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Listening To Music May Be Damaging Your Creativity (newatlas.com)

The results of a new study suggest that listening to music can significantly impair your ability to perform creative tasks. Whilst music was found to disrupt creative processes, ambient "library noise" was found to have no significant effect. From a report: The first experiment saw volunteers complete tasks while being played music with vocals that wouldn't mean anything to them -- for example, English-speaking listeners being played music with Spanish lyrics. In the second experiment, the participants were played instrumental music with no vocals, and in the third the volunteers were played music with familiar lyrics that they could understand. During the third experiment, the participants were also subjected to "library noise" conditions, which involved ambient noise such as unintelligible distant speech, photocopier noise, typing, and the rustling of papers.

The team discovered that creative performance dropped significantly when listening to music over the course of all three exercises, as compared to periods during which participants were allowed to complete the exercises without distraction. Even when participants declared that the music improved their overall mood, in the third exercise, it still impaired creativity.

10 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. In Other Words, Being Distracted... by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...impairs any intellectual endeavor.

    Hell, even musicians have to dial back the "listening" part in order to concentrate on playing the part. If you get too caught up in the piece, you will miss entrances, etc.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  2. Alternate headline: Distractions are distracting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Distractions are distracting and cause one to lose focus. The more distracting, the more you are distracted from the distractions.

    Unfortunately, distractions that distract you from other distractions only further distract you.

    Now back to my Ted Nugent....

  3. Not usually in the purpose of listening by Hydrian · · Score: 4, Informative

    I know I'm not alone here but many people listen to music to muffle the distracting chit-chat of office space. That unconscious listening to other peoples conversion is far more detrimental to creativity/focus that listening to music. Maybe I'm a bit more susceptible to it than others because I have ADHD, but I often find myself being pulled in to other conversions even when I don't need to be in them. I find using intramental music works the best to keep focused. I know anything with lyrics engages my brain in a different way that makes it hard to concentrate on a task.

    --
    No good deed goes unpunished.
    1. Re:Not usually in the purpose of listening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fool! Everyone knows that an open plan office is the absolutely best for work productivity and creativity!

      The mere fact that you're having to use music (which distracts you), to block out all the even MORE distracting noise.. is just you not being a team player. After all, walls and offices and space costs, you know.

      And how dare you not want dogs to constantly visit you, bark, make noise, and generally add to the overall distraction! Clearly, if you don't want dogs around every second of every day, you must *hate* them.

      You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Really!

  4. I'll be OK by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm listening to rap, not music.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  5. One scenario is sorely missing by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That of the open plan office: People walking about, doors slamming every now and then, phones ringing and a constant buzz of people yakking. We should definitely test how this improves your concentration, since management thinks it must be the best kind of environment.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:One scenario is sorely missing by thevirtualcat · · Score: 4, Funny

      To be honest, this headline was all I needed to justify banning headphones and music in my newly remodeled open office floorplan. I didn't even need to read the article. Of course, being that I'm a typical C-level executive, I have my own office and no distractions. My employees are just entitled millennials who need to get back to work and quit their bitching. /s

  6. Re:Music from the 2000's definiately by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Funny

    Listen to music from the 1980's or 1970's. When artists were actually involved instead of just formulas. When there was no autotune so you actually had singers...

    ... and those kids should get off your lawn, amirite?

    Yes ... yes they should :)

  7. How would you know when you were done? by circusboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A photography teacher I had in college held that the problem with creating artwork while listening to music was that when you are creating, you are creating until you feel good about the creation. if you are listening to music, it may make you feel good. How do you know when you're done?

    over the years I've noticed that whenever I work (creatively) to music, when I look at the work later, it's always bad. working mechanically to music, (i.e. simply performing a process) it's different, because how you feel about the work is less important.

    --
    -- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
  8. Video game music can improve concentration by Lorens · · Score: 4, Informative

    I work in a noisy environment (lots of people talking about interesting things that I'm not supposed to listen to), so noise-cancelling headphones are a godsend. They need some sound to work well, though.

    After reading this article I decided to try to listen to video game music while working instead of the usual classic concentration tracks. I do not need to be relaxed to work, on the contrary. After having tested video game music for a few weeks, I feel it makes a big positive difference.