The Impact Of Background Music On Teenagers’ Academic Performance
“You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music” (Annie Proulx). The definition of background music is a type of instrumental or vocal music that is intended to be an unimpeded accompaniment to a particular activity. Lots of research papers, articles, and studies have been published on the topic of positive and negative effects of background music on students. Based on the newspaper article published by Yahoo, students who speak fluently, think logically, and behave brightly are those who listen to classical music during class. Concentration was significantly increased due to the classical music that was turned on during class. Students perform better academically in an environment with classical music in the background. Therefore, students should listen to background music when they are studying. First and foremost, background music can influence a variety of people. The easy-listening background music is influential to elementary school students. The easy-listening background music means a genre of music that is meant to be relaxing. One of the assertions is that turning easy-listening music on during class time is a reasonable style to provoke students’ potential for learning and being actively involved in group work. According to the research on fifth-grade students’ academic performance from the University of Southern Mississippi, various teaching techniques and different classroom environments did not affect students’ grades. The two experimenters of this research, Charles and Lou, randomly selected twenty-six subjects, or students, in fifth-grade science class and did a trial on their development of academic performance with easy-listening background music. Charles and Lou found out that students’ behavior on academic improved due to the existence of easy-listening background music. The results of the experiment demonstrated that the utilization of simple listening background music was influential in enlarging on-task-performance of children in a science classroom. Thus, there is no doubt with the hypothesis that providing easy-listening background music during class time would be conceivable, yet teachers would not take lots of efforts to stimulate their students to actively take part in their classes.
Another assertion is that study in a condition with background music turned on will arouse students’ inspiration. Based on the research from Colombia College, when background music was on during class time, lots of students in fourth grade at Logan Elementary School enhanced their academic performance, inspiration to assimilate, and capacity to keep focused on their assignments. Not only did the background music provoked students’ action, motivation, and ability, but it also created a peaceful and calm environment which encouraged students to be focused and learn as well. The effects were shown from those students who usually appreciate music and also from the entire class regardless of how they feel about music (White). Therefore, these two types of research claim that the existence of background music is effective on improving students’ intellectual achievement. In other words, background music affects students who are in elementary school as well. On top of that, although two studies from the University of Southern Mississippi and Colombia College both asserted that the effects of background music are influential, there are still multiple opposite views that argue background music is disturbing and would diminish the ability to focus on the task. Based on the research about the impacts of music on academic performance from “Inquiries,” development of performance between soft music at high intensity and loud music at thigh intensity were not distinctly different. The researcher, Arielle, claimed that silence had more significant effects on cognitive performance than background music. As stated in the study, there are fewer distractions that would interrupt to stay on focus in silence condition. Arielle tested thirty-two undergraduate students from the University of Maryland by giving out five arithmetic tests with questions on each. The participants were tested in five different environments which were soft music at low intensity, loud music at low intensity, soft music at loud intensity, loud music at loud intensity, and lastly silence. After all the tests were finished, scores were not significantly different when comparing soft music at high intensity with loud music at high intensity. This five different conditions experiment professed that the particular aspect that matters was the intensity of the music, but not the genre of music. Regardless of these criticisms stated above, according to the research published from the University of London, three researchers, Susan, John, and Georgia, discovered that students’ ability to stay on tasks was disrupted by dynamic and uncomfortable music such as hip-hop music and heavy metal music. Not only that, but the music also caused a lower level of behavior from the participants. This research contradicted opposite views of positive effects of background music by claiming concentration level would be affected regardless of the intensity of the music. Students’ study results would be greatly influenced if they affect by external elements.
The reason why listening to music during class time is that it improves the concentration level of classes. However, if the music interrupts the students, then they would lose their interest in learning and lose attentiveness. Therefore, it could be inferred that aggressive music will negatively affect students’ academic behavior while calm background music has positive effects on academic performance. Last but not least, the classical background music is superior to hip-hop music or heavy metal music. Classical background music has a significant effect on academic performance as well. The study about music effects on attention and academic performance from George Mason University noted that students would feel more relaxed in an environment with classical music. Students were able to refresh their brains and concentrate more outstandingly when classical background music was on. Likewise, anxiety level was remarkably dropped when classical background music was on. Comparing heavy metal music and silence with classical background music, neither heavy metal nor silence had effects on increasing students’ relaxation or declining their anxiety. Furthermore, university students who listened to Mozart’s classical music for three days demonstrated improvement on the Stanford-Binet Test, a test to measure intelligence with five elements of cognitive skill, and likewise their short-term memory. Positive effects of classical background music were not only shown from students, but also from lots of retail workers. Researchers from George Mason University observed that retail workers’ working performance with good organizing skills became better due to classical background music. On the other hand, hip hop music will negatively affect students’ academic performance. Their concentration will be affected if hip-hop music is playing during class time.
According to the research published by Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, the researcher, Peter Tze-Ming Chou, concluded that hip-hop music is more an obstacle than classical background music when students are doing their reading assignment. The researcher had an experiment about comparing effects of hip-hop music and classical background music during the study period. And the results showed that hip-hop had a remarkable impact when students were reading. Students’ concentration will be affected if hip-hop music is playing. Students’ ability to focus on the task and perform well are depending on the type of music that students’ listen during their work. Concentration skill will deteriorate if students listen to music that is aggressive, and stimulating such as hip-hop music and heavy metal music. All in all, background music does affect teenager’s performance positively. As the president of the Music Educators National Conference, Will Earhart, states, “Music enhances knowledge in the areas of mathematics, science, geography, history foreign language, physical education and vocational training”. This study about background music indicated that it would positively influence teenagers’ academic behavior. Likewise, it can be concluded that the best way to study is to study in a condition with background music on, especially classical background music. Classical background music is beneficial because students would be more likely to calm down and stay on focus on their assignments. Background music will stimulate teenagers’ learning potential which leads to better academic performance. Therefore, studying in an environment with background music is the best way to learn and perform, and all people, regardless of what age level they are in, should try to listen to classical background music while working.
