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They're
Not Just Screaming Although music dominates much of popular American culture, hard rock and metal artists rarely find airtime on mainstream television and radio. Turning metal away from the mainstream, popular opinion has labeled this genre as nonsensical screaming. While some bands may indeed exhibit little intelligence or substance, one group in particular, Tool, transcends this metal stereotype. Nonetheless, reviewing Tool's latest album for Rolling Stone, David Fricke asks if the album's "asymmetrical chunks of distemper - one-minute sound games, jumbo two- and three-part suites - even qualify as songs" (109). Despite critical reviews, Tool's music contains relevance and intellect, apparent from the influence of psychotherapist Carl G. Jung. By outlining Jungian psychology, giving examples of Jungian ideas in Tool's music, and showing the affects of Jung's influence, the substance behind the band's music becomes apparent. Nonetheless, popular culture refuses to look past a distorted guitar and raised voice to see intelligent, well-written songs. To appreciate Jung's influence on Tool, one must first identify and understand the basics of Jungian psychology. Psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) believed that the human personality, or psyche, was excessively complex and claimed that psychiatrists needed as broad an understanding of the mind as physicians had of the body. Jung differed in many ways from the well-known Freud in that he de-emphasized sex and sexuality as a major factor in psychological issues. From observing his patients, Jung structured the psyche into three levels, the consciousness, the personal unconscious, and collective unconscious, each having profound effects on human behavior. Although the consciousness and unconscious were not new ideas in Jung's time, he discovered and defined the collective unconscious, a topic that has fascinated and greatly influenced Tool. The first level of the psyche, the consciousness, represents all conscious thoughts and is "the only part of the mind that is known directly by the individual" (Hall 33). The personal unconscious serves as storage for thoughts and memories that have flowed out of or were too insignificant to reach consciousness. These suppressed memories and thoughts can be recalled through the ego, which serves as a filter to balance these two parts of the psyche. The third level, the collective unconscious, is more abstract and complex. Jung believed that just as evolution has shaped the body, it has also shaped the mind by imprinting the brain with instincts and images. For example, since darkness would have been dangerous to man's ancestors, Jung explained that children's irrational fear of the dark comes from something within the collective unconscious (Hall 39-40). Jung called these inherited images from the collective unconscious archetypes and defined many of them, most importantly the persona, the anima or animus, and the shadow. Archetypes and the collective unconscious are reoccurring themes in Tool's lyrics, so an elementary understanding of these Jungian concepts helps in appreciating their music. The persona represents the way someone outwardly projects himself to others, while the anima, or animus for women, represents the inner self, such as the inner-woman inside of every man. Balance between the persona and anima is vital to any relation or understanding with the opposite sex. On the other hand, the shadow represents the persistent inner animalistic instinct, which plays a role in same-sex relationships. The shadow can indeed be a dark place, as people can use it to suppress feelings and urges, which will only come back to cause psychological problems. In addition to supplying archetypes, some believe that the collective unconscious links a man not only to his ancestors but also to all living men. While Jung never speculated on such implications of the collective unconscious, his explanation of the psyche and archetypes have fueled an entire school of thought, from which Tool has drawn influence. While some may prejudicially label Tool's music as screaming metal, Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan has tapped into Jungian psychology for the lyrics to many songs. Making clear references to Jungian concepts, the music carries more intellectual substance and relevance than often recognized by the public. For example, in "Sober" from the band's 1993 release, Undertow, Keenan starts the song, There's a shadow just behind me, Many mainstream listeners fail to notice the reference to the Jungian archetype and criticize this song for other lines containing explicit language and anti-Christian sentiment. However, from the Jungian perspective, the speaker in "Sober" is not unintelligently cursing, but rather under the influence of his shadow archetype, which as Jung explained, can lead to animalistic behavior and psychological issues. My shadow, change is coming... Jung's influence is apparent although here Tool goes on to address the school of thought mentioned earlier that believes the collective unconscious plays an important evolutionary role. Accordingly, the speaker in this song feels linked to his ancestors via his "muscle memory." Although the topic addressed in "Forty-Six and Two" is abstract and questionable, the song certainly contains more than irrational yelling. Other Jungian references are less obvious. In "Ænema," the title-track from the 1996 release, Tool offends many mainstream listeners with a heavy sound and explicit rants criticizing many aspects of popular culture. However, much like other songs, "Ænema" is not completely thoughtless or unintelligent. Near the end, Keenan pleads, "Don't just call me a pessimist / Try and read between the lines." To "read between the lines," one must analyze the song's title. "Ænema" combines "enema" and the Jungian archetype, "anima". Therefore, the title can be interpreted to mean roughly, "a flushing of one's feminine side." Indeed, in Keenan's rants his sensitive anima disappears and only his aggressive tendencies emerge. Through the psychological references of this and other Tool songs, the band transcends the screaming metal stereotype to which many mainstream listeners assign it. While not every song contains an allusion to Jungian psychology, no Tool song completely lacks intelligent substance. The unmistakable influence of Jungian psychology significantly affects Tool's music by establishing relevance beyond screaming. By relating to grounded psychological ideas, Keenan creates a certain appeal for the listener. Tool's lyrics contain relevance because they relate to the state of the human mind. For example, in "Sober" when Keenan refers to the "shadow just behind me," many listeners will relate to the lyric, even without knowledge of Jungian psychology, since everyone's unconscious mind contains the shadow archetype and may recognize it as a fear or suppressed anger. In simpler terms, who can't relate to the feeling of a shadow creeping behind him? In context, the Jungian concepts used by Tool are not just buzzwords, but a method of appealing to listeners and creating a sense of human relevance. Clearly, Jung's influence has major effects on the group's music. Ironically, while pop-culture labels Tool unintelligent screaming and forces it out of the mainstream, television and radio continue to broadcast the teen pop star of the week, whose intellect and relevance often clearly trails that of an accomplished band - even if that band plays hard rock or metal. Perhaps if mainstream music fans approached new music with open minds and ears, they could discover different bands like Tool and reach a better, more diverse, appreciation for music. Although fans need no proof of Tool's relevance, a Jungian influence testifies their intellect to the mainstream. People just have to listen. Sources Cited |
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