Should You Listen to Music While Studying? (Or Is Beethoven Stealing Your Brainpower?)

Hi, this is Ray, your slightly over-caffeinated, occasionally wise-cracking guide to learning better, backed by science and at least one too many Spotify playlists titled “Epic Focus Mode.”

So let’s get to it.

You’re sitting at your desk, determined to master quantum physics (or just survive accounting homework), and you ask yourself: “Should I listen to music while I work?”

Your instincts might say yes. Music makes boring tasks less boring. But your brain might be quietly screaming “Noooo” in the background while being drowned out by the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack.

Let’s break this down like a high school band audition: with science, skepticism, and a little bit of jazz hands.

Part 1: Why Music Feels Like It Helps

Let me paint the scene. You're studying, headphones in, your favorite chill lo-fi beats playing in the background. You feel productive. You feel smart. You feel like the montage scene in every hacker movie.

Here’s why:

• Music boosts mood and motivation. Music releases dopamine, the same neurotransmitter you get from chocolate, winning Mario Kart, or receiving an email that says “Your invoice has been paid.” In other words, it feels good.

• It makes repetitive tasks more tolerable. Folding laundry, copying notes, organizing your Google Drive; music can make these less mind-numbing. Basically, it adds a layer of frosting to your cognitive brussels sprouts.

• You feel like you’re in flow. This one’s sneaky. Music can create a sensation of flow even when your actual productivity hasn’t improved. It’s the placebo effect of productivity. But sometimes placebo is still pretty useful.

But before you cue up your Beethoven-meets-Drake mashup, we need to ask…

Part 2: Does Music Actually Help You Learn?

Let’s science this thing.

Research on this topic is wildly mixed, which is exactly what you’d expect when scientists study something as personal and subjective as music. But there are some clear patterns.

1. For complex learning, silence is golden.

In tasks that require working memory, solving problems, reading dense material, understanding new concepts, background music tends to hurt performance.

One study from the University of Wales found that participants did worse on memory tasks when background music had lyrics, compared to silence or steady ambient noise. The human brain does not like to share attention, especially with catchy lyrics competing for your frontal lobe’s limited capacity.

Citation: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749596X08000238

2. Familiar music is better than new music.

New music engages your brain more, but not in a good way for studying. It pulls attention away from your work. Familiar tunes, especially instrumental ones, are less distracting because your brain already knows where the beat drops.

So that epic Viking war chant playlist? Maybe save that for your next gym session, not your organic chemistry review.

Citation: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00590/full

3. Personality matters.

If you’re an extrovert, music might help you focus more than if you’re an introvert. Extroverts tend to thrive on external stimulation. Introverts not so much. Throw in loud music and their cognitive performance drops faster than my GPA in sophomore year stats class.

Citation: https://academic.oup.com/jpepsy/article/25/3/149/932855?login=false

Part 3: What Types of Music Work (And Don’t)

Let’s get practical. Here’s a tier list of music options ranked by how much they probably help or hurt your study sessions.

Best for Studying:

• Lo-fi beats (no lyrics): The reigning champion of YouTube streams for a reason. Rhythmic, predictable, not too exciting.

• Classical music: Mozart, Bach, or those YouTube mixes titled “Study Like a Genius” that secretly just loop the same eight chords.

• Ambient sounds: Rainfall, waves, café background noise. You become the main character in a very productive indie film.

OK for Some Tasks:

• Instrumental movie soundtracks: Think Hans Zimmer, but keep it chill. If your heart starts racing, it’s too epic.

• Jazz or instrumental blues: As long as it doesn’t make you want to snap your fingers and start a dance number in your living room.

Avoid If You Like Learning Things:

• Music with lyrics in your native language: Your brain will try to multitask and fail spectacularly.

• Fast-tempo dance music: Great for cardio, terrible for cognitive function.

• Anything new and exciting: Novelty kills focus. Save the musical exploration for after your study session.

Part 4: How to Use Music Strategically

Because Ray (me) is all about helping you learn smarter and not just looking smart while accomplishing nothing, here’s a strategy:

Use music for:

• Warming up your brain before studying

• Doing repetitive tasks like flashcard review or formatting that group project no one else is touching

• Transitions between tasks (a mini dance break is still scientifically legal)

Avoid music when:

• Reading dense material or textbooks

• Trying to memorize complex concepts

• Writing anything requiring coherence like essays, code, or your apology email to your professor

If you really need noise, try white noise, nature sounds, or the no-talking version of lo-fi. Yes, that’s a thing.

Final Verdict (Ray’s Geeky Summary)

So, should you listen to music while you study?

It depends.

If you’re doing light tasks or need help getting started, music… especially instrumental… can boost your mood and motivation. But if you’re trying to do anything that requires deep understanding, recall, or concentration, silence is your unsung hero.

In my case, I used to blast anime openings while trying to write essays. Let’s just say my writing had questionable pacing. Now, it’s lo-fi and ambient rain, and suddenly I can focus long enough to actually finish this newsletter. Progress.

Experiment. Notice what works for you. And do not assume your study playlist is helping just because it makes you feel cool.

Until next time, this is Ray, signing off with his headphones still on but the volume turned way down.

Citations:

1. Jones, D. M., et al. (2008). “The disruptive effects of background music with vocals on verbal processing.” Applied Cognitive Psychology.
   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749596X08000238

2. Kämpfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2011). “The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis.” Psychology of Music.
   https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00590/full

3. Furnham, A., & Strbac, L. (2002). “Music is as distracting as noise: The differential distraction of background music and noise on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts.” Journal of Educational Psychology.
   https://academic.oup.com/jpepsy/article/25/3/149/932855?login=false