In fact, I think they're missing one of the more important points -- heavy metal is much "smarter" music than most of the shit on the airwaves today. What I mean is that it's a lot more complex. It does different things, it teases and strains traditional theory, and mixes lots of often disparate elements. You don't find much innovation in music these days, most especially not in pop, hip hop, or R&B. A lot of incredibly smart people I know listen to bands like Anata, Extol, Sikth, Meshuggah, Gorod, Necrophagist, Psycroptic, Dillinger Escape Plan, etc. because there's so much raw, unabashed complexity. Metal in general has far more in common with classical music than people give it credit for, certainly far more than your average rock and pop radio vomit, and technical bands take that base and often twist it into odd patterns. Think of it as musical origami. I used to think it was really odd that I liked classical, jazz, and metal more than most other forms of music. As I've gone on, I've discovered I'm far from alone.
So while what they say is true, I think they've got the wrong focus with their study. There are plenty of smart kids who use metal as a place to vent aggression, but there are plenty of dumb ones that do that, too. They need to look a little deeper and discover that you could be brain dead and still get System of a Down on their basic level, but you need to be attentive if you're going to follow and appreciate DEP or Sikth on any significant level. A lot of smart kids gravitate toward technical metal for that very reason. Which is probably why there's a growing number of younger people that can do shit on the guitar that makes their forefathers scrape their jaws off the floor.
