Music Makes People Happy

Studies

from the well,-duh... dept

Now that video games have supplanted rock music as the “evil influencer of kids” among a certain group of adults, we don’t hear as many stories worrying about what our kids our listening to. That’s probably a good thing. However, for those who still think music has a negative impact on people, a new study shows that any kind of music – as long as the person likes it – can make people much happier and feel better. This shouldn’t really be a surprise. People often listen to music (of all kinds) to improve their mood. Admittedly, the study was done on a small sample size, and compared music majors to non-music majors. It also relied on subjects to “self-report” by keeping a diary, so the results could be questioned. The music majors were actually less likely to feel better after listening to music, something the study doesn’t explain. Maybe it’s because music reminds them of homework they need to do. The study also found that listening to music is mostly done in the background, with different music being used depending on what the other activity is. Again, this seems fairly obvious. Still, it’s good to get the idea out there that music is a personal choice – and just about anyone can like a different kind of music, and that music can make them feel good. All the stories about “bad” music, was usually the result of someone not liking that particular music, and therefore assuming it must be a bad influence on kids.