Talk:Headbanging/Archive 1

Brain Damage
It seems rather unfair to con the statement 'When it comes down to it, most people who headbang won't care about the repercussions and do it any way.' onto the brain damage part. This is implying that people who headbang couldn’t care if they are damaged or not, that’s blatantly a opinion and is quite rude to anybody who headbangs.

The Herman Li style
Is the Herman Li hairflip less straining than any other styles? I think that style is good if your hair is too long like Herman's and you don't want to hurt your neck.

Someone should remove the Herman Li thing... flipping your hair isn't something that's notable.

Why is the herman Li hairflip removed? I think it is a very notable style and used mainly by Herman.

I believe its the John Myung style hairflip, considering he was doing in live from Tokyo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.139.115.233 (talk) 22:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

The Brain Damage Question
i would say that headbanging definitely leads to brain damage, as even mild shocks to the head, such as those occuring whilst jogging, can cause brain damage. so its not my point of view, but a fact.

Steeev 06:01, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * Add a respected study with the warning (perhaps as an external link), and then it will be less of a problem to mention as a fact. Dysprosia 06:04, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * Someone should definitively REMOVE THE REFERENCE to the study 1, since it's a hoax study. When you read it through, you will understand. It talks about beavis and butthead, and recommends switching music preferences from rock to Celine Dion. It's a joke. --


 * Number 1: It was a suggestion to switch to adult-oriented rock. Number 2: What's wrong with talking about Beavis and Butthead? Number 3: If this is indeed a hoax study (which I highly doubt it is, since there's unhoax-like equations and graphs in the study) then prove it with some sources. It isn't a hoax study simply because you don't like it. B T C 02:04, 19 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, the study's writeup is lighthearted. This is not uncommon in medical journals when the topic lends itself to it. Witness the genital-burns-from-a-laptop report. But the headbanging study itself is not a hoax.


 * 5. Can brain injury occur without direct trauma to the head?


 * Yes. Whiplash injury or violent shaking of the head can cause brain injury. It is the sudden movement of the brain inside the cranium that causes damage to neurons. Sudden acceleration-deceleration of the head in an automobile collision, even with airbag deployment where the head is protected from striking a solid object, can cause brain injury because the brain slams against the inside of the skull, displacing, tearing, and bruising nerve cells. A roller coaster ride may make you feel dizzy for a few minutes due to inner ear disturbance, but produces nowhere near the physical force of even a 20 or 30 mph automobile crash. Even what seems like a sudden stop at the end of the ride (which, of course, it really isn’t) is nothing compared to hitting a stationary object at just 15 or 20 mph.


 * source: http://www.brainsource.com/TwentyQ.htm
 * credentials: http://www.brainsource.com/about_brainsource.htm
 * Steeev 06:14, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * Okay, but can one's head be moving at 15-20 mph when headbanging? Dysprosia 13:56, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * Depends on the speed of the music! :) Steeev 18:17, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * that's about 7 meters per second


 * I'm taking out the line about "deaths having been reported" through headbanging until someone can provide a quotable reference - a quick look around Google hasn't turned up anything definitive. --Mpk 01:33, 24 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I guess I'm more interested in finding out about studies that specifically show that Headbanging causes head injuries, and that the whole concept isn't just some urban legend told by parents to children to scare them away from "the wrong crowd" (as rock and rollers typically have the "wrong crowd" attachment loaded on them). --Werty8472 19:51, 05 October 2005 (CST)


 * I think you'd have to be a hard-touring member of a metal band to even stand a chance from incurring damage from it. Most people don't do it that violently. Makron1n 16:41, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

"Most metalheads will wake up the following day with a headache showing there has been some trauma to the brain." I'm wondering where this comes from? I don't recall having a headache after headbanging, and I don't remember hearing anyone mentioning having a headache the morning after headbanging ... not counting people with hangovers from drinking. I'm thinking of changing this to read "some metalheads...", "... there might have been some trauma ..." Kiffer.geo 00:20, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Many people dispute the study's accuracy: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/337/dec17_2/a2825#206803

BRAIN DAMAGE !?!?!?
I just think that could be logical, when somebody headbangs regularly, the brain and the substance in which is the brain “swimming”, could get used to some percussion so that the substance becomes denser and is more produced. The human body makes things like this ordinarily: if you strain your muscles regularly, the grow but they don't get damaged. I can headbang on a concert without interruption for 3 hours with no problem because my head got used to it. But I must exercise. Of course if somebody who never did this headbangs offhand 10 minutes, he says it hurts.

In fact, what is even more important: the head doesn't impact to any object when headbanging so I really don't understand how can you compare headbanging to (citing) "automobile collision" or "striking a solid object" "hitting a stationary object at just 15 or 20 mph"(somebody above)-What are you talking about???? Even with an airbag the speed of a car is something different than headbanging.

And objectively about the speed: If you listen to a very fast death metal, and if you make headbangs about 50cm down, 50cm up, you wouldn't make more than about 4 to 5 in a second. It is 4 to 5, m/s and you must subtract the acceleration and deacceleration. So (citing) "20 or 30 mph automobile crash" is cca 10 to 13m/s. So I don't know how you, but I am not hiting the walls when I headbang and I also don't make 20 regular up-and-downs in a second so if nothing hurts me, I think it doesn't damage my brain. It just makes my neck stronger.

Maybe I talk bullshit cause I am not a doctor so I don't understand it really but this above is just pretty logical. --Lycantrophe 12:04, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Types of headbanging
The list of "types" of headbanging seems a bit rediculous. I'm all for headbanging, but are those real words people call the various "techniques", or just BS? Perhaps just describing the ways of doing it would be better than proclaiming titles for those techniques.

The "Whiplash" is an actual term. And the "Semi-Circle", even thought that's not so much a name as it is a desciption in itself. ie "Yeah, he was doing some, like, semi-cirle headbangin'."

hah, I can't believe there was an article on this, somebody must of been bored, anyway        I added drunken head banging as thats what I tend to do most of the time. 14th March 2006

I find it quite amusing, and it's written in the right style so, meh! Wikipedia can't be entirely humourless. Also: I tend to mainly do semi-circular headbanging, and at all the wrong venues. Heh. Makron1n 16:40, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

This is funny, but it constitutes "original research," so it violated Wikipedia gudelines. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.217.131.183 (talk) 07:04, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I removed most of the section, because it was original research. 75.45.124.32 (talk) 09:53, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * That was a pretty good decision. Bravo. Backtable Speak to Me  about what I have done  20:50, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

I originally edited the page for spelling, but then came here and noticed your discussion about original research. I then reverted the page back to an earlier version. (Nov 5, 22:36) Rmcarthur (talk) 23:30, 6 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I was questionable about the edit that he/she did, but I didn't want to take it away due to it maybe having some notablilty. But it definitely was not notable. Thanks again. Backtable Speak to Me  about what I have done  23:57, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Subculture deletion
Hey, wanst theyre an article on the headbanger subculture? Was it deleted, why? Ace Fighter 22:15, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * No, see Heavy metal fashion. Doppelganger E  16:29, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Health issues
I'm still interested in a solution to the brain damage issue, since it seems it's still up for debate. To me it seems fairly logical that there's some minor adverse effect to headbanging; I've often felt dizzy and unable to concentrate after a prolonged headbanging session, and the duration of time for which the brain is subjected to stress might also be a factor. I'm surprised neurologists haven't investigated the issue since the practice is almost iconic for metal.

Also relevant to the "Health issues" header, Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth had to get surgery and cancel many tours because of a neck injury from headbanging. This happened around 2005 and used to be documented on the News part of the Iced Earth site, but for now, here's a blurb from an online article:

""I had a neck injury back in '96, I had surgery on that in 2000, and for four years we were out touring, and I just dealt with it, getting cortizone shots in my neck and all kinds of stupid crap that made it worse. But I would have made that sacrifice had the right opportunity come up, but we just didn't have that."

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=37045

Reportedly Jason Newsted had similar problems. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.167.95.120 (talk) 21:21, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

There's quite a body of cases related to brain injury from roller coaster riding and other such herky-jerky theme park rides. Perhaps this is because there's a deep-pocketed plaintiff that attorneys can go after, as opposed to a broke band that has questionable responsibility for what its fans choose to do. This might account for all the medical cases, court cases, expert witnesses, etc., that you see with the roller coaster cases, but which seem to be few and far between with headbanging injuries, which would tend to go unreported, since there is no moneybags to go after ... you only have yourself to blame. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.217.131.183 (talk) 07:07, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Children of Bodom's Headbanging
in Chaos Ridden Years, during the song Sixpounder, All of the members Headbang the same exact way at one point towards the begining of the song. I'm not sure, but I think it's Side to side. So Not just Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom does it. Again, I'm not exactly sure, because I havn't seen it in a while. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.31.9.72 (talk) 01:22, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Amon Amarth would be a better example... pretty much evey song. Heres one at random http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-UbViuK4fY —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.5.136.39 (talk • contribs) 20:17, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

My Chemical Romance?
according to the style section where it lists 'thrust' as a style of headbanging. Frank Lero of My Chemical Romance is mentioned. As a true metalhead I plead for MCR to be striked as they are not metal in the least but emo rock. Whether they headbang by thrusting doesn't matter. A metalhead headbangs. MCR does not headbang. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gotha thedark1 (talk • contribs) 03:36, 31 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I see where you're coming from when you say that MCR is not metal. I have reason to agree with you. Since this is an article about the metal subculture, and MCR isn't part of that, I'll get onto deleting the entry from where it talks about the thrust headbang. Thanks. B T C 17:42, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Removing health issues in BMJ
The BMJ article is (as suggested above) _clearly_ a spoof, as it is from the Xmas issue. See. Luminifer (talk) 19:41, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I plan to remove/cn anything pulled from there. Any objections? Luminifer (talk) 19:41, 26 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I was convinced that it was a serious article. You can even see me give commentary above on how it is a real article. I guess it is a joke artice then. You have no objections from me. Backtable Speak to Me  about what I have done  02:40, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

My 08:05, 30 August 2009 edit
Forgot to add an edit summary. I removed a large portion of the Styles section a couple days ago. I realized the description of the basic style of headbanging was decently sourced so I restored it. 75.45.124.32 (talk) 09:51, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Aggressiveness of the music
What the hell is the "aggressiveness of the music", what does make the music "aggressive"? -- The-wiz (talk) 19:03, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, you do have a good point there. It does seem like opinion-based information; even if it's not, it really is still not totally correct. For instance, there can be a metal album which can be extremely heavy, but if the mix is screwed up, then there won't be many people calling it "aggressive". I will replace the word "aggressiveness" with "heaviness", due to your suggestion. Thanks. Backtable Speak to Me  about what I have done  01:17, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Importance to the metal music wikiproject
What would it be? Would it be mid-importance or high-importance? It could be top importance, but that does have some doubt from me, considering the rarity of articles with "top-importance". The issue that there is an unmarked importance from that wikiproject waas brought up by Jason Quinn in an edit summary, and I find it an issue worthy of attention. Thoughts? Backtable Speak to meconcerning my deeds. 00:18, 20 January 2010 (UTC)