How Listening to Music Impacts College Students’ Performance and Mental Health
By Corbin Hodge
Spring 2024
With the season of final exams coming up for many college students, staying up past midnight and going over PowerPoint slides, notes, and rereading the textbook (while potentially in a silent room) are what most students are doing to prepare for their big exams.
Are there other ways that you can study for an exam that does not involve sitting in silence for hours upon hours? Well, sure there are many other ways to study rather than sitting in silence. One way that can help you study for an exam can be listening to music while you study. When the stress of college life catches up with students, many of them look towards music to help their moods, test anxiety, and stress levels. The entertainment world has an extreme hold over our emotions and productivity, and music is a huge part of entertaining people. Music is a powerful tool influencing both the academic performance and the mental health of college students.
The Influence Music Has on Mental Health
Depression and anxiety are common mental health disorders in college students that can decrease the quality of life for an individual and create tons of stress. The average person spends around 2.5 hours a day listening to music. It was found in a study by Elif Tekin Gurgen that the main reasons people listen to music include enjoyment, emotional mood, peer group, and family. These people also listened to music between two to nine hours of their day. This is a good thing because music can lessen the impact of depression and anxiety. According to Frontiers in Psychology, “Mood disorders such as depression and anxiety are widespread.” When people are stressed it is easy for them to experience an array of negative reactions. A stressful situation can affect a person’s mental ability to do ongoing duties. Music creates an emotional response that improves health outcomes. According to another article from Frontiers in Psychology, “Popular music can help young people develop relationships as well as explore the personalities of others, provide a means for communication and common activities, and benefit their physical and mental health. Listening to Western classical music can help people release stress as well as relax their mind and body and contribute to their positive mental health.” This article did a study that shows how listening to music, and the music you have in your playlist positively affects the mental health of the listeners.
When speaking with Sean Kelley, a Professor in the Music department at North Central College, I asked him what he thought about the good or bad that music can do towards the mental health of college students. He stated that, “Anything a student can do to find times of decompression and enjoyment is going to be helpful.”
If you find yourself starting to get into a terrible mood while doing homework or studying, try taking a break. Listen to your favorite song (or songs, however long it will take you to get in a better mood), and you will see your mood getting better. This will then help you finish your studying or homework, and you will do better on the assignment or exam. Kelley also stated, “If it is something that gives them a brief break from their psychological wear and tear that we put ourselves under it can be really rejuvenating even in small doses.” The music that students listen to is closely related to and can promote their mental health. Music can allow for relaxation, expressing feelings with and towards others, creating relationships with people that enjoy the same artists, genre, or bands, and music can also help with getting rid of bad emotions.
The Role of Music in Academic Performance
There are multiple ways that people tend to get distracted while studying. Whether it be studying at home getting interrupted by family members, studying at school getting interrupted by friends, or even studying outside in public and getting interrupted by people just walking by. Putting on headphones and turning on music to escape distractions might not be a terrible idea.
It is found that people who work with background music work more productively than people who work in silence. According to a study done by Kenneth Freedom, it was mentioned that numerous researchers in the field of neuromusicology, the scientific study of the effects of music on the brain, show that music is a powerful tool used to improve the cognitive ability to observe pictures and recognize, compare, and establish relations between patterns and details. Music can activate both the left and right parts of the brain at the same time. This can help us remember facts that we were taught previously. Students can associate a certain moment with a distinct song which is a memorization technique. For some people, music can be a distraction while working. However, many studies prove music can provide benefits. A specific study done by Schlittmeier and Hellbruck had participants learn and recall a set of numbers. At first, they did it in silence and then they did it while listening to their choice of legato music, staccato music, continuous music, or normal office noise. It was found that normal office noise hindered digital recall compared to silence. Music helps reduce the effects of background noises around you and helps you focus on the task at hand.
When I asked Mary Johnson, Counselor for Mental Health and Student Belonging at North Central College’s Dyson Wellness Center, about her opinion on whether listening to music while studying is beneficial or not she stated, “It totally depends on the person. For me personally, I don’t like to have background noise or music. I like it to be pretty quiet when I’m trying to focus or study. But for a lot of people, they do like to have that background noise and it helps them focus and zone in on things.” You should not be bored when studying. You want to make studying enjoyable for yourself so that you do it more often to prepare for assignments and exams. Making these things enjoyable will ease your college experience and will not cause as much stress as it does now. Another article titled “Effects of Music on Academic Performance of College Students” it was discovered that 40.5% of college students listen to music while studying and 64% of students who lack concentration when they study in silence increase their productivity when they turn music on while studying. Music does have an effective impact on the academic performance of college students.
You should not be bored when studying. You want to make studying enjoyable for yourself so that you do it more often to prepare for assignments and exams. Making these things enjoyable will ease your college experience and will not cause as much stress as it does now.
Genres of Music to Listen to While Studying
Everybody has different tastes when it comes to music. Some genres might help one person with studying but can distract another person. It is important to try out different genres when studying to see what is best for your personal preference. According to The University of Arizona, “Music Therapy has proven that you can process a wide range of emotions from excitement to thoughtfulness depending on what type of music you listen to. When we’re studying, we’re probably aiming for thoughtfulness.” Minimalist, classical, piano, and lo-fi are the top genres of music that are helpful for most students to listen to when studying. If you are trying to decide on a genre of music to listen to while studying, you should try out lo-fi. Lo-fi music is short for low-fidelity music, which means that it doesn’t have a studio's high-quality recording and is more raw. It is considered to be similar to white noise and focuses on rhythmic jazz and repetitive beats. Lo-fi music is calming which reduces cortisol levels and can create a peaceful environment to get work done.
Other genres of music such as the soothing sound from classical music increase the mood and productivity of the listener. Music with little to no lyrics helps when studying because listening to music with lyrics can be distracting while reading and writing. Johnson also said, “Some people like to have lyrics, but I also know people who just like to have to have instrumentals in the background, so they are not getting distracted by the words, but something is going on for them. It just comes down to person to person.” The University of Phoenix did a study and indicated that, “your brain can struggle to process musical lyrics and do school work simultaneously. Doing these two actions at once is considered multi-tasking and research has found that multitasking can decrease your IQ by ten points.” When I asked Deena Rachel, a current sophomore at Joliet Junior College, if she prefers studying while listening to music with or without lyrics she responded, “Definitely with lyrics. I need noise and I need talking otherwise I cannot concentrate.” There are different options to choose from when looking for music to listen to while studying. Most students find that listening to music from movie soundtracks is highly effective. Songs from soundtracks are mostly instrumental and orchestral sounding so this is an excellent choice for studying music.
How to Use Music While Studying
When deciding on the music you want to listen to while studying, it is important to keep a few things in mind. One of the most important things to remember is the volume level that you play the music at. Even if listening to music that is considered “calm” it can be a huge distraction. Remember that the music should just be background noise, you do not want your music to be louder than your thoughts. For the best results you should listen to music that you enjoy. In the article “Mind Your Music: The Effects of Music-Induced Mood and Arousal Across Different Memory Tasks,” it examines that your memory is improved not just by the background music itself but from the boost that your mood gets when listening to music you like. You should choose commercial-free music. It can be hard not wanting to pay for Apple Music or Spotify Premium, but the benefits of not having to hear ads in between each song is worth it in my opinion. When studying, your music should flow seamlessly throughout your time studying. Listening to the radio might not be the best option. The DJ will play one song every five minutes and in between the songs they will either be talking, or ads will be playing. This could cause distractions that we do not want.
When college students are studying, they often take breaks. This can also be beneficial while listening to music when studying. You do not want to be listening to the same style of music for too long. If you take a break while studying, consider changing the genre of music or even just stopping listening to music for a while so that you can give your ears and brain a break.
Conclusion
Creating playlists is incredibly fun to do, especially if you are creating a playlist to use while studying. But you do not want to spend so much time on the playlist that you do not get work done. Therefore, I have attached a few playlists from both Apple Music and Spotify (that I have listened to while writing this) below that I believe are helpful to listen to while studying:
· Study Playlist (Rory Gilmore's Version)
The impact music has on college student's mental health and academic performance is not exaggerated. Numerous factors and research studies prove music is used as a powerful tool to reduce stress and boost productivity and motivation leaving a positive impact on the lives and performance of college students. Music is a great tool to use because stress can either motivate students to get work done or cause students to give up on the task. Having music to help relieve stress is an awesome benefit of music. It is important for students to figure out what works best for their studying preferences. Do you want to listen to music while studying? Do you work better with silence, classical, or music that has lyrics? These are questions you should ask yourself to improve your performance in classes and your mental health. Embracing music as a partner to keep you tied down in times of stress and to allow you to create new connections with others who have the same music taste as you, can improve our college experience and allow us to grow emotionally and academically.
Corbin Hodge is a junior at North Central College majoring in marketing with a minor in finance. Growing up, Corbin was always interested in and loved listening to music. Corbin balances multiple leadership roles on campus including Orientation Staff, First-Year Mentor, Student Ambassador, and is on the executive board for the organization Cardinal Crew. He is determined and passionate about being successful in the marketing field. Corbin plans to graduate from North Central College in May of 2025 and then proceed to get his MBA. In the future, he wants to pursue a marketing or finance career within the music industry.