Heavy metal music could cause head and neck injuries
By Gareth Powell
It’s difficult to keep a straight face when you read that fans are advised to wear neck braces if they are listening to head banging music. Dr. Andrew McIntosh, biomedical and injury expert at the University of NSW, in Sydney, Australia, has found that headbanging in time to heavy metal music could cause head and neck injuries.
He prefers milder music but that has not stopped the research which has found that songs such as Spinal Tap’s Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight and glam-metal band Motley Crue’s Kickstart My Heart (as seen in the illustration at the start of this item) top the list of injury-inducing songs.
The study showed that an average headbanging song with a tempo of 146 beats a minute is likely to cause mild injury if the head’s range of motion is greater than 75 degrees.
I am sure he is correct and, as a precaution, will not now go to headbanging concerts. Not that I ever did. Very loud music will also damage your hearing.
A test in Sweden some years ago found that 80 percent of youths applying for the job in the navy were unsuitable for training as sonar operators because they had been made deaf from very loud music. Either from iPods or nightclubs. At one time it was going to be made illegal to play loud music at either but the moment seems to have passed.
Me, I simply never listen to any music except classical, and that quietly. Which may make me something of an old fart. On the other hand, I still have excellent hearing and my head is still attached to my body.
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Stumble It!
February 21st, 2009
classical music is also loud by nature . you don’t listen to symphonies? one moment soft.the next moment thundering?…that is why i also love classical music
March 6th, 2009
I’m not going to get too far into musical preference with this subject. But I will ask, what about circular motion head banging and head banging to more recent heavy metal. And with most extreme metal, I don’t think I would worry too much about a mild neck injury when there are moshpits that range from playful pushing and shoving to fighting and charging into people.