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Andrew Jauch

Prof. Richardson

English 1201

24 March 2019

The Effect of Music on Studying

Studying is an important tool that that everyone will most likely use at some point. This

may be studying before a test they are taking in their high school math class or before a large

final exam that they have in college. Either way, studying is a skill that will follow most people

throughout their entire lives. There are multiple different approaches when it comes to studying,

some being more effective than others. One aspect that can affect how someone studies is what

noises are around them. The main source of noise for many people would be music, but what

music would be the most efficient at helping someone study? There are many different genres of

music ranging from heavy rock, classical music, pop music, or anything in-between. On top of

the different genres of music, some of the music has words in it while others may have no lyrics.

There are also multiple ways that an individual may be studying the material. It may be done

through reading text, watching a video on the subject, playing a game related to memory, or

other forms of studying. All these different variations of music and environments could lead to

different levels of efficiency. It is the most effective way to study is with either with a music

genre that the individual enjoys or music with no lyrics. This is because music with lyrics can be

more distracting.

The first thing to look at is the different genres of music and see how they can affect the

efficiency of studying. When someone think of studying, the stereotypical music that is played is
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classical music, not more intense music like heavy rock. Even though the classical music could

be helpful, there are more aspects to the effectiveness. In an article written by staff at Vaughn

College they explain the Mozart Effect. “A group of studies found listening to Mozart can cause

can cause a temporary ‘enhancement of special temporal reasoning performance,’ which means

the ability to think through long-term, more abstract solutions to logical problems” (Vaughn

College). The name ‘Mozart Effect’ misleads many to believe that they must listen to classical

music to achieve this effect. That is not true, as said by staff at UTEP Connect, “many students

assume that this genre is the thing to play during study sessions. However… listening to

enjoyable music had a bigger impact on the Mozart Effect, regardless of type” (UTEP Connect).

This shows that it is not classical music that helps improve studying, but music that the

individual enjoys. There is not one individual genre of music that is more effective than others. If

the music is more enjoyable to the listener, then their concentration will be better.

Even though it is more efficient to listen to music that the individual enjoys, there are still

more aspects that could affect the efficiency of studying even more. One of these aspects is if the

song has lyrics. In an article written by Emily M. Hernberg, she says, “listening to music with

lyrics can be distracting while you read, study, and write. The study found that your brain can

struggle to process musical lyrics and do school work simultaneously” (Hernberg). Lyrics can

lead to distractions, making it even more difficult to study. The words of the song can begin to

distract someone studying from the work that they were trying to focus on. If it is a favorite song

of the person studying, they may start humming or singing along with the lyrics instead of

concentrating. As stated by Dean Burnett in an article on The Guardian, “Musical pieces without

words might be better working companions, as human speech and vocalization is something our

brains pay particular attention to” (Burnett). It is part of human nature for people to pay attention
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to voices. This is a reason why it is more effective for the songs that are used to have no lyrics in

them.

The next important aspect is the type of studying the person is doing. If the individual

who is studying is watching a video, some background music would not be harmful, if the music

is not too loud. If they are reading material to study, certain music will be less effective as seen

in research done by Pete Tze and Ming Chou,” This study shows that the performance of a

cognitive task such as reading can be affected by the type of music played in the background. In

this study, hip hop music had a significant effect on the performance of the reading

comprehension task when compared to the scores of the participants who performed the reading

comprehension task with no music in the background” (Chou and Tze). This shows that for

certain tasks like reading, music can be a distraction. This ties into what was said in the previous

paragraph that having lyrics in a song while trying to read can create more of a distraction. This

can also be seen in the same research, “the mean score for the classical music group was 64.41

with a standard deviation of 14.019. However, the mean score for the hip hop music group was a

bit lower at 58.32 and a standard deviation of 14.412” (chou and Tze). The results of the research

show that the students scored higher while listening to classical music with a score of 64.41 than

they did when listening to hip hop music with a score of 58.32. This could be due to multiple

reasons, but some main ones are the fact that classical music is less distracting than hip hop

music. Hip hop music has lyrics and words to distract the students from reading while classical

music is only instruments. Without having any lyrics, classical music would become way less of

a distraction while trying to read. There would be too many overlapping words in the students

mind with the words on the page and the words coming from the song that is playing.
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Fig 1. Listening to the right music while studying can help improve focus (CMUSE)

An argument that some people may make is that it would be more productive to have no

sounds while studying. These people would prefer to study without any music playing at all. This

is seen in an article written by Saga Briggs, “They did the best in the quiet and while listening to

the repeated ‘three.’” (Briggs). The people who were being tested had to memorize letters in a

certain order while there was either music playing, repeated sounds, or no sounds. This can be

seen again in a paper written by Rong-Hwa and Yi-Nuo, “The Attention test results indicate test

takers exposed to background music tend to score lower than those without such exposure”

(Huang and Shih). During this experiment, the participants were taking a frequently used test to

check concentration level. “’Chu’s Attention Test’ is a standard evaluation tool frequently used

in occupational therapy in China” (Huang and Shih). Although no music may have been more

efficient in these cases, there are still multiple benefits of listening to the right kind of music.

This can be seen in the article from Vaughn College, “several research studies are proving that
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listening to the right kind of music can put your mind into study mode. Here are some of the

benefits of tuning into the right tunes: Relaxes mind, Increases concentration, lessens

distractions, Improves focus, Improves performance in high-pressure situations, such as mid-

terms and finals week” (Vaughn College). The right type of music, like the music discussed in

previous paragraphs, helps. In the end, whether the individual prefers to study with or without

music may be more of a personal preference, but there is research showing that listening to

music does have an advantage.

In conclusion, studying is something that everyone must go through during their life.

there are many aspects that go into how someone may study, and it may be different for every

single person. While studying, most people wish to be as effective as possible, focus on what

they are studying and retaining information. Music can be the first step in trying to achieve this.

The first aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is what type of music is the person that

is studying listening to. To have the greatest outcome of the Mozart Effect, the individual should

listen to music that they enjoy. Even though it would seem like classical music would have the

greatest impact, there is a greater connection between the Mozart Effect and music that is

enjoyable to the listener. The second aspect to look at is if the music has lyrics or not. If music

has lyrics, the person studying may become more distracted. It is normal for human brains to be

drawn to words, like those in the song. If they are trying to read, the words would make it more

difficult. It may also cause the individual to hum or sing along. The argument could be made that

studying with no music is the best way to go about studying, but there have been proven benefits

of listening to music. Altogether, the best music to listen to while studying would be music that

is enjoyable with no lyrics in it. Knowing all this information, someone can begin to have better

focus while studying. Listening to the right type of music, an individual can begin to see a big
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improvement in multiple parts of their life. Being able to study better would lead to better grades

on test or quizzes. The individual may even begin to become more organized and productive

overall if they begin to apply these concepts.

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Work Cited

Briggs, Saga. “Why You Shouldn't Listen to Music While Studying.” InformED, 19 Oct. 2014,

www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/other/why-you-shouldnt-listen-to-music-while-

studying/.

Burnett, Dean. “Does Music Really Help You Concentrate?” The Guardian, Guardian News and

Media, 20 Aug. 2016, www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/20/does-music-really-

help-you-concentrate. Accessed on 3 March 2019.

Chou, Ming and Peter Tze. “Attention Drainage Effect: How Background Music Effects

Concentration in Taiwanese College Students.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching &

Learning, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2010, pp. 36–46. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

b=ehh&AN=48656647&site=eds-live.

CMUSE. CMUSE, www.cmuse.org/.

Hernberg, Emily M. “SiOWfa15: Science in Our World: Certainty and Controversy.” SiOWfa15

Science in Our World Certainty and Controversy,

sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/12/04/listening-to-classical-music-vs-music-with-lyrics-vs-

complete-silence-while-studying/.

Huang, Rong-Hwa and Yi-Nuo Shih. “Effects of Background Music on Concentration of

Workers.” Work, vol. 38, no. 4, May 2011, pp. 383–387. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.3233/WOR-2011-1141.
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UTEP. “The BEST Music for Studying Successfully.” UTEP,

www.utep.edu/extendeduniversity/utepconnect/blog/january-2018/the-best-music-for-

studying-when-you-need-motivation-and-concentration.html.

Vaughn College. “Studying to Music Can Put Your Brain in the Right Frame of Mind.” Vaughn

College – Aeronautics, Engineering, Aviation and Technology, 24 Oct. 2018,

www.vaughn.edu/blog/best-study-music-and-benefits/.