Written by: Daniel Kim
Artwork by: Chaeyoon Kim
Music is an unavoidable aspect of our lives. Walk down a crowded alleyway and you will be greeted with pop songs being blared out from obnoxiously-loud speakers. Or enter a cute little coffee shop and mellow R&B songs will immediately be within earshot. But there is a reason why music surrounds us everywhere we go. The truth is, we humans innately crave music. Therefore, it is no wonder that the experience of pleasurable music has proven to cause the release of dopamine—a neurotransmitter that makes you “feel good.”
However, beyond its ability to induce a pleasurable sensation, music has many other benefits to the human body. For one, music can effectively reduce stress and feelings of anxiety. Research has found that listening to soothing and relaxing music can increase motivation and improve concentration. As many of us have experienced firsthand, we students are quite vulnerable to procrastination. Or perhaps even worse, it is difficult for us to stay on task; we simply can’t help but drift away to our phones every once in a while. Listening to music can help us break free from these habits, as counterintuitive as it may seem. As long as the songs on your playlist aren’t catchy to the extent that they draw you in to sing along to every chorus, listening to music while studying can provide a relaxing but productive experience.
The type of music you listen to can also have distinct effects on your mood. Happy and upbeat songs unsurprisingly help us feel elated and can be an excellent way to calm ourselves before an important exam or a sporting event. But what about sad and gloomy music? There is a myth that listening to sad songs can exacerbate feelings of sadness and can worsen our mood. However, research has shown that even sad songs can help us feel better. Though this may seem paradoxical, sad songs serve as a form of comfort for the broken heart.
Take for example a person who has recently broken up with their lover. Listening to happy songs would simply be a means to repress their abundant feelings of sadness. Instead, they may seek comfort in breakup songs whose lyrics they can relate to. In this sense, music can help us feel in touch with our emotions and can allow us to process extremely difficult situations. What’s more, most sad songs carry an optimistic message. They encourage the idea that brighter days are bound to come and leave listeners feeling inspired to carry on every day.
So what’s the key takeaway here? Listen to music. Lots of it. As Marilyn Manson once stated, “Music is the strongest form of magic.” There is no other panacea quite so readily accessible as music, so why not take advantage of it?
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