Swedish Occupational Psychologist First To Recognize The Debilitating Effects Of Heavy Metal Music
from the no-word-yet-if-this-excuses-you-from-serving-in-the-metal-militia dept
Sweden, home of an unofficial pirate religion, an official Pirate Party and shockingly reasonable infringement fines has upped the ante on every country wishing to fill the local papers with ONLY “weird news” features. Via Marginal Revolution comes this story of metal and the damage it has done.
Consider the plight of Roger Tullgren. Introduced to a strain of music referred to colloquially as “heavy metal” by an older brother, Roger has been forced to live a life of constant underemployment due to his newly-defined handicap.
Tullgren’s addiction to heavy metal has forced him to quit job after job. Sometimes it’s “the man” forcing him out because of their fear of the music’s inherent “dark forces” and possible secondhand hearing loss. At other times, it’s the struggle to contribute to two metal bands while still occasionally showing up for work, that leads to the unemployment line. Either way, Roger has a problem, and it’s one that the crushing chords of the heaviest of metal can’t cure on their own.
Fortunately, an occupational psychologist has stepped up to the plate for Tullgren:
“I signed a form saying: ‘Roger feels compelled to show his heavy metal style. This puts him in a difficult situation on the labour market. Therefore he needs extra financial help’. So now I can turn up at a job interview dressed in my normal clothes and just hand the interviewers this piece of paper,” he said.
With this form in hand, Tullgren is now able to fulfill his duties as a 42-year-old dishwasher. No longer is he forced to take off his multiple skull-and-pentgram rings or cover up his tattoos before heading for work. In addition, his current employer allows him to listen to his preferred music at crippling decibel levels (“unless there are guests”) and take time off whenever he needs it to catch the nearest metal act live. (Tullgren attended over 300 shows last year.) Tullgren’s employer not only benefits from having the hardest rocking dishwasher in Sweden but also from Tullgren’s “brain thing,” which ensures that the Swedish Employment Service pays part of Roger’s salary.
Despite these hardships, Tullgren remains buoyant and unflappable (two words which have never been applied to a metalhead before):
“Some might say that I should grow up and learn to listen to other types of music but I can’t. Heavy metal is my lifestyle,” he said.
Lifestyle choice or no, it’s good to see that Tullgren is finally getting the help he needs. After all, as Quiet Riot’s eerily prescient album points out: “Bang your head/Wake the dead/We’re all metal mad/It’s all you have/Bang your head/Metal health will drive you mad.”
Filed Under: heavy metal, music, psychology
Comments on “Swedish Occupational Psychologist First To Recognize The Debilitating Effects Of Heavy Metal Music”
fishy
very old story. urban myth?
You have got to be kidding me...
Please … PLEASE … tell me that was a joke…
You can’t be serious?
Oh, wait… Written by Tim Cushing and NOT by Mike Masnick
It’s NOT serious 🙂
Yep, Heavy Metals sure can be harmful to your health. And hearing loss won’t be your only “loss”.
And in an unrelated note:
Huh?
fishy
“June 19, 2007”
Yep, but still funny as hell. That’s the great thing about having perpetual storage space, you can put up interesting stuff like this.
fishy
Ahhhh. It is.
Damn. I blame MR. And my own faulty eyes. Possibly more blame lies with the latter, but I’m trying to spread the blame around as evenly as possible. 😉
Re:
I second that.
Off topic: I like heavy metal too. I don’t have any tattoos, skull and other dark ornaments and I prefer bluish colors instead of darker tones and black though. I do listen to metal in somewhat of high decibels every once in a while but my eardrums are duing fine with normal hearing loss for my age according to my last audiometry. Not every metal lover is what society likes to call a ‘freak’ (even though the darkest goths aren’t freaks in my point of view, they are just different than me).
On topic: wtf?
Who swapped my TechDirt for The Onion?
Richmond
Sounds a bit like the story of Richmond Felicity Avenal. Poor guy.
I don’t get it.
ROCK ON BROTHER TULLGREN!!!!!
IT’S BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN TO FADE AWAY!!!!
fishy
Nope! It is definitely eric’s fault for pointing it out. If he didn’t do it then then you would have been able to continue making large ‘profits’ for Mike with ad revenue and eyeballs. If you would just censor eric, perhaps through legislation, you could maintain your revenue stream.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
alright, I think that cover it
Yep
At least this is Sweden, not the US. But I don’t expect it will be long before we also have people leeching off others who actually work for living based on similar nonsense.
Yep
But I don’t expect it will be long before we also have people leeching off others who actually work for living based on similar nonsense.
I am kind of combining Techdirt stories here, but what if everyone groped by the TSA claimed that the emotional distress was severe enough to keep them from working?
Really!?
Let me feel your pain…oh wait, “TIME TO GROW UP MOTHERLICKER!”
Why is this here? It’s like article SPAM… and apparently REALLY old.
Richmond
Sounds a bit like the story of Richmond Felicity Avenal.
Yup, though he got there by listening to Goth Metal. But at least he gets stuck in a room with blinking lights. I’d do the same if it meant that I could get a job I love working in the basement with Jen Barber (and Moss and Roy.) God, I hate reality (ok, not really, I like my job, but I’d still like hanging out with them too.)
Re:
well, not in the way it’s expressed, anyway. (sometimes his points are, sometimes they’re not.)
foretold in 1982!