So-called Positive and Negative Music

[Pathologist]

Proponents of "positive" music
I simply love how they bash heavy metal for being "negative" music, when the only thing they really know is garbage like Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana.
Maybe the ANUS ought to shut these yuppies up?

[Apocalyptic Raves]

They've only looked at metal from the surface and lumped it in with the rest of the shitty music that infests angsty young teenagers minds...

If only taken at face value, metal is horrible. It can barely be called music, it's scary, it's ugly, and it bashes your head in, so to speak.

Don't take it as an insult to metal, this article has some good points, they just don't know any goddamned better.

[Dave]

This doesn't look like anything more than "my music is better than your music" bullshit.

[Prospero]

Listening to both "Ode to Joy" and Burzum, for example, allows you to further explore the broad spectrum of human emotions, which is something constructive. No music is positive nor negative in itself, it all revolves around the listener, it is him who shall make his experience something positive or negative.

[shadowmystic]

Listening to both "Ode to Joy" and Burzum, for example, allows you to further explore the broad spectrum of human emotions, which is something constructive. No music is positive nor negative in itself, it all revolves around the listener, it is him who shall make his experience something positive or negative.

Not so, any work of art has qualities which are completely independant of any observer.  In the case of music what the listener experiences is dependant on them only to the extent that they may not be capable of perceiving the esoteric, or inward nature of some music.  Metal tries to be purely esoteric, its exoteric aspects tend to come from the inferior bands which then attract unqualified fans to the genuine bands.  This is why it has a smaller fan base than something like classical, which in its day was capable of being 'popular' music, and still satisfying the needs of intellectual men.

[Werewolf]

"Negative" emotions in metal: Anger, Hate, Depression, Loss, Melancholy

"Positive": Proud, Asserive, Triumphant

Metal contains several positive emotions, but none of them are 'happy', and as such metal is characterized as negative music a little too much.

[Apocalyptic Raves]

Metal is more an expression of meta-good is what you're saying. By growing the fuck up and acknowledging the bad we can construct our own good out of the world. Whereas "positive" music is just cute puppies and rainbows made out of MDMA pills; a distraction from the harsh realities of life.

[death metal black metal]

When we use the term positive to describe music, we are using it to describe music that has beneficial qualities and is emotionally and spiritually uplifting, perhaps even healing.

Typical humanism, a form of denial. If we filter out all negative, we can live on in a form of heaven called happy feelings land, and reality will be far, far away.

[antithetikal]

positive and negative, good and bad, not the same...
Perhaps metal music is negative, But by being the way it is, it shows up another way for us to think.
Denial... we deny the (fake) "reality"put in front of our eyes and replace it by a completely and new reality.
From this negativism a new light is born.
Nihilism...
Considering something negative as being bad is one of the worse mistakes of our modern society.

[pagan980938127]

Typical humanism, a form of denial. If we filter out all negative, we can live on in a form of heaven called happy feelings land, and reality will be far, far away.

Wait.  Do we listen to metal because it makes us feel like shit?  At least I do not.  Yet we know that if all we wanted was music to make us feel good, there are certainly "easier" forms than metal (see the above website.)

It seems the difference is in the challenging nature of extreme music, as opposed to the affirming nature of pop music. I find the challenge exhilarating and spiritually uplifting - indeed positive.

Maybe positive is too ambiguous a word for these concepts.

[Christ Fucking Malarkey]

I prefer to listen to music in which one has to work towards its full comprehension. "Positive" music by the contemporary definition seems to be the stuff that folks bask in passively, whether it be the Beatles during a quiet, neighborhood barbeque, or whatever stuff my peers listen to during partys nowadays. The same principle applies: let it do its work in the background, like a conniving call girl on your boss's balls mid-afternoons every Thursday. (Yet you wonder why you didn't get that pay raise last quarter?)

Metal and classical music require quite a bit of engagement, and it doesn't afford the same carefree atmosphere that so-called "positive" music does. Because it demands our attention in a society that prides itself in freedom of choice--and most folks prefer not to be faced with more profound levels of reality during their experience--these two artforms are considered intrusive and offensive by many. Note also, that popular music functions equally, if not moreso, on radiating outwards and initiating social contact as it does on engaging dialogue with the listener.

[Dave]

All music that people choose to listen to is "positive". They wouldn't listen to it if they didn't enjoy it at some level. Melancholic or angry music can be comforting to some people, for example. It's naive to think that "negative" music is not beneficial to the people that listen to it, that site is elitist nonsense from people who miss the good ol' days ("During the early 1950’s, every song that you heard on the radio was positive.") that probably never existed in the first place.

[Bereft]

I prefer to listen to music in which one has to work towards its full comprehension. "Positive" music by the contemporary definition seems to be the stuff that folks bask in passively, whether it be the Beatles during a quiet, neighborhood barbeque, or whatever stuff my peers listen to during partys nowadays. The same principle applies: let it do its work in the background, like a conniving call girl on your boss's balls mid-afternoons every Thursday. (Yet you wonder why you didn't get that pay raise last quarter?)

Metal and classical music require quite a bit of engagement, and it doesn't afford the same carefree atmosphere that so-called "positive" music does. Because it demands our attention in a society that prides itself in freedom of choice--and most folks prefer not to be faced with more profound levels of reality during their experience--these two artforms are considered intrusive and offensive by many. Note also, that popular music functions equally, if not moreso, on radiating outwards and initiating social contact as it does on engaging dialogue with the listener.

Very true - good metal and classical demands much from its listeners, but it gives much in return. Its complexity and intents usually aren't obvious, so it eludes those(morons, hipsters) who only scratch the surface. It may not always be polite or tell you what you want to hear, but it's honest and unapologetic.

Inversely, the crowd wants familiar themes and instant gratification, meaning instead of art you have a product dumbed down to a base level where similarities become obvious and differences are negligible or non-existent. In this respect, it functions much like a microcosm of the larger current political and social scene.

Perhaps a different interpretation could be:

Morbid Angel/Burzum -> aristocratic/fascist -> ascending -> positive

ABBA/ARE YOU TALKIN TO ME? -> democratic/egalitarian -> descending -> negative

[we hope you die]

You can compare it to eating heathily. Some healthy foods may not taste as nice or offer immediate gratification, but they are better for you in the long run and we lead to far greater happiness then the 2 minutes of eating a chocolate bar say.

[ASBO]

All music that people choose to listen to is "positive".  

They mean positive in a propagandistic sense, although the original article was so incoherent the word "mean" may be misplaced.

They want music that emphasizes the positive at the expense of the negative, and so facilitates denial, distraction, and surrogate (vicarious) realities.

A summary:

"Don't interrupt my masturbation with the knowledge that the mental object of my stroking, in real life, has AIDS."