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This Week in Music to Work to - September 25th, 2014

This Week in Music to Work to - September 25th, 2014

 

A sound idea: can ambient noise make us work harder?

Super interesting idea that the Times would add the anachronistic sound of typewriters in the news room - and that as they reach press deadline the volume increases.  I'm not sure this is the way to go but it will be interesting to see the results.  The rest of the article looks at how music has struggled to be utilized as a mass productivity tool, we know from our own studies and research that music is such a personal thing that going for economies of scale isn't going to work.   Still,  there's no doubt that sound and the auditory system has a huge impact on us humans.

The Psychology of Music | Visual.ly

The University of Florida make their case for the Music program by creating a pretty solid infographic on the psychology of music - a good overview and well worth the time to check it out

Interactive lab explores music’s scientific potential

This is super cool - reminds me of the sound room back in my undergraduate days at Westminster University - there was a soundproofed room in the basement of one of the faculty buildings - it was pretty small but you couldn't spend too much time in there 'cos the sound of your own body started to freak you out.  this is that room on a much much bigger scale and by the 'sounds" of it - is going open many doors into how sound and music and auditory experience affects us human beings.  I want to go!!!

Science Shows Your Taste in Music Says More About You Than You Think

Yeah - it reads well - but I'm just not sure about this.  To me it's still putting people in boxes and just by allocating all the different musical genres into 4 categories defined by salient sonic and emotional characteristics - you're still not going to avoid all the things about genre that researchers are trying to ignore.  Studies like this end up delivering big sweeping types of information that people inevitably end up trying to use and then getting it wrong and having arguments blah blah blah....

Scientists Capture The Sound Of A Single Atom

This is frickin' awesome - not so much for the physics - which are pretty amazing - but for the fact that it's a D!  I think I read somewhere about Billy Joel and Elton John talking about what their favorite key to compose in was and both of them agreeing that there's just something about the key of D and D minor in particular that just feels good.    Now whether this has anything to do with some deep subliminal resonance - who knows - but I like playing in D too!

The Music That Has Helped Me Battle Depression

Deeply personal reflection from an author who deals with depression and who uses music to mitigate its effects as best he can.  It's the "No side effects" that seems to resonate throughout the use of music in health related fields - whether its managing mood or impairing energy and memory - music seems to be the one drug you can't overdose on.

Pop music too loud and all sounds the same: official

Yes - this headline will appeal to people over 35 - but I don't think the kids need to get too worried.  We're seeing the expression of technology and economy and while Dr. Luke and Max martin might be behind most of the pop out there - it won't stay that way for long.  Every generation decried the music of the one that comes after it and while data is interesting - has music ever, really, been about datasets and statistics?!?!? 

#musictoworkto #musicresearch #depression #productivity #personality #musicpsychology

 


Written while listening to: Stampylongnose Second Edit

Image Credit: Philip Krantz, Huffington Post


 

This Week in Music to Work to - September 18th, 2014

This Week in Music to Work to - September 18th, 2014

 

Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition

I loved reading this study - it reminded me of my own undergraduate work as a Psych major when I was looking at how sound affected physical performance.  What the paper is suggesting is that the low level processing systems of the brain get occupied by the ambient noise, forcing the brain to use a higher level of processing when attending to additional tasks.  This results in greater creativity - which is something we've been gambling our live on!

You can read about my original study here:

Dangerous Decibels

We occasionally see articles about loud music and the damage it can do to teen's ears.  What we didn't know is that there is a movement called Dangerous Decibels which tackles the problem directly.  What we like about this is that it give parents tangible advice on how to help their kids keep their hearing.  If you're the parent of kid who seems to have ear buds surgically implanted in their ear canal - you might want to check this out.

How to Listen to Music at Work Without Sacrificing Productivity 

There's pretty much a consensus nowadays that listening to music at work can help productivity - bosses and managers are getting used to seeing employees wearing ear buds and headphones and are even welcoming the fact.  As the idea matures we see writers spending less time on justification and more on how to make the music really work for you.  This Amex article look s at what types of music can help different working activities - nothing earth shattering here but it's great to see such corporate media channels getting on the music at work bandwagon.

The Super Simple Way to Improve Your Mood

Study out of Missouri that looked at mood regulation - particularly how to make yourself happier using variations of happy sounding and less positive music combined with setting an intention to be happier.  Seems that you need both - happy music and a good intention and you can improve your mood.  Awesome!

Library, Magic House Team Up to Help Ferguson Kids Cope with Crisis

It's amazing to me how fast music therapy is gaining ground in society.  There's nothing new about putting on activities and distractions for kids in tough environments, such as the hell everybody went through inFergusonearlier this year - but the fact that a music therapist is part of those activities and a very popular one to boot - is an indication of just how far we've come.

Music as medicine has huge potential, study suggests

This was the study published last year from Daniel Levitin and Mona Lisa Chanda that reviewed 400 scientific papers on how music affects the human being.  It's pretty clear that there are significant benefits across the board and the idea of music as medicine (a medicine with no side effects,) is something we can all get behind.  A nice summary and worth the read.

#musictoworkto #creativity #medicine #mood #ambient

Written while listening to: Trust

Image Credit: Creativity by Sean MacEntee on Flickr 





 

This Week in Music to Work to - September 4th, 2014

This Week in Music to Work to - September 4th, 2014

I'm personally very familiar with the tingling sensation that ASMR describes - having experienced it a lot as a kid, so I was blown away to find a burgeoning online community.  This is a great introduction to the ASMR world with different perspectives from a physiologist to a neuroscientist to a therapist.  I think there are a lot of parallels between the effect that ASMR has on the body and what music to work to can do.