Article by Melvin Bunn

Intro

You can run, but you can’t hide from music. Music is a part of our everyday life and it can be inferred that there are many benefits to it. But not many people talk about the bad effects that come from it, whether it be addiction, influence, or even Hearing Loss. For better or for worse we as humans are bound to music (Unless you’re Helen Keller). Today I’ll be explaining why you should be cautious the next time you listen to music.

Part One: Addiction

Too much of anything can be bad for you and Spotify is not the only source of music. Apps like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc.… all have music in them. Research studies show that,

“Music outranks all other interests/hobbies, and in total, 94% of online consumers listen to music throughout the year… the global average of 17.8 h/week.”

And it’s also noted that

“Young people in the United States now consume music more than five hours per day on average, and this figure may only be increasing as time spent consuming music by Americans of all ages has risen by 36.6% in just the past few years”

I know that everyone’s different but let’s use my screen time for example

As you can see I’ve spent about an hour and thirty six minutes on Spotify that’s not that long but let’s also consider the other apps. Adding up TikTok, animixplay.to (Its anime and anime has music in it), and YouTube into the mix, I’ve spent about twenty three hours and twelve minutes around a musical environment. This is an understatement since there are other apps that have music. Not only that but I’m also just calculating music on my phone not my outside environment like work or a restaurant or the radio. (There are more variables involved). If I divide the number 23 by 7 (I get the number 7 off of the number of days in the week there are and plus I rounded down) I spend a little over 3 hours a day just listening music on my phone. Based off the information above I’m a bit below the national average but again like said there are more variables involved. What’s the point in saying all of this you might ask? The point I’m trying to get across is that music can be addicting. A scholarly article on musical consumption backing up this claim states that

“Researchers have extensively investigated the positive side of musical consumption such as the impact of music listening on daily stress reduction…However, the dark side of music…indicated that young adults’ heavy musical consumption…can lead to addiction to music. Therefore, the negative impact of general musical consumption, particularly the mechanisms through which it affects other types of addiction such as smartphone addiction, deserves greater research endeavor.” (Paragraph 2)

Part 2: Influence

I’m not good at imagery so ill pull from my own personal experience. There were so many times that I would feel a certain way and try to find a song that matched how I was feeling. I would always have certain songs on repeat that capitalized on how I thought I should feel. With these song, I would always be eager to listen to certain parts from within.

King Kunta

(Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly)

Fked Up Last Night

(Amar Miller)

Workin Out

(JID)

I’m imagining that you could have probably inferred what was going on in my life at the time based of the song selection. There were more that were on repeat but I don’t want this to be just me posting my playlist… I would immerse myself in those songs and listen to it over and over again until I couldn’t any more. I had to learn how to take a break from music. Taking a break every once in a while or listening to music with no words has helped improve my mentality. I’ve learned while on my detox that music has the power to influence. As you can imagine, music not only influences your actions, but your mental health. That being said, this is a perfect opportunity to jump into the third point.

Part Three: Loss

Not Only does music impact your mental health, it can also have a massive impact on your physical body. More specifically your ears.

A scholarly article states…

“Hearing loss comes as humans get older and we typically speed the process up by exposing ourselves to loud noises over a long period of time. “Sound is measured in decibels (dB). A whisper is about 30 dB, normal conversation is about 60 dB, and a motorcycle engine running is about 95 dB. Noise above 70 dB over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing. Loud noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears.”

Blasting music over loud periods of time through headphones, attending concerts without ear protection or even being around loud sounds for too long can have devastating effects. Hearing loss revolved around music is especially common amongst musicians and sound engineers since they are constantly using their ears. For sound engineers, it’s crucial for them to take care of their ears so that they can continue doing their job since their ears are their greatest tool.

Here’s some ways to protect your ears from hearing loss. When attending concerts bring ear plugs to reduce the amount of noise that comes through the ear canal. While listening to music through head phones make sure the volume isn’t up all the way. For iPhone users make sure to take heed to your health app warnings. For engineers, make sure to routinely clean your ears out and remove the wax inside.

Part Four: Benefits

Here’s a scenario for your head. You’re at the gym and your trying to hit a PR so you get pumped up. You take out your phone and put on “Face Off”. You’re suddenly filled with energy. You get the bar and you dominate it. You’ve earned your PR and you now feel accomplished.

“…a tempo of a song has a correlation with our emotions, the faster the song is the more energetic and pumped up we are, the slower the song is the more relaxed we feel.” (1.3)

Not all music is meant to influence us in a negative way. Just like the scenario above and the scholarly backing says, it can help pump us up when we need it. Just as fast paced energetic music can pump us up, slow paced music can calm us done and help us focus. As I am writing this article I’ve got some smooth jazz on with no words. Its helped me focus and I’ve been able to enter a flow state. I have my volume at a low volume to avoid distraction and to also avoid hearing loss. I also take breaks occasionally from listening to music to avoid becoming overstimulated. Just because there are negatives to listening to music doesn’t mean one should stop listening to music completely.

Conclusion

In conclusion, music has many impacts on us. Although there are many benefits to music, it’s also good to not discount the other possibilities that come from it. Addiction can come from overstimulation. Influence can alter our emotional and mental state, and corruption through music can alter our physical state by impairing our hearing. Music is everywhere, whether you’re in the store, at the mall, watching an ad, working out… you won’t be able to completely avoid music. (unless again your Hellen Keller…) As said at the very beginning you can run but you can’t hide from music. Wrapping up the argument the main take away is to be mindful when you listen to music.