Surprised his Rubber Johnny video hasn't been mentioned yet. That's my nomination for ultimate anxiety inducing Aphex Twin work. It even includes an anxiety attack in the beginning.
It can be anxiety reducing if you’re actively listening to it and enjoying it. If it’s in the background and your trying to do something else it will probably cause anxiety.
Yes, these scratch my itch when im in the right mood. I also find Boards of Canada quite relaxing even though it is a dark nostalgic type with beats. I think repetition in general has different trance inducing effects on ones mood
If it's generated on one's machine, maybe that person should hold copyright?
Maybe that doesn't make a lot of sense, but neither would it make sense for the programmer of the music generation software to hold copyright over a song they never heard of and which might have been generated using data from the PC owner's machine.
Some years ago I had developed an anxiety disorder.
That's why I think this article makes no sense.
I got anxious of the most stupid things. This was also triggered by some music. It doesn't matter if the music is calming. What matters is what is happening in your head.
It seems to be the trend to meditate or to listen to soothing music when you are anxious. But please: if you are really having issues with anxiety: go see the doctor.
I really have to agree with you. Anxiety is more than being anxious for a reason. Sometimes I will be sitting down perfectly content and all of a sudden my heartbeat will start racing for no reason and I start to panic and everything spirals out of control.
Try "The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook". It has some techniques for helping. I know that what helped me was just understanding that this is a physiological and psychological phenomena, a positive feedback loop.
I get that music can be calming but also agree, I've had the issue before and I've heard it called 'relaxation anxiety' or something. Like a baby trying to fight their sleep, when things feel too calm it can be unnerving and the body wants to fight it.
Well, that's a pretty standard ambient-ish soundscape bordering on ‘chill-out’, though thankfully not as cheesy as a whole lot of them.
For me, dub music (not dubstep) was the most astoundingly un-aggressive music. Back in the past, I ran Bill Laswell's compilations two times a day: on the morning subway to doze for twenty minutes, and when falling asleep at night. Not really a surprising quality, since the genre is essentially produced as ganja in musical form. Note that you won't hear half of the music if your speakers don't handle deep bass.
(Ever since the name-stealing dubstep occupied the web while having nothing to do with dub, I have to exclude it every time when searching for the latter.)
Even though the genre evolved decently into the 90s–2000s, with British and French bands like Alpha & Omega, Twilight Circus, High Tone, and Laswell & Jah Wobble's productions—I still find myself returning to simpler tunes when looking to drop out of the daily race.
IMO Sun Araw later grokked quite well that dub can be more trippy than ‘psychedelic’ genres. And Hype Williams are excellent bearers of this torch, though not in the sub-bass range.
Ah, and in regard to ‘classical’ music, I'm a big fan of Swingle Singers' renditions of Mozart, from ‘A Cappella Amadeus’. They're magical for me somehow: I was able to have their songs on both alarm clock and ringtone, for years, without coming to hate them. This is while being cold to both ‘classical music’ and acappella in general.
Btw, funny thing: despite dub being basically packaged tune-out, reggae MCs constantly went on about their ‘war’ against the plight of the black man and the Babylon and about how they're more macho than everyone else in the business. So much so that ragga jungle artist names and compilations were full of military terminology, and the MCing fit right in with breakcore as ‘raggacore’.
Stallones later switched to guitar noodling and more spacey compositions, which aren't so groovy—though also interesting sometimes.
He also made an album ‘Icon Give Thank’ with M. Geddes Gengras and The Congos, which is pretty much Sun Araw plus actual dub: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HWvqL-pbH2U
Agreed, the music from the original british dubstep scene had a lot more in common with dub music than what became popular dubstep. It was mostly heavy bass ran through a low pass filter with the frequency cutoff set up to an oscillator giving it that wobbly wubbing sound.
Dub music itself was actually more popular with the british audience than jamaican audience. Producers like Mad Professor and Scientist and even King Tubby made their dub records specifically to release in England.
I was in this situation for more than a decade up until a few years ago. Was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder (GAD). I used to have panic attacks after discovering my heart wasn't beating at the resting rate according to Wikipedia, or when my skin felt a little dry and I thought I was having a heart failure. But once I started taking antidepressants, it almost completely went away (in addition to other techniques to take my mind off of myself when needed).
I’ve seen Sigur Ros live twice. The first time was great, but the venue wasn’t very good. The second time was at the Fox Theater in Atlanta a few years ago. To say it was a powerful experience is a huge understatement. Those guys somehow channel something much larger than themselves. There are really no words to describe it.
A song that is designed to relax people? Isn't that like, half of all music? It probably works for most people, but it's not exactly a novel claim to say that music can calm people.
I'm surprised nobody mentions Brian Eno. He was a pioneer in ambient music and contributed to a lot of other genres. Look him up if you never heard of him.
Yes. His first "Ambient" release, "Music for Airports", back in 1978 was designed to induce a calming effect. It is very effective as I can testify since I've been using it for decades now to sleep.
The fact that it doesn't appear on the list by the researches cited in this article suggests a grave oversight.
Music for Airports was also the first in a series by Eno designed to take advantage of his "ambient speaker technigue" wherein you take a third speaker, in addition to the stereo pair, place it behind the listener, and connect it's two terminals to the two + (positive) terminals each channel on your amplifier.
Call it poor man's quadraphonic. It basically sends side information (or any signal not present on the other channel such as an instrument panned all the way to one side) to this third speaker.
I first heard "Deep Blue Day" on the soundtrack for "Trainspotting", and was immediately a fan. I subsequently heard "Force Marker" on the "Heat" soundtrack and was amazed to discover it was by the same musician. "Music For Airports" is a classic.
I note that "Canzonetta Sull'aria" is Number 9 on the list. Much more my cup of tea, especially when both it becomes a duet. The opera it comes from, The Marriage of Figaro, is one of my all time favourites. To me the secret sauce is that, even though the Opera is a "Opera Buffa" (comic opera), and indeed has all the element of sitcom: mistaken identities, life altering discoveries, disguises, people hiding under chairs, broken flower-pots, and yet some of the aria's, such as Sull'aria, are poignant and heartbreaking. Consider, for example, "Dove sono i bei momenti" (Where are all those beautiful moments), where the countess yearns for the time when she and the count fell in love. If you want to see what I mean, listen to Rene Fleming (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_7Fr8Z-rFQ) - the aria starts at about 1:57. Stunning.
Anxiety has a couple of different meanings. There's the everyday use of the word, and I guess calming music would help with that. I like Phillip Glass (which a lot of people find surprising for calming music) or Max Richter's Sleep.
But if anxiety interferes with your day to day life and causes significant distress it might be an anxiety disorder. There are a few different things under the class of anxiety disorder so I'm not going to list symptoms. Luckily, often they've very treatable. Current advice is to start with psycho-education, then step up to a talking therapy (and cognitive behaviour therapy has a good evidence base, it's short and should be affordable), and if that's not working to step up to a combination of meds and a more intensive talking therapy.
Anxiety disorders cause many years of life lost to disability, and they can be really distressing for people.
the absolute and ultimate soothing "song" for me is the one I found in the sleepa Android app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.relaxio.sl...). You have to open the "meditation" section and activate the sound represented by three stones on top of another.
I'm not affiliated with that app in any way.
I've been listening to this sound several orders of magnitude longer than any other sound or song. It's absolutely mesmerizing. There's something very specific about I just can't find anywhere else. It's a simple layering of very simple melodies.
If you have something similar to suggest I'm interested!
I remember hearing Underworld's "Please Help Me" years and years ago, and it's now my go-to song for reproducing the effects this article mentions. Another good one by Underworld is "Toobee". Happy to have another track to add to that collection.
Well I’m sorry it’s apparently not working for other folks, but I felt substantially calmer after listening to the song. My wife on the other hand didn’t like it at all. Thanks to whomever posted it.
I couldn't dig it - but I like the article and idea. Other readers: what are some of your favorite chill background tracks? I'm on Hippie Sabotage lately.
I have a coding / focus Spotify playlist of tracks that keep me focused and in the zone without being distracting. Contains a lot of ambient, deep instrumental house and ambient dub techno: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/28W4UPjme9kuIxMKjdlSMx?si=...
I wouldn't call this background music. In fact, I'd say it works best when you give it your full attention with eyes closed. Nevertheless, 'Music for 18 Musicians' is a go-to when I need to simmer down.
Steve Reich and that particular piece are awesome. I'm not quite sure how "relaxing" his music is for me, but it can definitely induce trance-like states, and in general it's just good music.
'R Plus Seven' got major play from me when it came out! :)
I think the 'trance-like state' is what I find relaxing. It's basically meditation. I've been listening to the ECM recording since I posted that, and I'm realizing that's not my preferred recording. I really like the recording done by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xzyzgqEk5U&list=PLkqUzfbYHJ...
I wonder if they measured some other music too. I'm pretty sure listening to something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Y_ztEW1NE will do equally good or better job in reducing anxiety.
Why not listen to sounds that are both great and calming instead of just calming.
The 'Early Riser' tune on my iPhone, which I use to wake up in the morning, is the only alarm sound I have had in my entire life that doesn't strike doom into my heart. I can go back through ringtones or alarm sounds I've used for the last 10-15 years and every one more or less triggers panic even to this day but that one.
Is this actually a real study? Why don't they link to the paper? Mindlab International calls itself a "neuromarketing" group...this reads more like an advertisement than a report on a real scientific study.
I see what you're saying about the synth, but what really makes me anxious is how the bass drum fades in and out.
It's at a steady ~60 beats/minute, but at about 1 minute 30 seconds, it starts to get quiet, at points becoming inaudible, and the song goes from "this has a definite rhythm" feel to a "this doesn't have a definite rhythm" (or "I'm not sure") feeling. Then it keeps going away and coming back again.
Stone In Focus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q86g1aop6a8
Rhubarb - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AWIqXzvX-U
Tha - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGC90fmf8gw
Avril 14th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6dGAZTj8xA