June 16, 2025 • 44 mins
Ever found yourself hitting play on that song, and instantly, a wave of emotion hits you, or you’re transported back to a forgotten summer, a specific laugh, a past version of yourself? It feels like magic, right? But beneath those goosebumps and surges of feeling lies an incredible, intricate psychological dance. In today's episode, we’re diving deep into the psychology of music – exploring why this universal language speaks directly to our nervous system, how it shapes our memories and identity, and critically, how we use it to cope (for better or worse) in our twenties.
We explore:
- Why music evokes a full body experience
- Music and nostalgia
- How music develops and shapes our identity
- When music can act as a coping mechanism
- How to use music to shift your mood and focus
If you've ever felt like your life has a custom soundtrack, or if you can't imagine a day without your headphones, this episode is for you.
Listen to Mantra: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Ckds0BoJDDpODInN9cWcc?si=b6ad5d555c1940e0
Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast
For business: psychologyofyour20s@gmail.com
The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
the podcast where we talk through some of the big
life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they
mean for our psychology.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
the podcast. New listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in
the world, it is so great to have you here
back for another episode as we, of course break down
the very exciting, very unique psychology of our twenties. Before
we begin, I wanted to give a quick shout out
to my other podcast, Mantra. You heard that correctly. You
(00:46):
may not know, but I have not one, but two podcasts,
and Mantra. How I explain it is basically the philosophical, spiritual,
meditative sidekick or sister the Psychology of Your Twenties. Every Monday,
I give you a mantra to guide your week, something
like I'm a magnetic person. I know that love won't
(01:09):
pass me. I let my work speak louder than my doubt.
I cultivate peace within a mantra to essentially be your
mental anchor for the weak ahead. Episodes go for around
thirty minutes and they include evidence backed mental exercises for
really powerful mindset shifts, general prompts, and dive into wisdom
(01:31):
from great thinkers. Plus just some personal stories that I've
never spoken about here, stories of heartbreak, stories of grief,
of friendship breakups, of major failures that have really defined
me in some ways. So this is my ask of you.
If you love the psychology of your twenties, give Mantra
(01:52):
a listen. Just try one episode, see what you think.
It's very much a passion project for me right now.
So if you have feed back mantras that you think
I should do, if you have a deep thought or
a dilemma that has been sitting heavy on your heart,
on your soul, I would love to hear it. I'll
leave a link in the episode description. But again, thank
(02:12):
you so much for giving it a listen. Let's get
back to the show and what we're talking about today.
Today we're going to talk about music Life's soundtrack. I
guess I was listening to Good Hang with Amy Pohla
and Rashida Jones the other day and in their episode,
Rashida Jones said something really powerful. She essentially said, music
(02:36):
is a way that the universe shows us love, and
it really inspired this episode and a bit of an
investigation into why music is so transcendent, why it shows
up in every single culture, what it does to our brains,
what it does to our lives, what it does to
our bodies, to our emotions. You might think, you know
what's so psychological about music? You know what's so important
(03:00):
the songs that I listened to on my morning commute
or what plays in the grocery store. I think music
feels so ubiquitous and it's everywhere. Sometimes it can just
feel like background noise, But it is incredibly psychologically powerful.
It is honestly a spiritual experienced at times. Music has
(03:21):
the ability to connect us, transport us, to shape our emotions,
to ignite memories, even to influence our perception of reality.
It is actually a fundamental part of our human experience.
It is a profound psychological force. Some people would even
call it the universal language because of how it speaks
(03:42):
to our nervous system. So, if you've ever had that
magical feeling of goose bumps, of suddenly being able to
smell the first time you heard a song, of being
transported back to your first heartbreak, of finding that one
song can completely change your day, and I want to
explore that today We're going to pull apart why music
(04:03):
hits us so hard, why we like the music that
we do, where your music preference came from, also the
neuroscience behind the emotional surges that it creates. I also
want to talk about the link between music and memory,
between music and personality, between music and intelligence. And I
also want to get into how different frequencies, different bpms,
(04:27):
different kinds of music can actually change your thinking style
and can actually put you into certain I guess I
don't want to say like spaces, like mental spaces. Certain
types of music can actually activate different kinds of brainwaves
that will help you when you're studying, that will help
you when you're suffering, that will help you when you're running,
(04:48):
whatever it is. I want to give you the formula
for what music to listen to when, and so much more.
I am so excited for this episode. A little fun
fact for you guys. As a child, I actually always
thought I was going to be a musician. I played trombone,
I played piano. I used to write songs, I sang constantly.
(05:09):
I came from such a musical family, and so this
episode was particularly fascinating to me to be able to
investigate a little bit further for you guys. So without
further ado, let's tune into the psychology of music. Let's
(05:31):
cut straight to the chase. What the heck is going
on in our heads when we play a certain song,
When we press play, it is not just sound waves
hitting our ear drums. It is a full on neurological concert,
like a symphony of brain activity that is going to
explain to us why music feels so freakin' vital. So
(05:53):
when a melody, when a rhythm, a harmony, reaches your brain,
it doesn't just stay confined to the parts that process sound.
So there's been a whole team of neuroscientists who have
been trying to figure out whereas music actually processed, including
a big team at McGill University, and they've shown through
(06:13):
fMRI skins that music actually lights up a whole network
of brain regions. It lights up the amygdala, our brain's
basically emotional powerhouse. It lights up the hippocampus, which is
critical for memory formation, and even areas involved in motor control,
(06:33):
which is why you might involuntarily, you know, like start
tapping your foot or bobbing your head even if you're
trying to stay still. I think a lot of us
have had that experience where we're like, oh my gosh,
we just can't stop moving to a song involuntarily because
of our music touches different parts of our brains. Very interestingly,
(06:55):
what they found is that this full brain, full mind,
full neurological explosion is very similar to when we fall
in love. It's very similar to when we experience fear.
It's very similar to when we experience deep sadness. So
music is infiltrating all of these different emotional cortexes and
(07:16):
emotional systems. It also elicits feelings on its own. It's
responsible for creating certain emotional states, you know, happiness, joyfulness, loneliness, calm, pain.
How does this happen? A huge part of it comes
down to dopamine. And you have probably heard of dopamine.
(07:38):
Everyone thinks of it as our brains reward chemical. It's
the one that's associated with pleasure, motivation. And also what
you may not know is it's associated with anticipation. And
this is critical. So this beautiful author, his name is
Daniel Leviton, and he has this book called This Is
(07:58):
Your brain on music, and he explains how the reason
that music makes us feel so good is because it
creates anticipation. Think about like a build up in a
dance track, or like a gradual crescendo, and like a
classical musical piece, or like a verse leading into a chorus,
your brain almost unconsciously starts predicting what's coming. And that
(08:22):
prediction that like that feeling of waiting, that's where the
dopamine really starts flowing. And so when the musical payoff arrives,
when you hit the high note, when the chorus drops,
when the harmony resolves, like you get that satisfying hit.
So this is the same neural pathway that gets activated
(08:44):
when you're waiting for a really delicious meal and you
take the first bite, or when you achieve a goal,
or you even get like a text from someone that
you really really like. Music is tapping into our fundamental
reward system, and it's inherently pleasurable because of anticipation. It's
not just that pleasure principle. Even music can also profoundly
(09:06):
alter your physiological arousal basically how awake, alert, or calm
your body feels. And this is thanks to something called entrainment.
Entrainment is this phenomenon where your internal biological rhythms, your
heart rate, your breathing, even your brain waves actually synchronize
(09:30):
with external rhythms like those in music. I find it's
so fascinating that our bodies can do this. It's like
this beautiful piece of evidence to me of the miracle
of existence that our brains sync up to rhythm and
sync up to song and sound. If you put on
(09:50):
a slow, ambient, calm piece of music, your heart rate
will start to subtly decrease, your breathing starts to deepen.
You literally physically relax and sync up to the music. Conversely,
if you are listening to like techno or house, your
heart rate will pick up, your breathing becomes quicker, and
(10:11):
you will feel that surge of energy. That's why when
you're running, we really enjoy listening to songs with a
higher tempo because it matches the activity that we're doing,
making us feel more tuned in. So this isn't just
about feeling good. It is actually about music acting as
a direct, unconscious regulator of your body's internal states. We
(10:35):
use this idea well. Our bodies take advantage of entrainment
to manage how we feel, often without even realizing that
we're doing it. Let's talk about the role of music
in significant emotional periods of our lives as well, and
how it can emotionally regulate us. Particularly, let's focus it
on breakups. I feel like music and breakups are symbiotic,
(11:01):
like they feed off each other in a weird way.
Every single artist in the history of this planet has
had some kind of breakup song or some song that
is motivated by heartache because it is music's probably greatest fuel.
And then on the flip side, music also tends to
make heartbreak feel almost a little bit more bearable in
(11:23):
a way. I have a few breakup playlists that I
made during past heartaches and heartbreaks, and I was listening
back to them when I was writing this episode, and
it really transported me back to that time. What I
remember is how songs that were intended to feel sad
and devastating did make me feel sad and devastated, but
(11:44):
they actually also provided me with this really intense catharsis.
And I remember listening to this one song in particular,
it's called Is It Just Me? By Emily Burns, and
I was listening to it in my car near the beach,
maybe a month after I broke up with my first boyfriend,
and just sobbing and sobbing so much that this older
(12:07):
man came over to check that I was okay, And
I also remember feeling a lot better afterwards. It pushed
me to a really low point, but then allowed me
to dwell in that feeling and then move on. The
power of a breakup song is that it provides an
opportunity to feel the feeling as deeply as possible, the
(12:28):
many feelings as deeply as possible, to get in sync
with that feeling, let it wash over you, and then
feel it lessen as you get it all out. What
is the best breakup song according to psychology? Now, this
was something that I really wanted to find out. I
couldn't give you a specific answer, but there do seem
to be a few critical things that a good breakup
(12:50):
song has to contain. The best breakup song has to
have attention and release, something that builds up and builds
up and builds up to like an explosion point and
then goes down b It has to have emotional vulnerability
of some sort. See relatability and specificity. So the more
(13:12):
detail the better. Think about like Taylor Swift's classic breakup
song All Too Well, there's so much detail in that
that feels specific but is actually quite general. So people
can relate to it. They see themselves in those feelings
and in those circumstances that transport it to that time
and d It has to have a hook, a really
good line, a really good harmony that you can kind
(13:35):
of croon over again and again and again, all of
which provides the emotional catharsis and the closure almost even
if it's just in that moment that our heart really
really wants. According to a twenty fourteen study, breakup music,
sad music is more about nostalgia. It's more about reminiscing
(13:56):
than it is actually about grief or sadness, which actually
means that listening to sad music makes it almost a
positive experience. So the other thing that break up songs
really do is that they kind of transport us through time.
They unlock, they resurrect memories, They let us relive memories
that maybe we've forgotten. Music in general has this amazing capability.
(14:20):
You know, you're living your life, you're just going along,
and then suddenly You'll hear a song from when you're
a kid, or from some significant period, and you are
like immediately transferred back there. And it's not just that
your memories are being played in your head. It's almost
a sensory experience. You can smell your childhood home, you
(14:44):
can feel the tension and the energy between you and
that situationship, You feel that distinct bittersweet ache, you can
taste certain things. It is a full body time machine
for your brain. So why is music so intrinsically linked
to memory? So psychologists who study autobiographical memory, so that's
(15:04):
basically memory that contains your personal history, your lived experiences.
They have a few powerful theories. First, music is often
deeply intertwined with highly emotional events. Our brain's, particularly the hippocampus,
which is the memory formation center, and the amygdala. They
work hand in hand to code what they see as
(15:27):
significant experiences. So the more intense and emotion or experiences
is at the time, the more information is taken in
from the environment to ensure that that memory is really
locked into our brain. If a memory, if a moment
is highly emotionally salient, basically our brain is like, this
(15:49):
is something we want to be able to reflect on
because it may be able to help us in future experiences.
Something that intense is something that we can't forget. So
instead of just remembering one element of the scene or
one element of the event, it will start to code
the smells, the sounds, the feelings, the tastes, the lightness,
the brightness, all of those things. And so music becomes
(16:10):
attached to these really hard moments. When you hear that
song again, you're not just retrieving the musical information, all
the other rich emotional sensory details that were encoded with
it will come along. It's a phenomenon known as the
prowsed effect actually, whereby a sensory experience brings up intense
(16:31):
memories it was initially tied to, and music is one
of those powerful sensory experiences. Secondly, music is often tied
and associated with specific contexts, specifically because songs tend to
be played and repeated for short periods of time, if
(16:51):
that makes sense. So hit songs will play for a
summer over the radio, meaning that and then you might
not hear it for a while, meaning that it really
is stuck to that moment or a certain playlist or
song that you really like is something that you're going
to play over and over and over again, So it
becomes associated with the time and also with the feeling
of that time. So whether it's an album, whether it's
(17:13):
a playlist, whether it is a hit song, this all
creates a really strong context dependent memory. The music becomes
the environmental cue. So when you re encounter that queue,
your brain has a direct pathway back to that specific
time and place. It's like musical time travel. What's even
(17:34):
more fascinating is actually how resilient yours and eyes musical
memory can be. Researchers who are currently working with individuals
who have severe memory impairments, so they've had brain damage,
they have dementia, they often find that musical memories are
(17:55):
among the last memories to fade. Isn't that just like wonderful?
Obviously not the memory loss part, but wow, Like, I
find that really special to think that the songs that
I'm listening to now might be one of the last
things that I remember if I go through If I
go through memory loss, people can struggle to recall their
(18:18):
own names, they don't know what their children's names are,
but they can sing along to songs from their childhood
they can even learn new harmonies, they can tune into
new songs. And this really suggests that musical memories are
processed and stored in slightly different, perhaps more distributed brain regions,
(18:39):
meaning that they're very, very robust. So whilst people are
still trying to figure out where exactly certain memories are stored,
what they do know is that certain memories are stored
in different places, because they'll find that certain types of
memories will fade almost all at the same time. And
so what this is saying is that music is stored
in so many different places that even as all all
(19:00):
these structures of the brain deteriorate, it remains. So I
just think it's such a testament to how vital music
is for our for life. Like I know I'm sounding
very dramatic here, but it is life giving, it is
memory given. Like it is it makes us so human
(19:21):
and connected. There is a slight problem with that though.
The fact that music can transport us so powerfully means
that sometimes it can also be a source of deep pain,
of deep nostalgia, and it can be kind of like
a self punishing tool where we listen to songs that
(19:41):
we know are going to make us feel terrible time
and time again as a way to pull us back
into that time rather than move forward. It means that
a lot of music from your past can sometimes bring
up emotions and feelings that are less resolved than they
should be, Like they're just they're still buzzing in the
background and you haven't had a chance to address them.
(20:04):
But you're using music as a way to stay tuned
into that time. So, whilst it is a really powerful
magical bridge, it's also worth noting whether music is allowing
you to pity yourself and to linger and to stay
stuck in a period of time, or whether it is
just a nice place to visit. If you're constantly listening
(20:28):
to music that is making it hard for you to
move on from a chapter in your life, perhaps it's
becoming a bit of a problem in some ways. I
will say, I do think that music is also really
beautiful in that way, and then it gives you a
marker for how much you've grown. So I was telling
you guys that I was listening to some of these
breakup playlists that I used to have from significant breakups
(20:50):
in my life, and the interesting thing was listening back
to them. I used to obviously listen to them to
bring up painful feelings and to hopefully resolve them. When
I listen to them, I feel really bittersweet. I feel
it's not happiness, it's just like comfort almost. I listen
to them and I feel like I'm giving the past
(21:13):
version of me like a really big, warm hug because
I knew how much those songs affected her at the time,
and they just no longer do. So it is like
a really beautiful way to see how far you've grown. Okay,
we're going to take a short break, but when we return,
I want to tell you what music has to say
about your personality, specifically how your music preference has formed
(21:36):
what it might say about you, but also how to
really utilize the incredible psychological power of music to elevate
your life, elevate your work, elevate your concentration. So stick
around and stay with us. Music obviously has many many functions,
but it can actually be a tool to really discover
(21:58):
your personality. And that might I sound bizarre, but the
research on the links between personality and music taste is
incredibly expansive and honestly so spot on at times. I'm
going to talk about the findings from a few studies
here to give you an oversight about what kind of
music says what about what kind of person So the
(22:18):
first study that I want to talk about is this
one from twenty fourteen, and this study looked at seven
hundred and seventy two participants and found that people who
enjoy sad music have greater empathy but also greater emotional sensitivity.
Hence why they get so much pleasure from really sinking
into a song that is quite vulnerable and intense. So
(22:39):
if you find that the majority of your playlists are
quite sad and forlorn, and you know, low, dark moody,
it might be that actually you're going to perform higher
on tests of empathy and of emotional sensitivity. A second
study using Spotify listening history, which I think is such
a great database if you obviously give them permission to
(23:01):
use it. The study was published in twenty twenty, and
it had a forty four item questionnaire for personality, and
then it also compared and matched those personality scores with
what people were listening to, and it found over fifty
correlations between how many playlists you had, your favorite artists,
your genre of choice, and all these things and what
kind of person that you may be. For example, they
(23:24):
found that people who listen to more folk music are
more open to new experiences. They're also more open to
new experiences the more artists they follow. So if someone's
following more artists, the more likely they're going to want
to travel, and they're going to want to see things
and taste new foods. People who were high in conscientiousness
were less likely to listen to things like emo and punk,
(23:46):
and they were more likely to listen to soul and
country and not just country old country. The most extroverted
people in this study tended to listen more to other
people's playlist and they listen to R and B, Caribbean
funk and country the most. It's just so fascinating how
(24:08):
much this has to tell us about ourselves. I would
really recommend checking out all these results. Is to study
that I think Spotify actually did or they lent their
data to. If you just look up Spotify Music Personality Score,
whatever it is, I'm sure you'll find it. Finally, another
really fun factor around the link between personality and music
that I found was from a worldwide twenty fifteen study
(24:29):
that found that people who empathize more with other people's
emotions tend to prefer genres like soft rock, R and B,
and folk, but people who are more logical, what we
call systematizers, prefer heavy metal, classical and complex music. It
also turns out that we generally actually form our music
(24:53):
taste between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. The music
that we listen to and that we like during that
period tends to stick with us for a very, very,
very long time. I think when you find an artist
who really or a genre that really articulates how you
feel during those formative years, during your teen years, and
(25:13):
that perfectly captures your internal turmoil and your joy, it
is very very validating. It's like being able to feel
like there's someone else in this world who gets you,
and someone gets it and you're not alone. And that
act of recognition, that feeling of being understood through art
is fundamental to solidifying what you tell yourself about yourself.
(25:37):
It tells you in a way music is able to
confirm to you, this is who I am, this is
what resonates with me. These are the kind of people
that I am like beyond individual expression. I think also
music is a really beautiful way to make friends. It's
incredibly socially connective. It's such a powerful engine for group
(25:59):
of Philly. We all know this feeling intuitively right. You know,
you meet someone new, one of the things you may
talk about is what kind of music you like, and
there if there is a shared love there, boom, it's
like an instant connection. If someone likes the same artists
and the same music, you almost assume they're a very
similar person to you on factors that go a lot
(26:21):
deeper than musical preference. So this really taps into something
called social identity theory core concept in social psychology. It
suggests that a significant part of our self concept comes
from the groups we belong to, and we are constantly
trying to find our way or a way to connect
to those groups. Liking the same music doesn't feel superficial. It,
(26:44):
you know, often signals shed values, similar cultural experiences, even
common emotional landscapes, similar chapters and periods of your life.
I always think about like going to a Taylor Swift concert,
going to Like the Errors tour last year and looking
around and being like, oh, yeah, I could probably be
friends with every single person here, not because we might
(27:07):
have a lot in common but because I know that
we definitely have a few things shared if we've been
able to resonate with this music. Concerts as well, are
just like if music brings us happiness and joy and pleasures,
concerts like dial that up by a thousand, a million,
a billion. The shared energy, singing along, the feeling of
(27:30):
unity in a crowd of thousands, that is a very
powerful psychological phenomenon. It's white people scream and cry and
go crazy at concerts and festivals. It's this release of oxytocin,
the bonding hormone that is being shared and creating this
synchronized experience. It's a sense of belonging. It's a sense
(27:52):
of being part of something bigger than you, which we
all want to be part of, and in our twenties
in particular, and in our teens, like loneliness is such
a silent struggle during that time. Being able to find
your musical tribe feels like a lifeline. It's a shorthand
to connection. It's a way to build community. You know.
I think about all my friends who have these internet
(28:14):
friends from when they were on Tumblr and like listening
to One Direction or like five seconds of Summer, it
just creates such a unique connective experience. Here's a subtle
but important nuance as well. The music we listen to
doesn't just reflect who we are, it also shapes who
we are becoming. If you consistently listen to empowering, confident music,
(28:38):
it can actually subtly influence your self perception and your behavior.
Thanks to this concept called effective priming, exposure to certain
stimuli like music can influence our subsequent thoughts and actions.
In fact, in a twenty twenty three study from the
University of Notre Dame, they found that listening to us upbeat,
(29:00):
happy music for a certain amount of time every day
can actually shift your mood. It made people more optimistic
and it actually increased how many positive thoughts they were
having every single day. Similarly, if you are constantly immersed
in music that is angry or melancholic, it can, in
some states, in some ways reinforce those emotions and reinforce
(29:25):
that feeling. It shapes your outlook music and you have
a very complex relationship, like hopefully that's coming through how
I'm explaining this, Like it's this dynamic reciprocal relationship. I
guess you know. It's similar to repeating Martras. It's similar
to words of affirmation. If you are screaming at the
top of your lungs that you are incredible, you're gonna
(29:47):
feel fucking incredible. If you're listening to sad songs that
talk about how terrible life is, you're gonna feel like
life is terrible. So music isn't just a backdrop. It
is an act of participant in how we see our
selves and how we see the world. So I want
to talk about how music functions as a coping mechanism
(30:07):
because for many of us, especially in our twenties, music
isn't just about enjoyment. It is a very vital tool
for navigating life's ups and downs. The moment of overwhelm
at work, the surge of anxiety before a meeting, the
feeling of loneliness. Music can shift those feelings. It is
(30:28):
an act of emotional regulation. Interestingly, it's not just calming music,
ambient music, low five music that can do this. The
same thing occurs for familiar songs. Songs that we know
are comforting because they are predictable and the emotions they
elicit have been ones that we've encountered before and we've managed.
(30:49):
It's why listening to music from your childhood, listening to
like early two thousands pop music, listening to like old
Taylor Swift albums or old albums that you love, makes
you feel at home in a weird way, makes you
just feel so comforted. It's like this is a place
that I've been before, this is a soundtrack that I'm
(31:11):
familiar with. People have obviously started to recognize this. I
think Western medicine has started to recognize this. A lot
of cultures have understood this for many, many, many many decades.
We're just kind of catching up, as we are with
many many things. Clinical musical therapy is now becoming a
much more prevalent therapy. It's a recognized field that uses
(31:36):
these very principles that we have been discussing, these neurological
principles of music's psychological effects, to help people manage anxiety,
to help them reduce pain, to help them cope with trauma.
Researchers have really demonstrated time and time again how structured
musical interventions can lead to significant improvements in emotional wellbeing
(31:59):
and beyond pure stress relief, making music, making sound creating
things can also be a fantastic distraction and it can
also be an incredible way to unlock creativity, and we
know creativity being frequently creative links to high life satisfaction,
links to greater well being, even increases immune response and
(32:23):
increases senses of a sense of emotional safety. I think
we're going to see offerings of music therapy, obviously in
conjunction with other therapy as well, like CBT or DBT,
really increase because we're starting to realize that only treating
things in a very clinical way, in a very structured
(32:45):
way that has to do with you in another person,
interacting and solving things and thinking about things doesn't always
work for people and finding like music is like this
key that unlocks whole new dimensions of someone's ability to
cope and of their memories and of the trauma in
their personhood. That it's crazy that we aren't using it more.
It's crazy that, you know, Western medicine is only just
(33:07):
woken up to how powerful it can be. Let's talk
about another element of this though, Because music can be therapeutic,
it can be a distraction, it can be emotionally powerful,
it can be a memory jogger. Is there a point
where we listen to too much music? Is there a
(33:28):
value in music? Does the value of music diminish beyond
a certain point? Yes, music is an incredible mental distraction
to aversive stimuli like pain or boredom. And whilst distraction
is a valid, sometimes healthy coping strategy, there is a
(33:50):
fine line between distraction and avoidance. Is silence really all
that terrible? Is it really that bad for you? I
was on a run with my friend the other day
and we we have a running group where we live.
Never thought I would be someone who's in a running group,
but that's for another time. Anyways, we were like preparing
to run and I looked over at her and she
(34:11):
didn't have her headphones in, and I was like, okay,
well we'll wait till you have your headphones in. And
then she was like, oh no, I'm not gonna wear them.
And I was like, oh, did you forget them? Like
you can borrow mine? And she was like, oh no, no,
Like I have been. My mum has been talking to
me about and I've been reading about how when we
constantly have music on, or we have sounds distracting us,
it can actually pull us away from the present. It
(34:32):
can even make us irritated. It can actually make it
harder for us to focus. So she did this whole
have a many kilometer run with nothing in her ears,
and I was like, that is I could not do that,
But it really got me thinking, like can we listen
to too much music? One researcher did say that no
more than eight hours a day is best because at
(34:54):
that point you can actually start to damage certain auditory systems.
But also you essentially blood to the emotional effect of
music on your mood and motivation, like you become less
sensitized to it. There is value in actually being present
in the moment and listening to the natural sounds around you,
tapping into your senses, listening to your surroundings, and then
(35:15):
using music when you really need it, rather than just
just something that is always playing in the background. You know.
As incredible and invaluable as music is, sometimes it actually
gets in the way of being truly where your feet are.
I guess it relates to an episode I did on
maladaptive daydreaming.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Daydreaming is beautiful, it's fun, it's magical. If we're constantly
doing it, if we're constantly trying to escape the present
to be in some kind of fantasy, then it can
actually become very unhelpful. To think about this for a second.
Are you using music to process your sadness or are
you using it to numb you off or distract you?
(35:55):
The difference can be subtle, but it's very crucial. Some
studies suggest that yeah, us listening to sad music can
help explore melancholy. Constantly listening to sad music can induce
really heavy rumination that actually might make you feel worse
than you would be without it. It's worth considering. So
the big question that we have, and that I think
(36:17):
we've been kind of coming to, is if music is
this incredible tool, how do we use it for good?
How do we use it to elevate our life, to
boost our mood, to make us more focused, make us
more creative. The key I believe is intentionality. Instead of
just letting music happen to you, try and engage with
(36:38):
it consciously. Ask yourself what music makes me feel? What
and when can I use it intentionally for those moments?
So let me explain this a little bit further. Once
study found that different kinds of musics are best for
different moments in your life and different kinds of work
that you need to do so. Slow instrumental music is
(36:59):
best for deep work. It's less likely to interfere with
your reading comprehension, it's less likely to interrupt problem solving.
It's best to do hard, deep work when you are
listening to slow instrumental music. Soft fast music has a
(37:19):
positive impact on learning. So when you're engaging in something new,
having music that is a little bit more upbeat, maybe
has a few lyrics is better. Very upbeat music with
a higher tempo helps you when you're doing something that
requires movement or motivation, like you're exercising, you're cleaning your room,
(37:39):
but in a very difficult task, when you're doing a
very difficult task, you're memorizing material, you are problem solving,
like doing in depth problem solving, maybe like advanced calculus.
I don't know. The more likely music is actually distancing
and distracting you, and that's when you need to turn
it off. So I actually think it's important to curate
(38:01):
your own playlists for different contexts instead of just having
a random collection of liked songs that you play whenever
and that you kind of get bored of. Think strategically,
based on what we've discussed about music's impact on mood
and arousal, create or find playlists that have the following vibes.
So we're gonna make five playlists. The first playlist is
(38:23):
going to be a focus zone playlist. So this is
your playlist for deep work thing instrumental, lo fi, ambient,
classical music designed to keep your mind engaged but not distracted.
Then I want you to have the energy surge playlist,
so you'll go to for workouts before a big presentation
(38:43):
or when you need to shake off a slump. High tempo,
driving beats, empowering lyrics. This is when you can consciously
tap into that dopamine hit and that entrainment that we
mentioned before as well to boost your physiological arousal. Then
we want the calm down and into playlists, So gentle acoustics,
nature sounds, classical pieces, slope jazz designed to activate your
(39:07):
parasympathetic nervous system, bring you back into your body, not
necessarily the same as your deep work playlist. Then we
want the process my Feelings playlist. So this one is
you know a playlist that has really deep cuts in it.
It might be even be like genuinely quite sad, but
music that validates your emotions, that provides Catharsis makes you
(39:31):
feel hopeful. Maybe we kind of divide this playlist into two.
We have the process my feelings playlist, so this is
like you're really really sad, somber playlist, and then you
have your like everyday background thinking, fun lyric playlist. So
music that like you can think about, music that you
(39:51):
can sing along to, that is interesting to you and
keeps you inquisitive and keeps you, yeah, curious, I guess,
so leverage that. I want you to have those playlists
so that you're not getting irritated by music, You're not
finding that it's like slipping into context that it doesn't
need to be in. I also think it's important to
leverage music as a contextual cue for new habits. And
(40:14):
this is that's why the previous step is required that
you have those playlists. This is a really cool trick
from behavioral psychology. If you're trying to build a new habit,
say meditating, journaling, getting ready for bed, earlier, running, associate
a specific type of music with that habit. Play the
same calming instrumental piece every time you want to go
(40:35):
to bed, every time you want to meditate, every time
you wake up in the morning and you want to
get up feeling excited. Over time, that music will become
a conditioned stimulus, so it automatically signals to your brain
to enter the specific state that you want to be in.
It's creating a mental shortcut. I also think that given
(40:55):
music's power but also its power to be a distraction,
Like we were talking about before, you do calld an
off time in your day for silence, but you're not
listening to a podcast, you're not listening to your music,
you're not immediately putting your headphones on, You're just embracing
the sensory experience of the noises around you. Constantly playing
(41:21):
music is actually probably interrupting your brain's ability to concentrate,
and music will feel more special if you don't constantly
have it in the background. Have you ever had this
experience where you've been in meetings all day, you've been
running around all day or like all week, and then
you finally get to sit down and like put on
(41:41):
your favorite album and you're like, Wow, this actually this
this stuff is good, Like this feels really nice. Sometimes
we actually do need to kind of let ourself have
a break from it or engage with music, like beyond
the headphones. You know, listen to it not through headphones.
Listen to it in your car, listen to it on
your speaker system, Go to a concert, go do karaoke,
(42:04):
go to a dance class, so you experience what it's
really meant to do for you, which is to connect
you to others, connect you to your body, connect you
to your environment as well, rather than just keep you
quite insular. I guess, just practice mindful listening, Really listen
to a song, really engage in it, really notice what
(42:25):
it does for you, and really notice when perhaps it's
frustrating you, when you need silence. I think ultimately music
is one of humanity's most profound gifts. Really, it is
a gift. I'm feeling very spiritual about this episode, but
I truly believe it is like music is one of
(42:45):
I think a lot of people's reasons for being Like
a world without music would be so terrible, and it's
just so incredible how much it does for our emotions,
for our healing, for entertainment. It's vital, powerful, it's a
psychological companion. But understand its nuances, engage with it mindfully,
(43:06):
and harness its incredible mental power. So I think that's
all I have time for today. I feel like we've
covered a lot of basses. There's still things I probably
didn't talk about. But what I really want from you,
if you have listened this far, is to drop a
comment below of your favorite song so I can make
a playlist companion to this episode of the listener's favorite songs.
(43:28):
If you are listening to this episode before let's say
the first of July twenty twenty five, please leave a
song down below. I want to make a little collaborative
playlist of all our favorite songs. Also, because I'm in
kind of like a musical rap right now, I want
to listen to some new stuff, like I need to
stop listening to the same like Kelsey Ballerini, and like
(43:51):
Via Blue albums that I've been listening to on repeat.
So put some song suggestions down below. I want to
make this playlist happen. Thank you for listening to this.
It will be a sign that you were able to
concentrate and that you are a loyal listener. And also,
don't forget to follow me on Instagram at that psychology podcast.
Don't forget to listen to Mantra If you want to
(44:11):
break from your playlist from your current albums on repeat.
Mantra is a really beautiful place to land. It is
such a meditative podcast for me. It's such a great
way to start your week. I will also have a
link in the description as well. Make sure you are
following along. Make sure to give us a five star
review and share this episode with a friend. I'd love
(44:33):
to hear your thoughts, feelings, qualms, favorite songs in the
comments or on Instagram. But until next time, stay safe,
be kind, be gentle to yourself, happy listening, and we
will talk very very soon.
Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
the podcast where we talk through some of the big
life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they
mean for our psychology.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
the podcast. New listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in
the world, it is so great to have you here
back for another episode as we, of course break down
the very exciting, very unique psychology of our twenties. Before
we begin, I wanted to give a quick shout out
to my other podcast, Mantra. You heard that correctly. You
(00:46):
may not know, but I have not one, but two podcasts,
and Mantra. How I explain it is basically the philosophical, spiritual,
meditative sidekick or sister the Psychology of Your Twenties. Every Monday,
I give you a mantra to guide your week, something
like I'm a magnetic person. I know that love won't
(01:09):
pass me. I let my work speak louder than my doubt.
I cultivate peace within a mantra to essentially be your
mental anchor for the weak ahead. Episodes go for around
thirty minutes and they include evidence backed mental exercises for
really powerful mindset shifts, general prompts, and dive into wisdom
(01:31):
from great thinkers. Plus just some personal stories that I've
never spoken about here, stories of heartbreak, stories of grief,
of friendship breakups, of major failures that have really defined
me in some ways. So this is my ask of you.
If you love the psychology of your twenties, give Mantra
(01:52):
a listen. Just try one episode, see what you think.
It's very much a passion project for me right now.
So if you have feed back mantras that you think
I should do, if you have a deep thought or
a dilemma that has been sitting heavy on your heart,
on your soul, I would love to hear it. I'll
leave a link in the episode description. But again, thank
(02:12):
you so much for giving it a listen. Let's get
back to the show and what we're talking about today.
Today we're going to talk about music Life's soundtrack. I
guess I was listening to Good Hang with Amy Pohla
and Rashida Jones the other day and in their episode,
Rashida Jones said something really powerful. She essentially said, music
(02:36):
is a way that the universe shows us love, and
it really inspired this episode and a bit of an
investigation into why music is so transcendent, why it shows
up in every single culture, what it does to our brains,
what it does to our lives, what it does to
our bodies, to our emotions. You might think, you know
what's so psychological about music? You know what's so important
(03:00):
the songs that I listened to on my morning commute
or what plays in the grocery store. I think music
feels so ubiquitous and it's everywhere. Sometimes it can just
feel like background noise, But it is incredibly psychologically powerful.
It is honestly a spiritual experienced at times. Music has
(03:21):
the ability to connect us, transport us, to shape our emotions,
to ignite memories, even to influence our perception of reality.
It is actually a fundamental part of our human experience.
It is a profound psychological force. Some people would even
call it the universal language because of how it speaks
(03:42):
to our nervous system. So, if you've ever had that
magical feeling of goose bumps, of suddenly being able to
smell the first time you heard a song, of being
transported back to your first heartbreak, of finding that one
song can completely change your day, and I want to
explore that today We're going to pull apart why music
(04:03):
hits us so hard, why we like the music that
we do, where your music preference came from, also the
neuroscience behind the emotional surges that it creates. I also
want to talk about the link between music and memory,
between music and personality, between music and intelligence. And I
also want to get into how different frequencies, different bpms,
(04:27):
different kinds of music can actually change your thinking style
and can actually put you into certain I guess I
don't want to say like spaces, like mental spaces. Certain
types of music can actually activate different kinds of brainwaves
that will help you when you're studying, that will help
you when you're suffering, that will help you when you're running,
(04:48):
whatever it is. I want to give you the formula
for what music to listen to when, and so much more.
I am so excited for this episode. A little fun
fact for you guys. As a child, I actually always
thought I was going to be a musician. I played trombone,
I played piano. I used to write songs, I sang constantly.
(05:09):
I came from such a musical family, and so this
episode was particularly fascinating to me to be able to
investigate a little bit further for you guys. So without
further ado, let's tune into the psychology of music. Let's
(05:31):
cut straight to the chase. What the heck is going
on in our heads when we play a certain song,
When we press play, it is not just sound waves
hitting our ear drums. It is a full on neurological concert,
like a symphony of brain activity that is going to
explain to us why music feels so freakin' vital. So
(05:53):
when a melody, when a rhythm, a harmony, reaches your brain,
it doesn't just stay confined to the parts that process sound.
So there's been a whole team of neuroscientists who have
been trying to figure out whereas music actually processed, including
a big team at McGill University, and they've shown through
(06:13):
fMRI skins that music actually lights up a whole network
of brain regions. It lights up the amygdala, our brain's
basically emotional powerhouse. It lights up the hippocampus, which is
critical for memory formation, and even areas involved in motor control,
(06:33):
which is why you might involuntarily, you know, like start
tapping your foot or bobbing your head even if you're
trying to stay still. I think a lot of us
have had that experience where we're like, oh my gosh,
we just can't stop moving to a song involuntarily because
of our music touches different parts of our brains. Very interestingly,
(06:55):
what they found is that this full brain, full mind,
full neurological explosion is very similar to when we fall
in love. It's very similar to when we experience fear.
It's very similar to when we experience deep sadness. So
music is infiltrating all of these different emotional cortexes and
(07:16):
emotional systems. It also elicits feelings on its own. It's
responsible for creating certain emotional states, you know, happiness, joyfulness, loneliness, calm, pain.
How does this happen? A huge part of it comes
down to dopamine. And you have probably heard of dopamine.
(07:38):
Everyone thinks of it as our brains reward chemical. It's
the one that's associated with pleasure, motivation. And also what
you may not know is it's associated with anticipation. And
this is critical. So this beautiful author, his name is
Daniel Leviton, and he has this book called This Is
(07:58):
Your brain on music, and he explains how the reason
that music makes us feel so good is because it
creates anticipation. Think about like a build up in a
dance track, or like a gradual crescendo, and like a
classical musical piece, or like a verse leading into a chorus,
your brain almost unconsciously starts predicting what's coming. And that
(08:22):
prediction that like that feeling of waiting, that's where the
dopamine really starts flowing. And so when the musical payoff arrives,
when you hit the high note, when the chorus drops,
when the harmony resolves, like you get that satisfying hit.
So this is the same neural pathway that gets activated
(08:44):
when you're waiting for a really delicious meal and you
take the first bite, or when you achieve a goal,
or you even get like a text from someone that
you really really like. Music is tapping into our fundamental
reward system, and it's inherently pleasurable because of anticipation. It's
not just that pleasure principle. Even music can also profoundly
(09:06):
alter your physiological arousal basically how awake, alert, or calm
your body feels. And this is thanks to something called entrainment.
Entrainment is this phenomenon where your internal biological rhythms, your
heart rate, your breathing, even your brain waves actually synchronize
(09:30):
with external rhythms like those in music. I find it's
so fascinating that our bodies can do this. It's like
this beautiful piece of evidence to me of the miracle
of existence that our brains sync up to rhythm and
sync up to song and sound. If you put on
(09:50):
a slow, ambient, calm piece of music, your heart rate
will start to subtly decrease, your breathing starts to deepen.
You literally physically relax and sync up to the music. Conversely,
if you are listening to like techno or house, your
heart rate will pick up, your breathing becomes quicker, and
(10:11):
you will feel that surge of energy. That's why when
you're running, we really enjoy listening to songs with a
higher tempo because it matches the activity that we're doing,
making us feel more tuned in. So this isn't just
about feeling good. It is actually about music acting as
a direct, unconscious regulator of your body's internal states. We
(10:35):
use this idea well. Our bodies take advantage of entrainment
to manage how we feel, often without even realizing that
we're doing it. Let's talk about the role of music
in significant emotional periods of our lives as well, and
how it can emotionally regulate us. Particularly, let's focus it
on breakups. I feel like music and breakups are symbiotic,
(11:01):
like they feed off each other in a weird way.
Every single artist in the history of this planet has
had some kind of breakup song or some song that
is motivated by heartache because it is music's probably greatest fuel.
And then on the flip side, music also tends to
make heartbreak feel almost a little bit more bearable in
(11:23):
a way. I have a few breakup playlists that I
made during past heartaches and heartbreaks, and I was listening
back to them when I was writing this episode, and
it really transported me back to that time. What I
remember is how songs that were intended to feel sad
and devastating did make me feel sad and devastated, but
(11:44):
they actually also provided me with this really intense catharsis.
And I remember listening to this one song in particular,
it's called Is It Just Me? By Emily Burns, and
I was listening to it in my car near the beach,
maybe a month after I broke up with my first boyfriend,
and just sobbing and sobbing so much that this older
(12:07):
man came over to check that I was okay, And
I also remember feeling a lot better afterwards. It pushed
me to a really low point, but then allowed me
to dwell in that feeling and then move on. The
power of a breakup song is that it provides an
opportunity to feel the feeling as deeply as possible, the
(12:28):
many feelings as deeply as possible, to get in sync
with that feeling, let it wash over you, and then
feel it lessen as you get it all out. What
is the best breakup song according to psychology? Now, this
was something that I really wanted to find out. I
couldn't give you a specific answer, but there do seem
to be a few critical things that a good breakup
(12:50):
song has to contain. The best breakup song has to
have attention and release, something that builds up and builds
up and builds up to like an explosion point and
then goes down b It has to have emotional vulnerability
of some sort. See relatability and specificity. So the more
(13:12):
detail the better. Think about like Taylor Swift's classic breakup
song All Too Well, there's so much detail in that
that feels specific but is actually quite general. So people
can relate to it. They see themselves in those feelings
and in those circumstances that transport it to that time
and d It has to have a hook, a really
good line, a really good harmony that you can kind
(13:35):
of croon over again and again and again, all of
which provides the emotional catharsis and the closure almost even
if it's just in that moment that our heart really
really wants. According to a twenty fourteen study, breakup music,
sad music is more about nostalgia. It's more about reminiscing
(13:56):
than it is actually about grief or sadness, which actually
means that listening to sad music makes it almost a
positive experience. So the other thing that break up songs
really do is that they kind of transport us through time.
They unlock, they resurrect memories, They let us relive memories
that maybe we've forgotten. Music in general has this amazing capability.
(14:20):
You know, you're living your life, you're just going along,
and then suddenly You'll hear a song from when you're
a kid, or from some significant period, and you are
like immediately transferred back there. And it's not just that
your memories are being played in your head. It's almost
a sensory experience. You can smell your childhood home, you
(14:44):
can feel the tension and the energy between you and
that situationship, You feel that distinct bittersweet ache, you can
taste certain things. It is a full body time machine
for your brain. So why is music so intrinsically linked
to memory? So psychologists who study autobiographical memory, so that's
(15:04):
basically memory that contains your personal history, your lived experiences.
They have a few powerful theories. First, music is often
deeply intertwined with highly emotional events. Our brain's, particularly the hippocampus,
which is the memory formation center, and the amygdala. They
work hand in hand to code what they see as
(15:27):
significant experiences. So the more intense and emotion or experiences
is at the time, the more information is taken in
from the environment to ensure that that memory is really
locked into our brain. If a memory, if a moment
is highly emotionally salient, basically our brain is like, this
(15:49):
is something we want to be able to reflect on
because it may be able to help us in future experiences.
Something that intense is something that we can't forget. So
instead of just remembering one element of the scene or
one element of the event, it will start to code
the smells, the sounds, the feelings, the tastes, the lightness,
the brightness, all of those things. And so music becomes
(16:10):
attached to these really hard moments. When you hear that
song again, you're not just retrieving the musical information, all
the other rich emotional sensory details that were encoded with
it will come along. It's a phenomenon known as the
prowsed effect actually, whereby a sensory experience brings up intense
(16:31):
memories it was initially tied to, and music is one
of those powerful sensory experiences. Secondly, music is often tied
and associated with specific contexts, specifically because songs tend to
be played and repeated for short periods of time, if
(16:51):
that makes sense. So hit songs will play for a
summer over the radio, meaning that and then you might
not hear it for a while, meaning that it really
is stuck to that moment or a certain playlist or
song that you really like is something that you're going
to play over and over and over again, So it
becomes associated with the time and also with the feeling
of that time. So whether it's an album, whether it's
(17:13):
a playlist, whether it is a hit song, this all
creates a really strong context dependent memory. The music becomes
the environmental cue. So when you re encounter that queue,
your brain has a direct pathway back to that specific
time and place. It's like musical time travel. What's even
(17:34):
more fascinating is actually how resilient yours and eyes musical
memory can be. Researchers who are currently working with individuals
who have severe memory impairments, so they've had brain damage,
they have dementia, they often find that musical memories are
(17:55):
among the last memories to fade. Isn't that just like wonderful?
Obviously not the memory loss part, but wow, Like, I
find that really special to think that the songs that
I'm listening to now might be one of the last
things that I remember if I go through If I
go through memory loss, people can struggle to recall their
(18:18):
own names, they don't know what their children's names are,
but they can sing along to songs from their childhood
they can even learn new harmonies, they can tune into
new songs. And this really suggests that musical memories are
processed and stored in slightly different, perhaps more distributed brain regions,
(18:39):
meaning that they're very, very robust. So whilst people are
still trying to figure out where exactly certain memories are stored,
what they do know is that certain memories are stored
in different places, because they'll find that certain types of
memories will fade almost all at the same time. And
so what this is saying is that music is stored
in so many different places that even as all all
(19:00):
these structures of the brain deteriorate, it remains. So I
just think it's such a testament to how vital music
is for our for life. Like I know I'm sounding
very dramatic here, but it is life giving, it is
memory given. Like it is it makes us so human
(19:21):
and connected. There is a slight problem with that though.
The fact that music can transport us so powerfully means
that sometimes it can also be a source of deep pain,
of deep nostalgia, and it can be kind of like
a self punishing tool where we listen to songs that
(19:41):
we know are going to make us feel terrible time
and time again as a way to pull us back
into that time rather than move forward. It means that
a lot of music from your past can sometimes bring
up emotions and feelings that are less resolved than they
should be, Like they're just they're still buzzing in the
background and you haven't had a chance to address them.
(20:04):
But you're using music as a way to stay tuned
into that time. So, whilst it is a really powerful
magical bridge, it's also worth noting whether music is allowing
you to pity yourself and to linger and to stay
stuck in a period of time, or whether it is
just a nice place to visit. If you're constantly listening
(20:28):
to music that is making it hard for you to
move on from a chapter in your life, perhaps it's
becoming a bit of a problem in some ways. I
will say, I do think that music is also really
beautiful in that way, and then it gives you a
marker for how much you've grown. So I was telling
you guys that I was listening to some of these
breakup playlists that I used to have from significant breakups
(20:50):
in my life, and the interesting thing was listening back
to them. I used to obviously listen to them to
bring up painful feelings and to hopefully resolve them. When
I listen to them, I feel really bittersweet. I feel
it's not happiness, it's just like comfort almost. I listen
to them and I feel like I'm giving the past
(21:13):
version of me like a really big, warm hug because
I knew how much those songs affected her at the time,
and they just no longer do. So it is like
a really beautiful way to see how far you've grown. Okay,
we're going to take a short break, but when we return,
I want to tell you what music has to say
about your personality, specifically how your music preference has formed
(21:36):
what it might say about you, but also how to
really utilize the incredible psychological power of music to elevate
your life, elevate your work, elevate your concentration. So stick
around and stay with us. Music obviously has many many functions,
but it can actually be a tool to really discover
(21:58):
your personality. And that might I sound bizarre, but the
research on the links between personality and music taste is
incredibly expansive and honestly so spot on at times. I'm
going to talk about the findings from a few studies
here to give you an oversight about what kind of
music says what about what kind of person So the
(22:18):
first study that I want to talk about is this
one from twenty fourteen, and this study looked at seven
hundred and seventy two participants and found that people who
enjoy sad music have greater empathy but also greater emotional sensitivity.
Hence why they get so much pleasure from really sinking
into a song that is quite vulnerable and intense. So
(22:39):
if you find that the majority of your playlists are
quite sad and forlorn, and you know, low, dark moody,
it might be that actually you're going to perform higher
on tests of empathy and of emotional sensitivity. A second
study using Spotify listening history, which I think is such
a great database if you obviously give them permission to
(23:01):
use it. The study was published in twenty twenty, and
it had a forty four item questionnaire for personality, and
then it also compared and matched those personality scores with
what people were listening to, and it found over fifty
correlations between how many playlists you had, your favorite artists,
your genre of choice, and all these things and what
kind of person that you may be. For example, they
(23:24):
found that people who listen to more folk music are
more open to new experiences. They're also more open to
new experiences the more artists they follow. So if someone's
following more artists, the more likely they're going to want
to travel, and they're going to want to see things
and taste new foods. People who were high in conscientiousness
were less likely to listen to things like emo and punk,
(23:46):
and they were more likely to listen to soul and
country and not just country old country. The most extroverted
people in this study tended to listen more to other
people's playlist and they listen to R and B, Caribbean
funk and country the most. It's just so fascinating how
(24:08):
much this has to tell us about ourselves. I would
really recommend checking out all these results. Is to study
that I think Spotify actually did or they lent their
data to. If you just look up Spotify Music Personality Score,
whatever it is, I'm sure you'll find it. Finally, another
really fun factor around the link between personality and music
that I found was from a worldwide twenty fifteen study
(24:29):
that found that people who empathize more with other people's
emotions tend to prefer genres like soft rock, R and B,
and folk, but people who are more logical, what we
call systematizers, prefer heavy metal, classical and complex music. It
also turns out that we generally actually form our music
(24:53):
taste between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. The music
that we listen to and that we like during that
period tends to stick with us for a very, very,
very long time. I think when you find an artist
who really or a genre that really articulates how you
feel during those formative years, during your teen years, and
(25:13):
that perfectly captures your internal turmoil and your joy, it
is very very validating. It's like being able to feel
like there's someone else in this world who gets you,
and someone gets it and you're not alone. And that
act of recognition, that feeling of being understood through art
is fundamental to solidifying what you tell yourself about yourself.
(25:37):
It tells you in a way music is able to
confirm to you, this is who I am, this is
what resonates with me. These are the kind of people
that I am like beyond individual expression. I think also
music is a really beautiful way to make friends. It's
incredibly socially connective. It's such a powerful engine for group
(25:59):
of Philly. We all know this feeling intuitively right. You know,
you meet someone new, one of the things you may
talk about is what kind of music you like, and
there if there is a shared love there, boom, it's
like an instant connection. If someone likes the same artists
and the same music, you almost assume they're a very
similar person to you on factors that go a lot
(26:21):
deeper than musical preference. So this really taps into something
called social identity theory core concept in social psychology. It
suggests that a significant part of our self concept comes
from the groups we belong to, and we are constantly
trying to find our way or a way to connect
to those groups. Liking the same music doesn't feel superficial. It,
(26:44):
you know, often signals shed values, similar cultural experiences, even
common emotional landscapes, similar chapters and periods of your life.
I always think about like going to a Taylor Swift concert,
going to Like the Errors tour last year and looking
around and being like, oh, yeah, I could probably be
friends with every single person here, not because we might
(27:07):
have a lot in common but because I know that
we definitely have a few things shared if we've been
able to resonate with this music. Concerts as well, are
just like if music brings us happiness and joy and pleasures,
concerts like dial that up by a thousand, a million,
a billion. The shared energy, singing along, the feeling of
(27:30):
unity in a crowd of thousands, that is a very
powerful psychological phenomenon. It's white people scream and cry and
go crazy at concerts and festivals. It's this release of oxytocin,
the bonding hormone that is being shared and creating this
synchronized experience. It's a sense of belonging. It's a sense
(27:52):
of being part of something bigger than you, which we
all want to be part of, and in our twenties
in particular, and in our teens, like loneliness is such
a silent struggle during that time. Being able to find
your musical tribe feels like a lifeline. It's a shorthand
to connection. It's a way to build community. You know.
I think about all my friends who have these internet
(28:14):
friends from when they were on Tumblr and like listening
to One Direction or like five seconds of Summer, it
just creates such a unique connective experience. Here's a subtle
but important nuance as well. The music we listen to
doesn't just reflect who we are, it also shapes who
we are becoming. If you consistently listen to empowering, confident music,
(28:38):
it can actually subtly influence your self perception and your behavior.
Thanks to this concept called effective priming, exposure to certain
stimuli like music can influence our subsequent thoughts and actions.
In fact, in a twenty twenty three study from the
University of Notre Dame, they found that listening to us upbeat,
(29:00):
happy music for a certain amount of time every day
can actually shift your mood. It made people more optimistic
and it actually increased how many positive thoughts they were
having every single day. Similarly, if you are constantly immersed
in music that is angry or melancholic, it can, in
some states, in some ways reinforce those emotions and reinforce
(29:25):
that feeling. It shapes your outlook music and you have
a very complex relationship, like hopefully that's coming through how
I'm explaining this, Like it's this dynamic reciprocal relationship. I
guess you know. It's similar to repeating Martras. It's similar
to words of affirmation. If you are screaming at the
top of your lungs that you are incredible, you're gonna
(29:47):
feel fucking incredible. If you're listening to sad songs that
talk about how terrible life is, you're gonna feel like
life is terrible. So music isn't just a backdrop. It
is an act of participant in how we see our
selves and how we see the world. So I want
to talk about how music functions as a coping mechanism
(30:07):
because for many of us, especially in our twenties, music
isn't just about enjoyment. It is a very vital tool
for navigating life's ups and downs. The moment of overwhelm
at work, the surge of anxiety before a meeting, the
feeling of loneliness. Music can shift those feelings. It is
(30:28):
an act of emotional regulation. Interestingly, it's not just calming music,
ambient music, low five music that can do this. The
same thing occurs for familiar songs. Songs that we know
are comforting because they are predictable and the emotions they
elicit have been ones that we've encountered before and we've managed.
(30:49):
It's why listening to music from your childhood, listening to
like early two thousands pop music, listening to like old
Taylor Swift albums or old albums that you love, makes
you feel at home in a weird way, makes you
just feel so comforted. It's like this is a place
that I've been before, this is a soundtrack that I'm
(31:11):
familiar with. People have obviously started to recognize this. I
think Western medicine has started to recognize this. A lot
of cultures have understood this for many, many, many many decades.
We're just kind of catching up, as we are with
many many things. Clinical musical therapy is now becoming a
much more prevalent therapy. It's a recognized field that uses
(31:36):
these very principles that we have been discussing, these neurological
principles of music's psychological effects, to help people manage anxiety,
to help them reduce pain, to help them cope with trauma.
Researchers have really demonstrated time and time again how structured
musical interventions can lead to significant improvements in emotional wellbeing
(31:59):
and beyond pure stress relief, making music, making sound creating
things can also be a fantastic distraction and it can
also be an incredible way to unlock creativity, and we
know creativity being frequently creative links to high life satisfaction,
links to greater well being, even increases immune response and
(32:23):
increases senses of a sense of emotional safety. I think
we're going to see offerings of music therapy, obviously in
conjunction with other therapy as well, like CBT or DBT,
really increase because we're starting to realize that only treating
things in a very clinical way, in a very structured
(32:45):
way that has to do with you in another person,
interacting and solving things and thinking about things doesn't always
work for people and finding like music is like this
key that unlocks whole new dimensions of someone's ability to
cope and of their memories and of the trauma in
their personhood. That it's crazy that we aren't using it more.
It's crazy that, you know, Western medicine is only just
(33:07):
woken up to how powerful it can be. Let's talk
about another element of this though, Because music can be therapeutic,
it can be a distraction, it can be emotionally powerful,
it can be a memory jogger. Is there a point
where we listen to too much music? Is there a
(33:28):
value in music? Does the value of music diminish beyond
a certain point? Yes, music is an incredible mental distraction
to aversive stimuli like pain or boredom. And whilst distraction
is a valid, sometimes healthy coping strategy, there is a
(33:50):
fine line between distraction and avoidance. Is silence really all
that terrible? Is it really that bad for you? I
was on a run with my friend the other day
and we we have a running group where we live.
Never thought I would be someone who's in a running group,
but that's for another time. Anyways, we were like preparing
to run and I looked over at her and she
(34:11):
didn't have her headphones in, and I was like, okay,
well we'll wait till you have your headphones in. And
then she was like, oh no, I'm not gonna wear them.
And I was like, oh, did you forget them? Like
you can borrow mine? And she was like, oh no, no,
Like I have been. My mum has been talking to
me about and I've been reading about how when we
constantly have music on, or we have sounds distracting us,
it can actually pull us away from the present. It
(34:32):
can even make us irritated. It can actually make it
harder for us to focus. So she did this whole
have a many kilometer run with nothing in her ears,
and I was like, that is I could not do that,
But it really got me thinking, like can we listen
to too much music? One researcher did say that no
more than eight hours a day is best because at
(34:54):
that point you can actually start to damage certain auditory systems.
But also you essentially blood to the emotional effect of
music on your mood and motivation, like you become less
sensitized to it. There is value in actually being present
in the moment and listening to the natural sounds around you,
tapping into your senses, listening to your surroundings, and then
(35:15):
using music when you really need it, rather than just
just something that is always playing in the background. You know.
As incredible and invaluable as music is, sometimes it actually
gets in the way of being truly where your feet are.
I guess it relates to an episode I did on
maladaptive daydreaming.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Daydreaming is beautiful, it's fun, it's magical. If we're constantly
doing it, if we're constantly trying to escape the present
to be in some kind of fantasy, then it can
actually become very unhelpful. To think about this for a second.
Are you using music to process your sadness or are
you using it to numb you off or distract you?
(35:55):
The difference can be subtle, but it's very crucial. Some
studies suggest that yeah, us listening to sad music can
help explore melancholy. Constantly listening to sad music can induce
really heavy rumination that actually might make you feel worse
than you would be without it. It's worth considering. So
the big question that we have, and that I think
(36:17):
we've been kind of coming to, is if music is
this incredible tool, how do we use it for good?
How do we use it to elevate our life, to
boost our mood, to make us more focused, make us
more creative. The key I believe is intentionality. Instead of
just letting music happen to you, try and engage with
(36:38):
it consciously. Ask yourself what music makes me feel? What
and when can I use it intentionally for those moments?
So let me explain this a little bit further. Once
study found that different kinds of musics are best for
different moments in your life and different kinds of work
that you need to do so. Slow instrumental music is
(36:59):
best for deep work. It's less likely to interfere with
your reading comprehension, it's less likely to interrupt problem solving.
It's best to do hard, deep work when you are
listening to slow instrumental music. Soft fast music has a
(37:19):
positive impact on learning. So when you're engaging in something new,
having music that is a little bit more upbeat, maybe
has a few lyrics is better. Very upbeat music with
a higher tempo helps you when you're doing something that
requires movement or motivation, like you're exercising, you're cleaning your room,
(37:39):
but in a very difficult task, when you're doing a
very difficult task, you're memorizing material, you are problem solving,
like doing in depth problem solving, maybe like advanced calculus.
I don't know. The more likely music is actually distancing
and distracting you, and that's when you need to turn
it off. So I actually think it's important to curate
(38:01):
your own playlists for different contexts instead of just having
a random collection of liked songs that you play whenever
and that you kind of get bored of. Think strategically,
based on what we've discussed about music's impact on mood
and arousal, create or find playlists that have the following vibes.
So we're gonna make five playlists. The first playlist is
(38:23):
going to be a focus zone playlist. So this is
your playlist for deep work thing instrumental, lo fi, ambient,
classical music designed to keep your mind engaged but not distracted.
Then I want you to have the energy surge playlist,
so you'll go to for workouts before a big presentation
(38:43):
or when you need to shake off a slump. High tempo,
driving beats, empowering lyrics. This is when you can consciously
tap into that dopamine hit and that entrainment that we
mentioned before as well to boost your physiological arousal. Then
we want the calm down and into playlists, So gentle acoustics,
nature sounds, classical pieces, slope jazz designed to activate your
(39:07):
parasympathetic nervous system, bring you back into your body, not
necessarily the same as your deep work playlist. Then we
want the process my Feelings playlist. So this one is
you know a playlist that has really deep cuts in it.
It might be even be like genuinely quite sad, but
music that validates your emotions, that provides Catharsis makes you
(39:31):
feel hopeful. Maybe we kind of divide this playlist into two.
We have the process my feelings playlist, so this is
like you're really really sad, somber playlist, and then you
have your like everyday background thinking, fun lyric playlist. So
music that like you can think about, music that you
(39:51):
can sing along to, that is interesting to you and
keeps you inquisitive and keeps you, yeah, curious, I guess,
so leverage that. I want you to have those playlists
so that you're not getting irritated by music, You're not
finding that it's like slipping into context that it doesn't
need to be in. I also think it's important to
leverage music as a contextual cue for new habits. And
(40:14):
this is that's why the previous step is required that
you have those playlists. This is a really cool trick
from behavioral psychology. If you're trying to build a new habit,
say meditating, journaling, getting ready for bed, earlier, running, associate
a specific type of music with that habit. Play the
same calming instrumental piece every time you want to go
(40:35):
to bed, every time you want to meditate, every time
you wake up in the morning and you want to
get up feeling excited. Over time, that music will become
a conditioned stimulus, so it automatically signals to your brain
to enter the specific state that you want to be in.
It's creating a mental shortcut. I also think that given
(40:55):
music's power but also its power to be a distraction,
Like we were talking about before, you do calld an
off time in your day for silence, but you're not
listening to a podcast, you're not listening to your music,
you're not immediately putting your headphones on, You're just embracing
the sensory experience of the noises around you. Constantly playing
(41:21):
music is actually probably interrupting your brain's ability to concentrate,
and music will feel more special if you don't constantly
have it in the background. Have you ever had this
experience where you've been in meetings all day, you've been
running around all day or like all week, and then
you finally get to sit down and like put on
(41:41):
your favorite album and you're like, Wow, this actually this
this stuff is good, Like this feels really nice. Sometimes
we actually do need to kind of let ourself have
a break from it or engage with music, like beyond
the headphones. You know, listen to it not through headphones.
Listen to it in your car, listen to it on
your speaker system, Go to a concert, go do karaoke,
(42:04):
go to a dance class, so you experience what it's
really meant to do for you, which is to connect
you to others, connect you to your body, connect you
to your environment as well, rather than just keep you
quite insular. I guess, just practice mindful listening, Really listen
to a song, really engage in it, really notice what
(42:25):
it does for you, and really notice when perhaps it's
frustrating you, when you need silence. I think ultimately music
is one of humanity's most profound gifts. Really, it is
a gift. I'm feeling very spiritual about this episode, but
I truly believe it is like music is one of
(42:45):
I think a lot of people's reasons for being Like
a world without music would be so terrible, and it's
just so incredible how much it does for our emotions,
for our healing, for entertainment. It's vital, powerful, it's a
psychological companion. But understand its nuances, engage with it mindfully,
(43:06):
and harness its incredible mental power. So I think that's
all I have time for today. I feel like we've
covered a lot of basses. There's still things I probably
didn't talk about. But what I really want from you,
if you have listened this far, is to drop a
comment below of your favorite song so I can make
a playlist companion to this episode of the listener's favorite songs.
(43:28):
If you are listening to this episode before let's say
the first of July twenty twenty five, please leave a
song down below. I want to make a little collaborative
playlist of all our favorite songs. Also, because I'm in
kind of like a musical rap right now, I want
to listen to some new stuff, like I need to
stop listening to the same like Kelsey Ballerini, and like
(43:51):
Via Blue albums that I've been listening to on repeat.
So put some song suggestions down below. I want to
make this playlist happen. Thank you for listening to this.
It will be a sign that you were able to
concentrate and that you are a loyal listener. And also,
don't forget to follow me on Instagram at that psychology podcast.
Don't forget to listen to Mantra If you want to
(44:11):
break from your playlist from your current albums on repeat.
Mantra is a really beautiful place to land. It is
such a meditative podcast for me. It's such a great
way to start your week. I will also have a
link in the description as well. Make sure you are
following along. Make sure to give us a five star
review and share this episode with a friend. I'd love
(44:33):
to hear your thoughts, feelings, qualms, favorite songs in the
comments or on Instagram. But until next time, stay safe,
be kind, be gentle to yourself, happy listening, and we
will talk very very soon.
Host
Jemma Sbeghen
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