Classical Music is your FRIEND

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We have all pretty much immersed ourselves in the art of Twerking, Dougie-ing and Cutting the occasional shape. With the recent rise and experimentation of Hip Hop and Pop, we have really lost our remembrance for the classics. Remember when you were young and you may have listened to some old skool tunes like Janet Jackson and Whitney in their hay day or even the infamous Spice Girls and Madonna’s Like a Virgin. For me, I’m speaking from a 90’s baby perspective, so there is only so much a can talk about when it comes to music that I’ve experienced. However, recently I came across something very interesting.

Classical music; the music of Intelligence, of Wealth and high status. For so long now we have associated these connotations with such a musically enriched genre, and we hardly even bat an eye at it let alone allow our ears to really absorb it. However, is this wise? From March onwards, we can all expect as university students to be under immense pressure from the looming 80% examination which starts to count towards your degree after second year. As well as this, some of us have to also lend our concentration to coursework due in less than a week and it may be all getting to us…just a smidge. So, what am I exactly trying to get at?

It has been scientifically proven that the genre of classical music can actually help with working at such a stressful time; the organic instrumental sounds of the piano, harp and violin lend itself to your benefit. Looking back at my previous post about Language and Music, the fact that music can activate most parts of your brain allows you to remember things that you wouldn’t usually remember. So why not put this to work?

Radio stations like Classical FM or others that play classical music can easily be put on in the background whilst you knock out that next essay or revision session. The soothing tones can relax you and allow you to absorb more of the information. 

An article in The Metro looks at the findings of clinical psychologist Dr. Emma Grey who suggested that maths “students who listened to classical music (with 60-70 beats per minute) while studying scored on average 12 per cent more in their Maths exams”. This is due to the fact that “the melody and tone range in classical music” allows students to maintain a longer studying/revision session and allows them to retain more information. It’s pretty evident that classical music is helpful when it comes to this period, however students of the 90’s who love their Hip Hop, Rock or Pop won’t find themselves prowling the YouTube’s search bar for Beethoven’s Fur Elise now, will they?

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This is where the fun part comes in. A friend of mine showed me a video that was hilarious, but quite interesting at the end. South Korean dance group ‘Waveya’ teamed up with the Belgium B-Classic Music Festival to create a project to promote classical music. What they created was not just a music video, but a statement. The video shows the all-female dance group dancing in cheerleader outfits and short shorts in a style that could be seen as commercial/jazz. The interesting beats that they hit to Antonín Leopold Dvorák’s ‘Symphony No. 9’ are clean, and they really do experiment with bringing the 1893 song to a 21^st century. The dynamic and cinematic locations they use keep you interested in the video, as well as the women dancing to it. As we work our way to the end of the video, a line appears stating that “You have just listened to 3 minutes of classical music” – pretty powerful if you ask me.

The video is definitely worth 3 minutes of your time, click here to watch it.

I want to leave this blog post on a note/question: why is it that when we watch a video like this, we can sit through minutes of listening to classical music, yet we won’t use it to benefit us when studying? Food for thought mis amigos.

From your classical music-loving friend,

Myles