Sanmiguel Rivera 1

Lorelee Sanmiguel Rivera

Dr. Monica Rodriguez

ENGL1302-171

19 November 2023

Music in College

Throughout the years, many young students being their new journeys into colleges and

universities. One of the first lessons college and university students learn is how to create study

habits and time management. A way of doing this is music. Music helps students with their stress

management, and mental and physical health, however, not concentration and grades.

Concentration and grades

Many researchers have found a link to music and the grades that students can receive

because of listening to music. Kenneth Elpus stated that he tried to understand the connection

between non-music majors and music majors and their test scores on an SAT in his article, “Is It

the Music or Is It Selection Bias? A Nationwide Analysis of Music and Non-Music Students’

SAT Scores.” Elpus’ results found that non-music majors had a higher score than that of those of

music majors. Elpus also stated that many other countries had done similar test with high school

students, but no evidence has proved to show that music major students score higher that non-

major students. E. Glenn Schellenberg also provided evidence to show that music didn’t affect

cognitive performance for a long time in their article, “Music and Cognitive Abilities.” However,

Schellenberg stated, “Music lessons in childhood… are associated with small but general and

long-lasting intellectual benefits that cannot be attributed to obvious confounding variables…”

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(1). Schellenberg mainly stated in his article that studying music at a young age will help you

retain a little more than what other people can hold and remember later on in life. In a pilot

study, many women were exposed to heavy metal music and its effects on the women

psychologically and medically. The various authors of, “Effects of listening to heavy metal music

on college women: a pilot study.,” wanted to understand what exactly could the music of heavy

metal, “a sub-type of rock music with a particular sound, beat, and personal style (Morss, 2000),”

do to women compared to how men react to this particular type of music. The results were very

shocking to the researchers because the first phase of the test was often where the results are first

shown and later compared. However, the women all seemed to have similar physical reactions

while listening to the music. It made many of the women express emotions that are common in

rock music which results in chemical reactions in their brains.

Marion Simpson reviews a study done in 1993 by the University of California. Simpson brought

the common myth of classical music being able to make you smarter.

Stress management

However, Simpson brings more details about the study and how it does not necessarily

mean that classical music will make you smarter. Ethan Young and Jay Nolan also bring to light

how music could affect the function of thought or even motion by listening to music in the

background. Young and Nolan stated that “background music… tend to distract listeners,

resulting in a decrease in attention performance, and instrumental music… did not significantly

effect attention performance.” Music can be hard to determine if it goes well with cognitive

functions and even study habits. With music being a key focus in a lot of studies, it can be

extremely hard to see if music can lead to these improvements or if it’s all tricks in the mind.
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Mental and Physical Health

Despite all the data that is shown and introduced, music can be proven to help mental

health, physical health, and even improve diseases. “According to the American Music Therapy

Association (2011), music therapy is a well-established health program and it is used

therapeutically to address an individual's physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs,” stated

a variety of authors in “Playing Music to Relieve Stress in A College Classroom Environment.”

Even teachers often try to promote a sort of “mindfulness training” in schools to help deal with

short attention spans and restlessness as Rick Docksai mentioned in his article, “A mindful

approach to learning: new research shows potential for "mindfulness training" to boost student

productivity.”

Music can be helpful for several things; however, it can be hard to prove what exactly

music does to people during certain events, exams, and even assignments. With all the research

and data, we can find about music and the variety of aspects that it can influence and effect, it

creates a wonder if music truly goes beyond just the mind better for concentration, overall

progress, and even health overall.