Music helpful vs harmful

Music can range from loud and obnoxious to soft and gentle. There are so many genres from all over the spectrum, and yet it is still a universal language. It can be used in so many instances, but what about when it comes to being labeled as distracting, and some even being labeled as trouble-some or rebellious. Not only are these genres labeled as ‘bad influential’ music, but there is also music that can be labeled as distracting and a focus on something other than what the original task is. Background music is a distraction to complete school tasks and is less efficient than a student completing their work in silence.

In relation to completing homework, or tasks in relation to school, multiple opposal claims have been made. Such as, the claim can be made that listening to music is very distracting. Another claim can be that listening to music while completing homework is very distracting to the brain which can cause the task to take longer to complete. These are all just subtopics of the overall ‘Music is a distraction to students when trying to concentrate on completing homework.’

To start off this idea in When music is a distraction, written by Eva Ansen, the claim is made that, “It’s distracting for introverts, and for people learning to drive. It also disrupts reading comprehension — especially if the music is fast and loud. So even though I mentioned yesterday that upbeat music can help people perform spatial reasoning tasks, other studies seem to say that the same kind of music makes it more difficult to do reading comprehension tasks.” Which introduces the topic that different genres of music can create different effects on the productivity of the person. The overall claim that Ansen makes is that music is distracting for people, specifically targeting introverts and music disrupting tasks, especially loud and obnoxious music. 

Through some of these study claims, they believe that although music is distracting to the cognitive function of the brain, music is good for repetitive tasks such as studying or memorizing. The second one has been proven to be true, while the first one can be debated. Another claim, which is stated above, is that this background music depends on what style of music is put on in the background. Which for this claim has been proven. In more detail, certain genres of music have been proved more effective than others. Such as classical music, or r&b have been more effective. Through this, this does not mean that all music is ineffective, it just means that some prove better.

 Which leads into the continuing this idea written in, A Study of the Effect of Music Distraction on Reading Efficiency by Henderson, Crews and Barlow, “Classical music showed no evidence of distraction in either the vocabulary or paragraph sections of the test, nor did the popular music show evidence of distraction upon vocabulary.” Which comes to the conclusion that these two different genres have no correlation as well as proven to not be a distraction during the testing studies. Which has two completely different genres one being a known slower and calmer style and the other being upbeat, both proven favorable. 

Although many of the claims are made, some information backing their claims up, multiple research studies have proven against all of these claims. Not only that, but those who have their own experiences have written in favor of the music, not against it. So in this case music, especially background music, has been proven to be a positive factor to focus and energetic drive to complete work. 

Shutting down all of the claims, multiple studies have been done as well as professionals in those fields understand the positive power of music of the human brain. Through my research, I have seen many sources to be in favor of music in these situations, which have their own research and studies to back their claims over the negative claims. For example, in just one source they have the different sub-categories of how music is helpful for these tasks and other benefits it provides in these situations such as it can cure pain, ease student stress, reduce test anxiety, improve performance, focus more and so on. Although to focus on the one specifically in relation to school performance, starting off with the focus rebuttal written in The Benefits of Studying with Music, “ Rather than distracting college students, a Stanford study found that “music moves [the] brain to pay attention.” Researchers utilized musical compositions from the 1800s in their study and found that “music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory” (Baker).” Showing that music does indeed engage the focus within the brain. The Marking Team also states that, “Music is a way to process emotions and strengthen their resolve with being overwhelmed. People often turn to the music they can relate to as it helps them deal with stress in this way. So, if university life has got you feeling a bit down, dazed or distracted then it might be a good idea to put some music on. Not only will it help you concentrate on your studies, it will also help keep stress at bay and put you in the learning mood.” These quotes, and article is just one that proves in just some words how effective music can be on the brain.

Most rebuttal arguments do always have the well this type of music is distracting, but not all. Some music is an expectation, so there is always a, but, to these claims due to so many studies proving positive outcomes. Although another key thing to point out is that not these claims are in relation to stress and anxiety, just productivity. If proven to be less productive in one study, it still is not proven that this background music causes stress or anxiety. Just stating less effectiveness, which can be tested against multiple other studies to be the opposite. 

Citations:

A Study of the Effect of Music Distraction on Reading Efficiency. https://www.gwern.net/docs/music-distraction/1945-henderson.pdf. 

🔬🎶, Eva Amsen. “When Music Is a Distraction.” Medium, Medium, 22 June 2018, https://easternblot.medium.com/when-music-is-a-distraction-5c9d5a286a4#:~:text=Music%20as%20distraction%20There%20have%20been%20several%20studies,for%20introverts%2C%20and%20for%20people%20learning%20to%20drive.  

Team, Marketing. “The Benefits of Studying with Music.” Florida National University, 13 Aug. 2019, https://www.fnu.edu/benefits-studying-music/.