Electronic musicians are often thought of as being left-brained or even anti-social. But some interesting research suggests that the opposite is true. In fact, listening to electronic music helps raises your creativity.
In an article for Music Tech Magazine, Adam Fielding talks about how the University of Toronto has discovered that listening to electronic dance music can improve your mental capacity for learning and problem solving. In their study, participants who listened to a piece of dance music were able to complete a mental maze almost 50% faster than those who didn’t listen to anything while they were completing the task.
Fielding also talks about how research conducted at the University of Helsinki shows a correlation between creativity and dance music. Their research showed that when dancers were exposed to fast beats, their brain activity would synchronize with the rhythm of the beats which helped them produce more creative results than when they weren’t exposed to music at all.
How do you feel when you listen to electronic music? Does it make you want to dance, or does it simply relax you and give you that feel-good vibe?
Whatever the case may be, studies have shown that listening to electronic music is a great way to boost your creativity. If you’re struggling with a creative project and looking for some inspiration, take a quick break and listen to some electronic music. You might find that it gets those creative juices flowing again.
Music and Creativity
When we talk about creativity and learning, we often think of what goes on in the classroom and the workplace. But we can also look at other forms of learning – such as music.
“Our brain makes connections between what we hear and experience,” said Dr. Erin Marie Connolly, a research psychologist who specializes in music therapy. “If we hear something repetitively, our brain starts to expect it and anticipates what’s coming next.”
This can help people learn new things, she said: “A good example is when you’re driving down the road and hear a song on the radio that you haven’t heard in years. It takes you back to a particular time in your life.”
The same goes for creativity. If you’re having trouble thinking of ideas
Electronic music is the new rock and roll. Music has always been a way to invoke emotions and feelings in people, but electronic music has become much more than just music. It’s become an experience.
“The Electronic Music Experience” is a book by Anthony D’Amico, who is also the founder of “D’Amico Communications.” While writing this blog post, I was also reading this book, which is filled with interesting facts about electronic music and its influence on our culture.
One of the biggest facts that I took away from reading this book was the link between electronic music and creativity. There are many studies that show how electronic music helps raise one’s creativity levels. One such study from the University of Ghent in Belgium had two groups of people listen to either classical or dance music while they were working on creative tasks such as creating new products or ideas. The group that listened to dance music performed much better on these tasks than those who listened to classical music (D’Amico 35).
Another great fact is that many producers of electronic music have at least a basic understanding of musical theory. Since the genre is still relatively young, there aren’t a lot of rules to follow when making it. The only thing that holds back most producers is their
Music is known to be an incredible source of inspiration for many people. Listeners can relate its emotional context to the content of their work, allowing them to better understand their emotions and how they can translate it into their work. This is especially true for electronic music, which offers a wide range of sounds and beats that can get your creative juices flowing.
Even science backs up the claim that listening to music helps raise creativity levels. In one experiment, participants were asked to draw triangles while listening to different types of music, including rock, classical or ambient (electronic). Those who listened to ambient had the most creative drawings than those who listened to other genres.
Another study had college students listen to music while they took tests measuring creativity. Students who listened to slower, more relaxing music scored higher on creativity tests than those who listened to other types of music. Electronic music has this effect because it isn’t just a series of notes strung together like classical or rock music. It’s a combination of sounds and beats that are layered over each other in order to create a new sound.
Some people even believe that listening to electronic music is beneficial for the brain. Studies show this type of music helps improve cognitive function and problem-solving skills because it helps promote blood flow within
When people think about creativity, the arts often come to mind. And whether it’s painting, music or dance, each art form has a different way of testing and pushing our creative limits.
But what if there’s one art form that can actually train your brain to be more creative?
In a study published in Scientific Research and Essays, researchers discovered that listening to electronic dance music (EDM) could help raise your creativity levels. Researchers had participants listen to three types of music: EDM, New Age and no music. For those who listened to EDM and New Age music, their alpha brainwaves were heightened, indicating that they were more relaxed but also more alert and open-minded. However, researchers found that only those who listened to EDM had an increase in divergent thinking — a process used for generating creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. The participants’ level of divergent thinking was so high after listening to EDM that it was comparable to taking an idea generation test immediately after taking the drug MDMA (more commonly known as “ecstasy” or “molly”).
I will be discussing the link between electronic music and creativity. I believe that there is a link, and will explain why. A lot of people will say there isn’t a link, but I think that they just haven’t had the proper exposure to it.
Electronic music has been around for decades now, and has only been getting more popular. It’s long history started in the early 80s with artists such as Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, and the Pet Shop Boys. Later on in the 90s, we saw many subgenres emerge from its roots. The emergence of these subgenres was mostly due to the rise of computers. Because computers became more powerful, so did the sounds they could produce. Computers have helped create subgenres such as techno/house/trance music, as well as drum and bass/jungle music. These genres are quite different from each other, but all can be considered electronic music.
As you can see, electronic music has a long history and will likely not die any time soon. It’s popularity is only growing along with it’s technological capabilities. With these advancements comes increasing degrees of complexity in the sounds produced by computers.
You know how listening to music tends to improve your mood? Well, it also improves your creativity. A recent study published in the journal Psychology of Music found that a fast tempo or upbeat song can make you more creative.
The experiment looked at whether different types of music could have an effect on cognitive style and creativity. A sample of 90 participants was divided into three groups. The first listened to either fast-paced or slow-paced electronic dance music (EDM). The second group listened to either fast-paced or slow-paced classical music. The last group didn’t listen to any music at all. At the end of the experiment, they all answered questions designed to test their creativity.
The study found that people in the EDM group performed better on the creativity tests than those who had listened to classical music and those who hadn’t listened to anything at all.
What is it about EDM that makes us more creative?