upon them, or the millions of fans who didn’t?

Meet Bob Larson: former rocker, practicing exorcist, schoolgirl trainer, evangelist and “occult expert”

Meet Bob Larson, exorcist and “occult expert.”

You may not have heard of Bob Larson yet, but Bob Larson is trying to change that.

A former musician, Larson turned Christian in the 1960s and has been a champion of anti-occult causes ever since. He authored a series of books on the presumed perils of rock and roll and heavy metal music, including such titles as “Rock & Roll: The Devil’s Diversion, “Hippies, Hindus, and Rock & Roll,” “Rock, Practical Help for Those Who Listen to the Words and Don’t like What They Hear,” and “Larson’s Book of Rock,” the latter focused on heavy metal.

He has since gone on to become a radio evangelist with his own show, “Talk Back,” in which (among other things) he told perfectly happy kids that they were going to Hell. He openly debated Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey’s daughter, Zeena LaVey.

In his most recent incarnation, he’s now an exorcist. He trains schoolgirls to perform exorcisms. He has his own “exorcism channel” on YouTube. And he served as a consultant on the new exorcism thriller “The Devil Inside.”

In a bizarre interview with Movieweb.com, Larson styles himself as a serious exorcist — but also talks about his belief that Heath Ledger somehow became possessed while portraying the Joker in the film “Batman Begins.” (Instead of a simpler explanation — such as Larson was unnerved by Ledger’s convincing performance as a deranged comic-book monster.) Then he goes on to assure the interviewer that he really can tell the difference between a possessed person and an actor faking it.

In 1993, Cornerstone magazine debunked Larson’s ministry, revealing how he played up fears related to the Satanic Panic and used his radio show to manipulate people into giving him money.

There are many holes in Larson’s story, but the one most pertinent to our mission here at Backward Messages is that he styles himself as an “occult expert” and is providing people with information under that guise. Bob Larson is an “occult expert” in the same way that late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was an expert on the culture of the Western world. Larson has not spent much time among occultists attempting to study them neutrally, nor (as far as I know) has he ever practiced the occult, or a minority faith, for himself. He’s an outsider — and an outsider with a bone to pick. It could be said that he’s an expert on the supposed evils of the occult — but that’s not the same thing.

Here’s a question for readers: What makes someone an “expert?” How do you decide whether you can trust someone who calls him- or herself an expert? Does Larson fit your definition?