A new study has identified listening to electronic dance music as a contributing factor to increased creativity in the visual arts.
The study, titled Musical Muses: Top Songs for Artistic Creativity, was conducted by the visual arts creatives at Origami.org, who analyzed 170 different Spotify playlists—totaling over 31,000 songs—and surveyed 502 visual artists “to uncover how listening to music can enhance creativity.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, their research revealed that 80% of visual artists say “music boosts their creativity” and that they fill 70% of their creative time with music.
Though classical, rock, and pop were revealed to be the top three creativity-boosting genres, electronic/dance was the fourth most popular music genre for “extended art sessions.” Nearly 1 out of every five visual artists was found to extend their work sessions by an average of 1.6 hours due to listening to their favorite EDM tracks.
As opposed to working in silence, listening to music extended art sessions by an average of 1.8 hours, regardless of genre preference.
The study also broke down visual creatives’ top genres and favorite artists based on artistic discipline. For example, graphic designers and sketch artists preferred indie and alternative acts like Mitski and TV Girl, while photographers demonstrated a liking for rapper Baby Keem.
Although many dance music fans enjoy their music loud, researchers found that 64% of visual artists prefer “medium” volume settings as the best decibel level for enhancing creativity.
Check out Origami.com’s complete Musical Muses study here.
Featured image from Pexels.com.
