AND the mirror of ours emotions and reflects our lives. Just ask anyone who has dealt with it end of a relationship listening to the same album two weeks in a row or faithfully listening to the same podcast multiple times a week (or day). But how exactly do the sound waves of music passing through our ears have such an enthralling effect on our hearts and minds?
Music, needless to deny it, is protagonist of our lives. On several occasions and in several moments. Some studies have revealed that, globally, we listen to an average of 20 hours of music a week (much of it streamed), and that one in five Internet users listen to podcasts today (and the numbers are growing rapidly).
Music: The Sonic Science studio
According to the recent study sonic science conducted by Spotify And Neuro Insightsome multitask while listening to music, like cooking or working out, but over a third of study participants said they did focus all your attention on the audio. Even when performing activities that require a high level of concentration, such as study and work, participants were highly engaged in the audio they were listening to.
The scientists used survey data to prove that people choose music based on what they are doing in real life. And this additional Spotify study provides unequivocal proof that those choices are indeed related to the physical environment and activities performed.
To demonstrate this, the musical attributes of different songs were analyzed. Between these the vivacity, the danceability, the energy, the instrumentality (intended as the absence of vocal parts) and speech (the measure of the presence of spoken verses in a piece), together with the activities performed by the people while listening. The listeners played over 20 different activitiesfromtraining to travel, from cooking to gaming.
In some cases, the choices made by listeners were intuitive: they usually preferred, for example, danceable music during parties and instrumental pieces during study. But the most interesting point lies in the fact that the musical tastes of the listeners are not detached from the context.
We listen to different music based on physical and emotional needs
People have different physical, emotional and mental needs throughout the day and they want audio to meet each specific need. Whether it’s the motivation for a morning run, the sense of belonging from time spent with friends, the Relax to catch your breath from a busy day or something else… During training moments, you listen to lively music that makes you want to dance, like Hip Hop and EDM or 80s, 90s and 00s Rock playlists. In this case the most used devices in this case are mobile and wearables such as headphones and earphones.
While on the move, the study found that they predominantly listen to each other fast-paced playlists. Hot Hits Italy, Rock: the Classics and Plus Ultra these are the most listened to sections and mobile devices and those present in cars are mainly used.
During meals, morning, early afternoon and evening, we listen music that makes you want to dance, to enrich the already pleasurable activity of enjoying a meal. One is also attracted by passages in which the speech is a predominant part, like hip hop, which evokes a sense of ‘brotherhood’. In this case, tablets, desktops and speakers are the preferred devices for listening, as well as during housework.
During study or work we tend to listen to musical genres purely instrumental and non-vocal, such as the EDM and the classic musicin order not to lose concentration, while in moments of socialization, such as parties and evenings with friends, green light to music that makes you want to dance, like Hip Hop, World Pop and R&B to listen to powerful speakers or home audio systems.
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