How do you relate to music?

by Anastasia kasko

Music in general is easy to relate to. There are over a million songs one can search up to listen to. Whether you’re going through your latest break up or your parents are splitting up there are songs for virtually anything!




Iron Maiden, Tool, AC/DC, Van Halen, Deep Purple and so many other bands are popular amongst those who listen to metal (music genre).

What leads a person to listen to such hardcore songs and screaming? What kind of emotions does this “metal music” vent for the listener?

Students of St. James High describe how they feel when listening to heavy metal and why they listen to it.

An anonymous junior said, “I get lonely sometimes and it’s painful for me. I don’t have a ton of people I can talk to about my feelings and sometimes it’s hard to express them. When I listen to Anthrax [a popular metal band] I feel relieved and I don’t feel so mad at myself.”

Freshman Casey Boswell said, “I listen to metal when I’m not in a very good mood, it’s really a way to take out my stress without taking it out on someone.”

However, just because you listen to this music genre doesn’t mean you’re a depressed person who has nothing to do with their time. I also listen to metal and absolutely love it because of the raw emotion within the voices and the amazing guitar riffs that are usually affiliated with metal.

Metal isn’t the only genre of music people listen to, in fact there are hundreds of other genres you can choose to listen to. Naturally you choose what sounds best to you. So maybe when you get sad you go and listen to straight up gangster rap.

Music is what you make it. Lyrics are something you can interpret because nobody (except the writer of the lyrics) truly knows what the song is about. That’s why metal music is popular amongst those who don’t think too highly of themselves. The lyrics in most metal songs are deep and meaningful