Killing With Your iPod0

Some amazing reports from Afghanistan that soldiers are listening to heavy metal on their IPODs to prepare them for combat.  Metallica reported that they got loads of fan mail from soldiers in the Middle-East.  So an American scientist interviewed soldiers to find out what they were listening to.   Many soldiers talked about Heavy Metal tracks turning them into monsters, making them inhuman so they can do inhuman acts.

So does Heavy Metal really turn people into monsters ?

No, more likely the soldiers use loud, fast, heavy rhythms to get into a  hyped-up trance state in which they are cut-off from their normal feelings.  That way they can cope with the appalling things that they are about to face – the possibility of their own death, the death of their friends, the reality of killing others and the sight of mutilated bodies. Maybe the fact that they have to hype themselves up like this is a good sign – showing that even for soldiers killing doesn’t come easy.  Or is it time for another moral panic about what music does to young people ?   Remember all that stuff about Gangsta rap fueling violence.

If you have ever watched an American war movie you will have heard the Marines Hymn  http://www.contemplator.com/america/marine.html – once you have recovered from that you will be desperate for Master of Puppets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z-hEyVQDRA

What do you think ?  What does music do for your mood ?