If you were desperate for a virtuous excuse to gorge on pop music from the likes of Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus, there’s now a study that says it could make students more successful at learning. That’s right: homework is easier when you listen to bubble gum pop, according to one researcher in the U.K. who’s soon to be the scourge of every parent and teacher in the Western world.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, clinical psychologist Dr. Emma Gray claimed that students are more likely to perform well academically if they listen to certain types of music while they study. Her research was commissioned by music streaming service Spotify.
“Music can put you in a better frame of mind to learn — and indeed, students who listen to music can actually do better than those who don’t,” Gray said.
Gray, who specializes in cognitive behavioural therapy at The British CBT and Counselling Service in London, claims that listening to songs by Cyrus or Justin Timberlake — or other pop songs with 50 to 80 beats per minute — allows the brain to learn and remember new facts more easily.
Other music like classical genres, that fall into the 60-to-70-beats-per-minute range may help students studying math. Emotive pop and rock songs including Perry’s Firework and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones can produce a heightened state of excitement that is more likely to enhance creative performance in subjects such as English and art.
So, with the case made for Beethoven or Bieber, Mozart or Miley, does the old wisdom that says silence is golden for studies really gone for good?