Study finds solo music listening boosts social well-being
97 comments
·March 31, 2025JKCalhoun
sph
In the past few years, getting songs stuck in my head (earworms) has become so easy I pretty much don’t listen to music with vocals anymore. Only ambient, techno and psytrance for me. (Pop I imagine would be the absolute worst, lab engineered to be memorable)
I’m certain the DSM-5 might list that as a symptom of going crazy or whatever, but I don’t care to know, I guess it’s a new quirk of mine. That said, I truly dislike having neighbours practicing an instrument, which means having to suffer the same tune for far too long, and it getting stuck in my head for 2 more days.
alexjplant
> In the past few years, getting songs stuck in my head (earworms) has become so easy I pretty much don’t listen to music with vocals anymore.
Ditto the sibling comment about this happening to me for instrumental music. I have thousands of hooks floating around my head. I whistle and sing when I walk around if nobody is within earshot. 90% of the time I wake up with a melody in my head that won't go away. I kind of like it because it's developed my musical ability in a passive, cumulative way.
recursive
I have music stuck in my head more or less constantly. It's never bothered, and I'm kind of surprised to find all the remedies suggested here. For me, instrumental music is no different from vocal music. It can be a riff from a solo, a chord change, an interesting timbre, or pretty much any sound. Sometimes I think they're not from songs that have yet been recorded. Just the imagination of sounds that turn over and over. I've always kind of liked it. I'm a musician myself, and I think it helps me think of old music in new ways.
globnomulous
> In the past few years, getting songs stuck in my head (earworms) has become so easy I pretty much don’t listen to music with vocals anymore. Only ambient, techno and psytrance for me. (Pop I imagine would be the absolute worst, lab engineered to be memorable)
Same. This is partly why SomaFM (esp. Space Station Soma, Drone Zone, and Mission Control) and soundtracks are my jam.
I think it's also partly why I can't stand Vivaldi or Hiromi. Vivaldi writes classical pop -- so heavy on melody that it may as well be choral. It's easy to sing, and sounds like song, so it gets stuck in the ear. Hiromi, in turn, plays the piano quite literally like she's singing (honestly, I think she's a musical acrobat with no feel for the piano as an instrument), which results in ear worms for the same reason.
Bill Evans, by contrast, is so chock full of harmonic complexity and color that it's physically impossible to sing along with him. I never tire of him. Same for Wayne Shorter and Bach, though for different reasons.
And I just realized that this is probably partly why I hate musical theater so fervently.
encom
This can be associated with ADHD. Guess how I know.
lgeorget
I know many people who say they can't live without music, cannot work or just be around home without listening to something. I understand their experience but I can't relate at all. It's not that I don't like music or that I'm particularly sensitive to noise but I practically never listen to music I put myself. I feel like I could just live without it completely.
bojan
Since I have children I almost never listen to music. The kids are such a sensory overload that, when I get a moment of silence alone, I don't want to ruin it with sound.
BLKNSLVR
Depending on the age of your children, you should play music to introduce them to it. Some of my best memories from when my kids were young is of them dancing around uncontrollably to In The Hall of the Mountain King and Hergest Ridge (a particular section). They loved it. It activates something.
They need to know there's more out there than The Wiggles.
recursive
I have kids. When I get a moment alone, I find that's a perfect opportunity to do some high quality listening without interruption.
SoftTalker
For me it depends on my mood. Sometimes I like to have background music going, sometimes I enjoy silence.
TechDebtDevin
I'm like this but replace music with audiobooks/podcasts..
crent
I'm glad you shared your experience because I've dealt with this for decades. It's usually a small snippet, 15 seconds or less, of a song that just loops over and over for me.
What I do to combat this, and other "brain noise", is also to listen to music but I use headphones with high volume. I also listen to the same playlist repeatedly so it's not distracting and instead quiets that loud part of my brain to allow me to focus.
chrisweekly
Strong recommendation to use noise-cancelling instead of high volume. Hearing loss sucks! Protect your ears!
jaymzcampbell
I'm relieved to know from reading this thread I'm not completely crazy. I have the same thing, a very, very short snippet just repeatedly "playing". I become very conscious of it at various moments and try to "change the track" to some other repeated snippet. I've yet to find a pattern to which track is next.
threecheese
Same. It’s five seconds of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” looping over and over and makes me want to crawl inside a blaring tuba to drown it out.
When people mention “intrusive thoughts” this is what comes to my mind.
thewebguyd
Same, but instead of the same playlist I'll put the same song on repeat while working. It really does quiet the mind and lets me focus.
chrisweekly
Same. I posted upthread about my flowstate playlist, optimized for tracks to put on repeat for focus.
maeil
> I find without the presence of external music I will have a song playing in my head instead. And generally the same song for hours (!).
I have this, but then for days. It's not fun. Sleeping a lot helps, to an extent.
ecalifornica
You might enjoy Oliver Sacks' book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. You're not alone in your experience.
pknopf
I'm exactly like this.
I have a OneWheel that I use to get around, and a JBL speaker. I legit listen to music in Publix isles, dancing, vibing, all day, every day.
I'm known around my neighborhood as "the speaker guy".
If I don't have music playing, I'm usually finger drumming/tapping/bobbing my head anyway.
aerostable_slug
> JBL speaker
On behalf of everyone else in the world, please invest in headphones.
Broadcasting in this way is boorish and the kind of thing emotionally stunted people do to inflict their will upon others. I'm not saying you're necessarily like that, but you're 'wearing their uniform' so to speak.
velp
Being known as "the speaker guy" isn't a compliment.
Also, do a kickflip.
maleldil
Please stop forcing your music on everyone around you. Get headphones.
chrisweekly
I have a carefully-curated Spotify playlist -- "FLOWSTATE: Repeatable FTW"[1] -- that I specifically optimized for "flowstate" (/Cal Newport "deep work" sessions). The tracks span various moods or vibes, but all are strictly instrumental, w/ limited dynamic range or significant musical variation, and a steady, energizing beat -- ie they're each deliberately repetitive and work well set on repeat. Airpods in, pick a track that resonates w my mood, set it on repeat, set my Pomodoro timer (to remind me to stand and move instead of hyperfocus for hours straight), and I can reliably enter flowstate almost right away.
1. Here's the playlist if anyone's interested:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6UScdOAlqXqWTOmXFgQhFA?si=...
Novosell
As another music-purchaser, it's annoying how difficult it is to buy FLAC releases of bigger artists.
skydhash
You can try qobuz and 7digital.
piperswe
For big artists, I tend to just go to my local record store, pick up a CD, and rip it when I get home.
csdvrx
For albums, I recommend supraphonline.cz: https://www.supraphonline.cz/vyhledavani/alba/maingenre.1-ve...
JKCalhoun
Yeah, since I prefer Bandcamp and, as you say, the bigger artists are not there, I end up buying shitty MP3s from Amazon for their songs.
So I end up with real high quality Japanese Breakfast and MP3-quality Pixies.
Novosell
Aye, bandcamp is the go-to. It's funny that the further production gets from someones bedroom the less likely you are to be able to buy a lossless version. All that production for a 192kbps MP3...
edu
And buying the CD and ripping it?
saint_yossarian
hdtracks.com has a pretty big catalog, but is sometimes a bit expensive.
tananan
Study finds you enjoy doing things you like. If there's something you particularly like, you seem to enjoy it even more.
If you are missing on some form of pleasure in your life, substituting it for another pleasure can help alleviate the pain.
Woah.
RajT88
I used to live near a nice downtown with a riverwalk. I liked to take my guitar and go play under the bridge at night. The bridge was concrete and the reverb was crazy good. (Does that make me a troll? A troll posting on the internet??)
I found it terribly soothing. Sometimes I'd bring a friend with and we'd play together.
bluGill
I assume you listened for kids walking over the bridge and then jumped up "Who is trip tropping over my bridge". One of my favorite actives, and done right the kids laugh (don't get too close or do anything else that would make the kids scared!)
RajT88
This was Naperville, IL. So that kind of behavior is very risky.
You could get sued for 10 million dollars. Or these days, deported to Aurora.
seplox
You just reminded me of one of my favorite Tony Joe White songs, so thanks!
Tony Joe White - Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fJMNJTEhuw
wobfan
The study also explains that one feels less lonely when listening to their favourite music, which is kinda new to me. I mean, feeling better makes sense and is quite obvious, as you sarcastically say, but I wouldn't think that listening to music makes one feel less alone.
jack_pp
Depends, if you listen to Emo/sad/heartbreak songs you will probably feel much more lonely.
clcaev
I wouldn't assume that sad songs make you more lonely. For someone dealing with grief, it may act as drug-free therapy. Perhaps deepened sorrow at first, but when one deals with grief, mental state and behavior can improve.
InsideOutSanta
When I work from home, I usually listen to Sade, Brandy, Monica, Faith Evans, and similar music. Although the music is often about heartbreak, it doesn't make me sad. I find it calming.
basisword
I think it's the opposite. Those songs are good because you find someone can relate to you and therefore you would feel less lonely. Maybe not less sad, but more connected.
jjulius
I listen to sad songs with great regularity and jam the hell out to the sheer musicianship within, actually.
odyssey7
The cause or the effect? I would actually guess no for the effect, since music preferences are associated with community membership.
neuroticnews25
I wonder if it may be beneficial even if you're not naturally willing to do it, similar to how introverts feel better after acting extroverted [0] [1]
[1] https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/7/1/29931/119109...
metalman
:) pleasure is the gateway experience into enjoying yourself
singularity2001
This is one of the cases I call reality mismatch:
Through evolution we have been programmed to associate music with security of the group being nearby. Now we can listen to music even though the group is very distant in time and space. Maybe it's not a complete reality mismatch because in a sense we are still close to the group through the Internet.
However the positive feelings are over exaggerated given the limited modern benefits.
brudgers
Some people don’t have strong bonds with groups and some people don’t have experiences where identifiable groups were a source of security.
This is the experience of outsiders. People without tribe. There choice is not between bread and cake, but between bread and an empty belly.
s1artibartfast
To be honest, I dont have a lot of time for complaints from such people. Maybe I am one, but the solution is to go live in a cabin and bake your own bread, not sit at the table looking for sympathy.
wiether
That seems to be an extreme reaction?
They were just stating the reality of some people that don't necessarily chose to feel how they feel...
em-bee
i thought it is comparable to talking to my friends online instead of in person. in my case those friends are on a different continent. i do have local fiends too, but talking to my online friends is what keeps me connected to my the place where i grew up. (even though these friends are not from that time)
interestingly, as someone who plays an instrument, i don't enjoy just listening to music as much because i'd rather play with friends
scop
That’s a fascinating take. Music until very recently was indeed an incredibly social activity bound with layers of talent, leisure (purpose/meaning/security), belonging, etc.
As people have been chatting about the Metaverse or AR I often quip that we’ve already had AR for awhile: headphones.
The ubiquitous of AirPods, even amongst employees on the clock in recent years, has only reinforced my belief that we are already deep down the AR rabbit hole and seeing both the positive and negative effects. Augmented reality is great, but we still need to be grounded and able to act within reality. It’s the reality that must be our base, not the augmented part. The augmented should serve to improve reality, not replace.
volkl48
We created office jobs that required sustained individual focus.
The traditional (high-walled) cube farm may be ugly, but it's also one where an employee could often work at their desk with relatively few distractions. If you're not going to build private offices, they're not that awful of a compromise for enabling focus.
Then in the past decade or two, we had the open-office trend, and changed the office to one full of endless visual and auditory distractions making focus difficult.
Employees wearing headphones at work is an obvious attempt by many to reduce the distractions that bad office design has created.
cryptopian
One of the most enjoyable musical experiences I had recently was on a choir exchange in Europe. We were at a concert afterparty with choirs from two other countries, exchanging drunken folk songs. Were we pleasant to listen to? Probably not. It was raucous and out of tune, but it was a bunch of people sharing something we loved.
em-bee
i had a similar experience in scouting. german scouting has a strong singing tradition to the point that there are regular competitions that attract groups from all over europe. also camps where multiple groups meet. imagine your after party experience every night for multiple days, maybe even a week or two.
moritzruth
That sounds beautiful.
scop
Singing in adult choirs has been one of my most spiritually and socially rewarding activities. You really feel a brother in arms with your fellow singers. Perhaps it is because singing is such an embarrassing activity in isolation, but then the sheer force of all the voices come together to make something of such power and beauty that you are incapable of replicating yourself. I’ll never forget the tenors I sang Faures Requiem or Beethoven 9th with.
hackable_sand
Did you mean to say "performance" instead of "music"?
Either way, this sounds like vague popsci reasoning.
DrillShopper
There are a lot of things that I find wrong with Spotify, but one of the features it does have that I have found helpful is a feature where you can listen along using what Spotify calls a Jam:
> Friends who join a Jam can listen and add songs to the queue together, whether in-person or virtually.
> Note: Premium is needed to start and host a Jam. Free users can join and add songs to a Jam hosted by a Premium user, allowing for in-person Jams. This feature works also with smart speakers and most Bluetooth speakers.
I've used this with online friends, and it's really good. If you use a voice chat app (we usually use Mumble) you can even talk while the music plays.
jasondigitized
https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/groovesalad is my well-being
ews
SOMAFM's SF police radio with ambient music is surprisingly good for concentration, I have this on an alias in my box : mpv https://somafm.com/sf1033.pls
riyanapatel
I can't argue that I really enjoy music as my working background noise. Something else unique is I enjoy listening to TV shows, or more, "noise". I usually put on a simple TV show I've seen before that doesn't need a lot of attention (Friends, the Office, New Girl, Big Bang Theory), that creates that background noise. It's like white noise to me :)
SteelByte
Fascinating research showing music's powerful social effects. Would be interesting to see if the results hold up across different demographics and cultures. Also curious about the neurological mechanisms at play - perhaps solo music activates brain regions involved in empathy and social bonding? Exciting implications for music therapy applications.
stronglikedan
If you want to know if this is for you, but you don't want to spend a lot of money, start with iems. It's quite the hobby, as well as education. It's very cheap and accessible to start off, while getting the full hi-fi music feeling. Of course, if you stick with it, it can get very expensive.
hk1337
I wonder if it's a similar case with having tv shows running in the background? Music is often too stimulating for me but I like having the TV running in the background cycling through tv shows.
jrmyphlmn
if one's childhood had many instances of tv playing in the background, then I suspect it's their nervous system marking that environment as their most safe/comfortable environment and that revisiting it can have a soothing effect on them?
Ylpertnodi
Many years ago, I always used to have TV on whilst I did (composed) music. With YouTube (and others) nowadays, I still found myself doomscrolling, so I bought a digital TV tuner and have that in a window. Productivity up.
pearlsontheroad
I wonder if the positive effect is also associated with a sense of autonomy and control of the environment.
ssttoo
Confusing title, I thought there was something special in solo music, e.g. pieces for one piano or a single classical guitar
qoez
Study shows people relying on studies for common sense found less adept at independent thinking
euvitudo
My birds are much happier when music is playing. And they seem to have preferences over time. Like there are no predators around when the environment around them is noisy.
khalladay
Though I found they like having control over whether the music is playing more... to my chagrin. I tried to keep my parrot from being too noisy through the day by setting up a microphone in his room, and having it turn off the radio for 30 seconds every time he was louder than a threshold amount.
Day one -> he triggered the shut down ~10 times. Day two -> easily 50. Day three -> you can see where this is going
Dude freaking LOVED being able to turn on and off the radio. It almost beat out being able to flap his wings and make the curtains move as one of his favourite hobbies.
Maybe others will relate? I'm not a headphone person but always have music playing in the background on speakers — often at a fairly low volume so it is easily ignored, talked over.
I find without the presence of external music I will have a song playing in my head instead. And generally the same song for hours (!). So I suppose the external click-track freezes up my mind somehow.
In case anyone cares, my "playlist" is local music I've purchased over the decades — maybe 4 or 5 days long? In my "lab" (man-cave, I suppose) I have a shorter, streamed playlist on the stereo that is looping over new music that I am currently "auditioning". The songs that make the cut are purchased and added eventually to the local playlist that plays elsewhere.