Fans of heavy music are better able to tolerate pain.
Music can not only change the mood, but also affect how a person perceives physical discomfort. A new study has shown that fans of the heavy metal genre were able to withstand the painful effects of cold for longer during a music festival. At the same time, the pain itself did not become less intense or unpleasant for them — it was their ability to tolerate it that changed. About why music can affect the perception of pain, whether genre really matters and why sometimes heavy compositions help to cope with strong emotions — in the material of Izvestia.
Not to numb the pain, but to learn to endure it.
The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. The scientists conducted it during the Wacken Open Air, a major heavy music festival in Germany. 122 people participated in the experiment: 60 were tested the day before the start of the festival, and another 62 on the third or fourth day of the event. This format made it possible to compare the performance of people before the concerts and those who had already been in the atmosphere of the festival for several days.
To assess the pain response, the researchers used the so—called cold pressor test, a cold test. Participants were asked to immerse their non-dominant arm and forearm in cold water and hold them there for as long as they could stand. Scientists recorded two indicators: the moment when a person felt pain for the first time, and the time that passed before he could no longer tolerate and took out his hand. Thus, sensitivity to pain and its tolerance were assessed separately. The maximum duration of the test was four minutes.
In the initial, pre-planned analysis of the entire group, the researchers found no significant differences between the participants before and during the festival, either in sensitivity to pain, its unpleasantness, or tolerance. A significant result appeared only in an additional analysis: the scientists excluded participants who reported heavy alcohol consumption on the day of testing. After that, it turned out that the festival visitors could withstand the cold pain longer.
However, the participants did not report that the pain had become less severe or unpleasant. That is, the study does not indicate a decrease in pain sensitivity, but rather a possible increase in pain tolerance. The authors consider this as a possible indirect indicator of increased resistance to unpleasant sensations, but emphasize that psychological stability itself was not directly measured at work.
Scientists do not yet know exactly why such an effect could occur. Among the possible explanations, they consider the features of intense social musical experience and the alleged release of oxytocin during the collective experience of music. However, hormonal parameters were not measured in the study, so this version remains a hypothesis. In addition, the researchers found no changes in heart rate variability that could confirm an improvement in emotional processing.
Why your favorite music works better than the "right" one
The story of heavy metal is also interesting because it calls into question the widespread notion that there is a "right" music for dealing with pain. In a study published in Scientific Reports in 2024, scientists decided to test whether one musical genre can really be more effective than another.
The experiment involved 548 healthy volunteers, who were randomly assigned to five musical genres: urban, electronic music, classical, rock and pop. The participants also took a cold test while listening to music. The researchers estimated how long a person was able to withstand pain, as well as how intense and unpleasant it seemed to him. No differences were found between the five genres.
But scientists found another pattern: the more a person liked the genre they listened to during the experiment, the higher their tolerance for pain. At the same time, the participants' own ideas about what kind of music should help with pain did not have such an effect. In other words, it turned out to be more important not what a person considers "therapeutic" music, but whether he really likes it.
This is especially interesting in the context of the medical use of music. The authors of the study note that music is already being studied as an additional way to help with acute and chronic pain. Possible mechanisms include distraction, emotional regulation, and changes in physiological arousal. However, the exact mechanism of the so-called music-induced analgesia has not yet been definitively established.
It turns out that there is no universal "painkiller genre". If classical music is unpleasant to a person, it is unlikely that it will automatically become more effective just because it is considered relaxing. On the contrary, a composition that the listener really likes may be a more suitable tool for distraction and emotional regulation.
Not all music should be soothing.
At first glance, it may seem that calm music is best suited to combat pain and stress. However, the research at Wacken Open Air was built around just the opposite idea. The authors drew attention to the fact that suppressed anger can enhance the experience of pain, especially in people with chronic pain conditions. Therefore, scientists became interested in whether heavy music, which often expresses aggression and other strong emotions, could work differently.
According to the researchers, music is usually used to evoke positive emotions or relaxation. But if a person needs to deal with anger, trying to immediately replace it with calmness may not be the only option. For a heavy metal fan, aggressive sound can be a way to live out an existing emotion rather than amplify it.
There is earlier evidence that shows why reactions to heavy music can be mixed. In the materials of the new study, the authors cite an experiment in which they compared the effects of heavy metal and classical music on pain. In another study, the reaction to different musical conditions after a stressful task was studied: classical and self-selected music helped to reduce anxiety and enhance the feeling of relaxation, while the heavy metal used in the experiment did not give such an effect.
This is an important clarification: heavy music is not a universal way to calm down. Moreover, if a person does not like this genre, loud and aggressive sound may well be unpleasant. The participants in the Wacken study were fans of heavy music, and the study itself took place in a special festival atmosphere. Therefore, its results cannot be automatically transferred to people who do not listen to such music.
In addition, it is not yet possible to say what exactly influenced pain tolerance: heavy metal, live performances, a few days among friends, a sense of belonging to a community, or a combination of all these factors. The researchers separately note that their work does not allow us to determine whether the result is related specifically to the heavy music festival or whether a similar effect may occur at other musical events.
Why does one song relax you while the other makes you feel more
Music affects a person in several ways at once. One of the possible mechanisms for pain is attention switching: music takes up part of cognitive resources and helps a person to concentrate less on an unpleasant sensation. Another way is related to emotional regulation: a familiar and pleasant composition can change mood and physiological arousal. Researchers are also looking at the role of the reward system and related neurochemical processes.
The emotional response is influenced by the very structure of the music. For example, tempo is related to the level of arousal: a study published in the journal Frontiers shows that fast compositions can cause higher emotional arousal, while slow music is more often perceived as less arousing. At the same time, the reaction depends on whether a professional musician listens to music or a person without special training, as well as on individual characteristics.
Therefore, the simple scheme "classical calms, rock irritates, metal causes aggression" does not work. Musical characteristics are indeed associated with certain emotional tendencies, but the final reaction consists of a much larger number of factors. Personal experience, memories, cultural environment, familiarity with the composition and, most importantly, a person's own attitude to music are important.
That's why two songs with a similar tempo and sound can evoke completely different feelings in the listener. One will remind you of an unpleasant event, the other — about a loved one, the third will become part of the usual ritual of rest. Even sad music doesn't necessarily make a person feel worse: if you're familiar with it and like it, listening to it can be enjoyable or help you safely experience difficult emotions.
Research on music and pain does not yet allow us to name a specific genre as a universal painkiller. But they gradually show something else: it matters not only what a person hears, but also how he perceives it. Music can distract from pain, change your emotional state, or help you cope with intense emotions. Therefore, for one person, a calm melody will become an easier way to transfer unpleasant sensations, and for another, loud heavy metal. And sometimes music doesn't make the pain any less painful — it just helps a person cope with it longer.
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