Is SLIPKNOT's Music To Blame For Deadly South African School Attack?

According to Daily Dispatch Online, less than a week after a South African teenager killed a fellow student with a sword and wounded three others while wearing a mask similar to masks worn by heavy metal band SLIPKNOT, speculation about the reasons for his behavior has ranged from the influence of Satanism to drugs, from bullying to the pervasive effect of popular culture and media on young minds.

Seventeen-year-old Selborne College student Lloyd Zacharias looks anything but a SLIPKNOT fan. He's a well-mannered matriculant. His tucked shirt is crisp and he is very articulate.

Given the grotesque image of SLIPKNOT, few people would imagine that he is a heavy metal fanatic who owns some of the band's CDs.

"I listen to them for the music itself and not so much about what they have to say. I like the way they put their music together.

“I don't think their lyrics are that bad as many people would think. Heavy metal music needs a strong-minded person and if you are not, then you'll find yourself doing funny things," says Lloyd.

Some of his friends also listen to heavy metal music. "They aren't exactly guys that I would say are living dangerously. It also depends on the person because you can't say 'this song is going to make me kill someone' unless you have an interest from something else."

East London psychologist Liezel Gordon says many teenagers are under pressure to fit in and are struggling to form their own identities.

Although she says the media, particularly music, should not be blamed, they have a measure of influence on how teenagers perceive things.

"It's difficult to prove that a specific thing has a certain influence but my experience with teenagers is that the more they are exposed to certain things in the media, the more they regard those things as the norm," explains Gordon. "If they are exposed to a lot of violence or exposed to some of the ideas that come out of the music, then they think that is how people should behave.

"Music can trigger emotional response but it's not to say a person has to go and act out that response.

"Having said that, I don't think one song will cause bad behaviour unless one is very vulnerable and has other stresses and influences which could lead up to being vulnerable to what they hear."

Read the entire report from Daily Dispatch Online.