Did you know you could be productive while listening to music? Well you can, Some people even say they cant stay on task without music. There are two sides to the argument, One saying the it helps them and the other saying it doesn’t allow them to concentrate at all. This had been shown throughout multiple tests and surveys throughout skateboard factories and offices to name a few. There are also many different variables that can increase or decrease your productivity like classic instrumental and lyrical songs for example. Another effect on productivity can even be the noises around you when you don’t listen to music. All of these can have great effects on you increasing positive traits like creativity as well.
In an article by Newman Richard they observe the workers in a skate board factory. As an employe you count more of a memorized motion, rather than actually thinking on what your doing. This allows roomful listening to music while working. So Newman conveyed a survey to see if music actually does help you work better in such an environment. He asked 26 workers at the factory ranging from 18-23 years of age he also tested which genres effect you better when trying to stay focused. The genres they tested were dance, show, folk, and popular songs. Some genres showed less effect and others made a bigger difference in the attitude of the workers.
His research has showed that assembly line workers, have shown that happiness increases if listening to their favorite music while working. As said in the article “A series of experiments has investigated the relationship between the playing of background music during the performance of repetitive work and efficiency in performing such a task. The results give strong support to the contention that economic benefits can accrue from the use of music in industry.”* This means that the genre doesn’t effect a repetitive worker in doing his task. This happens because your mood is brought up by listening to your favorite tracks and a happy mood equals more productivity. Making work a more enjoyable task, workers wanted this to be an addition to their work site so that they can be more helpful and not stress their job while doing it.
In a sedentary office work environment you are required to think more and are often distracted by random noises like typing, making it harder to think straight. In an article “Employees Are Rocking around the Clock” byMook, Bob. He tested if it how the addition of music would affect the workers at an office he’s tested 400 people in the office. The survey showed 81 percent of the 400 respondents said music actually helps with their productivity. It also showed that music in the office has increased greatly over the past 27 years since Bob Mook has started his firm. Some people prefer a classical music flow while others like more rhythm in what their listening too. Distraction is common in open offices like the one surveyed, Johnson an acoustical specialist said that music creates a “white noice” which keeps you concentrated. Whilst listening to music in a noisy workplace, makes music an escape for you to concentrate on productivity. A noisy workplace can really stop productivity in its tracks. As said in the article *“Dr. Lesiuk’s research focuses on how music affects workplace performance. In one study involving information technology specialists, she found that those who listened to music completed their tasks more quickly and came up with better ideas than those who didn’t, because the music improved their mood.” * This shows us how music prevents distraction and induces a focused environment. Loud noise can be too much for some people to handle and if no enclosed area is provided a pair of headphones can be your best alternative to stay focused.
Certain songs can also increase your creative abilities allowing you think of new innovative ideas. Some people need to have their mind think like no one else, thinking of new ideas that no one has ever heard of. To achieve this creative state you’d have to play with your noise levels. For more creativity while listening to music it is more effective to keep a medium volume of music playing to keep you from getting thrown off from your newly formed ideas. As said in the article “The Effect of Music Listening on Work Performance.” by Lesiuk, Teresa *“Researchers have shown that a moderate noise level can get creative juices flowing, but the line is easily crossed; loud noises made it incredibly difficult to concentrate.” * Natural noises also help you concentrate more, like for instance, leaves rustling in the wind or waves crushing against rocks etc. Another major component in what music you listen to while working is the key, if a song is in a major key it is meant to bring your mood up and keep a positive attitude going. On the other hand a song in minor key wouldn’t work well because minor keys are associated with sadness and wouldn’t help you bring your mood up as much. Making some songs better choices for increased productivity.
Another major factor in the effect of music on productivity is listening to classic instrumental songs or a more of a lyrical song. Both of these types of music have a effect on people differently, some people say that the lyrics are distracting others say it helps blur out the soundings better creating this sort of “white noise”. In the article “Background Music: Effects on Attention Performance.” by Shih, Yi-Nuo did a study on just that, 102 people from ages 20-24 were put into this study 56 males and 46 females. First they put music without lyrics on and they recorded the peoples attention span while listening. Then music with lyrics was played to see the difference. It showed that music with lyrics as background music had a negative effect because it made it easier to get distracted from what they were doing therefore decreasing attention and performance of the individual. Making instrumental music the preferred genre for productivity. In my opinion I like to listen to classic 80’s or 90’s songs because they bring along a nice soothing acoustic sound and are just the right thing for me to get my head thinking properly. This isn’t true for everyone, everyone is different everyone has their own taste in music. To stay productive you have to find what makes you think and thats what will keep you productive and thinking sharp while listening to music.
Music can also have effect on sports players that are practicing. While playing sports you need to get your head in the game and music can be just what can help you do that. Some sports require you to be aware of your surroundings and listen, like football but sports like swimming can be excluded from that. Thats why in the article “Musical reinforcement of practice behaviors among competitive swimmers” by Hume, K. Michelle, and Jane Grossman. This study was done to determine if music increased or decreased the productivity of 6 competitive swimmers. Each of the swimmers was randomly assigned to either the contingent reinforcement group, which received music for productive behavior, or the non contingent group, who received music regardless of their productivity. This study suddenly showed increase In productive behavior during the contingent phase, compared to the baseline phase. The swimmers like the addition of music in their practices and requested to implement it into their daily routines. This is no surprise since music puts you into a goal achieving mood where your eyes are on the prize and you’ll do what it takes to get there.
There are many songs and music all around the internet to choose from but if you want a prefect song to get the most productivity output you would have to look a little deeper. Every song that has ever been made has a certain BPM (Beats Per Minute), this means how many beats you hear during a minute interval of listening to the song. This is what Dj’s and music producers use to connect with their audiences energy levels. They do this by matching the BPM of the heart rate of the people dancing. Songs that have a BPM of 90 and below are more of a slower pace and give out a more relaxed feeling to z the listener. These low paced songs are what would be best for someone trying to stay productive. You would want something just fast enough to silence everything outside your music. On the there hand, songs with a BPM of 90 or higher are considered a high paced songs and are meant to get your heart pumping and get you dancing. This is usually sounds that are more louder and more intense, this is what your trying to avoid when your trying to stay focused. The reason is that all you’ll end up doing is singing along to the songinstead of focusing on your work. If you don’t know how to tell the difference between a song that has a lower in BPM or higher one you can just simply tap your foot along to the beat of the song. Once you start doing that you’ll naturally know which song is more faster paced then another.
With all these positive effects of music, It also has a few negative aspects, such as worsening or even completely destroying your hearing. This is because when you listen to music it harms your ear drums little by little and the louder the music gets the faster your hearing will dissipate. Being a Dj and having to deal with loud music constantly, made me notice that music can be very deceiving. If you listen to some music at a high volume level for a 5-10 minutes, it wont seem loud to you anymore. This Is because your ear drums are made to adapt to your surroundings. By listening to this loud music while your studying your slowly worsening your hearing without even knowing it. This is especially true if your using headphones because thats where the most damage comes from. That being said, some people study for hours a day with music, and if that music is at a high volume level you can imagine what kind of damage it is doing to your hearing. When I Dj, I’m exposed to loud music constantly from headphones to loud speakers. Thats why I try to keep my music volume at the lowest level possible for me to hear it over the speaker volume. This made me realize the benefits of listening to music at a low volume and how it may even be more satisfying compared to high volume.
Another down side of using music music to help your productivity is that it reduces your productivity when you don’t have music available. This is a common problem that you have with everything that you put into your routine. If you listen to music and do homework all the time, eventually you’ll end up getting used to hearing music when studying and you’ll become somewhat reliant on music to help propel you through your work. This isn’t good, because when the time comes when you have no music available to you you’ll be so reliant on music to help you that you won’t be able to do your work without it. The way that I avoid this problem is by constantly giving myself a little break with no music every of couple songs. This gives me some time to organize my thoughts and get into the groove of things again. This also depends on a few different things. If I’m writing, I would stop listening when I finish elaborating my idea, when I’m running I stop my music at the point when I’m starting to get out of breath or start feeling lazy. This is just a few examples, but the rest is analogous.
Music not only enhances your productivity but it also enhances other traits like Anxiety, and Satisfaction with Communication. So Blood, Deborah J and Ferriss, Stephen J put this too the test. They took 104 people some were socially developed and knew how to converse and others didn’t know how to open up and communicate well. They then played some back ground music at different times to see how people would react to it and interact with each other. They also divided the songs into major key and minor key to also see the effect. All the conversations that took place when background music was playing were rated as more pleasing and enjoyable. Background music that was played in minor key was less pleasing than music in major key. Thus, showing us the importance of not mixing music’s structural elements when testing the opposite situations in studies of the effects of music. Although back ground music did not affect productivity relative to no music, hearing background did result in making people more productive when in Major key. This also included increasing social skills and allowing for a more pleasing conversation. Although music didn’t really have a major impact on anxiety it still served as assistance and it still serves a valuable resource for Productivity.
Adults and teens weren’t the only ones tested. A study was done on the infants and how music effected them. This was done because commonly children only start developing musical responses at the age of 2 years. The study consisted of three children whose parents had musical backgrounds either professional musicians or were musically oriented. The study involved the observation of each child in a family settings starting from birth to 2 years of age. Each study lasted from 15 minutes to half a day. These children were constantly surrounded by music everywhere. Their parents were involved in this observation so they partook in constantly playing songs to them and singing songs and lullabies to them. The observer took note of any spontaneous music productions such as pitch modulations, vocalizations, or body rhythmic movements. The results of the study conclude that the children’s singing suggests an evolution into two types of vocal performance the first being, an organized approximation of standard tune structures, and the second, a fluid exploration of the vocal medium. Children also had an increase in productivity at an early age which starts developing their minds faster. This is very good news because then the children are able to learn develop an understanding in music early on. This provides evidence that music effects your productivity and how you think when you listening to music.
Another Group of two men Dalton and Behm conduct a study to see how music affects peoples induced mental load in a word processing task. A group of 8 students from New Jersey institute of technology were selected and all of them were right handed. people were put under a hard work load and had background music playing for them. They were seated at a computer and had to do tasks including typing. These tasks were monitored by a computer program that track what keys the person pressed and with what accuracy and speed. The results showed no increase in typing productivity but rather in accuracy. The accuracy score between participants was 92 to 96%. After this study they were also for the idea of implementing music into the work space. This shows us how music has a way of benefiting people in a productive sense. If we listen to music during certain tasks it can help us isolate specific skills to help us be more productive.
As you can see, music can have many beneficial effects when it comes to productivity. In modern time we listen to all these songs with many different vocal parts and high baselines which can be distracting. So Adriana Furnham and Anna Bradley put this to the test. They conducted a study that looked at the distracting effects of pop music on introverts and extraverts performance on various cognitive tasks. The students were given two tests, completing both of these tests took around 20 minutes. While these test were being commenced, modern music was played and then they had a silence part of the test. When both tests had been finished the students were than given a post test questionnaire asking them about their levels of motivation, and how distracting they found the radio, and rated it on a 7 point scale. It also asked into how often they usually worked with the radio on. The results show us that although the level of immediate recall is no different between the introverts and the extraverts. Even with that performance was marginally lowered in the presence of modern music. This shows us that music these days gets to intense and distracting especially with all the effects that song writers add.
On the other hand, another study was done by Etaugh and Ptasnik in 1982 that looked into laboratory work with music. They found their participants, who rarely studied with background music. After the test was completed it showed that comprehension in a laboratory study when they learned in silence wasn’t as effective as students who frequently studied with music. This shows us clearly that music does give you the upper edge in productivity but only if you do it regularly. As if it is a new skill that you trying to learn.
Overall, music can be both beneficial to some people or even harmful in regards to their productivity. Some people have an increase in focus others say that music just completely distracts them. This had been shown throughout multiple tests and surveys throughout skateboard factories and offices to name a few. There are also many different variables that can increase or decrease your productivity like classic instrumental and lyrical songs for example. Another effect on productivity can even be the noises all around you. Plus even the consistency of your music listening has an impact on you. All these are little factor that can enhance your productivity, so why not apply them to modern day education. If all benefits, that are backed up with evidence, come from just listening to music why haven’t we implemented it into helping shape the young minds of the future.
Works cited
Blood, D. J., & Ferriss, S. J. (1993). Effects of background music on anxiety, satisfaction with communication, and productivity. Psychological Reports, 72(1), 171-177.
Kelley, Linda, and Brian Sutton-Smith. “A Study of Infant Musical Productivity.” SpringerLink. Springer, New York, NY, 01 Jan. 1987. Web. 13 Nov. 2017.
Jiang, Xiaopeng, and Arijit K. Sengupta. “Effect of music and induced mental load in word processing task.” Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 2011 IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2011.
Newman, Richard I., et al. “Effects of Music On Employe Attitude and Productivity in a Skateboard Factory.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 50, no. 6, 1966, pp. 493–496.
Mook, Bob. “Employees Are Rocking around the Clock.(Employees Claim Music
Increases Productivity)(Brief Article).” Denver Business Journal, vol. 52, no. 48, 2001, p. 13A.
Shih, Yi-Nuo, et al. “Background Music: Effects on Attention Performance.” Work (Reading, Mass.), vol. 42, no. 4, 2012, pp. 573–8.
Feldman, Stuart. “Music Affects Productivity. (Keeping Informed).” Management Review, vol. 80, no. 7, 1991, p. 6.
Krims, Adam, et al. “Music Theory as Productivity.” Canadian University Music Review, vol. 20, no. 2, 2000, pp. 16–30., doi:10.7202/1014455ar.
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