Video game music could be the study tool that gets you through an intense university workload.
As you enter your first year of university, you may find the workload far greater than it was in high school. This means you’ll be spending a lot of time at your desk, at the library or at a cafe, with your eyes glued to the screen of your laptop, or perhaps your neck craning down at a book for hours on end. The workload is not always easy, and while you may already have a strategy to get through it — whether that be a movie playing in the background or copious amounts of coffee and energy drinks — video game music may just be your best bet.
Music in general is a lot of people’s go-to for cranking out a study session, but I’ve found that when trying to focus, my favourite songs end up more distracting than helpful. Consider a party scene in a movie: the speakers blare singers’ voices during the dance sequences, but as soon as the main character starts a conversation, the music fades to the background and the lyrics all but disappear. If they didn’t, it would be too confusing to try and make sense of what our character was saying.
Lyrical music tends to get in the way of your thoughts rather than helping to sustain them. The only exception to this in my experience is when I know a certain album so well that it fades to the background of my thoughts, and I end up listening to the same songs again and again. But that’s not always fun, and this doesn’t work when I’m stuck doing a project I’m just not that interested in. That’s where video game music comes into play.
If lyrical music is too distracting, instrumental music of any kind can help sustain your focus — some may choose to listen to soundtracks from their favourite movies or classical music.
However, video game music has another element going for it. Game soundtracks are specifically engineered to maintain your focus as you play through its levels, wander around its environments or battle its most fearsome foes. What’s more, different songs are created for different occasions, and these situational tracks can help you accomplish various elements of your studying.
For example, background music used in-game for when your character is walking through a field or having a conversation is perfect for when you are studying or working on an assignment that you can afford to take your time on. This music works because it gives you a melodic thread to hold onto while your thoughts are free to focus on the task at hand. It maintains your focus but keeps you calm.
On the other hand, there will be instances when you’ve left an assignment until the last minute and need to cram a week’s worth of work into a handful of hours.
Boss battles are typically moments of intense focus and tension, where you must apply everything you’ve learned up until that point to conquer a major challenge. As such, the music is designed to enthral you and keep you focussed but also to instill a sense of urgency. Using it in crunch times can be incredibly helpful and can keep you at a fast pace when you have no other option.
You can make two playlists contrived from your favourite games. One might be a steady, relaxing playlist filled with field music. The other could be filled with boss music or other intense songs for when that crunch time inevitably comes.
This strategy helped me a ton in my first year, especially as I was still getting used to the sheer amount of weekly assignments and large projects nearer the end of the term. Time management is still important, but it can be difficult.
Having a study playlist as a backup, filled with music that helps you focus — in casual times but especially in those high-stress moments — will help you as you tackle your first year. There will be moments that test you, just like the toughest bosses ever conceived in video game history, but you will conquer them.
