The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1016: More more more medical mysteries of music.
I want you to take a deep breath. It’s only when we focus on our breathing that we realize how important it is that 21% of our atmosphere is made up of oxygen. That is the ideal amount.
Drop to, say 15%, and it would cause all sorts of mental and physical impairment. If the oxygen levels were to suddenly increase, we’d suffer “oxygen toxicity,” meaning that our cells would oxidize, leading to exhaustion and death.
Meanwhile, spiders, roaches, and other crawly things would grow bigger and bigger because of their biology. And if you think we have a wildfire problem now, imagine if those fires had more oxygen as fuel. So unless you’re hoping for a burning planet covered in spiders the size of a compact car, 21% it is.
Music is such an integral of our lives that we have no idea how important it is. I can even tell you how important. A study by Deezer, the French streaming service, says that to maintain a healthy lifestyle, we should listen to 78 minutes of music per day.
The study broke things down even further. That 78 minutes should be portioned this way for maximum benefit:
• 14 minutes of uplifting music to exercise your happiness.
• 16 minutes of calming music.
• 16 minutes of music that counteracts sadness.
• 15 minutes of motivational music to help with concentration.
• And 17 minutes of music that will help you deal with anger.
A few suggestions come with the study, too. ABBA’s Dancing Queen is an example of the sort of happy music we should all ingest to maintain good mental health. When it comes to anger management, AC/DC’s Highway to Hell” is about perfect, although certain tracks from Rammstein and Metallica are good, too. And Mozart for some reason.
This stuff fascinates me. Whenever I run across a study research that connects music and the brain and our overall mental and physical help, I bookmark it. And I’ve bookmarked so much that we can now do a full program on it.
This is another installment of The Medical Mysteries of Music.
Songs heard on this show:
- Three Days Grace, I Hate Everything About You
- Nine Inch Nails, Pinion/Wish
- Coldplay, Viva La Vida
- Amorphis, Sacrifice
- Dropkick Murphys, It’s a Long Way to the Top
- Washed Out, Eyes Closed
- Johnny Cash, Hurt
- Weezer, Africa
- Portugal. The Man, Feel It Still
Here’s Eric Wilhite’s playlist.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
- Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 8pm
- Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
- FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
- Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 11pm
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
- The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 8am and 9pm
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- We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
