Scientists Prove That Pop Music Can Be Harmful for Our Brains
Sep 21, 2017

Johanna Barrett
Core Spirit member since Dec 24, 2020
Reading time 3 min.

Research proves what our parents have been saying all along: Modern pop music really is worse than older generations of pop music. Not only that, it has negative effects on your brain, too — if you’re chiefly a pop music fan, you’re likely to be less creative than any other kind of music lover.

But that says more about the industry than it does about you. Bad pop music is a harder habit to kick than you think. Kicking it, though, is way more important than you thought.

In 2008, Adrian North of Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University published the largest study yet of musical taste, involving 36,000 people, 60 countries and three years of work. He asked each participant to rank their favorite genres of music. He discovered that the most common characteristic among all genre listeners was creativity. However, one group of listeners showed a genuine and significant lack of creativity: pop music lovers.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that stupid people love pop — just that pop trains us to expect less from our artistic and creative lives. Music can nourish our minds like almost nothing else, so when a mega-industry is devoted to selling the least inspired music they can, they’re short-changing all of us. A survey of other research on music reveals that pop music has gotten worse over the last 50 years. Not only that, it’s been used to brainwash listeners through predatory marketing strategies across all media channels.

Pop music hasn’t always been that way. Researchers measured the variety of words, chord variations and volume of songs across the decades sine the 1950s. Unsurprisingly, they found that modern pop is a watered-down version of what John, Paul, George and Ringo used to rock the charts with. Since the 1950s, vocal timbre — the character of the voice — has become less diverse and pitch content has become totally monochromatic (fewer chord and melodic variations), while everything has gotten much louder overall. Our popular music is literally being dumbed down.

This music isn’t even music anymore; it’s become a platform for inflammatory music videos that only detract from the musical experience or, in most cases, distract from the total absence of a genuine musical experience. People were talking about Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” cover art way before the song dropped, and they only really discussed the song when the incendiary video followed. It’s that culture that has music critics like Ted Gioia claiming that music criticism has devolved into lifestyle reporting. It’s that culture that’s rotting our minds.

Unfortunately, there’s no end in sight. As these songs get watered down, they become cheap and easy fuel for the music business because they appeal to the lowest common denominator and thus reach a wide audience. That isn’t a frivolous thing, though: Researchers have thoroughly documented that pop music is the “heavy equipment” of the adolescent years. It is far more influential than computers, television and movies in shaping how kids grow up.

That’s why it matters when it’s getting worse. Billboard charts fuel the mainstream market, identifying safe bets for movie soundtracks, commercials and background music, all of which ensure that a popular song is impossible to avoid. And despite common sense, songs aren’t played because they are popular; they’re played to make them popular.

If we care about our culture — and if we care about our minds — we’ll vote with our ears. If the formulas stop paying off for the industry, we might get real music back into the mainstream.


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Music and Sound therapy
$27 USD
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Music Production/DJ Lessons

Omar Meho is an artist from the United Kingdom. He is a Label Owner, Music Production/ DJ Teacher, Mastering Engineer and International Resident in Ibiza, France, U.K & Dubai. He has played in some of the biggest clubs in the U.K Including Egg LDN, Fabric, The Arch, The Cause & Much more. He has played festivals in front of 12,500 people and has support on his tracks from some of the biggest DJ's in the world including Marco Carola, East End Dubs, Chris Stussy, Jamie Jones, Adam Beyer And More.

Omar Meho
Music and Sound therapy
$20 USD
class
Chakra Toning And Chakra Meditation Session With Vedic Mantras

Peter has studied vocal toning under the tutelage of Jonathan Goldman's school and is a member of the Sound Healers Association. Peter has been using Toning techniques on himself and in groups for many years now with some remarkable outcomes. This practice really helps you to get in touch with the real you inside. This enables the body to reconnect to its natural resonance, which is where the healing takes place.

Most of us today live life styles that do not allow us to reconnect with ourselves and we often need some help to find this inner vibration. Stress, anxiety and fear all mount up in the body without us becoming aware of it, and these negative vibrations will often appear as a physical ailment at some time in the future if left unchecked. Sound toning is an excellent way of helping to relieve these and other symptoms.

Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning spinning wheel and thousands of years ago, natural healers realised there were energy centres in the body where energy lines meet. The easiest to understand is the solar plexus, which has a mass of nerve endings gathered there and a chakra known as the solar plexus chakra. Actually our chakra system is closely related to our endocrine system, and both their functions are similar.

This is our energy body which we can't see, and if you train with it, you will understand that having your chakra system working properly really does release your full potential. Unfortunately our way of life in the west has ignored this important part of our existence.

Having a vibrant chakra system can lead to a vibrant life. You can release your power, your passion, your creativity, your empathy and compassion and your insight and vision when your chakra system is tuned and working properly.

Sound is becoming a well recognised healing modality. There are so many health benefits to sound healing. Why not empower yourself and use your voice to heal your body. You do not have to be singer to use your voice. You just need good intention.

I look forward to meeting you soon at one of these sessions.

Until then, be well and keep shining.

Peter. :)

Peter Paul Parker
Music and Sound therapy
$86 USD
healing session
Reiki healing

i specialize in distant healing using a number of tools for example rocks(Which connects us to mother earth

Kendrick Charles
Music and Sound therapy
$144 USD
healing session
Sound Healing

Through my voice, I channel high vibrational Divine Light frequencies, collectives of Loving beings here to support humanity, and Gaian frequencies that offer profound portals of healing and whole-ing. Sound sessions are multi-dimensional experiences, similar to a Shamanic Journey, but also offer a unique experience that may include clearing, balancing, harmonizing, restoring, shifting, and expanding all aspects of your being.

Sound channeling sessions can help individuals:

  • Bring coherence to the mental, emotional, energetic, and soul bodies
  • Shift thoughts
  • Release suffering + discordance
  • Clear vibrational density and entrenched patterns that no longer serve
  • Restore original energetic templates/ harmonic patterns of creativity, vitality, joy, and wholeness, which are our human birthrights but have been distorted and adulterated here on Earth.
  • Address ancestral + past life issues
  • Revise our relationship to the past for great peace and acceptance
  • Jump dimensional timelines
  • Retrieve soul fragments lost to trauma
  • Experience a multi-dimensional perspective
  • Bring clarity about questions we are holding

Please come to a session prepared to lie down somewhere comfortable where you will not be disturbed or distracted. Headphones are recommended.

We will briefly check in about your intentions for a session, go into a meditation, and move through a sound journey. Afterwards, we will briefly check in about your experience.

Jaime Fleres

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