When it Comes to Music, Variety is the Spice of Life
When it Comes to Music, Variety is the Spice of Life
By Mr Mark Chalmers, Director of Performing Arts
In the Queensland Curriculum, the content of the music syllabus includes the study of the people, places and cultures involved in musical creation and performance. As our country becomes increasingly diverse, it is important for students in every school setting to study a wide variety of musical styles, cultures and genres. The Toowoomba Grammar School Music program of 2022 embraces this holistic approach to the study of music, encouraging teachers and students to explore a variety of musical styles and music-making traditions from around the world. There is a real need for music education programs in our nation’s schools to be inclusive of a variety of music-making traditions and opportunities. Toowoomba Grammar School continues to respond to these needs. There are certainly social benefits to becoming a more diverse connoisseur of music. For example, young men will be very well prepared to recommend music to other people and better able to select suitable music for any
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occasion. However, it is particularly fascinating to find that different types of music feed our brains in different ways. Listening to a diverse array of music doesn’t just help us broaden our tastes; each genre has unique benefits to offer. The thought is that we use different parts of our brain when we’re listening to different genres of music. Therefore, in order to facilitate the full use of our brain in music, we need exposure to a full range of musical styles. Pop (popular) music and rock music are associated with higher levels of endurance and spurts of energy, possibly because of their usual upbeat nature. This makes it an excellent choice for your workout playlists – it may literally help you run the extra mile. However, there’s a secondary
benefit to taking in pop music. As a genre defined by the fact that everyone’s tuning in, pop music can serve as a means of connection for us all—the accessibility of the lyrics and the memorable nature of its melodies can give even strangers something in common to discuss. The stories told through rap songs are often ones of hard work and personal transformation, which has led many to believe that listening to rap and hip-hop can help those experiencing depression. According to research from Cambridge University’s Department of Psychology, rap music, “with its rags-to-riches narrative trajectories, displays ‘positive visual imagery’, a psychotherapeutic technique common among sports stars, in which one envisages the place where one
