Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

Music Affecting People

Reeta Pesonen (2014) explained how music affects people. Studies have

proclaimed that music influences the circulation of blood and alternates the blood

pressure, thus indicating that music can also restore, improve and maintain human

health. Furthermore, different music genres also affect peoples emotions on what taste

of music people like to listen depending on their emotional state, mental alertness, age

and cultural background. For some people music is a necessity in their daily life

because music for them can lessen stress or make them productive in their various field

of work, yet it also depends on what mood they are in because music affects human

emotion in different ways.

Laurence Aloisio et al (2015) conducted a research in their interest with the

therapeutic potential of music. The practice of music being as a therapeutic medicine

goes back to 10,000 B.C in the time where people thought about music as spiritual and

magical power that creates and sustains life. It is stated that music gives the listener an

opportunity to experience life in a different landscape, which gives a person a way to

express how they perceive the world around the world and basic understanding around

it. The demand for music in the modern world has increasingly gone higher with the

different sub genres being created. According to the research, the recorded music

market is worth US$ 17.6 billion, which signifies that this generation of people most

likely listens to music.

Basing on what the study states, most of the current population listens to music.

To this understanding and what is being observed, we can say that most of the Grade 10
Students in Don Bosco Technical College-Cebu Inc. listens to music mainly with

genres such as ‘Pop’ and ‘Hip Hop’ because it has the highest demands in this current

era. Involving themselves and listening to these upbeat types of music might give

themselves an edge to reduce stress and make themselves feel relaxed.

Laurence Aloisio et al (2015) explained that the genre of music might as well

affect the person’s ability to comprehend and understand a certain topic. It is found in a

study by Biley in 1990 that people who listen to relaxing classical music has a chance

of greater reduction to heart rate and anxiety. The genre of music can also affect the

self-esteem of the subject, which can affect the confidence and their capabilities to

believe in their own strengths. Therefore listening to certain genre of music that

enhances the self-esteem can have a more positive effect in productivity.

The Power of Music to Reduce Stress

Jane Collingwood (2018) studies that listening to music can help us relax our

minds and bodies, depending on what music we listen to, both the body and mind will

relate to the music therefore helping us feel relaxed. It slows our pulse and heart rate,

lowers our blood pressure, and decreases the level of stress hormones. For it brings out

our emotions in how we feel and do stuff basing on how we process it. Thus it aids our

focus because music absorbs our attention and at the same time distracts us to explore

our emotions.

Music also helps us to increase the level of productivity in workability

depending on what type of music we listen to; because music triggers emotions and

reduces stress by that helping people to increase their level of productivity when they

listen to music.
Effects of Noise and Music on Human and Task Performance

Brian H. Dalton and David G. Behm (2007) studies the effect of human task

performance of the level of music noise. Despite it, music can relax people but it can

also distract them in work, it depends on the person in what kind of volume they prefer

to. Some people want it low and some people want it in a higher volume. Noise is one

of the leading causes of distractions that is why other people prefer to work in a quiet

environment. Too much noise also affects peoples’ health and life style; one example of

it is hearing loss and discomfort to ones wellbeing during a certain time of work. It also

shows how moderate volumes of background music affects the level of productivity of

a person depending on their mood, the type of music being heard and the level of

volume they want to hear for their own preferences.

This Is Your Brain on Music

Neuroscientist Daniel Joseph Levitin (2006) explained how music works as a

kind of food or fuel to the brain. This works with how music can trigger different parts

of the brain to increase synchronization and productivity the same as what we do while

were listening to music while dancing. Another example of music acting as a fuel to our

brains is when athletes listen to music when they are training. An example of this

happening is when an upbeat type of music helps an Olympian runner move faster by

the different neurons in the brain firing and synchronizing which helps the athlete

perform better.

This study points out the different effects of music in a biological perspective

which can greatly affect how the Grade 10 Students of Don Bosco Technical Center-

Cebu, Inc. use music to help them understand the lessons more and keep their

attentiveness present which could result into better productivity in their study habits.
Therefore it is essential to know about the knowledge that we can use as tools to further

understand the how we can manage and use it to our advantage.

Daniel Joseph Levitin (2006) however, this does not only work on any athletic

activities. It is known that classical music has been used by many people to increase

focus while they are studying. As soon as music enters the eardrums this results into a

reaction to the brain that causes production of chemicals, such as dopamine that gives

pleasure sensations to the various parts of our body. Music also triggers production of

other chemicals in which is why there is an emotional response when a person is

listening to a sad or uplifting music.

Music and Academic Performance

Leonid Perlovsky et al. (2013) researched about how music can overcome stress

from cognitive dissonance. Storing knowledge is an important factor to human beings

because it is essential towards the development of ones capabilities, yet it causes a lot of

stress due to cognitive dissonance, which is a state of having inconsistent thoughts.

Therefore listening to music while studying or answering an exam can increase focus,

for it reduces stress caused by cognitive dissonance. This is also why there is a

difference between music and just sound, it is because music can affect the human

psychology, which triggers emotions and pleasant chemicals being stimulated inside

our brains.

The research being conducted would relate to many students of Don Bosco

Technical College – Cebu Inc. because stressed caused by daily obligations such as

performance tasks and activities can cause the lack of motivation and give a negative

mood to the student. This goes to show how important music is as a tool for a man’s

productivity and essential growth. Consequently listening to music with a preferred

genre can lift up our mood, which can reduce stress and increase the productivity of

Students in DBTC-Cebu Inc.

However this study does not focus only in music but also in other aspects such

as how the human brain works, the different chemical reactions caused by a certain

genre of music, and how often a person listens to music. It also goes far as to the effects

on people with musical education and people without music education so that we can

understand the complexity of the topic. Different courses are also studied to show the

variety of how many performed well with the study.

Donald A. Hodges (2013) created a study of the impact of music education on

academic achievement he wants to answer the issue of the music education community

the issue is all about: What is the impact of participation in music education on

academic achievement.

He examined the students who participate in music education and those who do

not; he noticed that those students who participate in music education do better on many

measures of academic achievement. A number of students also supports that students

who participate in music education have a higher academic achievement than to those

students who do not. For music education also involves reading or language arts and

mathematics, science and self-discipline, thus helping students to be more focused on

the task or activity at hand.

The Psychology of Music

Diana Deutsch (2013) explained the foundation of Western Music which can be

traced back to Pythagoras, an ancient greek philosopher. Pythagoras loved to study

music and he concerned his study mostly on the musical intervals with the pitch and
vibrations of the instrument being used. His study made him realize that our bodies can

feel the harmony and rhythm of music but we can’t hear it. It shows the difference

between sound and music. It is because music creates rhythm that our brains can easily

recognize but a mere sound does not have any rhythm.

According to these studies music intervals are the ones that create music, which

cause a certain reaction to the human brain. It might even give reaction to other

mammals same as when we observe that dogs also have the same reaction to the rhythm

and harmony of music. It can trigger our brains to show emotion and give relevance and

relation between the listener and the music being listened to. This goes to show that the

principle of music is that it creates a rhythm that gives the listener’s brain some kind of

reaction to it, which can either give a positive or negative mood.

In terms of how it can affect the productivity in study habits, the emotion

created from listening music can reduce stress and give some sort of focus to the person

studying. With this, it can help a person’s level of productivity making him more

focused with the task being given. This would create an improvement in his life and

with the development of his own self.

Effects of Music on Quality of Life across the Lifespan: A Meta-Analysis

Jin-Hyung Lee et al (2013) research conduct by the group of music therapy and

quality of associated music with the human mood, cognition, biology, and behavior in

the past 2 decades. The diverse use of music by creating, listening and performing gives

off a good quality of life to those who involve themselves in it. Music as a powerful

tool to increase the quality of life of the population mainly correlates to their level of

productivity in which makes life easier.

 Bosconians in DBTC-Cebu Inc. were always exposed to music since they were

still in elementary. This explains how their love for listening and creating music must

have been from. In this age of technology we are able to use music anywhere we go

through our phones. With the use of these modern devices, we are able to listen to as

much music as we want. It only depends on how we use it as a tool to help us with our

daily tasks.

However, an average person uses it only as a way to relax and kill time. Some

might use it to avoid any social activity or some might use it for social activities. There

different variety of ways on how you can use music. Lastly, future research should

consider the usefulness and how music could increase the quality of living through the

experiences of music, as opposed to other types of experiences. With this we can

enhance the quality of life to the majority of the worlds population.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251596049_THE_IMPACT_OF_MUSIC_EDUCATI

ON_ON_ACADEMIC_ACHIEVEMENT

https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/97299/Tang_Aloisio_Pesonen.pdf?sequence=1.

https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-power-of-music-to-reduce-stress/

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/abec/3497f58b65c00f4af213b289ce01d4ea61d2.pdf

https://www.nammfoundation.org/articles/2017-09-09/music-booster-organization-startups