Airpods and wired headphones in classrooms, daily tunes in the hallways, practice playlists for nearly all sports: music can be found in almost every aspect of a student’s life in one shape or another. However, the actual effect that music has on our learning capabilities and mood is something that is rarely discussed.

For many students like Madison Barber (12), the thought of going a day without some sort of beat playing is unimaginable.

“I can’t get through the day in just dead silence,” she said. “I probably listen to like 8 hours a day of just music. It’s insane. Life is so bland without music.”

Barber is not the only person who feels this way, either. Even staff, including psychology teacher Ed Lasanta, describe music’s effects on their daily lives.

“I just don’t want to live without music. Music is an important part of my day…and I’m a hundred percent believer that music affects your ability to perform work and do schoolwork.”

However, this is not the case for everyone. Some students prefer quiet to hone in and focus on one task, such as Julia Burnham (12).

“I do not [listen to music] because it’s distracting to me personally,” Burnham said, “and I can’t really concentrate on what I would be reading and the words in my brain at the same time, so it’s just extra background noise plus classroom noise….”

Not just during school do students listen to music while doing work, though. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll states that for about 87% of students, listening to music was the most popular side activity to accompany studying.

“If I really need to focus and get solid work done, I need to have music and be pushing the deadline in my head,” Barber said.

Why mood affects learning, though, goes down to a scientific level, as described by Lasanta.

“When a song pops up on the radio, I know the letters like T by T,” Lasanta said, “but I have such a hard time learning the multiplication tables. Because songs, you learn quickly, and you’ll remember rhythms because it’s creating an emotional response.”

Music does not only affect education on a concentration and memory level, though. Mood is crucial in tying music and learning together in perfect harmony.

“I think music opens up the capabilities of the brain,” Lasanta said. “It exercises the brain because people are using different parts of the brain when they’re listening to music. It is a stimulus that is going to stimulate you to do something.”

Whether it be rock, pop, indie, or classical, the beats and rhythms, in addition to lyrics, can affect mood, which in turn affects learning ability.

“My music taste is kind of all over the place,” Barber said. “It really depends on the vibe of the day and my mood. Pop, indie, rock, honestly a little bit of everything just all over the place [during school].”

Not only does genre play a role, but also the memories attached to specific songs.

“I remember listening to ‘7PM’ by Lizzy Mcalpine while driving down the coast of orange beach, and it was absolutely pouring, but it was so beautiful, and there was such a good vibe,” Barber said.

Memories generate a stimulus-response connected to our other senses, and that is where a change in mood and concentration comes in.

“Music is definitely connected with the experience, the memory, the smells, and what’s happening in your environment,” Lasanta said. “We perceive so much that we don’t realize, and that song might reactivate a memory, and that would reactivate a feeling that you had.”

Overall, music plays an essential role in keeping students engaged at school by affecting mood and memory. Without it, the world would have a lot less harmony.

“How can I live without music?” Lasanta said. “I need music in my life, and sometimes it feels like that if I don’t have music, something’s missing.”