California Baptist University students balance classes, assignments and other responsibilities throughout the week. For some, music provides a brief source of comfort during a busy day.
Students listen to music for different reasons, from connecting with memories to staying focused while completing their coursework. A song can become part of a morning commute, a study session or a moment to unwind between responsibilities.
Sarah Jenkins, senior songwriting major, said music has been an important part of her life for years.
“Growing up, gospel music was what me and my family listened to a lot going to and from church,” Jenkins said.
Those early experiences connected music with memories of family and faith. As Jenkins has grown older, music has remained part of her everyday life while taking on a larger role in her future.
“Music is involved in everything I do. I’m listening to music on my way home from school while driving. It plays a very big role because that’s what I’m studying and that’s what I want to get good at, but it’s also what brings me the most joy at the end of the day,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins’ experience shows how music can move beyond something playing in the background. It can become connected to memories, routines and the goals someone chooses to pursue.
Music can serve a different role when the focus shifts from creative expression to academic work.
Emma Escobar, senior architecture major, often incorporates music into the time she spends completing projects and studying.
“When I do my architecture projects, I like to listen to heavy metal because it helps me focus on the task at hand. It takes a lot to focus, and I listen to music while I’m studying,” Escobar said.
The genres people choose may vary depending on what they are doing, but music can become part of the routines they create around schoolwork. Escobar’s preference for heavy metal differs from the gospel music Jenkins remembers from childhood, showing how personal those listening habits can be.
Research has examined why music can create such strong emotional responses. A 2011 study published in Nature Neuroscience by researchers at McGill University found that listening to pleasurable music can trigger dopamine release in areas of the brain involved in reward.
Researchers found that the brain responded differently during the anticipation of an enjoyable moment in music and during the experience of peak pleasure itself. The study connected anticipation with activity in the caudate and peak emotional responses with activity in the nucleus accumbens.
The findings help provide context for why a favorite song can become more than background noise. Music can become tied to anticipation, emotion and the enjoyment listeners experience while hearing something meaningful to them.
Jenkins and Escobar use music in different ways, but both have incorporated it into the rhythms of their daily lives. One connects music with family, joy and a future career, while the other uses it as part of the routine that helps her work through academic projects.
Music can become part of everyday routines in ways that are both personal and practical. Whether connected to a memory, played during a drive or incorporated into time spent studying, it can provide moments of enjoyment, focus and comfort throughout a busy academic schedule.
