Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2825

Published 17 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2825
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2825

Research

Christmas 2008: Music

Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass

Declan Patton, research assistant, Andrew McIntosh, associate professor

¹ School of Risk and Safety Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 2052

Correspondence to: A McIntosh a.mcintosh{at}unsw.edu.au

Objective To investigate the risks of mild traumatic brain injuryand neck injury associated with head banging, a popular danceform accompanying heavy metal music.

Design Observational studies, focus group, and biomechanicalanalysis.

Participants Head bangers.

Main outcome measures Head Injury Criterion and Neck InjuryCriterion were derived for head banging styles and both popularheavy metal songs and easy listening music controls.

Results An average head banging song has a tempo of about 146beats per minute, which is predicted to cause mild head injurywhen the range of motion is greater than 75°. At highertempos and greater ranges of motion there is a risk of neckinjury.

Conclusion To minimise the risk of head and neck injury, headbangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion,head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal withadult oriented rock, only head bang to every second beat, oruse personal protective equipment.

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