The Music Dilemma

Music is played daily and surrounds human life almost everywhere we go. Music can change our mood and even help with athletic performance. But is listening to music affecting you that much? Some evidence shows that music that is related to faster tempo music will increase your heart rate as well as blood pressure (Bernardi et al., 2005). With an increased heart rate and blood pressure, this will have a better effect on oxygen delivery to the muscle. Another study investigated grip strength and muscle fatigued when a high tempo music (>130 beats/min) was played vs. when the music was ceased. Grip strength had a longer duration with respect to time when the high tempo music was played. The fatigue factor was prolonged due to the individuals' mind being distracted but this was only beneficial during periods of low-intensity workouts (Harmon & Kravitz, 2007). With this being said, emotion and music are closely related as you can see within previous research.

With all this being said, an article written in the New York times expressed how the USA track and field committee banned the use of headphones and personal music players as a way of safety and the potentiality of a performance enhancer. I understand why the performance enhancement is taken into consideration, but safety should be taken into concern in a larger context. On average, there are around 3287 car crashes daily; with 25% of crashes being related to distractions (Macur, 2007). Driving durations have also been increasing as well (Dalton, 2007). Is it reasonable to say that banding music within a long-distance race in for the safety aspect should be moved over to our driving laws? With races happening every so often, safety is a concern with racers not hearing their surroundings. Driving happens every day. Emotional driving plays a big factor as well with research showing anger induction due to high tempo music (Zwaag, 2011). Should there be a band or limitation on the type of music or even volume in which music is listened to decrease unnecessary deaths due to distractions?

References:

Bernardi, Luciano. “Cardiovascular, Cerebrovascular, and Respiratory Changes Induced by Different Types of Music in Musicians and Non-Musicians: the Importance of Silence.” Heart, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, 1 Apr. 2005, heart.bmj.com/content/92/4/445.

Dalton, Brian H, and David G Behm. “ Effects of Noise and Music on Human and Task Performance: A Systematic Review.” Occupational Ergonomics, 2007, cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/6/8971/files/2014/12/Dalton-Behm-2007-t7dnhm.pdf.

Harmon, Nicole M, and Len Kravitz. “The Effects of Music on Excursive .” Effects of Music 2007, 2007, www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/musictwo.html.

Macur, Juliet. “A Marathon without Music? Runners with Headphones Balk at Policy.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Nov. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/sports/01iht-run.1.8142612.html.Teendriveadmin. “100 

Distracted Driving Facts & Statistics for 2018.” TeenSafe, 26 Dec. 2018, teensafe.com/100-distracted-driving-facts-statistics-for-2018/.

Zwaag, Marjolein D. van der, et al. “Ranking vs. Preference: A Comparative Study of Self-Reporting.” SpringerLink, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 9 Oct. 2011, link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-24600-5_47.