When getting in the zone for that grind session, one thing is always a must: some high quality music to put you in the mood to crank out the six–page paper that you didn’t start until the night before it’s due. The choice of genre varies among individuals, but a few stand above the rest. With that being said, Street decided to rank the best types of study music:
3. Classical Music
There is a certain magic to these pieces, composed during a time before technology and the use of synthetic instruments. You can let a buoyant song like Mozart’s Sonata in C Major envelop your brain as you derive the stoichiometric equation for the redox reaction, jotting down the answer to the tune of the crescendo. Want to focus while proving the invertible matrix theorem? Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata is for you, as its orchestral movements increase in speed and intensity as you approach the solution in the same manner. Classical music manages to be light on the ears and continues to be enjoyable, providing an excellent ambient background noise for homework.
2. Lo–Fi Hip Hop
A relative newcomer to the game, lo–fi hip hop is a unique breed. It’s not hip hop in the traditional sense—the music is largely devoid of vocals outside of perhaps a few short sampled lines. Characterized by mellow sounds and occasional distortion (i.e. low fidelity sound quality), the style is minimalist and outstanding for studying. All of the numerous livestreams of lo–fi hip hop on YouTube provide a soothing emotional vibe that clears the mind of irrelevant fluff. My personal favorite is the “Chill Gaming/Study Beats” stream, a fantastic choice when you need to finish that 50 page reading. If you’ve not experienced it before, you should check it out ASAP.
1. Electronic House Music
The absolute pinnacle of study music, electronic house is a gift to this generation of college students. As Kygo’s tropical tour de forces and Porter Robinson’s synth–driven masterpieces paint sonic portraits in your ears, the calculations for the net present value of the investment become much clearer. Unlike the other entries in this ranking, electronic house can be more jarring to the ears, but it works in a manner that drowns out all other sound and truly eliminates everything around you besides the beat and the homework. More than appreciating the music, you come to enjoy the act of studying itself. That’s why this genre comes in first.
Honorable mentions: Jazz, soft rock, folk music.
