By Kailyn Lunn, Contributing Writer

One hundred La Roche University students say that music is an important part of their lives. 

The purpose of this survey was to assess how La Roche University students utilize music. One hundred students completed this survey on campus in early October. Students’ ages ranged from 18 to 26, and their majors included film, education, and finance. 

This survey featured two major components: to determine listening habits and music related opinions and to inquire about music’s different purposes.

Students responding to the survey indicated how many hours per day they spend listening to music. Thirty-nine percent reported listening one to three hours each day. Twenty-nine percent said three to five hours. Twenty-seven percent added five or more hours, and 5 percent said they don’t listen at all.

The survey identified 13 genres of music. These included pop, rock, hip-hop, country, folk, alternative, EDM, punk, indie, heavy metal, K-pop, and musical theater. By far, the three most popular genres were pop, rock, and hip-hop.

• Thirty-six percent of students chose pop;
• Thirty-two percent said rock; and
• Thirty-one percent said hip-hop.

Where do students listen to music most? Spotify was the most popular choice, according to forty-three percent of respondents. According to twenty-six percent of students, Apple Music was the second most popular.

The second half of the survey listed the six most common uses of music. These are:

1. To relax
2. To increase productivity
3. To change your mood
4. To set the mood in a group setting
5. To make boring activities more enjoyable
6. To make difficult activities seem easer

Students rated the effectiveness of music for the provided reasons on a scale of 1 to 5.

No more than five percent of students rated any of the categories a one. The results for two, three, and four ranged from four percent to thirty-two percent. Most students chose five for each category.