THE HEAVY-METAL SUBCULTURE AND SUICIDE

The impact of the heavy metal music subculture on suicide has been the subject of much public debate but little scholarly research. The pres ent paper assesses this relationship with data on heavy metal magazine subscriptions and youth suicide in the 50 states. We find that, contr olling for other predictors of suicide, the greater the strength of th e metal subculture, the higher the youth suicide rate. The music perha ps nurtures suicidal tendencies already present in the subculture. The model explains 51 % of the variance in youth suicide.