A short philosophical history of personal music If you are
reading this on a computer, there is a 50% chance that you are
wearing, or are within arm's reach of, a pair of headphones or
earbuds. To visit a modern office place is to walk into a room
with a dozen songs playing simultaneously but to hear none of
them. Up to half of workers listen to music on their headphones,
and the vast majority thinks it makes us better at our jobs. In
survey after survey, we report with confidence that music makes
us happier, better at concentrating, and more productive.
Science says we're full of it. Listening to music hurts our
ability to recall other stimuli, and any pop song -- loud or
soft -- reduces overall performance for both extraverts and
introverts. A Taiwanese study linked music with lyrics to lower
scores on concentration tests for college students, and other
research have shown music with words scrambles our brains'
verbal-processing skills. "As silence had the best overall
performance it would still be advisabl