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Happy Music Boosts Brain's Creativity, Study Says (newscientist.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the creative-juices dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: Need inspiration? Happy background music can help get the creative juices flowing. Simone Ritter, at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and Sam Ferguson, at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, have been studying the effect of silence and different types of music on how we think. They put 155 volunteers into five groups. Four of these were each given a type of music to listen to while undergoing a series of tests, while the fifth group did the tests in silence. The tests were designed to gage two types of thinking: divergent thinking, which describes the process of generating new ideas, and convergent thinking, which is how we find the best solutions for a problem. Ritter and Ferguson found that people were more creative when listening to music they thought was positive, coming up with more unique ideas than the people who worked in silence. However, happy music -- in this instance, Antonio Vivaldi's Spring -- only boosted divergent thinking. No type of music helped convergent thinking, suggesting that it's better to solve problems in silence. The study was published in the journal PLoS One.

46 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Because Happy by Pharell makes me want to blow my brains out.

    1. Re:Really? by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Because Happy by Pharell makes me want to blow my brains out.

      Try the Sound of Silence

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    2. Re:Really? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      True techies listen to Linus Torvald's biography played in morse code.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:Really? by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      Enjoy the Silence.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    4. Re:Really? by KingBenny · · Score: 1

      super exact lol ... depending on the mood id much rather go for a classic hatebreed cd or acujazz avant-garde radio, this hophop1234 prefab music tends to irritate me

      --
      Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
  2. "Happy Music"? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    I prefer easy listening myself

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re: "Happy Music"? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Oh, you mean classical music.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re: "Happy Music"? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      In 1000 years, it will be classical music.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re: "Happy Music"? by Evtim · · Score: 1

      Clasical music is a subset of concert music and refers to particular time period in the development of concert music.
      Thus a composer today might create simphony very much like Mozatr's but it won't be called clasical.
      Source: audio lectures on history of music from famous dude working in Chicago's conservatory.

    4. Re: "Happy Music"? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      So what's the difference between classical classical music and modern classical music? Will your categorization stand the test of time? What about someone in the year 8000? Both kinds will be far in the past, to the point of being the same exact thing especially since they're made the same way and sound about the same.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  3. Not for me by zifn4b · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I'm coding, high energy music is what gets my creative juices flowing. There is more evidence to suggest that what is related to creativity is how much stress you are under. The closer you are are to "fight or flight response" the more resources are being taken away from the cognitive processes that give rise to creativity. I'm reminded of several John Cleese quotes on the subject:

    "If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play."
    "Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake."
    "Creativity is not a skill, it's a state of mind, being in the open state."

    We are not in open states when we are stressed. Perhaps for some "happy music", whatever that means, helps with getting "into the zone". Just find whatever it is that gets you in the zone and practice mindfulness about getting into that zone and staying there as long as you can.

    --
    We'll make great pets
    1. Re:Not for me by MangoCats · · Score: 1

      And, for some of us in 1991, "Happy Music" can be Nine Inch Nails' Head like a Hole.

    2. Re:Not for me by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

      Your coding is probably not taxing your problem solving skills.

    3. Re:Not for me by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I definitely experience the same thing - my creativity is best triggered by high energy music

      I kind of wonder whether the real takeaway from the study is supposed to be "listening to music you like helps with creativity." I've certainly found that to be the case when I listen to punk metal (my current musical flavor of choice). And sludge metal helps me when I need to just focus on rote tasks and get into a trance "zone". But I'm sure others would find their creativity or productivity impeded by listening to those genres, so I would never suggest anyone else listen to them to help with tasks unless I know their musical preferences.

      Considering that they had people listen to sad, anxious, and calm (or anxious and calm at the same time somehow? Damnit New Scientist, this is why people use Oxford commas!) classical music, I'm not sure you can draw conclusions outside that genre. This seems to be more about "happy classical music" having a positive effect on a greater portion of the population than other emotive flavors of classical music. But even that may not hold true for everyone. Maybe it's just that more people have a positive reaction to "happy classical music" than other kinds of classical music, but that the effect is reversed for some percentage of people.

      In short, I find the study interesting, but as usual the magazine article takes the conclusions and runs with them beyond the scope of the actual study.

    4. Re:Not for me by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      High energy music works for me too, but not because it raises my stress levels. First of all, I'll often be tired and high energy music helps stave this off. Secondly, I find my mind will often want a distraction. Instead of visiting web sites or playing games, the music gives my brain something it can shift focus to for a second or two before going back to the task at hand - without running the risk that a simple Wikipedia lookup will turn into hours of wasting time.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    5. Re:Not for me by flargleblarg · · Score: 1

      Damnit New Scientist, this is why people use Oxford commas!

      Since you bring up English grammar, I'm going to go ahead and point out a grammatical error in your sentence above. You're missing a comma after the interjection "Damnit." Your sentence should be:

      Damnit, New Scientist, this is why people use Oxford commas!

    6. Re:Not for me by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      > Your coding is probably not taxing your problem solving skills.

      Bingo. That's a much more eloquent way of saying what I just wrote a few posts below.

      You're better than The Great Carnac! How would you know? I deal with some very advanced object modelling, graph theory and mathematics. I suppose you could say that perhaps I've been doing this long enough that my brain is attuned to dealing with this problem domain and therefore I no longer find it cognitively taxing. I am also a musician and can compose and play very advanced, colorful musical compositions and in many styles on several instruments but I no longer find it difficult. It was very difficult at one time in my life though. Now, I can do that without exerting much conscious thought so perhaps you might be correct in the sentiment of "not taxing your problem solving skills". *shrug*

      --
      We'll make great pets
    7. Re:Not for me by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 1

      I thought the rule was that you use it after a dependent clause that starts a sentence. Or after an appositive or introductory adverb. Those are the only uses for introductory commas I was aware of that might apply in this case, but if you can point out the style guide rule this breaks then I will consider modifying my grammar.

    8. Re:Not for me by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      I'm reminded of several John Cleese quotes on the subject:

      "Creativity is not a skill, it's a state of mind, being in the open state."

      Much as I like John Cleese, he's wrong on this point. Creativity is a skill, one that can be improved and can be taught, even taught to children.

      You can teach children basic techniques used by artists or you can teach them music theory. You can have them do exercises until they can imitate other people's works. They can get far and create neat things that way but you can't teach them how to create truly ground-breaking, unique pieces of art or music this way. That is something that comes from somewhere else and it's highly subjective. Inspiration can strike at the strangest of times. Even mathematicians and scientists have bursts of creativity where they suddenly realize the answer to something. Where do you think "Eureka!" came from? I once worked with a highly creative software engineering team. We had a really talented DBA. One day he was faced with a very complex problem and he couldn't see the answer and grew frustrated with himself. After work, he went to mow his lawn and while not thinking about anything just mowing, it hit him what the answer was. The next day he came in an solved the problem like a boss. I've also had this sort of thing happen myself.

      --
      We'll make great pets
    9. Re:Not for me by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      The whole idea that you can teach creativity or improve it demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about what creativity is. Just look at anything that Thomas Kinkade did, there's little to no evidence of creativity in any of what he's famous for.

      Sure you can, you just need some happy trees and a little bit of titanium white, it's easy peasy. ;) I've had friends try to imitate what Bob Ross did that seemed so easy. It's not easy and he didn't explain all the little nuances that he was doing from muscle memory... he probably didn't even really know consciously the little things he did.

      --
      We'll make great pets
    10. Re:Not for me by Optic7 · · Score: 1

      Good question, so I spent a little while looking for the rule that applies. There are so many rules for using commas, some of which don't seem to always be included in purported lists of comma uses. This one, in particular, seems to be the one that applies to your case: http://www.grammar-monster.com...

      Separate the name of the person (or thing) you are addressing from the rest of the sentence with a comma.

      I hope this helps. It helped me get a more solid understanding of one comma use-case.

    11. Re:Not for me by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

      "... perhaps I've been doing this long enough that my brain is attuned to dealing with this problem domain and therefore I no longer find it cognitively taxing"

      Yep, that's what I'm saying. Coding may for you be no more than putting together blocks of stuff you mostly have mastered. Keeping a momentum to fight boredom is more important than concentrating.

      What do you do when things get difficult? when you're faced with something very unfamiliar, poorly written, opaque and massive that it needs to be reverse engineered to be understood... to the point that it may not be solvable?

    12. Re:Not for me by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      You can teach children basic techniques used by artists or you can teach them music theory. You can have them do exercises until they can imitate other people's works.

      Or you can teach cognitive tools that are actually relevant to creativity in general, as opposed to teaching orthogonal concepts from some specific domain. Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Or you could just learn the obvious skill: meta thinking and hack your own mind. But even that takes...creativity... :P

      --
      We'll make great pets
    13. Re:Not for me by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      Try solving a real hard problem listening to happy music (or the music you prefer). If the problem is cognitively taxing for you, notice any differences.

      I don't need to experiment with other methods of doing the same thing I already do quite effectively.

      --
      We'll make great pets
    14. Re:Not for me by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      What do you do when things get difficult? when you're faced with something very unfamiliar, poorly written, opaque and massive that it needs to be reverse engineered to be understood... to the point that it may not be solvable?

      Let me try to describe. In regard to dealing with a difficult problem: First, I do what I believe is brute force conscious graph traversal through all kinds of different approaches that are potentially heuristically applicable to the problem at hand. This occurs almost like what I've heard quantum computing described as. At each node, I simulate application of that solution to the problem domain. If nothing applies, I skip the node. If something partially applies I stored that information and continue onto other nodes. If the node wholly applies, I'm done. Solution found. If after exhaustively traversing this graph/mind map I do not find something using conscious brute force, I back away from the problem and do something else. During this time, my conscious mind is focused on the "something else" but it is as if a background process in my mind is still thinking about the unsolved problem. Sometimes, this background process will interrupt the foreground process and have a solution. Other times, after taking a break I come back to the original problem with more insight for some unknown reason.

      In regard to poorly written or hard to grasp material, I keep re-reading the material. Each time more sticks. Eventually, my brain seems to memorize all the material and arrange the information in such a way that it makes sense conceptually in my mind. This is and has always been a very non-deterministic activity for me. I've noticed though once I get it, unless something changes, I know it forever and can recall the information very quickly. I also have at least partially an eidetic memory so that might have something to do with it too. *shrug*

      --
      We'll make great pets
    15. Re:Not for me by dddux · · Score: 1

      Agreed, NiN makes some very happy, lovely songs. Joy Division makes me happy as well. ;)

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
  4. Pretty soon... by famebait · · Score: 1

    ...the trolls will have found some very creative ways to make this about the threats from feminist, liberals and BigScience(tm).
    They must be listening to some extremely happy music.

    --
    sudo ergo sum
    1. Re:Pretty soon... by famebait · · Score: 1

      Stop telling me what to do.

      --
      sudo ergo sum
  5. Ragga Jungle for me by NCG_Mike · · Score: 1

    I listen to it most of the time when I'm coding.

    1. Re: Ragga Jungle for me by NCG_Mike · · Score: 1

      https://youtu.be/75ciLcHS6EQ

  6. Newflash: Happy music makes you happy! by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    Brought to you by Captain Obvious Research Institute.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:Newflash: Happy music makes you happy! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3

      I wouldn't say it's necessarily "obvious" that happy music makes you happy.

      I remember as a teenage being depressed over the break up with a girl friend, flipping through radio stations and temporarily stopping on an oldies station. The Cascades "Listen to the Rhythm of The Falling Rain" came on, arguably, a sad song.

      I sang along, and like a light switch, started feeling better. Over the years I've found certain sad songs actually cheer me up and make me happy when I'm sad. When I'm sad, happy songs irritate me.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Newflash: Happy music makes you happy! by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      If you're heartbroken, even filing your taxes can make you feel better. How about people who aren't flooded with emotions from a break-up?

  7. the real question by TimMD909 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now that we know happy music makes people more productive, how will this get incorporated into the open office? I'm assuming my looping Journey "Don't Stop Believing" over and over.

    1. Re:the real question by sizzzzlerz · · Score: 1

      Oh, you mean like AM radio did when the song came out in 1981.

      I lived through that! I was there! I hate that song more than The Dude hates the fucking Eagles.

    2. Re:the real question by chihowa · · Score: 1

      Now that we know happy music makes people more productive, how will this get incorporated into the open office? I'm assuming my looping Journey "Don't Stop Believing" over and over.

      "How about piping in some Tom Jones music. That always cheers me up!"

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
  8. Depends on the person by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

    I refuse to believe that any person can possible stand sappy "we're all so happy everything is wonderful"-type fake-positive dreck for any length of time without tearing their ears off.

    --
    Eat the rich.
    1. Re:Depends on the person by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      I probably go to more concerts in a month than you do in a year.

      Happy upbeat music can only be tolerated for so long. You need contrast, drama and excitement to move the soul, not the meaningless platitudes of inoffensive "happy music".

      --
      Eat the rich.
  9. Awesome excuse by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 1

    No boss, I'm not uncreative and incompetent. I just spend too much time listening to Scandinavian death metal. I'm an addict. Don't judge me.

  10. Re:Next management fad by PPH · · Score: 1

    "happy" music

    Do you mean like this?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  11. John Cage's 4:33? by Quirkz · · Score: 1

    What happens if you listen to John Cage's 4:33? Do you get both benefits?

    --
    The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
    1. Re:John Cage's 4:33? by spongman · · Score: 1

      i listen to that all the time, on repeat.

      doesn't help.

  12. comment subject by Falos · · Score: 1

    I'm thinking this is less about mood and more about the idea that inspiration = distraction.

    When you're trying to solve a problem - no, not the "motions" of making shit reference each other in your everyday code - but solve a fucking problem like mentally predicting constellation movements across various time lengths, you don't want light bulbs, you just want to chew very hard in a narrow way and nowhere else.

    When you DO want light bulbs (that can include code (design in particular, picking your maneuvers)) then yeah, sure, music ("happy" probably working a bit more) introduces variation (didn't want to say "noise) that will encourage wider thinking. It jiggles the handle, it vibrates the lock's tumblers, it gives dinosaurs feathers. But not dramatically as that; it's supplementary and subtle and you don't NEED it to think outside your usual box if you deliberately and consciously think outside your typical patterns.

    The two types of thinking (and what gives them these tiny buffs) might compare somewhat to CPU and RAM.

  13. Creativity by n329619 · · Score: 1

    When I'm coding, high energy alcohol is what gets my creative juices flowing.

    ftfy.

  14. Does that mean... by dddux · · Score: 1

    Does that mean I should try listening to "Barbie Girl" when I'm making industrial music? ;) Anyway, how's that supposed to work for musicians to make them more creative? It's really hard to make your own music while listening to some other music.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
  15. Music or meditation? by Rise+and+Gain · · Score: 1

    Well, this study might have a point, but what about me? I listen to music all day, when I work, when I study, when I take a shower etc. I haven't noticed any changes in my creativity though. I view music more as a distraction to be honest. The only thing which actually helps me with my creativity is when I sit still and have no other distractions. Meditation also helps me a lot. The only problem I have with meditation is: it allows you to control your thoughts, so I guess you become more focused over time and your mind cannot wander as much to find creative ideas during the day. What do you guys think?