Does listening to metal have any negative effects?

[Night Owl]

That's an interesting experiment. I would tend to think that the mix has something to do with it as well and back then, the sound of rock and metal was very dirty and raspy. I'm guessing plants have a leaning for melodies, something that even avant garde jazz was not very known for. I would also guess the reason they might be loving indian music is because they have quarter tones in their music. In the same vein maybe they would also love arabian music. While it sounds a little weird to westerners, quarter tones are definitely less squared and mathematical sounding and so maybe it's more natural to them, like it's closer to real life sounds. They also have a very different approach to rhythm that is closer to language and is not based on a grid like western rhythms.

They should totally do an experiment like that with all the different genres that exist nowadays. I would be curious as to the differences between music with real instruments vs music with electronic sounds.