Pop Music or Classical Music? The Answer May Affect Your Lifespan

stockfour/Shutterstock

Did you know? The music you like can affect your health and longevity. Research shows that nearly half of all female harpists live to be more than 90 years old, but the average life expectancy of rock musicians is only 43. Various music genres have an entirely different impact on one’s physical and mental health.

TCM doctors believe that the keys or modus of a melody also correspond to different organs in the body. That is why choosing the right music can enhance one’s health.

Classical musicians are famous for longevity, and many octogenarian artists still play actively in concerts. Arthur Rubinstein, a well-known American pianist in the last century, was 95 years old when he passed. Rubinstein was still performing on stage when he was nearly 90 years old.

Japanese pianist Muroi Mayako held a concert in 2021 to celebrate her 100th birthday, playing Beethoven’s famous pieces “To Alice” and “Moonlight Sonata.” Mayako said that she profoundly felt that art would never end. “Even if I live for 200 years, my desires will remain endless,” she said. In 2022, Mayako, at the age of 101, published a book to share her secrets of longevity.

Classical Female Harpists Live the Longest

Russian scholars have examined the life expectancy of more than 40,000 creative professionals, finding that musicians who play classical instruments live considerably longer than people in the general population. About 44 percent of female harpists live to be over 90 years old, while six percent live to the age of 100. Orchestra conductors are also famous for longevity. Among them, 33 percent of female and 12 percent of male conductors live to be over 90 years old.

However, compared with scientists and other industry professionals, the overall average age in the music industry is not the highest. Interestingly, rock stars among the group have a shorter life expectancy, averaging 43.6 years.

Pop Musicians Have the Shortest Life Span

Dianna Theadora Kenny, Ph.D., from the University of Sydney, Australia, conducted a study to analyze the data of 13,195 pop musicians who died between 1950 and 2014. The research revealed that pop musicians lived significantly shorter than “comparable general populations.”

Across the seven decades studied, popular musicians’ lifespans were up to 25 years shorter than the comparable US population. Accidental death rates were between five and 10 times greater. Suicide rates were between two and seven times greater; and homicide rates were up to eight times greater than the US population.

In an essay published in The Conversation, Kenny wrote that the mortality rate of musicians is also related to the music genres. The life expectancy of musicians from the old popular music genres such as jazz and blues is similar to that of the American population.

Musicians from the new waves of pop music, such as metal, rap, hip-hop, and other genres, have the shortest life spans, with an average of below 40 years.

Kenny also found that the cause of death of the musicians has a lot to do with the genre they played in. In her analysis, more than half of rap and hip-hop musicians died of murder, believed to be relevant to gang involvement and drug-related crimes. Among metal musicians, 36 percent died in accidents, while 19 percent died by suicide. Thirty percent of jazz musicians died of cancer, while 28 percent of blues musicians died of heart disease.

Classical Music Positively Impacts Energy Field

Pop musicians die younger than ordinary people. Besides unhealthy living habits and career pressure in the industry, it may also relate to the music’s energy.

Russian physicist Konstantin Korotkov developed gas-discharge visualization (GDV), a type of imaging, to observe photon energy emitted by the human body. The physicist once said in an interview with The Epoch Times that music frequency affects the human brain and thus changes the energy field of the human body. Classical music positively impacts the energy fields of humans and animals; it soothes, calms, and stabilizes emotions. Intensive and highly stimulating genres such as rock music can briefly improve people’s body energy and stimulate adrenaline production. However, the energy quickly drops to a much lower level than before listening to the music.

Classical Music Calms People’s Minds

Clinical experiments have confirmed that classical music calms people’s minds and relieves anxiety. Many studies focus on playing music in hospitals or dental clinics to relieve patients’ pain and anxiety.

Nervousness and anxiety are common when visiting a dentist. Patients’ hands and feet often feel cold. In severe cases, patients are not able to continue with dental treatment. But listening to music can help them feel more at ease.

A Turkish study randomly divided 80 patients who visited a dental clinic into four groups. Three of the groups listened to music: classical music by Vivaldi, traditional Turkish music, or soft rock music. The fourth group served as a control and did not listen to any music. The experiment found that the anxiety levels of the three groups of patients listening to music were lower than those who did not listen to music. The effects of Turkish or classical music in reducing anxiety were more evident than that of listening to soft rock.

Classical Music and Memory

In addition to an extended lifespan, classical instrument musicians show elevated cognitive and memory skills after entering old age.

In 2011, Neuropsychology published an American study of 70 elderly and healthy participants between the ages of 60 and 83. The experimental attendees were divided into three groups: those who did not play an instrument, those who had played an instrument for one to nine years, and those who had played an instrument for ten or more years. In the study, the most common instrument was the piano, the most common genre being classical.

There was no noticeable difference in the three groups of people regarding age, gender, health status, or education level. The researchers asked the groups to perform a series of neuropsychological tests. Senior instrument players’ nonverbal and word memory were measurably better than non-musicians.

The researchers concluded that the results indicated “a strong predictive effect of high musical activity throughout the life span on preserved cognitive functioning in advanced age.”

Is It Too Late to Learn?

Can learning to play an instrument have positive effects? A British study published in Scientific Reports in 2022 examined this.

A University of Bath research team in the United Kingdom recruited 31 adults with no prior musical experience and randomly divided them into three groups. The first group took a weekly one-hour piano lesson to learn to play classical music. The second group listened to the music the first group learned and played for one hour. The third group read for one hour without any music.

After 11 piano classes, the ability of audiovisual sensory perception in the first group significantly improved, and the level of depression, stress, and anxiety was also reduced.

Music and Organs

Dr. Yang Jingduan, the founder of Yang’s Integrated Medical Center in the United States, acupuncturist, and psychiatrist, said that the music a person enjoys listening to reflects not only this person’s cultural characteristics, and musical literacy but also physiological characteristics, psychological state, and health conditions.

Yang explained that lively and upbeat music corresponds to the heart and the small intestine, which helps nourish the mind. It improves learning and work efficiency. Patients prone to fatigue and depression also respond well to joyful music. Stable and ambient music in C major corresponds to the spleen and stomach, promoting qi movement stability. In addition to strengthening the digestive system, C-major music can calm overthinking. On another note, any piece in D major corresponds to the human lungs and the large intestine. It has a therapeutic effect on anyone who often has colds, coughs, and seasonal allergies, and it can also help people prone to sadness relieve emotions and boost their mood.

Traditional Chinese medicine recognizes meridians as channels for human energy, which connects internal organs with acupuncture points on the body’s surface. Since music is composed of sound waves of different frequencies, sound waves also become energy. Different sound waves resonate with various meridian systems of the human body.

In an earlier interview with The Epoch Times, Yang recommended the music of Shen Yun. The doctor said Shen Yun’s performance marries classical Chinese and Western music and has an excellent recuperating property, especially during the pandemic. It can help improve immunity.

Yang observed, “The music’s energy showed the audience and boosted the movement and balance of the body’s energy.”

The doctor said even his clinical work could never match the magical effect music such as Shen Yun has offered his patients.

The doctor jokingly said, “Enjoying a music performance is much more joyful than having acupuncture and silver needles in one’s body.”