This story is syndicated from West Side Story, the newspaper of Iowa City West High School in Iowa City, IA. The original version ran here.
Whether walking in the school hallways, standing at a bus stop or browsing the aisles of a convenience store, one sight is almost guaranteed: teenagers sporting a pair of headphones, listening to music. With a plethora of streaming platforms to choose from and more than 6,000 genres available on Spotify alone, listeners have more options now than ever before.
Coinciding with this rise in music availability is a surge in time spent listening. A study by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reveals the average person listens to 20.7 hours of music weekly, or roughly three hours per day. Some students, like Derick Doresca, choose to listen because of the comfort music can offer.
“It helps me get in the right state of mind. It helps me relax, especially if I’m really stressed out,” Doresca said. “I can’t do homework without music.”
Like Doresca, an estimated 55% of high school students across the United States listen to music while studying. Though research has repeatedly shown that the human brain cannot effectively multitask —but in 2017, a study by the Association for Psychological Science introduced the concept of “selectively dividing attention,” finding that selectivity and intention in music choice when studying has little to no negative impact on active human cognition.
West psychology teacher Camille Crossett explains that music’s effect on learning depends on the listener’s environment.
“If you learn in the same environment as you take a test in, you can generally expect better results than if you were learning in a wildly different context,” Crossett said. “For instance, if you were to study at home, lying down on your bed, playing music and multitasking, you probably won’t do as well on that task. You’ll have a harder time recalling information than if you were to study sitting at a desk in a quiet environment, the environment that you might be tested in.”
This phenomenon is known as “context-dependent memory,” which relies on external surroundings to trigger memory retrieval. Working parallel with this phenomenon is “state-dependent memory,” which alters memory retrieval based on one’s emotional and physical state. If an individual’s mood during testing matches that of studying, for example, they are more likely to recall the information they studied.
While educators and parents have historically harbored concerns about remaining productive when listening to music, studies indicate that music actually increases neuroplasticity — a flexibility in cognition that promotes productivity. Abbey Dvorak, an Associate Professor of Music Therapy at the University of Iowa, explains the connection between listening to music and the brain’s retention of information.
“Music can enhance brain neuroplasticity, [which] is the process in which our brain makes new connections and it prunes old connections — [music is] a rhythmic auditory stimulus that can synchronize neural firing in our brains,” Dvorak said. “Neurons that fire together wire together, so it strengthens our learning and our connection to music.”
Music’s effect on neurological functions isn’t limited to increased neuroplasticity, either. Research indicates that music also releases neurotransmitters into the brain’s frontal lobe that evoke positive emotions. Music-evoked nostalgia stems from the hippocampus and can also provide emotional comfort to listeners.
“Familiar music can be associated with positive memories of pleasant experiences, so when we hear a piece of music on the radio, we might think back to that wonderful time in our life,” Dvorak said.
This past winter, Spotify released its annual “Spotify Wrapped,” a comprehensive list of individual listening time and artist preferences for the year, alongside playlist suggestions tailored to the listening habits of each user. Having streamed over 147,000 minutes of music on Spotify in 2024, high school student Flora Zhu has a unique understanding of the importance of having an emotional connection to music. Zhu sometimes listens to music not only to uplift her mood but also to bring back nostalgic memories.
“One song I’ve listened to for a long time is ‘Everything Goes On’ by Porter Robinson,” Zhu said. “I’ve been listening to it since ninth grade, and it’s one of my top songs. It’s been there throughout my whole high school journey, so it represents my adolescence.”
However, in response to music, neurotransmitters can stimulate negative emotions depending on the context and mood of the listener. Sad songs can surprisingly serve as emotional outlets, for instance.. To balance emotions, Dvorak recommends that listeners oscillate between consuming sad and uplifting music.
“It’s okay to listen to a sad song, and it’s okay to use the ‘Iso Principle,’ which is you match [your] mood and the mood state of that song,” Dvorak said. “But slowly try to listen to music that gets you out of that stuck state, until you’re feeling the way you want to feel.”
According to Tallahassee Memorial Health, the Iso Principle can be an emotional coping mechanism, while simultaneously improving moods with increased dopamine production. Doresca employs this tactic, using it to identify and enhance his emotions, he said.
“If I’m down, I [have] one playlist that has more slow songs; say I’m working out and trying to get hyped, then I have another playlist for that — it’s different depending on my mood,” Doresca said.
Doresca doesn’t only listen to music; he also performs it, playing the drum set in West’s Jazz Ensemble and other percussion instruments in the Wind Ensemble. Playing instruments involves multiple sensory inputs — visual, auditory and emotional — that require complete focus. Due to the amount of concentration necessary, Dvorak believes that playing music increases mindfulness and amplifies the effects of listening alone.
“By playing an instrument, singing or dancing, we can be fully engaged, attentive, aware, non-judgmental,” Dvorak said. “The whole music experience itself is our focus, and in that way, we can be very mindful as well.”
The shift prompts them to examine the intricacies of the music rather than listening passively.
While musicians may be prone to distraction when listening to a certain genre of music, others may not be — so what genre can music listeners consume without distraction? According to John Aiello, an Emeritus Professor at Rutgers University’s Department of Psychology, music distraction varies across listeners.
“It depends on who you are because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how music influences task performance,” Aiello said. “That’s why it’s such an intriguing question, because it’s one of those situations where you have to know the person to know how music is going to affect them.”
In 2019, Aiello conducted research revealing that music’s effect on cognitive task performance is dependent on personality. This stems from “social facilitation theory,” or the way one’s environment stimulates or impairs performance, which influences both cognition and performance. With music, the piece’s complexity, the listener’s tendency for boredom and social stimuli can affect cognition and task performance.
At the beginning of 2024, the Iowa City Community School District implemented a district-wide technology policy aimed at reducing students’ use of devices during instructional time. The policy — mirroring those of school systems nationwide — requires students to remove cell phones and headphones in classrooms.
“Music keeps me happy — it doesn’t really help me focus or do better in school,” said Zhu, an Iowa City student. “It keeps me not bored all the time. I’ve also learned to zone it out, so I’m paying attention to the teacher.”
Although Crossett believes using music in educational settings can be beneficial for students, she acknowledges that it may be distracting for some.
“If there were someone who was like, ‘I really want to listen to this music right before I take my test to hype myself up for it,’ I’d be like, ‘Absolutely, do what you got to do,’” Crossett said. “The difference is, in the midst of taking a test or engaging in an academic task, music can pull your focus away from that.”
Ultimately, students must use metacognitive strategies to remain mindful of what music will distract them the least. Aiello recommends that students analyze their own learning capabilities and environment before listening to music while multitasking.
“If you have the least bit of complexity in your task, you feel overloaded or overwhelmed having loud, complex music in the background. It’s the nature of the task, your capability, personality and external stimuli that make a big difference,” Aiello said.
Although music may pose a distraction in work settings, Dvorak finds that it ultimately strengthens connections in a world where many feel disconnected.
“Music helps connect people together — whether it’s drumming or singing, it mediates the release of oxytocin, a neurochemical that allows us to bond and connect with others,” Dvorak said. “By doing music together, we feel closer to people around us.”