“[Music] Helps Me Get Through Literally Everything”—Olivia*
To be honest, I’ve never had much of a connection to music. My Apple Music subscription borders on being a waste of money. Song lyrics have certainly “spoken to me” at different times, like Lady Gaga’s ‘Joanne’. It came out the same year my grandma died and still rings absolutely true. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy concerts, road trip singalongs, and musicals. But let’s just say my friends know me as someone who constantly sings the lyrics wrong and can barely clap to a beat. For the better part of my life, I literally thought Dolly Parton was singing “Noleen”. I know I’m in the minority of people, probably one of the only people, who mostly prefer silence when doing things like commuting to uni or going for walks. I blame it on the fact that my mind is usually going a million miles an hour, so I take any opportunity to not be stimulated by something. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean I’m not curious about how music makes other people feel. Craccum reached out on social media to find out how music helps our readers and about the types of music that help you all the most.
Unsurprisingly, uni students said music helps them to study. Ariana* said they “Always need to listen to something while I’m studying or my brain just melts.” Plenty of evidence suggests that listening to music while studying can help improve academic performance by increasing concentration and reducing stress.1 Other studies report that, on average, listening to classical music while studying is most conducive to learning and productivity.2 You guys said that classical music was also a go-to for studying. Others also rated video game soundtracks, The Witcher soundtrack, and the artist Miski as top study picks.
Apart from studying and mental health, a collection of unique responses didn’t fit into those particular themes. For example, Sam* shared, “I’m autistic and music makes me feel things really strongly, and it helps me to feel better.
Another major theme common among students’ responses was that music promotes mental wellbeing. Respondents commented things like,
“It helps me make sense of life, to forget my emotions completely or process the ones I didn’t even realise I was feeling.”
“Music is a form of escapism where I can just out the world and pretend I’m okay.”
“When [they] belt out songs by [themselves] it’s free therapy.”
“[Music] help[s] me understand I’m not alone in what I’m feeling.”
Music isn’t just a form of entertainment for these students but a medium to either process or escape feelings. Despite our relatively small sample size, these responses aren’t extraordinary. A study involving 118 participants aged between 15 to 25 years old found that music impacts mental wellbeing in many ways, including by helping to regulate emotions.2 One literature review similarly reported that music can “influence neurobiological processes in the brain” and that music can help treat depression, sleeplessness, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.3
There was no one clear theme among responses in terms of what type of music seemed to help with mental wellbeing. For the sake of helping you find what tunes speak to you most or perhaps just to expand your musical horizons, some of the artists people submitted include: Lana Del Ray, Melanie Martinez, Marina, Death Grips, Kid See Ghosts, Olivia Rodrigo, Imagine Dragons, Kanye, and Kid Cudi.
It turns out that there’s something called “specific musical anhedonia”. People with specific musical anhedonia don’t experience pleasure when they listen to music.
Apart from studying and mental health, a collection of unique responses didn’t fit into those particular themes. For example, Sam* shared, “I’m autistic and music makes me feel things really strongly, and it helps me to feel better.” Sam said there wasn’t a type of music in particular that they connected with most. Rather “anything really” could affect them, from lo-fi to pop. For Taylor*, music is a way to bond with their friends “through jamming and singing” together. Other students said things like music has helped them in times of heartbreak and that it makes doing chores more bearable. They liked the Formula 1: Drive to Survive soundtrack and Hindi/Bollywood music to get them through these times.
Learning about students’ experiences of music in their everyday lives triggered a Google deep-dive into why music so rarely provokes any sort of emotion within me. It turns out that there’s something called “specific musical anhedonia”. People with specific musical anhedonia don’t experience pleasure when they listen to music.4 I’m not about to self-diagnose or encourage you to self-diagnose if you experience the same thing, because that practice is a slippery slope to catastrophising one’s entire existence. Still, it’s reassuring to know that my tendency to feel indifference towards music doesn’t mean I’m a sociopath. There’s no universal way people connect with music. But for those with a relationship with it, music clearly makes their lives go better. Know you’re not alone; whatever genre, artist, or volume (including zero) works for you.
*Names have been changed in the interest of privacy
References
- Kumar et al. (2016). The effect of listening to music on concentration and academic performance of the student: Cross-sectional study on medical undergraduate students. Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences, 7(6), 1190-1195. https://manipal.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/the-effect-of-listening-to-music-on-concentration-and-academic-pe
- Papinczak et al. (2015). Young people’s uses of music for well-being. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(9), 1119-1134. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/84600/9/84600.pdf
- Lin et al. (2011). Mental Health Implications of Music: Insight from Neuroscientific and Clinical Studies. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 19(1), 34-46. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10673229.2011.549769
- Abhat. (2017). Inside the Heads of People Who Don’t Like Music. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/please-dont-stop-the-music-or-do-stop-the-music-i-dont-really-mind/519099/