What Students Are Listening to in the New Semester

School is back in session which means it’s time to see who is listening to what! 

Music moves people in unexplainable ways. According to The Oracle, 86% of students polled listened to music while studying with 60% being music with lyrics. Students tend to have the most time to listen to music like when doing homework and studying, so it would be a no brainer for most of them to have a favorite music album.

Like Liam Levandowsky, a second year student who said, “I like the album Stratosphere by Duster. It has a whole 17 songs and lots of them are so short you hardly notice them fading between each other. The vocals are sparse and even when a song has them, they’re buried under the instruments because they want you to feel what they’re saying, not just listen to the words.” Levandowsky also mentioned that he typically listens to music when he’s studying to fill the silence and help him focus.

Music allows people to feel emotions and students feel that they associate certain songs with specific moments of their life or an emotion.

According to an interview with the American Psychological Association, Elizabeth Margulis, director of the Music Cognition Lab at Princeton University and American Psychological Association, said, “People think a lot about the idea that during your adolescence you’re really invested in developing your identity and making links with other people around shared aspects of your identity. And music plays this important function in solidifying those connections and those social roles.”

Along with Levandowsky, Grey Rahal, another second year at Wright, says that he listens to music while he's studying and when he is feeling down. “My favorite album is Rumours by Fleetwood Mac,” Rahal said. “I have really good memories of the songs from that album, growing up hearing them on the radio in the car, and playing the record my dad owns at home. I love Fleetwood Mac and this album has, in my own opinion, the best songs of theirs on it. It’s really hard to pick a favorite song since I love so many for different reasons but this album is an easy pick for favorite.”

Students have a spectrum of music choices that they love and use as a resource for college. Whether it allows them to uplift their emotion, focus on studying, or even fill silence, music will continue to be used.

A music note is displayed on the third floor of the events building. Photo Credit: Kyle Chmielowski