Mozart Effect: A Popular Myth Debunked and Explained

I try listening to classical music but I truly can't stand it. It agitates me and annoys the crap out of me. For those wondering, I was in the top 20 of my graduating class in highschool and a psych major in college and I listen to rock. I wish I liked classical music but its like nails on a chalk board and I have tried everything from Mozart to Rockmaninoff. I guess its all in taste, if I was in an art class and someone was playing classical music I can promise I wouldn't be more creative or open minded, I would be going nuts and probably leave the room to prevent myself from audio torture. The same would go for food, I am not a fan of sauerkraut, I can not stomach the taste but my friend can eat it in spoon fulls.

Listening to Mozart doesn't make you smart. Being smart leads to listening to Mozart not because smart people listen to classical music but smart people listen to good music. That by no means suggests that listening to popular music makes one dumb because musical tastes are as individual as any other. Mozart has endured the test of time and has transcended fads throughout subsequent generations. Most people with what is usually said to be average intelligence are quite capable of doing most things so-called smart people are able to do. It just may take a little more time and effort. Working hard and striving are many times more important than inate intelligence.

i'm convinced that this study was cooked up to boost sales of classical music CDs.

Mozart's music-- and classical music, in general-- is NOT necessarily "relaxing." That's the case only when compared to most of today's pop and rock music, which is 99% drek.

The "Mozart Effect" in babies was likely due to the fact that parents who played Mozart were more educated and, therefore, their children were likely to be more educated. JMO!

I always found a good dose of Howlin' Wolf to be stimulating. And Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, et. al. At other times, Little Richard and Fats Domino will suffice, and Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Bill Haley . . .

I heard that the Mozart effect dealt with Mozart's music only. Not with Classical music in general.

My friend's wife put headphones on her abdomen when she was pregnant, and she cranked up the volume to be sure her developing baby would hear Mozart clearly. When her son was born, he was deaf. The doctor said his eardrums had been burst by loud noises somehow.

To me...THAT'S the "Mozart Effect" !!!

Hmmmm, interesting. It was the studies fault but the Associated Press who picked up and try to make it sensational to sell papers. Imagine that, a newspaper getting it wrong.

In all fairness, I don't have one shred of scientific evidence to back this up, but I still believe the Mozart Effect is a valid theory, even if only anecdotally. The only qualification I would make is to change it from the Mozart Effect to the Mozart/Coltrane Effect.

My grandmother was our little town's piano and violin teacher and under her influence, I was constantly exposed to classical music. Did it make me smarter? Well, maybe not according to my teachers, but I do believe that by being exposed to music that was more complex and required a little more effort to analyze and appreciate, I learned to think critically and to develop above average abstract thinking skills.

Our children listen to a lot of classical music and more jazz than their friends are generally exposed to (my fourteen year old daughter probably thinks Hannah Montana is some town out west but can tell you every song Ella Fitzgerald ever sang, while I've walked in on my severteen year old son to find him mesmerized by John Coltrane's classic album, A Love Supreme). While I have no evidence, I do believe that their exposure to jazz and classical music is one reason why they are the way they are: thoughtful, polite, studious, and able to sit still and just enjoy the world around them.

And, of course, the subversive part of me loves Baby Mozart and Baby Einstein and anything that exposes children to classical music. When I was a boy, most children's exposure to classical music was limited to Bugs Bunny cartoons (yes, you know you still love "Kill the Wabbit") or perhaps Orson Welles narrating Peter and the Wolf. But now, children don't even get to hear those things. Rap, Hip Hop, American Idol-style Top 40 and some commotion that passes for rock and roll is all children hear today. You can't help but wonder if classical music (and jazz, for that matter) will soon go the way of the dodo, rotary dial telephones, and my hair.

But then, I digress...

It is funny how things can get blown out of porportion. Yes, music like Mozart may be helpful to your child but it won't make him smart. Just like the trendy acai berry may be good for you but it's not a "miracle" fruit.
Studies show that children learn best with interactive, real time learning. Nowadays there are so many videos that promise the moon. Children are plopped in front of the tv and expected to become geniuses. Yes, good ol cards with letters on them works better than some fancy cartoon. There is no "easy" way to make your child do well in school. Another advantage to one on one old fashioned teaching, you get to see your childs weaknesses. Sorry, your child is not gifted because he knows his vowels after watching that video for the 100th time.