Understanding the Attraction to Music Containing Violent Themes: A Qualitative Analysis

Fans of music containing violent themes can experience positive affective, social, and well-being benefits from engagement with music. However, there is a gap in understanding why people are attracted to such music in the first place, as violently themed music is often considered offensive, disturbing, and repulsive by many nonfans. Recent research has found that morbid curiosity, a fascination with death and threatening situations and phenomena, is associated with the attraction to novel excerpts of music containing violent themes. The present study qualitatively investigated reasons that a sample of predominantly nonfans of violently themed music (N = 96) show attraction to such music, focusing on the role of morbid curiosity. Participants reported the reasons behind their curiosity about 32 novel excerpts of violently themed metal or rap music, containing either music and lyrics or lyrics only. Responses were analyzed using a combination of inductive and deductive content analysis. Results revealed that morbid curiosity emerged as a key theme in the responses to violently themed metal and rap excerpts, while a general desire for more information and context and an appreciation for the music and lyrical elements of the music also emerged as key themes. Findings support the notion that morbid curiosity is a key element to the attraction to violently themed music and may support the development of enjoyment and fandom. We discuss implications for the neurological and evolutionary basis of morbid curiosity and its potential influence on experiencing adaptive outcomes through violently themed music.