Many students listen to music on a daily basis, even in school while completing their work, but music can impact stress levels in many different ways. It is going to be a stressful year coming up and the pumas need to be prepared with the aid of music. There are many different genres and subgenres in music what is the best for the task at hand. Music with lyrics is a little more difficult to directly say “this song will calm you down”, it is normally different for every student. However, the music that is said to be most universally accepted for lessening stress levels is going to be meditation music.
“Now scientifically, meditation music, which is very low key calm, typically don’t have a lot of words [which] isn’t going to help calm their nerves down,” AP psychology teacher Daleama McPherson states. Meditation music not only includes just instrumental music but also rain sounds and nature sounds. Music that includes lyrics are going to affect individuals in various ways.
“I have kinda like soothing relaxation music so it’s kinda like meditation music”, social worker Lindsay Taylor mentions. Chemicals in the brain are released after listening to music, which results in relaxation. Meditation music is specifically being put into the mindfulness room to help those dealing with stressful and anxious situations. But there are certain genres should be avoided this school year by the students, to not raise stress levels.
“Typically loud music stuff will probably get your heart rate going, because loud music and real aggressive music will pump them [students] up” McPherson claims. Loud music that is danced and jumped to will raise student’s heart rate in general, thus possibly raising their stress levels.
“What music and mood [they are in] depends on how you are feeling at that moment,” McPherson acknowledges. If a person is in a sad, upset, or stressed out state, they are not always going to look for the “calming” music, in fact, the student might end up listening to a genre that might be considered aggressive.
It might stop them from being sad and to them, that music might be the most calming thing to that student. When talking to two students about what music they listen to when they are dealing with stress, they gave two diverse answers.
“It depends on the day, like when I’m really stressed I would try to listen to rap [because] I feel like there’s just so many meaningful lyrics in there” sophomore Nathan Lam says.
“[I enjoy listening to] relaxing and calming music,” junior Brandon Kinderknecht states. For the students of the upcoming school year, there will never be a perfect song to calm everyone down, students need to take what music they love first, and then experiment with what will work perfectly for them. Everyone is different in their own taste of music, but it is important to do what makes you comfortable.