The Way Music Influences Student’s Mental Activity

Music is an integral part of most people. The research proves that students make 85 percent of all humans who listen to music more than two hours daily. It helps people relax, distract from problems, and even create the imaginary world full of positive emotions. Some individuals prefer creating music for listening. This activity reveals feelings and provides an aggression outlet.
The Impact of Different Genres of Music
Different students like various genres of music. Scientists believe that each of them has an impact on a person. Classical music reduces the level of aggression among people who have such an inclination. In 2003, it had been played for 1,5 year in a number of train stations in London. The results of the experiment were impressive. The level of vandalism and robberies fell down to more than 30 percent and the staff reported that assaults were down twenty-five percent compared to the 18-months ago situation.
As a rule, pop music is popular among students who go in for sports. Rap is believed to delete depression and rock and metal music let individuals express themselves and become more open. Smooth jazz can provoke alpha waves of the brain which usually appear when people are relaxed. This state helps to avoid negative emotions and deal with anxiety and stress.
Experts recommend experimenting. They consider different genres of music to be useful. Everything depends on the situation and the role it should play. It also depends much on the listener. Vernacular musicians are more sensible. They can reproduce the heard melody quicker than students who study classical music at schools. It means music has a higher influence on them and their well-being compared to other persons.
The Influence of Music on Studies
A great number of students listen to music when they do their home assignment. Most of them think that it helps to concentrate and perform the task better. The experiment proved the opposite.
32 students from Maryland University participated in the research. Those were 25 women and 7 men aged from twenty to forty-one. All of them were volunteers. The study aimed to test the mental abilities of participants in music and no music surrounding. Researchers applied five arithmetic tests. Students multiplicated, divided, added, and subtracted. They had to solve tasks when:

listening to sedative music

listening to stimulative music

in silence

The first music belonged to Demon Hunters, a famous heavy-rock band. The second one was “Morning Light” by Beeson. Researchers played both kinds of music at high and low intensity. Consequently, participants did the first test when the classical melody was at low intensity. The second test was held in the room where the rock song was played at low intensity. Students completed the third test in silence. Then they proceeded to the fourth test listening to the classical music at high intensity and final test together with the rock song at high intensity. None of the participants used electronic devices to solve the arithmetic task. Students rested 20 seconds between the task performances.
The result of the experiment proved that students showed the best results in the no-music condition. Low-intensity music had a better impact on students than high-intensity music. The testing also showed that there was no difference between classical and rock music. The scores of the students didn’t differ much. It means that only the intensity of the music could negatively affect a student’s ability to solve arithmetic tests.
Scientists explain this fact differently. Some of them say that if students like music it might evoke emotions and memories. It might work as a distractor. The other part of researchers considers any sound to be a distraction. The statistic shows that people should avoid listening to their favorite music when doing homework. Melodies like smells awake associations. These recollections prevent students from proper assignment performance. Smith and Moris also conducted their research. They managed to prove that sedative melodies have a better effect on mental activity than stimulative one.
Furnham and Bradley took into consideration personality types. Introverts and extroverts took part in the experiment. Extroverts were more open to communication and music did not distract them as much as introverts who showed worse results in testing. Both personality types produced better results in silence.
Music and Behavioral Changes
Students do not just listen to music. Most of them choose an idol to follow. That is why they like watching music videos and citing their favorite songs on Facebook or Twitter status. The magazine “Pediatrics” provided the study which manifested sexualized behavior provoked by pop music. Nowadays, one can watch music videos with sexual context day and night without serious censorship. Pop music stands for a popular one. It covers all genres which are in ears of today’s listeners. The content of songs popularizes and advertises smoking, substance abuse, suicide, aggression, free sexual relationships, almost no-taboo topics.
Students, whose conscience is easy-to-influence on, absorb the information and behavioral model exposed by their idols. Alcohol and nicotine are advertised and glamorized in each second song. Due to that, psychologists recommend listening to classical music and melodies which lack these features. Parents should try to make their children learn to play classical music at professional institutions and mothers-to-be should listen to such melodies in order to create the appropriate mood for their child.
Music is a very important part of socialization. It reflects the needs and mood of society. The statistic shows that students control their emotions and cope with loneliness when listening to music. There is also such a notion as musicotherapy when music is used medicinally to help students relax, calm down, distract from academic problems (writing assignments, overloaded schedules, and sleepless nights) and serves often as a source of inspiration. At times, it is even recommended to disengage from academic issues (entrust them to a certified company like CustomWritings, for example) and have some ‘fasting days’ - students can listen to relaxing music and clean up their mental state.
Experts also recommend doing academic assignments in silence because music evokes emotions and feelings which prevent students from better scores. People of various social layers, personality types, ethnicity, age, and culture interpret music differently. That is why their preferences differ and one and the same music might produce a different effect on different people. Adolescents are more likely to idolize and copy everything their idol pictures in songs and videos.