what the science says about working to music
- Written by Emery Schubert, Professor, Empirical Musicology Laboratory, School of the Arts and Media, UNSW Sydney
Phil is in prep for surgery. As the anaesthetic is about to be administered, the anaesthetist says: “Oh, and by the way, during the procedure the surgical team will be listening to the hard rock classic, You Shook Me All Night Long.”
Does Phil say, “STOP! I’m getting out of here”?
Perhaps he shouldn’t. According to one study, by listening to AC/DC during surgery, doctors can improve their performance. Use of music in operating theatres has had mixed results but the study – which looked at young surgeons working on laparoscopic procedures at a hospital in Dresden while listening to various different kinds of background music – found background music reduced surgeons’ anxiety. And who wants an anxious surgery team, right?
Particularly for boring, repetitive jobs, music can help. Locking into the beat (psychologists call this “rhythmic entrainment”) means your actions sync with the beat of the music, which can make routine tasks feel smoother and faster.
Put melody and beat together and, after a bit of practice, you too might be working like this postal officer – who even supplies his own melody.
When else does music help you at work?
Background music often doesn’t help with memory and language tasks, such as reading comprehension and reading speed, especially when the music contains lyrics. When you’re processing words, extra words supplied by the song are competing for attention.
Difficult, complex tasks are also hindered by music.
But what about that surgery team? Aren’t they performing among the highest-stakes tasks of all? The key is expertise. An experienced medical professional typically carries a lower “cognitive load” for familiar procedures, leaving mental bandwidth to spare. In those circumstances, a bit of music might steady the nerves without crowding out attention.
But personality matters: people on the shy or introverted side are more likely to find background music distracting than extroverts who thrive on stimulation.
The music genre matters, too. Jazz standards might help one person focus, and drive another around the bend, while the latest K-pop hits might do no more than help you procrastinate from that already overdue task.
And volume matters. Not too soft, and the music can cover up or “mask” unwanted, unpredictable, distracting noise like office chatter, café clatter, library whispers, or (heaven help you), shopping centre din. The goal isn’t loudness; it’s control over your soundscape.
Why is music such a popular work companion?
Music occupies your ears. That leaves your eyes – and your hands – free to get on with the job.
Music can sometimes support tactile and kinaesthetic work, such as our postal worker cancelling stamps with a beat and a ditty. He was able to watch what he was doing, while singing and stomping away.
Intriguingly, even though music is a sound signal, the ear can deal with the auditory airwaves containing other sounds more gracefully than the eye can with visuals. Trying to work while listening to music is very different than trying to work while watching television. This holds true even when you need to be listening to something as part of your work.
Our brains are surprisingly good at separating simultaneous sound sources. This ability is called “auditory scene analysis”: the brain’s way of separating mixed sounds into distinct sources – like picking out one voice in a noisy room.
So audio tasks – such as listening to instructions or taking dictation – can still be performed with background music, though performance may be somewhat reduced compared with silence. But the ear can juggle streams in a way the eye often can’t.
Music also provides us with joy. Music can spark powerful experiences – belonging, awe, tenderness, thrills – states that can boost mood and motivation. That’s why some people can’t help plugging in.
If music ever starts to get in the way of focused work, another strategy is to take a “music break”: get a quick hit of your favourite tracks to elevate mood, then return to the task refreshed.
Putting it into practice
If you want to experiment, try this quick checklist:
match the music to the task: embrace rhythm for repetitive or motor tasks; favour instrumentals for reading, writing or anything word heavy
mind the lyrics: words in your music compete with words in your head
keep it moderate: play music at a volume enough to mask distractions, not enough to dominate attention
know thyself: if you’re easily overstimulated, keep sessions short or choose calmer genres such as lo fi, ambient or soft classical
use breaks strategically: if music distracts while you work, save it for short “fuel up” breaks to restore mood and focus.
But there is no hard and fast rule. Recall our hard rock–loving surgeons? No lo-fi for them. But for the record, the surgery went just fine with the gentler Beatles classic, aptly titled Let It Be. And music’s not for everyone. For some, the surest way to stay tuned in to work is to not tune in at all.
Authors: Emery Schubert, Professor, Empirical Musicology Laboratory, School of the Arts and Media, UNSW Sydney
