A Manchester band Marconi Union teamed up with a British sound team to produce a song that is reported to reduce anxiety. It’s called Weightless.
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It’s no secret that music has the ability to create an atmosphere and shift moods. We’ve all experienced that magical moment during a sublimely perfect set when we look around at the sea of blissful people grooving together as one. There might be more power behind this than originally thought, due to a fully encompassing and visceral experience called entrainment. This occurs when organisms sync up with external rhythms, much like an entranced crowd bouncing in time to the beat.
The Manchester band Marconi Union recently partnered with the founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy to harness the power of this natural occurrence. Marconi Union’s goal was to create a song proven to affect listeners’ state of being, so their anxieties dissipate significantly. The eight-minute long track Weightless works by using a continuous rhythm of 60 BMP, eventually slowing to 50 BMP around the five-minute mark. This is important because it takes around five minutes for entrainment to take place.
Along with a lowered heart rate and blood pressure (due to the carefully crafted elements of the piece) your brain is allowed to switch off because of the stark lack of a repeating melody. This means that your brain isn’t trying to anticipate what is coming next, allowing you to completely tune out.
It’s no secret that music has the ability to create an atmosphere and shift moods. We’ve all experienced that magical moment during a sublimely perfect set when we look around at the sea of blissful people grooving together as one. There might be...
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Have you heard this before, and do you listen to calming music (like binaural beats or similar) to help bring calm?
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Have heard about this sort of thing and tried it during periods of stress and depression in the past, although not specifically listened to MU’s stuff. It helps, but then again a lot of music helps just as much (I tend to listen to “classical” stuff).
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Ripple
6 September 2022 07:24
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I’ve not heard of this before.
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This is less like music and more like a steady rhythm. The beats are supposed to match a slow heart rate. It’s very monotonous which is supposed to help calm. There’s a tiny bit of “melody” to tie the whole thing together.
