What kind of music improves creativity? Let’s look inside the brain

Creativity and you

Some people don’t consider what they do to be creative, but negotiating contracts, working to improve closing ratios, lead generation, leading meetings, organizing people; these all require creativity from your brain, but your surroundings may be holding you back and causing you to perform at lower levels than you otherwise could.

A Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) study found that ambient noise actually benefits and improves creative cognition. This means that it can be easier for you to focus and increase your productivity when you have that noise in the background, but not just any noise. The average, busy coffee house has a noise level of about seventy decibels, which happens to be the perfect noise level for reaching optimum levels of creativity and professional production.

How our brains are wired

While some of us here listen to extremely loud music like Dubstep, JCR suggests that anyone can be more creative when listening to mild ambient noise, particularly coffee shop noises – it’s how our brains are wired.

Ambient noises get our creative juices flowing because moderate noise leves imcrease processing difficulty, promoting abstract processing, leading to higher creativity (and more creative problem solving, of course). When noise levels increase, creative thinking is reduced, and the brain cannot process information as efficiently.

The study states, “For individuals looking for creative solutions to daily problems, such as planning a dinner menu based on limited supplies or generating interesting research topics to study, our findings imply that instead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to figure out a solution, walking out of one’s comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment (such as a café) may trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas.”

So do you have to work at a coffee shop all day?

Today, Buffer compiled dozens of studies to illustrate how music impacts the brain, and what captured our attention was the reference to the JCR study. The truth is that sitting in a Starbucks all day every day, sounds appealing, but is not realistic for many people, especially when creativity is only required in spurts.

Enter Coffitivity which plays ambient coffee house sounds right at your desk – use when you need it, and listen to loud music at other times if you want. Boost your creative powers and productivity by using music and sound to improve your brain function.