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Music Science

Music Improves Wellbeing and Quality of Life, Research Suggests (theguardian.com) 44

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
A review of 26 studies finds benefits of music on mental health are similar to those of exercise and weight loss. From a report: "Music," wrote the late neurologist Oliver Sacks, "has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation." A new analysis has empirically confirmed something that rings true for many music lovers -- that singing, playing or listening to music can improve wellbeing and quality of life. A review of 26 studies conducted across several countries including Australia, the UK and the US has found that music may provide a clinically significant boost to mental health. Seven of the studies involved music therapy, 10 looked at the effect of listening to music, eight examined singing and one studied the effect of gospel music. The analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, confirmed "music interventions are linked to meaningful improvements in wellbeing," as measured quantitatively via standardised quality-of-life survey data. The effects were similar whether participants sang, played or listened to music.
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Music Improves Wellbeing and Quality of Life, Research Suggests More

Music Improves Wellbeing and Quality of Life, Research Suggests

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  • The soundtrack to your life (Score:3)

    by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:36AM (#62389157)
    Ever since I was a kid, I can remember significant periods and events in my life and the music I was listening to at the time. Never go a day without it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slazzy ( 864185 )
      I always notice every time I'm depressed I'm not listening to music, then fix both by cranking some tunes again

  • Well, not all music... (Score:3)

    by suss ( 158993 ) on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:43AM (#62389181)

    Things like Reggaeton and whatever Yoko Ono does makes you feel worse.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Music taps one of the more poorly shielded ports into your brain. You can use it to make someone feel happier, make soldiers more likely to march into danger, as an instrument of torture, or, as we mostly do, to sell people shit.

    • Things like Reggaeton and whatever Yoko Ono does makes you feel worse.

      That and rap.

      But then again...the words "rap" and "music" are mutually exclusive terms.

      • Try watching the movie "8 Mile". It might increase your appreciation.

        • Try watching the movie "8 Mile". It might increase your appreciation.

          I can't see myself watching that either....but thanks for the suggestion.

          I can't think of a redeeming factor that movie has going for it that would make me want to spend a couple hours of my time viewing it.

          • Fair enough. Sometimes I watch (or listen to) stuff I fully expect to hate and end up pleasantly surprised. And sometimes I still hate it, but then at least I do so from a position of knowledge and experience.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by srussia ( 884021 )
      "Don't blame it on Yoki!"

    • "Things like Reggaeton and whatever Yoko Ono does makes you feel worse."

      What you REALLY wanted to say is 'That is not music' and 'Get off my lawn', just like myself. :-)

  • Took 26 studies to come up with empirical evidence of what we all knew empirically forever?

    • Yes. Making predictions based on models (including empirical models) and validating the models by rigorous experiments is basically what science is about.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lsllll ( 830002 )
        Ugh, you wannabe scientific folks think science is the answer to every question. How long before "models" try to rationalize the relationship between human beings?

        • Ugh, you wannabe scientific folks think science is the answer to every question. How long before "models" try to rationalize the relationship between human beings?

          His reply was mistaken anyhow. It was a study of studies, not a scientific experiment.

          We get a lot of that these days. And it can be valid and used in support of science. But it can also be used as a way to develop financial or social statistics, or other somesuch. But it isn't a scientific experiment, just a study.

          And the relationship of music to humans is some interesting stuff. The right combination of notes can cause a strong emotional response in people, the different combinations eliciting differ

        • Ugh, you wannabe scientific folks think science is the answer to every question.

          Not sure what your unqualified side poke is about, but: no, that wasn't what parent implied. And: yes, it is about the science of it in this case, when the claim was "music does... [to people]", as opposed to "music does ... [to me and a few of my incel friends]".

          Finally: no, your ignorant opinion isn't just as good as a scientist's error bar.

          How long before "models" try to rationalize the relationship between human beings?

          I take it you've never heard of game theory, sociology, psychology and a few others? Man, you're really in for a few giant surprises then.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by lsllll ( 830002 )

            Meh. You're trying to defend a position that cannot be defended. When they say "music does .. [to people]", they obviously don't mean ALL people. They mean some percentage of people. Because there are "people" whom music does not affect in the ways they'd predict. And that's because we're "people" and there's a lot more to us than laws of physics and so on. They didn't conclude anything that couldn't be concluded from a survey of 10000 random people in the world.

            And those "sciences" you name are all s [wikipedia.org]

      • Yes. Making predictions based on models (including empirical models) and validating the models by rigorous experiments is basically what science is about.

        It was a review of studies. I know a tiny bit about science, and a review is not science per se. In this very specific case, it is a study of studies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Baleet ( 4705757 )
      I appreciate that there is some value to measuring and documenting these kinds of things that seem obvious to us. But might there be a potential downside to our relying too heavily on academics and other researchers to verify that which we can know directly, and which has been known for millennia? For example, another recent Guardian headline: "People struggle to understand grief, but it is a byproduct of love". Do I need a fucking professor to tell me that I cried when my mother died because I love her? O

      • I appreciate that there is some value to measuring and documenting these kinds of things that seem obvious to us. But might there be a potential downside to our relying too heavily on academics and other researchers to verify that which we can know directly, and which has been known for millennia? For example, another recent Guardian headline: "People struggle to understand grief, but it is a byproduct of love". Do I need a fucking professor to tell me that I cried when my mother died because I love her? Or that "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast"? Philosophy, religion, poetry and literature--all of these hold truths that humans have been recognizing and expressing for thousands of years. As I get older, I realize how foolish I was when I was younger, to think I "knew" anything worth knowing that my grandparents didn't know. Knowledge is one thing, but wisdom is another.

        I wonder if there have ever been any studies to show that people claim to know that the sun shows up in the morning and sets in the evening, and then a study to confirm that people indeed know that it does that? 8^)

    • Actually, we haven't all known it, "forever". It wasn't until I read Sacks' book "Musicophilia" (which Dad brought for me, because I'd given Dad a copy of one of Sacks' other books which I'd enjoyed, and he enjoyed) that I realised that amusia was an actual thing, and nothing to be worried about. So I stopped wasting effort on listening to the stuff, and making any effort to seek meaning or emotional content in music, which for me just is not there. Swept my collection of tapes into a carrier bag and gave i

      • Actually, we haven't all known it, "forever". It wasn't until I read Sacks' book "Musicophilia" (which Dad brought for me, because I'd given Dad a copy of one of Sacks' other books which I'd enjoyed, and he enjoyed) that I realised that amusia was an actual thing, and nothing to be worried about.

        You do realize that you are the exception that proves the rule, I hope. Anyhow all apologies for not including you in the set of everyone! 8^)

        • It's probably at the several percent level in the population, but a lot of people hide it. Whether it's more or less common than being, say, a Muslim, I don't know. I've known about as many Muslims as I've known people completely disinterested in music - and it's not as if there's a club or a "mosque" for non-music people.

          Of course, if you don't include it in your considerations, and don't measure it, then it doesn't exist, and you don't need to worry about it. Zero failure rate behind that strategy.

  • Get on that gravy train! (Score:3)

    by davide marney ( 231845 ) on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:01PM (#62389225) Journal

    Wow, where can I get some of that sweet, sweet cash to study the effects of something we've known about already for the past 2,000 years? That's awesome! What a gig.

  • I wonder if this study would have the same effects if they had exposed random strangers to death metal, NS black metal, goregrind, noisecore, drone, dubstep, and other extreme genres of music.
  • that shit would just make you stupid.
  • In my teens (sometime in the Stone Age) a favorite game with friends was to ask "what you you prefer?" questions and debate the answers. One of them was "if you had to choose one, would you rather be blind or deaf?" My answer was "deaf" because I thought that I could continue to be self-sufficient and do things that I liked, e.g. riding a motorcycle or driving a car. As I get (much) older, I'm not so sure. My love of music has grown over the decades to the point that it's more important to me than sight. I

  • Sorry, that' the engineer in me!

    • That's a tempting line of thought. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about what people like in music to have any idea how to implement it. All music is shit in my ears, to the point that I sometimes struggle to tell if I'm hearing someone's intended "music" or just noise.

      That said, I do remember hearing Einsturzende Neubauten [wikipedia.org] on John Peel's sessions [wikipedia.org] as a breath of fresh air. Good grief - they haven't been killed (by their instruments, or their audience?), yet!

  • Also, "weight loss" would be pretty alarming for me, because I am not overweight. Is it possible that this "research" starts out with a bunch of unrealistic assumptions?

  • If I didn't have some Rage Against the Machine blasting while stuck in rush hour traffic.

    Seriously, can't my boss start paying me when my car leaves my driveway, instead of when it arrives in his parking lot?

  • Music binds us together. (Score:3)

    by MindPrison ( 864299 ) on Friday March 25, 2022 @05:35PM (#62390125) Journal

    Old musicial chiming in here.

    Yes, music DOES bind us together and makes us feel better.
    You can be of any race, any political conviction or religion for that matter - and music will bind us together and make us feel better overall.

    To me music is like a second language. I can be frustrated and sad and happy, and when I compose and make music with my numerous synths and keyboards all of that is forgotten and we can unite in our love of the sound. It's kinda hard to explain, but sometimes music can say more than a thousand words.

    Sometimes I just go for my keyboards and play what I have on my mind as music instead of actual words, and it explains exactly how I feel.

  • How can music cause well being when you know you're being fucked in the ass by the RIAA?
  • In the loonie bins in the early 20 century themed movies? Guess they knew back then that it help the maladjusted?
  • I don't argue that music really has a very strong effect on the state of the body. Especially if it is cheerful and energetic music, which perfectly helps to cope with a bad mood, for example. But if we are talking about mental health, depressive thoughts, then it is better to try some CBD Edibles [diamondcbd.com] , as these supplements are great for helping to cope with these problems.

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