One man has set himself the task of avoiding all sources of music for Lent in order to make a documentary on the subject for BBC Radio 4.

Trevor Cox wanted to complete the experiment in order to show the prominent presence of music in modern life and the effect it has on us. His insights so far have been extremely interesting and prove that no matter how casual your interest in music; it has a huge effect on every part of our lives in most situations.

One of the main things that Cox has reported so far is that in the absence of audible music, our brains tend to create music in our heads; the annoying kind that is often referred to as “earworms”. The interesting thing is that right at the start of the experiment, Cox reported being flooded with this imaginary music, implying that his brain was trying to compensate for the lack of external stimulus.

As the experiment went on and Cox went longer without music, he reported becoming extremely tired and weary. Other studies have offered an explanation for this effect and it appears to be because music stimulates the reward centre of the brain. As we are not always consciously aware of all of the music that we perceive, it makes sense that Cox would have noticeably missed the effects of music once it was completely taken away from him.

(Image Source: BBC)

It quickly became apparent that we are almost constantly bombarded with music from various sources and to avoid music altogether would mean almost becoming a hermit. To avoid it completely would mean partial sensual deprivation; something that has been used as a form of torture. That should give some idea as to the discomfort experienced by Cox so far.

So far, this experiment has shown that music is a big part of our lives, even if we don’t go out of our way to listen to it, or are even aware that we are. It takes a huge amount of effort to block out any form of music and it seems that to do so could amount to some serious emotional damage. It just proves that music is a powerful thing.

You can listen to the broadcast, which was live 16/03/15 on Radio 4 here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055g10j

What are your thoughts on this experiment? please feel free to comment.

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