Music improves wellbeing and quality of life, research suggests

2022-03-25 17:04:38

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A new analysis has empirically confirmed something that rings true for many music lovers – that singing, playing or listening to music can improve wellbeing and quality of life. A review of 26 studies conducted across several countries including Australia, the UK and the US has found that music may provide a clinically significant boost to mental health.

~ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/24/music-improves-wellbeing-and-quality-of-life-research-suggests

Re: Music improves wellbeing and quality of life, research suggests

Reply #1 – 2022-03-25 18:08:32

Hmmm, surely this is something that most people have recognised for decades if not centuries! It's truly amazing how much time, money and effort seems to expended these days in confirming old news!

Re: Music improves wellbeing and quality of life, research suggests

Reply #2 – 2022-03-25 18:26:25

The quoted part doesn't really hit spot on. The paper's title is "Association of Music Interventions With Health-Related Quality of Life", and click it, it is about treatment.

And even if otherwise, it wouldn't have been that simple. It could for example have been that people with access to music (because they don't have to work their asses off) are happier, or that people who have the ability to enjoy music are happier humans in general (meaning, it wouldn't help to expose the uncultured swine to this fine art - only cultured swine).

Now please excuse me while I pick up some https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_metal#Depressive_suicidal_black_metal for my happiness.

Re: Music improves wellbeing and quality of life, research suggests

Reply #3 – 2022-03-25 18:43:15

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The analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, confirmed “music interventions are linked to meaningful improvements in wellbeing”, as measured quantitatively via standardised quality-of-life survey data. The effects were similar whether participants sang, played or listened to music. The authors of the meta-analysis suggest that the benefit of music to mental quality of life was close in effect to improvements in mental health due to exercise and weight loss.

Re: Music improves wellbeing and quality of life, research suggests

Reply #4 – 2022-03-26 05:40:13

Not surprising as music can have a calming effect and boost someones mood etc. but I suspect it varies a bit from person-to-person as some types of music probably won't do nothing for some people, while that same music can have a solid uplifting effect for others, and maybe for some, might be more in the neutral-to-slightly-negative side of things.

I am personally of the mindset that Classical music is the closest music to Heaven while that 'death metal' type of music and the like is the closest music to hell as that 'death metal' type of music is pretty much the only so-called "music" I cannot stand as it just screams negativity in the overall feeling it projects with the screaming/growling and just going off on instruments etc (pretty much instant negative effect on ones mood, especially if I had to listen to it at a higher volume and for any length of time). it amazes me how anyone can like certain kinds of music as it makes me question their mental state, at least on some level. because while there is plenty of music that's forgettable (like it does nothing positive for you, but at the same time it's not bad etc), and even some I got more of a negative opinion of than a positive one, and even some that can somewhat stand out as clearly more negative, there is not much that clearly stands out in a really negative way.

so while I listen to some Rock music etc like many do, I suspect some Classical music (i.e. Renee Fleming (which I recently went through pretty much all of her stuff and narrowed it down so I could burn basically a 80min audio CD so it's just the best tracks) as her vocal tone and power is top notch which really conveys emotion well and music is all about ones emotional response to it at the end of the day as without that aspect, music is pretty much nothing. a large portion of mainstream female 'power singers', who tend to be overrated, can't touch her) I likely won't ever get tired of in the long run. but I think that's something that grew on me a bit with age as when I was younger, Classical in general would not have really done anything for me (like I don't think I would have disliked it, but at the same time, would probably have been mostly in that 'take-it-or-leave-it' sort of category).

anyways, thankfully, the really bad music you tend not to hear in general as any random radio station the bulk of it tends to be more in that average-to-forgettable range, some being a bit so-so, some being maybe a little better.

but when it comes to movies... I have seen over 2,350+ total individual movies (if you count re-watches (of which the bulk of movies I view are re-watches of movies I have seen before and it's been this way in general for years now) that figure is much higher) and in terms of percentages to sum things up only about 9% MAX of everything I have seen (maybe as low as about 6.6%) is good enough for me to call a favorite or thereabouts. also, only about 20% or so of everything I have seen gets a Thumbs Up simply because only about 20% (tops) of everything I have seen is worth re-watching and that's where movies are ultimately made or broke, just like music as if I won't really go out of my way to listen to music, then it's not really that great. I just got a more limited amount of music ill go out of my way to listen to where as with movies, while in terms of percentages things are still fairly low, there is a all-around higher volume ill go out of my way to re-watch.

plus, with the whole movies vs music thing... each has their ups and downs with stuff like enjoyment vs time spent etc. like while a typical song only takes maybe 3-5min of your time and a typical movie is roughly 2hrs of ones time (give or take 30min), one gets a higher level of overall enjoyment from a good movie than a good song, especially given the song is over pretty quickly, even though during that 3-5min of time it can be solid enjoyment, but with a quality movie you got a much longer time frame of a solid level of enjoyment. plus, movies are a visual medium (and can often be assisted by music to) and I would say in general visuals are more powerful than auditory. but I guess at the same time, movies do incorporate music to give them their flair on some level. so while I can't say one is definitely better than the other, I think if I had to choose to watch movies for the rest of my life but never hear another song, or I could listen to all the songs I want but can't see another movie (re-watch or otherwise), I would likely side with movies over music at the end of the day. but at this point in time, since I seen plenty enough movies, if you had me choose between ONLY being able to see movies I have not seen before (so no re-watching) and being able to listen to any music I want whenever I want, in this scenario I might side with the music over movies. because the whole point of me watching movies in general is to find quality movies I want to re-watch here and there as the years pass as this gives me more consistent/dependable level of entertainment vs seeing movies I have not seen before in which case ill likely have to watch a bunch of mostly forgettable ones to maybe find a gem here and there (which after you have seen plenty of movies, this becomes more difficult to do, especially excluding movies being released into the future as that's a little easier to find an occasional movie that stands out) as while there is technically still plenty of movies I could see, I am confident I exhausted seeing a large portion of those that I personally would like to a high enough degree to call a favorite (of which less than 1 out of every 10 movies I have seen over the long term has managed to pull that off. probably more towards about 1 out of every 15 movies to maybe as little as 1 out of every 11-12 movies).

anyways, john33 pretty much sums it up

but... what Porcus said I imagine is probably some level of factor also. but if someone does not have the ability to appreciate music, I feel sorry for them. because while I consider myself more of a movie person than music person overall, it's still nice to listen to some quality music from time-to-time as it's a good way to spend a little time and can boost ones mood occasionally etc. but it does seem like there are some people out there who don't really go out of their way to listen to music as it's almost like music does not stand out for them, so they mostly just ignore it. I can't relate to that at all as I would imagine even if someone is not a big fan of music in general, you would think there has to be at least some stuff out there that's worth going out of their way to listen to from time-to-time.

just some random thoughts

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