How music makes your brain more creative
Do feel free to pop on your favourite track whilst you read this bl. Chair dancing optional.
It’s doesn’t take a rocket scientist – or a music scientist – to work out that music changes your mood. I use music to help me into an open, more creative state of mind, which led me to put together Songs for Ideas – a playlist of 20 songs that clients, collaborators and friends of the Business Allotment use to shift their thinking to get inspired and be more creative.
A study from 2017 in the PLOS ONE journal, carried out by Dr. Simone Ritter, found that listening to what they called ‘happy music’ helped people perform better at divergent thinking – the options-based, explorative type of thinking essential to creativity and problem solving. When the music that the volunteers listened to was perceived as positive, their ability to come up with original ideas increased.
This all makes a lot of sense – working with clients for twenty years, I have stacks of anecdotal evidence that being in a positive frame of mind is a creativity booster, and music is a brilliant way to unlock a positive feeling. I use laughter for the same ends – and there are people much cleverer than I who have scientifically proved that laughter provokes more aha! moments and novel ideas than those who don’t crack a smile, let alone a guffaw. (I may be paraphrasing from the original research).
But what is it about music that makes it so important to creativity?
Luckily, I had an expert to call upon to explain. Michael Coltham is a composer and music producer and founder of Black Lab Music https://www.blacklabmusic.co.uk/ , composing emotion through the medium of music. He explains:
“Music sets aside our logic and engages our emotions. It has the unparalleled ability to take all of our joy and all of our pain, condense it into a single moment and then allows us to relive that moment without any of the consequences. This is why ‘that song’ makes you cry. And it is in our emotions that our creativity lays… waiting to be awoken, to be released, to be embraced… and music enables that. Music connects with our core creativity, inspiring us in ways that defy logic, in ways that transcend political, social and intellectual boundaries, by arousing something in us that releases our creativity… our creativity that was previously caged by logic.”
So if you want to uncage your creativity, music could be the key. Make it a creative habit and build your own creative playlist – and you can listen to the Songs for Ideas playlist curated by the Allotment by heading over to the Tool Shed and downloading the listening notes – the playlist link is accessed by clicking on the vinyl record.
And access Michael’s amazing work here. Your ears will thank you.
Songs for Ideas is part of the Allotment’s 20 Ideas for 20 Years celebrations. During the month of February 2023, there will be an idea every day published on my LinkedIn feed to celebrate 20 years of the business. You can check it out here.