It’s a familiar story heard all too often – angry armed teenager unleashes violent wrath upon fellow students with disastrous consequences. As a result those in the public eye play the blame game, reaching out to any source that can be deemed accountable, often settling for one sole culprit: the music industry. In particular heavy bands, rock bands, bands labelled as controversial by the media and adored by rebellious youth.

The most recent rendition of these incidences comes in the form of an 18 year old South African school boy who in August 2008 donned a ninja sword, covered his face with a balaclava and stabbed a 16 year old student to death, injuring 3 others. Despite executing this deadly spree with what is probably the most stylish weapon yet, the fundamentals of the situation remain the same and low and behold, music was blamed.

Community leader Pierre Eksteen informed reporters that ‘Satanic music was probably the cause of the attack’ and since fellow students described the protagonist as being ‘dressed like Joey Jordison’ (drummer of metal band Slipknot) the media hasn’t hesitated to escalate this accusation. Music has been the scapegoat for tragedies like this for many a year. Thanks to Michael Moore it has become common knowledge that the Columbine massacre of 1999 was blamed on Marilyn Manson, despite the fact that neither shooter listened to the artist. It has also since been revealed that Eric Harris, one of the shooters, posted lyrics from German band KMFDM on his website and consequently they were also blamed, despite their lyrics actually encouraging non-violence.

Mitchell Johnson of Westside Middle School in Washington was the eldest of two shooters who lured both teachers and classmates onto school grounds with a false fire alarm only to shoot them down from the woods. It was later discovered that Johnson was a fan of Tupak Shakur. Since Tupak Shakur has already fittingly died in a shooting, the authorities decided to blame all ‘violent rap music,’ whatever that may be. 

Finally, in an incident that truly shows the authorities grasping at the scapegoat straw, Emo music has been blamed for the suicide of Hannah Bond, a 13-year-old girl from Kent. A fan of My Chemical Romance, Bond reportedly discussed suicide online with other Emo fans. Since the incident, various news sources have reported the Emo movement as more of a cult than an excuse for teenagers to be miserable. Instead of an irritating adolescent tribute album by an equally irritating band ‘The Black Parade’ according to the media is where Emo’s believe they go after death.

Consequently Emo is now under fire for reasons unrelated to musical credibility, but more focused upon musical influence. Of course, turning purely to the positives it can be argued that the world would probably be a much better place if everyone who listened to Emo music did kill themselves. Every cloud has a silver lining.

What must be focused on here is the attitude of the media and authorities to immediately turn to the music the victim or killer adores instead of observing their upbringing, their mental state and the very culture in which they live. Simply put if the culture is to blame, that is the society to which they are exposed, then the Government and maybe even the media itself are at fault and that is where the fear lies.

According to the National Centre for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder more than 90% of suicide victims are suffering from an unidentified or untreated psychiatric illness at their time of death, most commonly mood disorder which is easily heightened by substance abuse. Hannah Bond’s parents reported that their daughter was indeed moody but they had assumed it was just due to being a normal teenager. Is it more likely that Bond took her life because she was suffering from a mood disorder along with peer pressure and other common teen stresses or because Gerard Way was screaming into her ear that he wasn’t ok?

Similarly it is highly likely that the 18 year-old ‘Joey Jordison wannabe’ didn’t stab his schoolmates because of Slipknot but because of psychiatric issues.

Clinical Counsellor Karen L. Panasevich explains that incidences such as this are often a result of stored rage, where by the teen has no way of expressing their anger productively over a long period of time. This explains why the attacks are often premeditated and the protagonists are calm upon arrest – they have not just snapped, they have been snapping for quite some time. As Slipknot themselves put it ‘everyday I see a little more of overall deficiencies, I'm nothing short of being one complete catastrophe.’

Until we start to understand that there are no unconditional reasons for these outbursts but continue to use music as a scapegoat the problem will persist. It is also probably worth noting that after quoting Slipknot I felt no compulsion to kill another human being. Sorry Middle America.

Posted In Features, Sep 10 2008. Words - Jenni