From house parties, to road trips, background noise or soul listening, music is large aspect of a university students’ life and often impacts their daily activities. Author Luke Sharkey speaks on the amount of time the average person spends listening to music in an article posted via Nialler9. Sharkey shares that research conducted reports “that the average person spends close to 18 hours a week listening to music. While this metric might seem nebulous to fully digest at first, it’s worth breaking it down. That means “2.6 hours – or the equivalent of listening to 52 three-minute songs – daily.” (Sharkey, 2019.)
I often find myself listening to upbeat motivational music to aid my workout, mellow tunes to relax after a stressful day, or a mix of genres to keep me entertained while completing daily tasks. This got me thinking of the impact music has on completing certain activities, although this would prove to be way to large of a topic area to cover over the period of one semester, therefore I would need to narrow down my proposal concept and decide upon what topic would be the most relevant and timely to my study.
Taking my audience into consideration, I choose to focus primarily on how music effects students and their study habits. The research will focus solely on university students undertaking BCM subjects, and how their choice of music impacts their ability to focus while studying. With music becoming more accessible over the years due to use of popular streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, there is no doubt that this topic is timely and relevant to those undertaking university over this semester.
Based on prior interactions and secondary research conducted on my topic of choice, I’m confident that my study will remain relevant to students, as it has become evident that the majority of university students consume music on a daily basis and frequently while studying.
Information for this study will be collected via primary research methods such as interviews, questionnaires, and observations. As a result of the following I have built up on Twitter throughout the semester so far, I am convinced that my chosen method of research will be achievable with the assistance of the #BCM and #MyCuriosity hashtags. I further believe that through use of this social platform, distribution of my questionnaire will be achievable and will result in a copious amount of peer interaction. To further support my initial findings, I will be referring to secondary sources such as academic articles and prior completed studies.
After conducting some brief secondary research about my intended topic, there is evidence which supports my investigation of the issue in question, being music, and the effect it has on ones study habits. A study which was conducted by Michael S. Widerman throughout the duration of the 2013 semester seen 20 participants reading large comprehension passages and vocabulary words/definitions before being tested on the material, half the participants were prompt to engage in self-selected music while the remaining half were to study in silence. (S. Widerman, 2013) this study suggests that there has been interest around the relation between music and study habits for an outstanding period, therefore supporting that there is an issue to be explored.
My secondary research found that this topic has been researched and observed over recent years, in particular a study conducted in 2016 by Naveen Kumar, titled The effect of listening to music on concentration and academic performance of the student: Cross-sectional study on medical undergraduate students, this study was conducted in Malaysia and involved 200 Malaysian students, who participated in primary research processes which found that 60% of students preferred to listen to music while studying, in contrast to the 40% who did not. (Kumar et al., 2016)
Additional sources that will form a foundation for my study include that of Mitchell Heidi’s Life & Arts — Burning Question: Does Music Help You Concentrate? Which focuses on the Mozart Effect, a study conducted in 1993 which raises the idea that listening to specific music can affect spatial task performance. (Heidi, 2017) Along with a second study, Does music boost your brain or just give you a headache? Do you believe listening to Iron Maiden and Metallica can help you concentrate?: [Final Edition], conducted by Russell Leadbetter and James Watt’s which briefly touches on the Mozart Effect once again and sees volunteers completing memory tests either in silence or while listening to one of the following varied music styles, first being Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony, second option being purely white noise, or lastly a piece by rock guitarist Steve Vai.
Lastly, the final secondary source I will be referring to throughout the duration of this study will be The Impact of Listening to Music on Cognitive Performance, a study conducted by Arielle S. Dolegui, which aims at understanding the effect that various music genres have on cognitive task performance. This study is also quite interesting as it explores how the different volume levels can impact an individual’s performance.
References
Heidi, M, 2017. Life & Arts — Burning Question: Does Music Help You Concentrate?, Eastern edition edn, New York, N.Y. viewed 16 March 2021, <https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/docview/1923594786?accountid=15112&pq-origsite=primo>
Kumar, N, Wajidi, MA, Chian, YT, Vishroothi, S, Swamy Ravindra, S & Ashwini Aithal, 2016. The effect of listening to music on concentration and academic performance of the student: Cross-sectional study on medical undergraduate students, Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 1190-1195. viewed 17 March 2021, <https://manipal.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/the-effect-of-listening-to-music-on-concentration-and-academic-pe>
Leadbetter, R, Watt, J, 2006. Does music boost your brain or just give you a headache? Do you believe listening to Iron Maiden and Metallica can help you concentrate?: [Final Edition], Glasgow (UK). viewed 19 March 2021 < https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/docview/335974356/AF00CAE4D7154831PQ/2?accountid=15112>
S. Dolegui, A., 2013. The Impact of Listening to Music on Cognitive Performance. [ebook] viewed 17 March 2021, <http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1657/the-impact-of-listening-to-music-on-cognitive-performance>
Sharkey, L 2019. Here’s how long the average person spends listening to music every week viewed 18 March 2021, <https://nialler9.com/heres-how-long-the-average-person-spends-listening-to-music-every-week/#:~:text=The%20report%20finds%20that%20the,%2Dminute%20songs%20%E2%80%93%20daily.%E2%80%9D>
S. Widerman, M, 2013. Study Habits and Music: How They Affect Attention and Academic Performance, [ebook] pp.9-21, viewed 16 March 2021, <http://ebot.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/8322/Widerman_thesis_2013.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y>
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