building a back to school playlist

By Jess Santacroce
Music Writer, 95 5 The Heat: Phoenix Radio 

Classes typically start at the end of August, but most students, teachers, parents, and others whose work revolves around a school feel firmly “back to school” around the beginning of September. As settling in to attend classes and do homework becomes routine, music can often be heard through the doors of children’s rooms, college dorm rooms, and the offices of teachers and older adult students. Conventional wisdom once dictated that this was a bad idea. Music was thought to be distracting, something to listen to after studying was finished for the day, not while doing anything related to learning. Today, it is known that music can boost learning, but every song will not be a great choice for every back to school playlist. The best “back to school” playlist for you or your child will depend largely on what happens when you sit down to study

Difficulty focusing

Between the lure of the phone sitting nearby or tucked in the bag at your feet, the ease of clicking over to TikTok or YouTube from your online class, and the “hustle” mentality that makes us feel guilty for not doing three things at once, difficulty focusing is a common problem in classes and during independent study time these days.

Music can help. Many experts maintain that classical music, or any other type of music without words is best to help you focus. They argue that lyrics often serve as a distraction to the material you, your students, or your children are trying to learn. Others believe the best music to help with focus is any music that is familiar to the person struggling to keep their attention on what they need to learn.
Memory issues

Whether a student is in first grade or heading into the first week of the final portion of their terminal degree program, there are few academic experiences more demoralizing than studying something then being unable to recall the material when needed for a test, presentation, or other project. If memory seems to be the stumbling block for you or your student, music can help.

Earlier this year, a study conducted at Rice University suggests the best music to help with difficulty remembering details is the music the student enjoys, but does not react strongly to in any way. According to the conclusions drawn from this study, those who are having problems recalling more general concepts will want to listen to music that evokes a strong reaction in them. This study was featured in a previous edition of “The Heat Beat,” in an article on the link between music and all types of memory, not only the ability to recall facts and concepts that one has learned. While the study has been published in peer-reviewed journals, there is no record of the study being duplicated as of the writing of this article, despite the fact that a big AI generated “Yes” pops up on your screen when you ask a search engine if it has.

Because the study has not yet been duplicated, we can’t say for sure that choosing songs you like but don’t have a strong response to will help you recall details, while picking out music you react to strongly will help you remember general concepts better, but it may be worth trying in an everyday setting to see if it works for your situation.

Lack of motivation

For some students, parents of students, and teachers hoping to help their students learn, all the focus and memory information and studies in the world aren’t going to prove useful, because study time does not even seem to begin.

While a playlist to improve focus and memory during learning time will be highly individualized, specific songs have been judged to be the most motivating out there. Of course, there will still be some individual taste involved, as nobody is going to want to settle in for a study session backed up by a bunch of music they can’t stand, but it may help to make some selections from the songs that keep popping up on “motivational music” lists. These include “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, “Stronger,” by Kelly Clarkson, and “Lose Yourself” by Eminem. “Dream On” by Aerosmith, Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” and “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong have also made motivational playlists. While the band Panic! At the Disco disbanded several years ago, they left behind more than one motivational track, including “High Hopes” and “Hey Look Ma, I Made It.”

Confidence

When confidence swings to an extreme, learning becomes difficult. Some learners are overconfident. They go into the class or even the entire semester believing the work is “too easy” for them, or that whatever they’re more interested in is so much more important, the material they’re being asked to learn can be brushed off. In cases of overconfidence, it would be better to go back to your motivation and focus playlists than to listen to depressing, demoralizing, or discouraging music. That would only make the student want to do absolutely nothing.

For learners grappling with lack of confidence, the belief that they are unable to learn or understand the material presented in school, there are plenty of confidence boosting songs out there, and which ones they are appears to be a mix of individualized response and specific songs. Most of us feel more confident after we’ve worked through something that has been troubling us, so songs that offer catharsis or a new perspective on our particular problem can serve as huge confidence boosts. At the same time, pop songs are typically gathered for “confidence” playlists. “Roar” by Katy Perry, “Brave” by Sara Bareilles and “Bejeweled” by Taylor Swift are popular choices for confidence- themed playlists.

Music may not be able to solve every issue that comes up in school this term, but it can help alleviate several study problems. Start your playlist, try your selections, then make adjustments according to your individual tastes and shifting needs. We may not all respond to the same music, but there is music out there for all of us.




The Heat Squad wishes all students, teachers, and parents a great school year.