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The Importance of Music and Mental Health by Lawrence Cabbabe
Around this time last year, Coventry High School went into Lockdown from Covid-19, changing how students, teachers, and the world could operate. The sudden changes in lifestyle brought more stress into people’s lives, causing them to look for new outlets to deal with stress. One popular source they used was music.
Around this time last year, Coventry High School went into Lockdown from Covid-19, changing how students, teachers, and the world could operate. The sudden changes in lifestyle brought more stress into people’s lives, causing them to look for new outlets to deal with stress. One popular source they used was music. I asked roughly twenty students in Coventry High School, through a Google Form, about music and how they think it has affected them since the pandemic began. Right off the bat, 83% of respondents said they listened to more music after the pandemic began, while two participants believed their listening habits stayed the same, and one answered that they listened to music less than before. With the increased time all students had as a result of being home, it is fitting that 94% stated that they listened to different genres, at least giving new styles of music a chance.
Although there was more time for students to try new genres of music, students still received work at a steady rate, if not increasing as 19-20 finished and the 20-21 school year began. Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen, a music psychologist at Goldsmith’s, University of London, working in collaboration with Sonos, a $1.5 billion audio production company, found that of the 12,000 surveyors, 75% said their favorite song lowers stress, 61% said music gave them confidence, and most importantly, the survey found that people’s productivity increased by 50% when listening to music, a statistical correlation stronger than even coffee. Why is this important? Of my miniature survey, 90% listened to music while doing their schoolwork and 89% said their grades either stayed the same or went up, showing how the increased workload was able to be overcome. However, most importantly, 100% of the surveyed individuals believed that music helps them de-stress in some way, with only two individuals saying “maybe” to the question. No person on the survey said that music was not helpful in getting them to de-stress.
While this survey was not done in a completely scientific fashion, many different factors weren’t taken into consideration because of it, especially since a target demographic with similar stress levels or upbringing was not selected. However, I believe that a wide variety of participants and the strong results I have collected show how strong the mental connection to music is. Some factors such as age and genre were taken into consideration as well. Participants were from ninth through twelfth grade across a wide range of genres. When asked about the favorite genre(s), there was a frontrunner, rock. With 50% of participants responding that they listened to some form of rock, whether it be modern rock, classic rock, alt-rock, and even Latin rock. Tied for second place were indie pop, rap, and the classic rock subcategory, with 25% of all test takers writing each genre. Other genres that appeared were pop, pop-punk, hip-hop, alternative, synth, lo-fi, country, and even jazz.
The final question I included on the survey was about their favorite artist or artists. Music is one of the most subjective forms of media that can be enjoyed, making any genre or any artist become someone’s favorite. Because of this, I would like to preface that no person should be insulted for their musical tastes by anyone. With that said, all the people below gave me permission to use their names in this article. I expected a wide range of responses, but only a few artists appeared just twice! Those artists were MGK, from Stephen Russo and Jaden Carnevale, and The Arctic Monkeys from Sarah Chaudhry and Megan Hebert. Some single responses were Travis Scott from Thien Bui, Hozier from Amanda McKechnie, Mitski from Maya Bouchard, Kero Kero Bonito from Christina Lancellotta, Queen from Kyleigh Felice, Coldplay from Thomas Luther, Nirvana from Savannah Aragao, Khalid from Nick Carpinello, Lil Baby from BJ Begones, Juice Wrld from Devyn Defosse, and Why Don’t We from Ryland Dyer. Some people put multiple artists for their answers such as Stephen Russo who wrote MGK, Blackbear, NF, Eminem, and Linkin Park; Sarah Chaudhry who wrote Cage the Elephant, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, The Neighbourhood, Nirvana, and Harry Styles; Westin Palumbo who wrote Santana and TWRP; and Lily Chase who wrote Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and John Mayer. Last but not least were the two seniors I sent this form to. Alex Lupo responded with “Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind, (almost any good rock band I’ll listen to)” and Sydney Lague who responded with a “Mix of everything”.
While writing this article I discovered the strong links between music and mental health as well as the importance of music in everyday life. With people responding with answers that I expected as well as some answers I did not expect at all, I think that we all have a better understanding of the importance of mental health and how the vast world of music was able to help relieve some of that newfound stress from the Coronavirus pandemic. Special thanks to all who took part in the survey.