Playlists of Psychopaths

Movies have tricked us. They made us believe that Classical music and psychopaths are strongly intertwined, when in fact, it’s actually R&B and Hip Hop that scratch that psychotic itch.

Perhaps I’m tapping this perplexing news piece a bit late – The Guardian and Independent already covered this on September 2017 – but the thought of this vile connection came up to me while enjoying a classical piece on the radio last night which naturally evoked Alex in A Clockwork Orange and Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs.

The gist of the research as described on both magazines:

“The researchers at New York University named Eminen’s Lose Yourself and Backstreet’s No Diggity as two favourites amongst those with the highest psychopath scores, The Guardian reports.”

“In a study of 200 people who listened to 260 songs, those with the highest psychopath scores were among the greatest fans of the Blackstreet number one hit No Diggity, with Eminem’s Lose Yourself rated highly too.”

Psychopaths have sensitive souls. However it’s not Bach that helps eradicate their inner demons, but Blackstreet and Eminem.

Love this song? You’re probably a psychopath.

So what can we say about classical music and psychopaths in films?

A myth?

Scene: A person enjoys a blood covered glass of milk while relishing over a 10 minute symphony –  a Slim Shady symphony.

Which brings us to…

Milk 

Another deeply unsettling complexity. Adults drinking milk in movies is deeply unsettling. Milk associates us with childhood innocence, the most tender times of our lives. So what the hell is an adult doing with a glass of milk?

A Clockwork Orange, No Country for Old Men, Hitchcock’s Suspicion, and Inglorious Bastards all use the act of drinking milk as eerily as possible.

 

According to culturacolectiva.com , showing an evil adult drinking a glass of milk also represents evil consuming or destroying innocence (i.e. SS colonel Hans Landa asking for a glass of milk when offered wine in Inglorious Bastards).

Milk is used for lighting contrast, meshes well with blood and creates the best contradiction to antiheroes –  drinking it means overpowering the good.

Alongside manipulation, ‘innocence’, smooth-talking, uncanny sense of normalcy and niceness, it seems that psychopaths, in and outside the film industry, have a rather surprising taste in music and love milk.