Attitudes of mass communication students of Central Philippine University towards heavy metal music

Abstract

Music interconnection with society can be seen throughout history. Every known culture on earth has music. From generation to generation, these cultures evolve and so does music. It is one of those art forms that are flexible enough to adapt to the society and its culture. From Blues, Jazz, R&B, Rock, Pop and many more, are just some of the many styles that have stemmed from a variety of cultures.

Heavymetal music or simply "metal" is a genre of rock music that was developed in the early 1970's. It is a genre that became very popular to a lot of people for its heavy massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats and overall loudness. However, as far as it is enjoyed by a great number of people, it's labeled as a musical genre that could have a negative impact to an individual's behavior; the claim though is still under debate.

The media took part in giving heavy metal its current stereotype, stating that the genre alongside with rap music bring bad influence to people, claiming that these genres of music promote Satanism, bigotry, sexism, violence, suicide, reckless behavior, drug use, deviant sexual activity, rape, and murder (Arnett, 1991; Epstein et al., 1990; Hansen &Hansen, 1991; Katz, 1993; Trzcinski, 1992; Verden et al., 1989; Wass et al., 1999) Probably because of the lyrics which sometimes express anger. It led the public to assume that Heavy metal promote Satanism without even listening to the lyrics.

"Heavy metal has been labeled as an offensive and a non-lucrative genre but the genre became popular again when a N ew wave of British Metal, like Iron Maiden making the Billboard Charts. As well as other bands like Van Halen, and The Scorpions received a great deal of radio airplay and other forms of media coverage (VH1's: The Story o f Metal)."

Big numbers being sold by record dealers from heavy metal albums changed the public perception towards heavy metal, especially through famous people like Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing skill has changed the focus of metal, they would focus on the skill displayed by guitarist and less on the lyrics, this would also become a reason to why people would listen to the genre. "Because nowadays heavy metal became much more virtuosic and entertaining (Kortepeter, 2012)."

Much like the other genres of music, Heavy Metal evolved bringing new and various types of Heavy Metal like Punk Metal and Techno Metal, and along with the changes that happened to the genre, a lot of people found that the different types of heavy metal interesting and started liking it.

This applies to the mass media. A change in society calls for the mass media to adapt to it Hence, this study aims to determine the awareness, attitudes, exposure and preferences of Mass Communication students of Central Philippines University during the school year 2014 - 2015.

General Objective of the Study:

To find out the different attitudes of randomly selected Mass Communication students of Central Philippine University towards heavy metal music. Specifically, this Study sought to: 1. Determine the profile of the respondents in terms of age and sex. 2. Determine the different attitudes of mass communication students towards the genre; 3. Determine if mass communication students would recommend heavy metal to other people; 4. Determine the inclination of mass communication students towards the genre; 5. Determine whether the respondents would recommend heavy metal music to other listeners.