To me, a senior in my last semester of high school, studying for a test is comparable to having rock salt rubbed into the soles of my bare feet and mineral-starved goats let loose to lick and lick until nothing remains but bone nubs and exposed nerve endings.
My only solace in studying is music. But lately, to my displeasure, I’ve found that my study playlist—featuring everything from Norwegian gnome metal to Chief Keef—has been diminishing my productivity rather than boosting it.
That isn’t to say Chief Keef is responsible for my C in physics. Music can only help so much, and sometimes not at all, so the logical thing to do would be to amend my study strategy. But since I would rather be waterboarded, I decided to try and build the optimal study playlist instead.
First up was classical; it was the first genre that came to mind when I imagined what a nerd might listen to. The night before my statistics quiz, I sat down at my desk, pulled out my notes, and listened to an hour’s worth of classical music while I worked.
It was more invigorating than I expected. My favorites were “Volière” and “Aquarium” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ suite “The Carnival of the Animals,” which evoked feelings of flying and swimming, respectively. I also enjoyed “Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach, which featured a complex organ melody, and Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” which made me feel, indeed, like a mountain king. I was able to focus on my studying for a decent amount of time without any distractions from vocals, but towards the end, I was bored. My focus dissipated around the forty-five minute mark.
The next genre up was lo-fi, which, in my opinion, was the worst of the lot. I like jazzy, mellow sounds as much as the next guy, but barely five minutes into “pov: you procrastinated and have an essay due tomorrow (hand holding pencil emoji) lofi focus music to beat that assignment” by Lofi Girl on YouTube, the sheer repetitiveness and simplicity began to bore me. I sank into a deep and excruciating stupor; I was tortured by both the lo-fi music and my homework. I managed to do three practice problems before I tapped out.
Metal was next, because I was approaching the two-hour mark of my study session and I could already feel myself pivoting from boredom to rage. I enjoyed “Carrion” by Australian band Parkway Drive and “SLAUGHTER THE MARTYR” by Machine Head; however, my favorite song by far was “Samantha” by Eths, a band from Marseille, France. I loved the range of the female vocalist and the unique meshing of alternative rock and riot grrrl influences with more traditional styles, like death metal and black metal. However, while listening to metal did help me channel my frustration towards my homework into academic motivation, I did not find it entirely conducive to studying. I would suggest listening to metal during breaks in studying, rather than while you are actively trying to work.
I resumed my study session with some ambient music. “Learning to Warm Cold Hands” by Flatsound, “Einklang” by Peter Michael Hamel, and “Blue Hour” by Pinkshinyultrablast (an, in my opinion, excellent band from St. Petersburg that deals in a variety of genres) were my top picks. I found ambient a vastly preferable genre to lo-fi, and it even edged out classical music in my rankings. I liked the depth of sound and soothing effect, and it felt neither overly repetitive nor overly complex. Characteristically, ambient music emphasizes creating atmosphere over sticking to traditional rhythm, and I found the peaceful, instrumental sounds soothing. With ambient music, I managed to study uninterrupted for a full hour and five minutes.
Next, I tried folk and country. While these are two distinct genres, I decided to lump them together for my own convenience. In my opinion, country music is amazing when there’s not someone in your ear telling you it’s trash. Over the next half hour, I listened to “Tower Song” by Townes Van Zandt, “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show, and “Coal” by Dylan Gossett. I was partial to “Milk and Honey” by Jackson C. Frank.
But while I enjoyed everything I listened to, I was less productive than I could have been. I found that many of country music’s defining motifs—like freedom, horseback riding, and the joy of leaving one’s stifling hometown behind—seemed incompatible with an activity as drab as studying. I think country and folk are best enjoyed while cruising home through Kansas cornfields in a pickup truck with the windows down and the center console full of cigarette butts, not while sitting at a desk and forcing yourself to memorize sentence frames for stats.
Overall, I found ambient the most effective for studying, with classical a close second, but putting too much of either genre in your study playlist might put you to sleep. To mitigate this, I would suggest structuring your study playlist in blocks depending on what allows you to focus and stay motivated. For me, that was one hour of calmer music like ambient or classical, followed by twenty to thirty minutes of high-energy music like metal. But in the end, a playlist is a matter of personal preference. Listening to stuff you find boring probably won’t help your productivity, and life’s too short to listen to bad music.
