Can Music Improve Performance?

Can music improve performance?

The simple answer is yes. However the question is how?

To start with we must be able to break down a tune into the following:

• Melody, is the succession of tones.
• Rhythm, a strong repeated musical pattern.
• Tempo, how fast the song is played. This is usually measured in beats per minute (bpm)
• Association, if we hear eye of the tiger being played we associate this with the Rocky films when he is training hard.
• Lyrics, certain songs contain lyrics that may promote motivation, for example K West ''That that don't kill me will only make me stronger''.

A song that may be motivating for one, is not necessarily motivating for another. Dr. Karageorghis is one of the main researchers within this area of psychology. Karageorghis created the Brunel music rating inventory (BMRI) and has since adapted it a number of times. The BMRI allows the user to rate the motivation they feel from a selected or a group of songs. 

I have also completed a study using a similar music rating scale. Karageorghis's BMRI did not take into account lyrics from a song. Paula Radcliff highlights certain songs are able to motivate you through lyrics. Therefore I placed an extra scale within my version of the BMRI (seen below).

My Study

The majority of research regarding music and motivation was tailored around professional athletes. Therefore I based mine around college students. However these students were all involved within a sport of some description.

Anything over 100 bpm was discovered to be motivational, with the exception of one song. Survivor's eye of the tiger which was lower.

Each of the students will complete a 1.5mile Cooper run, once with music and once without.
The students are able to pick there own song which they believe to be motivational. Each participant was asked to chose 10 songs they believed to be motivational. Once they were selected they would listen to each song and complete a BMRI questionnaire.

Once all 10 songs had been completed the ratings were added together to show the true motivational effects. The 5 highest rating songs will then be used within the 1.5 mile run.

If music did improve motivation the 1.5 mile run would be completed at a quicker time when compared to the without music condition.

Without going into the results, I found the 1.5 mile run with music decreased the time by an average of 3 minutes.

How did the timings decrease?


Naturally our bodies have a rhythm. If we hear a beat of some description our bodies will tend to react subconsciously which will result in a bodily movement, most common the tapping of fingers.

Once the body hears the beat it will move in time with it. Therefore a song with a quicker beat will result in the body moving more quickly. Hence the time taken for the run to decrease.

Other aspects to why the timing will increase will be our bodies listening to the music rather the feeling of fatigue, therefore music can be used as a distraction, possibly even make the bodies become more relaxed. If the body is more relaxed the less likely it is to cramp, resulting in a better delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles.

Top 12 most motivational songs within the study

I hope you've found this blog useful.

Thanks for reading