By McKenna Cooley
Music is a part of everyday life, it’s on the radio, played on our phones, at school, and in our local stores: music surrounds us. Everyone has their favorite genre, whether it be country, pop, classical, and alternative, does those types of music help or inhibit students work when they study.
“I listen to classical music like Bach, I think it helps my comprehension,” MacKenzie Kent, senior, said. “I always need some sort of background noise to focus on, and the fact that classical has a steady rhythm with no words helps.”
A study conducted by the University of Wales in 2010, showed that background music affects students ability to complete a recall test. Test administrators gave a recall test after being in one of five scenarios: a quiet environment, a “steady state” speech, such as saying the same word over and over; a “changing state” speech, like an actual speech being spoken; “liked” music playing, such as something the participant usually listens to; or “disliked” music playing, something that the participant doesn’t like. The researchers had hypothesized that a steady sound would score higher than a changing sound.
The results found no significant difference between test scores with liked music, disliked music, and changing state speech, which means listening to music while working was just as distracting for students as hearing someone talk.
“I generally listen to Zayn’s Mind of Mine album or Fall Out Boy’s American Psycho album,” Avery Hickam, junior, said. “I think it helps me focus because by listening to music I already know I don’t have to think about the lyrics, and it just registers that this is a familiar song, and I don’t actually work to comprehend it.”
Another study conducted at the University of Dayton found that students performed better at spatial and linguistic processing if Mozart was playing in the background. Thus, having instrumental music playing could possibly help students in their pursuit of good grades since it doesn’t have any distracting vocals.
Based on these results, the best music to listen to while studying would be Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach. Listening to other distracting music would not be beneficial for the student if they wish to do well.
“In general I listen to something of a minor key or mode, something with a moderate to slightly fast tempo, and something that is steady; not start and stop,” Justin Hawk, junior, said. “I always listen to classical or instrumental like Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Bach, and Tarrega to name a few.”
Music volume can also affect students’ studying. In 2012, Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto published a study saying that fast, loud background music can hinder comprehension. Music causes levels of arousal and the ideal sound area for studying is not too agitated but at the same time not too relaxed.
Another consideration is whether or not to wear earphones while studying. Using earphones at a high level can cause hearing loss over a period of time. Playing music too loudly can be distracting and unhelpful when completing homework.
In general, students would be better off relaxing to Bach while studying, so they can rock out to Twenty One Pilots once they ace the exam.
