People who listen to heavy metal music are often seen as a minority group in most cultures and countries, but is it possible that heavy metal music listeners have a distinct culture of their own that transcends the dividing lines of nations? This paper is intended to research and report the similarities between heavy metal listeners across the world. In order to do that I will be splitting the world up into four major categories for observation and research:
1. The United States
2. English speaking Europe (Ireland, Great Britain)
3. Non-English speaking Europe (Finland, Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia, etc.)
4. Asia (India, Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, etc.)
I do realize that this leaves out some key areas like The Middle East, …show more content…

The article Heavy Metal Carnival and Disalienation was based on four years of concert fieldwork and extensive music media analysis (including bands such as Cradle of Filth, GWAR, Insane Clown Posse, Marilyn Manson, and Slipknot), this article shows how heavy metal music and its carnival culture express a dis-alienating politics of resistance. Applying Bakhtin's multifaceted conceptualization of the carnival-grotesque, the author explains how grotesque realism in metal music and performances constitutes a proto-utopian liminal alternative to the impersonal, conformist, superficial, unequal, and numbing realities of commercialism and, more abstractly, a resistance to a society of spectacle and nothingness. The article really showcases how the metal community tends to be a counter culture even across different popular culture norms in multiple nations. Heavy metal fans had less strong reasons for living (especially male fans) and had more thoughts of suicide (especially female fans). For a large majority, listening to music (all types) had a positive effect on mood. Overall, the results indicate that preference for heavy metal music among adolescents may be a "red flag" for increased suicidal vulnerability, but also suggest that the source of the problem may lie more in personal and familial characteristics than in any direct effects of the music. To put it simply, fans