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."
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Filed Under: heavy metal, music, psychology
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fishy
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Re: fishy
Yep, but still funny as hell. That's the great thing about having perpetual storage space, you can put up interesting stuff like this.
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Re: fishy
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. ;)
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Re: Re: fishy
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You have got to be kidding me...
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Oh, wait... Written by Tim Cushing and NOT by Mike Masnick
It's NOT serious :)
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Re:
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Huh?
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Re:
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?
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Richmond
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Re: Richmond
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.)
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ROCK ON BROTHER TULLGREN!!!!!
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HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
alright, I think that cover it
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Yep
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Re: Yep
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?
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Really!?
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