In school recently, I've noticed many people putting on headphones, listening to the latest pop song while studying. I never listen to music while I study, so this intrigued me. Therefore, I dived down this rabbit hole, asked some people, listened to music myself, to find out … does music help you study?
1. Initial Research
Gathering my research: the impact of music depends on what type of music you are listening to.
Hi Jee Kang1 writes, "Disruptive music makes excess demands on the limited processing capacity of cognitive systems.” To summarize, the more things going on in your music, the harder it would be to focus, hence "processing capacity of cognitive systems." Nevertheless, Kang continues with, " stimulating music can have a positive impact on task performance."
So what is stimulating music? Simply searching up "stimulating music" on YouTube, you'll find calming sounds sometimes involving the piano or other calming instruments. A lot more different than the pop songs you'll hear on the radio, right?
In short, music has the potential to help, according to research. But it must not be too distracting (lyrics, fast tempo, etc.). Instead, it has to be more calming, less distracting, and more in the background. But this poses a question to me: If the music is in the surrounding, then in technicality, would you be listening to the music? Then what is the point of listening to music while studying? Researching online did not give me the answer I needed, so I decided to pursue the solution myself and develop an experiment.
2. My Experience
I decided to experiment. On the first day, I would listen to radio songs. I listened to songs from notable artists like Drake, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd. After that, I would listen to brain-stimulating music that you can find on YouTube. While I listened to the music, I would do a test involving reading comprehension. The results may surprise you.
On the reading test, I received 3/10 for pop music while a 5/10 for brain-activating music. To put this more into perspective, I average 9 to 8 points on these reading tests. Although there is a potential bias involved, I would mention that the tests I took are standardized and equal.
Concluding this experiment, I realize that no music is the best choice for studying. While taking all the tests, I was constantly focused on the music instead of the actual test. On the first day that I took a reading test and listened to radio songs, I was bopping to Doja Cat and never even noticed. Half of my brain was more focused on the lyrics instead of the material. While calming music was less distracting, it nevertheless still hurt my score.
I would note that all of us are different. You may perform better while listening to music, but for me, it doesn't. I encourage you to do the same and find out if music truly helps you study.
3. Interviews
Information on one person isn't enough. I wanted to find out more. So I went to school and interviewed some students. (Yes, my school decided to start early in the summer). I asked them a few questions: Does music help you study? If so, what type of music did you listen to, songs involving lyrics or more instrumental.
Out of 7 people, all of them say that music helps them study. Out of the seven students, six said that instrumental music is the type they listen to while one says that they listen to lyrics.
Looking back, I realized that I did not follow the majority. Technically, the following statistical information eliminates my data, i.e., my choice of music. It is also important to note that I only interviewed seven people. That is not enough data to determine the best type of music. I suggest researching more experiments involving a larger population to determine the public choice of study music.
Nevertheless, the legitimacy of my interview remains. The majority of people listen to instrumental music.
Conclusion
I concluded that whether music helps you or not depends on the person. There is truly no right or wrong type of music. We saw that my preference was no music while many others in my school listen to instrumental music. As long as the music helps you study, listen to it! I hope this analysis helps you understand the potential use of music in your academic journey.
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