
A song that was constructed to reduce anxiety - evo_9
https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/neuroscience-says-listening-to-this-one-song-reduces-anxiety-by-up-to-65-percent.html
======
meowface
Here are some ambient songs by Aphex Twin which I also find very calming.

Stone In Focus -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q86g1aop6a8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q86g1aop6a8)

Rhubarb -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AWIqXzvX-U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AWIqXzvX-U)

Tha -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGC90fmf8gw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGC90fmf8gw)

Avril 14th -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6dGAZTj8xA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6dGAZTj8xA)

~~~
Cthulhu_
Wouldn't put Aphex Twin on as a playlist though, since he also has
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqayDnQ2wmw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqayDnQ2wmw).
Great video and music, but anything but anxiety reducing.

~~~
JosephRedfern
Another somewhat unsettling Aphex Twin song:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p71GvWkLw9k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p71GvWkLw9k)

~~~
rv-de
And the ultimate one ...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J639xIdgzQU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J639xIdgzQU)

(still remember zapping through the channels on our kitchen TV stumbling on it
- about 20 years ago - it's so weird, you just don't forget that)

~~~
1MachineElf
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.

Link: [https://youtu.be/l6_0UIknW-A](https://youtu.be/l6_0UIknW-A)

~~~
rv-de
true, that's a nice one

------
ydnaclementine
Not affiliated, but just a fan: if you like this type of drone-type music,
there are several variants on [https://generative.fm](https://generative.fm)

All the music is generated on your pc, not streamed

~~~
Narann
I was wondering what license a music generated like this would be under?

~~~
jolmg
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.

I'm also curious how copyright works here.

------
thdrdt
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.

~~~
verylittlemeat
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.

~~~
grumple
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.

------
aasasd
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.

[https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/trojan-dub-massive-
vo...](https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/trojan-dub-massive-volume-two)

(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.

[https://sunaraw.bandcamp.com/track/horse-
steppin-3](https://sunaraw.bandcamp.com/track/horse-steppin-3)

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=YMwsmam5X4Q](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YMwsmam5X4Q),
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=rHCYKkU8jto](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rHCYKkU8jto)

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.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dLWdHh39p0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dLWdHh39p0)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e06TWt4jvg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e06TWt4jvg)

~~~
29athrowaway
The sound effects sound like Ross' music (from Friends):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERy-99vXxnM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERy-99vXxnM)

~~~
aasasd
I mean, Ross just needed to lay down some groove. He was getting the hang of
it at the end.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUzcKlgy_a4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUzcKlgy_a4)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p3Rx0t0jiw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p3Rx0t0jiw)

------
throweFs37bCh
My anxiety is triggered by things like blood, heart rate, being made conscious
of automatic processes in the body.

So any sort of "this slows your heart" type of beat will actually increase my
anxiety. I can't even listen to this track.

~~~
throwaway158563
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).

------
IAmGraydon
Clearly these guys have never heard of Sigur Ros. Go listen to Svefn-g-englar
and tell me you aren’t chill as a cucumber.

~~~
0134340
Sigur Ros is like magic. Bon Iver almost has that same effect.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T0cHQb39GY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T0cHQb39GY)

~~~
IAmGraydon
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.

------
shoo
Two recommendations:

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaSi7Gut7xM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaSi7Gut7xM)
shop link: [https://boomkat.com/artists/stars-of-the-
lid](https://boomkat.com/artists/stars-of-the-lid)

Thomas Köner - Daikan:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICcK6Li5OfM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICcK6Li5OfM)
shop link:
[https://boomkat.com/products/daikan](https://boomkat.com/products/daikan)

(disclosure: no affiliation with boomkat or the artists, i just love the music
& think it is worth supporting)

------
lucasmullens
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.

------
tartoran
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.

~~~
Magufn
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.

It sounds great.

------
billfruit
Some of Bach is very soothing, especially the Mass in B Minor, like this Donna
Nobis Pacem from it:
[https://youtu.be/v8yOP9EUIY8](https://youtu.be/v8yOP9EUIY8)

------
bobwaycott
The song is here:

[https://youtu.be/j3X7vhvqi_E](https://youtu.be/j3X7vhvqi_E)

~~~
downerending
That's gonna give me a panic attack.

Sibling's Pink Floyd works. Or here's one from my stack--the louder I play it,
the more peaceful I feel:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwPnvYiCVfA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwPnvYiCVfA)

~~~
Voltage
I'm with you on both counts.

I like fast music without lyrics. Lyrics are distracting when I'm coding.

~~~
twothamendment
If they are songs I know well, lyrics don't bother me. If it is a new song I
find it hard to concentrate because I'm busy listening.

~~~
downerending
Same. Even without lyrics, familiar tracks are the best for zoning, for me.

------
herodotus
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_7Fr8Z-rFQ))
- the aria starts at about 1:57. Stunning.

~~~
SkyMarshal
/second the _Sull’aria_. It’s possibly the most beautiful duet ever composed
[1]. _Shawshank Redemption_ had a memorable tribute to it [2].

As for the overall opera _Le Nozze di Figaro_ , there’s a good scene in
_Amadeus_ where Salieri praises it [3].

[1]:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnlsLBMzLQo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnlsLBMzLQo)

[2]:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzuM2XTnpSA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzuM2XTnpSA)

[3]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTfiboMetpY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTfiboMetpY)

------
donnietrumpet
[https://moss.garden](https://moss.garden) is an ambient radio I listen to as
a backdrop.

------
DanBC
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.

------
rv-de
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...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.relaxio.sleepo&hl=en)).
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!

------
tokamak-teapot
If you like this kind of thing, there's a whole radio station of drone-type
music with barely-there beats here:
[https://somafm.com/dronezone/](https://somafm.com/dronezone/)

------
lawlessone
I've listened to and enjoyed it , and i still feel dubious about the claim.

Also article is 3 years old.

------
toomanyrichies
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.

"Please Help Me"\-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AliwSLa0ebA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AliwSLa0ebA)
"Toobee"\-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjdVi20fCDI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjdVi20fCDI)

------
wincy
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.

------
michal-franc
I have anxiety problems and Ligts Out Asia band was always helpful
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsXy9ATlb_o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsXy9ATlb_o)

Also Max Richter <3
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVN1B-tUpgs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVN1B-tUpgs)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmQmepDPg6I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmQmepDPg6I)

------
solarkraft
Here's a song that never fails to calm me down:
[https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)

~~~
enb
Nicely played, sir

------
kcdev
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.

~~~
nemo1618
I unironically enjoy listening to this 16-second loop on repeat for 50
minutes: [https://youtu.be/8snzt-umd0g](https://youtu.be/8snzt-umd0g)

More recently, Haircuts for Men:
[https://youtu.be/XZUiPCGjej8](https://youtu.be/XZUiPCGjej8)

~~~
tartoran
I enjoy this a lot and from time to time I recharge my batteries to it.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFunvF0mDw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFunvF0mDw)

------
michalu
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](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.

------
thom
Doesn't really do it for me.

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.

------
huffmsa
I find it very interesting how either more people are anxious and scared this
go disaster, or we're just talking about it more.

I don't remember there being this much discussion about reducing anxiety in
past crises.

I'm also not one to get anxious by this kind of stuff, much more hyped to take
on the increased stakes. So it's been a lot of DOOM OST for me.

Rip and Tear baby.

------
hndamien
I've seen this headline so often in so many forums that I think that this is a
streaming scam.

------
xkapastel
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.

------
theMajorMinor
Does anyone have a copy of the research paper?

Also does anyone else find the organisation who sponsored the research
(Mindlab) to be creepy?

[https://themindlab.co.uk/](https://themindlab.co.uk/)

------
ddrt
:/ I’m terrified of drones so this didn’t work.

------
kingpiss
what a bunch of baloney

------
edenshapiro
hey

------
chatmasta
The song in the clickbait title is “Weightless” by Marconi Union.

~~~
xivzgrev
I actually feel more anxious listening to this song. The low synthesizer in
background sounds like something is about to happen.

~~~
adrianmonk
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.

