According to Research: Men Play Extreme Metal to Impress Other Men
According to research, men play extreme metal to impress other men. This study already shares by one of the famous Twitter accounts named Quite Interesting.
The research titled “Extreme metal guitar skill: A case of male-male status-seeking, mate attraction, or byproduct?” has apparently been revealed. Also, written by Todd K. Shackelford and Oakland University, along with Tara DeLecce, Farid Pazhoohi, Anna Szala, and Todd K. Shackelford of Oakland University and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun.
This study suggests that music may serve two purposes: Either it facilitates sexual selection or It enables us to create music. Because our brains are so sophisticated. Although the authors contend it is improbable that extreme metal artists are primarily attempting to boost their mate success. This happens via using their music because it is so strongly male-leaning.
One of the famous Twitter accounts Quite Interesting also shared:
“Research shows that heterosexual men who learn to play extreme metal guitar are mostly motivated to do so in order to impress other heterosexual men.”
Research shows that heterosexual men who learn to play extreme metal guitar are mostly motivated to do so in order to impress other heterosexual men.
— Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) October 2, 2022
Steps of this study called: “Extreme metal guitar skill: A case of male-male status-seeking, mate attraction, or byproduct?”
- The mate attraction model, that proposes that humans (especially men, according to this theory) create art in order to attract potential mating partners
- The status-seeking model, that postulates that humans, both men and women (but again, predominantly men), engage in creative cultural displays in order to impress members of the same sex (and occasionally those of the opposite one) in order to gain prestige
- The cognitive byproduct model, that argues that art in all its forms doesn’t serve a specific function
“Extreme metal is a genre that is heavily male-biased, not only among the individuals that play this style of music, but also among the fans of the genre. Therefore, it is unlikely that extreme metal musicians are primarily trying to increase their mating success through their music.
However, musicians in this genre heavily invest their time in building technical skills (e.g., dexterity, coordination, timing), which raises the question of the purpose behind this costly investment. It could be that men engage in this genre mainly for status-seeking purposes: to intimidate other males with their technical skills and speed and thus gain social status.”
What’s the method of the study
The four researchers used an online survey to collect information from 44 “heterosexual male metal guitarists” on their practice routines, sexual preferences, and levels of male competition.
“How much time they spend practicing, how much of that time is devoted to practicing chords versus single note exercises like scales, arpeggios, and tapping, how technical their playing is, and how fast they play compared to other guitarists they know. There is also an item asking about the maximum tempo at which they can still play cleanly. Items were constructed with response options in Likert-style format ranging from 0 to 9.”
Men who play fast want to impress other men?
Significant positive correlations were revealed between the time spent playing chords and both lifetime sexual partners and the desire facet of the SOI-R.
Also, there were significant positive correlations between the ICS and both time spent playing chords and
perceived playing speed.
“Based on the zero-order correlations, the subsequent set of analyses tested whether guitarpracticing habits predicted lifetime number of sexual partners using multiple regression. Specifically, predictors were the number of hours spent practicing guitar per day, how much of that time is spent playing chords, how much practicing time is spent playing single-note exercises, and perceived speed of playing.
We also included the likeness ratings of the two songs (Black Sabbath and Rings of Saturn) to get a better idea of the style of metal they likely played. The dependent variable was lifetime number of sexual partners. These four guitar-related variables did not significantly predict number of lifetime sexual partners in the overall model, F (4, 39) = 1.533, p = .212, but the variable of time spent playing chords positively predicted number of lifetime sexual partners (β = .312, t = 2.057, p = .046).
Because guitar practicing habits did not predict the lifetime number of sexual partners but there was a significant correlation of time spent practicing chords for the SOI-R desire score, we thought the significant result might reflect the desire facet of the SOI-R, even if these guitarists were not able to fulfil this desire.
Thus, the next regression analysis used these same guitar-playing predictors and SOI-R desire facet score as the criterion variable.”
Also, the survey results indicated that time spent playing chords predicted desire for casual sex with women whereas perceptions of playing speed positively predicted intrasexual competitiveness (a desire to impress other men). The discussion addresses how these results, and the extreme metal genre, might relate to the three competing hypotheses for the function of cultural displays.
You can read the study paper here.
