FREE ESSAY ON THE MOZART EFFECT

THE MOZART EFFECT

Agnew 1
Phillip Agnew
Ms. Stephanie Behne
English II
March 8, 2000
MUSIC AND THE MIND:
THE CONTROVERSY BEHIND THE MOZART EFFECT
Every aspiring mother and father in America dreams about having their child attend
Harvard, or Yale, or MIT. For generations parents have attempted to get a head start on
that dream in hopes that it would make the child smarter after conception. A good diet,
exercise, singing, and verbal communication have all been said to help in producing a
"little Einstein". But now America has a new way to make their children smarter. It seems
that the next generation will not be singing, talking to, playing with, or even teaching
their children. All they have to do is turn on the radio or one of the many choices of
tapes that have sprung up after America first learned about the "Mozart Effect". This
widely inclusive term stemmed from a 1993 study that found that college students had
increased IQ scores after listening to a Mozart Sonata. Days after the news was released,
it gave birth to a music industry, government legislation stating that all newborn babies
were to be given a classical tape, a new field of medicine: "Music Therapy, and parents
around the country playing Mozart's "Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos" to their newborns
while "...waiting for Harvard to call..." ( ). But on the other hand, it was a Harvard
Medical School researcher named Chris Chabris that has discredited it as "statistically
insignificant" (Chabris 54). The effect of music on young minds is a very controversial
topic.
The Mozart Effect is the use of music to enhance the quality of life in a variety of
ways, including health, wellness, education,creativity and emotional expression (Kranz
1). It originated from a 1993 study on college students, and its results have been widely
misinterpreted. The study found that listening to a Mozart sonata could boost college IQ
scores and that was it. Many people, including Sony Music Company, have now tapped into
that study and have blown up its advantages into places where science has not studied
(Ferman 9). These misinterpretations have lead many parents to believe that if their
newborns are exposed to classical music they will become smarter. And some (but not all)
research supports that idea, but the media has exaggerated music's affect on the body and
possibly opened the way for a new form of medicine.
Since the breaking of this news, parents have been offered yet another way to help
develop their children's minds. Research has found that infants do benefit form many
developmental enhancements attributed to music. One of these is the ability to express
themselves through an instrument or by other means of expression (Kranz 1).