Happy Music Boosts Brain's Creativity, Study Says (newscientist.com) 102
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: Need inspiration? Happy background music can help get the creative juices flowing. Simone Ritter, at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and Sam Ferguson, at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, have been studying the effect of silence and different types of music on how we think. They put 155 volunteers into five groups. Four of these were each given a type of music to listen to while undergoing a series of tests, while the fifth group did the tests in silence. The tests were designed to gage two types of thinking: divergent thinking, which describes the process of generating new ideas, and convergent thinking, which is how we find the best solutions for a problem. Ritter and Ferguson found that people were more creative when listening to music they thought was positive, coming up with more unique ideas than the people who worked in silence. However, happy music -- in this instance, Antonio Vivaldi's Spring -- only boosted divergent thinking. No type of music helped convergent thinking, suggesting that it's better to solve problems in silence. The study was published in the journal PLoS One.
Really? (Score:1, Funny)
Because Happy by Pharell makes me want to blow my brains out.
Re: (Score:2)
Because Happy by Pharell makes me want to blow my brains out.
Try the Sound of Silence
Re: (Score:2)
Enjoy the Silence.
Re: (Score:2)
True techies listen to Linus Torvald's biography played in morse code.
Re: (Score:1)
"Happy Music"? (Score:1)
I prefer easy listening [youtube.com] myself
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, you mean classical music.
Re: (Score:2)
In 1000 years, it will be classical music.
Re: "Happy Music"? (Score:2)
Clasical music is a subset of concert music and refers to particular time period in the development of concert music.
Thus a composer today might create simphony very much like Mozatr's but it won't be called clasical.
Source: audio lectures on history of music from famous dude working in Chicago's conservatory.
Re: (Score:2)
So what's the difference between classical classical music and modern classical music? Will your categorization stand the test of time? What about someone in the year 8000? Both kinds will be far in the past, to the point of being the same exact thing especially since they're made the same way and sound about the same.
Not for me (Score:5, Interesting)
When I'm coding, high energy music is what gets my creative juices flowing. There is more evidence to suggest that what is related to creativity is how much stress you are under. The closer you are are to "fight or flight response" the more resources are being taken away from the cognitive processes that give rise to creativity. I'm reminded of several John Cleese quotes on the subject:
"If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play."
"Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake."
"Creativity is not a skill, it's a state of mind, being in the open state."
We are not in open states when we are stressed. Perhaps for some "happy music", whatever that means, helps with getting "into the zone". Just find whatever it is that gets you in the zone and practice mindfulness about getting into that zone and staying there as long as you can.
Re: (Score:2)
And, for some of us in 1991, "Happy Music" can be Nine Inch Nails' Head like a Hole.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Your coding is probably not taxing your problem solving skills.
Re: (Score:2)
> Your coding is probably not taxing your problem solving skills.
Bingo. That's a much more eloquent way of saying what I just wrote a few posts below.
You're better than The Great Carnac! How would you know? I deal with some very advanced object modelling, graph theory and mathematics. I suppose you could say that perhaps I've been doing this long enough that my brain is attuned to dealing with this problem domain and therefore I no longer find it cognitively taxing. I am also a musician and can compose and play very advanced, colorful musical compositions and in many styles on several instruments but I no longer find it difficult. It was very diffic
Re: (Score:2)
Try solving a real hard problem listening to happy music (or the music you prefer). If the problem is cognitively taxing for you, notice any differences.
I don't need to experiment with other methods of doing the same thing I already do quite effectively.
Re: (Score:2)
"... perhaps I've been doing this long enough that my brain is attuned to dealing with this problem domain and therefore I no longer find it cognitively taxing"
Yep, that's what I'm saying. Coding may for you be no more than putting together blocks of stuff you mostly have mastered. Keeping a momentum to fight boredom is more important than concentrating.
What do you do when things get difficult? when you're faced with something very unfamiliar, poorly written, opaque and massive that it needs to be r
Re: (Score:2)
What do you do when things get difficult? when you're faced with something very unfamiliar, poorly written, opaque and massive that it needs to be reverse engineered to be understood... to the point that it may not be solvable?
Let me try to describe. In regard to dealing with a difficult problem: First, I do what I believe is brute force conscious graph traversal through all kinds of different approaches that are potentially heuristically applicable to the problem at hand. This occurs almost like what I've heard quantum computing described as. At each node, I simulate application of that solution to the problem domain. If nothing applies, I skip the node. If something partially applies I stored that information and continue
Re:Not for me (Score:5, Insightful)
I definitely experience the same thing - my creativity is best triggered by high energy music
I kind of wonder whether the real takeaway from the study is supposed to be "listening to music you like helps with creativity." I've certainly found that to be the case when I listen to punk metal (my current musical flavor of choice). And sludge metal helps me when I need to just focus on rote tasks and get into a trance "zone". But I'm sure others would find their creativity or productivity impeded by listening to those genres, so I would never suggest anyone else listen to them to help with tasks unless I know their musical preferences.
Considering that they had people listen to sad, anxious, and calm (or anxious and calm at the same time somehow? Damnit New Scientist, this is why people use Oxford commas! [grammarly.com]) classical music, I'm not sure you can draw conclusions outside that genre. This seems to be more about "happy classical music" having a positive effect on a greater portion of the population than other emotive flavors of classical music. But even that may not hold true for everyone. Maybe it's just that more people have a positive reaction to "happy classical music" than other kinds of classical music, but that the effect is reversed for some percentage of people.
In short, I find the study interesting, but as usual the magazine article takes the conclusions and runs with them beyond the scope of the actual study.
Re: (Score:2)
Damnit New Scientist, this is why people use Oxford commas!
Since you bring up English grammar, I'm going to go ahead and point out a grammatical error in your sentence above. You're missing a comma after the interjection "Damnit." Your sentence should be:
Damnit, New Scientist, this is why people use Oxford commas!
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the rule was that you use it after a dependent clause that starts a sentence. Or after an appositive or introductory adverb. Those are the only uses for introductory commas I was aware of that might apply in this case, but if you can point out the style guide rule this breaks then I will consider modifying my grammar.
Re: (Score:2)
Good question, so I spent a little while looking for the rule that applies. There are so many rules for using commas, some of which don't seem to always be included in purported lists of comma uses. This one, in particular, seems to be the one that applies to your case: http://www.grammar-monster.com... [grammar-monster.com]
Separate the name of the person (or thing) you are addressing from the rest of the sentence with a comma.
I hope this helps. It helped me get a more solid understanding of one comma use-case.
Re: (Score:2)
High energy music works for me too, but not because it raises my stress levels. First of all, I'll often be tired and high energy music helps stave this off. Secondly, I find my mind will often want a distraction. Instead of visiting web sites or playing games, the music gives my brain something it can shift focus to for a second or two before going back to the task at hand - without running the risk that a simple Wikipedia lookup will turn into hours of wasting time.
Re: (Score:2)
The whole idea that you can teach creativity or improve it demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about what creativity is. Just look at anything that Thomas Kinkade did, there's little to no evidence of creativity in any of what he's famous for.
Sure you can, you just need some happy trees and a little bit of titanium white, it's easy peasy. ;) I've had friends try to imitate what Bob Ross did that seemed so easy. It's not easy and he didn't explain all the little nuances that he was doing from muscle memory... he probably didn't even really know consciously the little things he did.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm reminded of several John Cleese quotes on the subject:
"Creativity is not a skill, it's a state of mind, being in the open state."
Much as I like John Cleese, he's wrong on this point. Creativity is a skill, one that can be improved and can be taught, even taught to children.
You can teach children basic techniques used by artists or you can teach them music theory. You can have them do exercises until they can imitate other people's works. They can get far and create neat things that way but you can't teach them how to create truly ground-breaking, unique pieces of art or music this way. That is something that comes from somewhere else and it's highly subjective. Inspiration can strike at the strangest of times. Even mathematicians and scientists have bursts of creativity
Re: (Score:2)
You can teach children basic techniques used by artists or you can teach them music theory. You can have them do exercises until they can imitate other people's works.
Or you can teach cognitive tools that are actually relevant to creativity in general, as opposed to teaching orthogonal concepts from some specific domain. Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Or you could just learn the obvious skill: meta thinking and hack your own mind. But even that takes...creativity... :P
Creativity (Score:2)
When I'm coding, high energy alcohol is what gets my creative juices flowing.
ftfy.
Pretty soon... (Score:2)
...the trolls will have found some very creative ways to make this about the threats from feminist, liberals and BigScience(tm).
They must be listening to some extremely happy music.
Re: (Score:2)
Stop telling me what to do.
Ragga Jungle for me (Score:1)
Re: Ragga Jungle for me (Score:1)
Newflash: Happy music makes you happy! (Score:2)
Brought to you by Captain Obvious Research Institute.
Re:Newflash: Happy music makes you happy! (Score:4)
I wouldn't say it's necessarily "obvious" that happy music makes you happy.
I remember as a teenage being depressed over the break up with a girl friend, flipping through radio stations and temporarily stopping on an oldies station. The Cascades "Listen to the Rhythm of The Falling Rain" came on, arguably, a sad song.
I sang along, and like a light switch, started feeling better. Over the years I've found certain sad songs actually cheer me up and make me happy when I'm sad. When I'm sad, happy songs irritate me.
Re: (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, you mean like AM radio did when the song came out in 1981.
I lived through that! I was there! I hate that song more than The Dude hates the fucking Eagles.
Re: (Score:2)
Now that we know happy music makes people more productive, how will this get incorporated into the open office? I'm assuming my looping Journey "Don't Stop Believing" over and over.
"How about piping in some Tom Jones music. That always cheers me up!" [youtube.com]
Depends on the person (Score:2)
I refuse to believe that any person can possible stand sappy "we're all so happy everything is wonderful"-type fake-positive dreck for any length of time without tearing their ears off.
Re: (Score:2)
I probably go to more concerts in a month than you do in a year.
Happy upbeat music can only be tolerated for so long. You need contrast, drama and excitement to move the soul, not the meaningless platitudes of inoffensive "happy music".
Awesome excuse (Score:2)
No boss, I'm not uncreative and incompetent. I just spend too much time listening to Scandinavian death metal. I'm an addict. Don't judge me.
Re: (Score:2)
"happy" music
Do you mean like this [youtube.com]?
John Cage's 4:33? (Score:2)
What happens if you listen to John Cage's 4:33? Do you get both benefits?
Re: (Score:2)
i listen to that all the time, on repeat.
doesn't help.
comment subject (Score:2)
I'm thinking this is less about mood and more about the idea that inspiration = distraction.
When you're trying to solve a problem - no, not the "motions" of making shit reference each other in your everyday code - but solve a fucking problem like mentally predicting constellation movements across various time lengths, you don't want light bulbs, you just want to chew very hard in a narrow way and nowhere else.
When you DO want light bulbs (that can include code (design in particular, picking your maneuvers))
Does that mean... (Score:1)
Music or meditation? (Score:1)