WAAM’s Music Impact Research Center (MIRC) funds, researches, aggregates, and disseminates data measuring music’s influence through rigorous, scientific means. 

 

We have formed a community of domain experts to develop and guide priorities. The team is responsible for curating leading third-party research, as well as producing original content to illustrate and substantiate the tangible link between music and key success metrics. Our analysis is publicly available; it is also shared with our grantees and factors into the evaluation of program delivery. 

 

Interested in the minds behind this effort? Meet our research team!

FEATURED CASE STUDY

Metrics Linking Guitars Over Guns to Broader Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Improving Capacities and Experiences

The We Are All Music Foundation, in partnership with Hello Insight, recently undertook a case study of one of our Power of Music Grantees – Guitars Over Guns – to showcase how their music mentoring program has helped bring about some striking improvements across key metrics showing progress towards Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).

Photo credit: Isaac Rodriguez

For CORE SEL, 58% of participants showed improvement in this umbrella category.

Core SEL is further broken down into the follow sub-categories:

Contribution

Measures a young person’s desire to engage with and contribute to family, community, and society

of participants reported improvement

Self-Management

Measures the ability of a young person to regulate their emotions and behavior, take positive risks, and persist through life’s challenges

of participants reported improvement

Positive Identity

Measures a young person's internal sense of who they are and confidence to explore the multiple facets of their identities

of participants reported improvement

Academic Self-Efficacy

Measures a young person's motivation and perceived mastery over their own learning, school performance, and potential to attain academic success

of participants reported improvement

Social Skills

Measures the ability of a young person to take others’ perspectives into account, and to develop a sense of caring and empathy

of participants reported improvement

WELCOME TO THE MUSIC IMPACT RESEARCH CENTER

FEATURED ARTICLES

How Music Can Benefit Your Child’s Mental Health

This post explores the benefits of music therapy for children and teens both in the hospital and while recovering at home. The author, a licensed music therapist, defines music therapy as the therapeutic use of music to meet a child’s mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
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The Influence of Background Music on Learning in the Light of Different Theoretical Perspectives and the Role of Working Memory Capacity

This study investigates how background music influences learning with respect to three different theoretical approaches. Both the Mozart effect as well as the arousal-mood-hypothesis indicate that background music can potentially benefit learning outcomes. While the Mozart effect assumes a direct influence of background music on cognitive abilities, the arousal-mood-hypothesis assumes a mediation effect over arousal and mood.
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Music and Learning: Does Music Make You Smarter?

What is music and why do people think it is important for learning? Musical sounds fill our lives: from the music you share online to the songs playing in shops and restaurants, we are rarely far from music. Playing music gives the brain a multisensory “workout” that can strengthen memory, help us pay attention, and perhaps even improve reading ability.
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Tuning Into Identity: Music’s Role in LGBTQIA + Self-Exploration

This blog posting highlights the importance of music in helping LGBTQ+ youth with their journey to self discovery. Music allows LGBTQIA+ youth to escape from the exclusivity of our immediate reality by participating in LGBTQIA+ culture on our own terms, at our own pace and without the pressure or risk of disclosing our identity to others.
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Pride Month: LGBTQ+ Representation in the Music Industry

This 2023 blog posting gives some background on the origins of Pride Month and activities for 2023 but its real value is in the discussion of how music impacts LGBTQ+ individuals. The author notes that music has played a vital role in providing a platform for these individuals to express their identities, experiences and emotions.
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Famous Queen Track Rocks Insulin Cells into Action

There’s no doubt that a lot of people would say, perhaps a little hyperbolically, that rock and roll saved their lives. Now, new research has shown that the music just might be able to serve as a literal life saver for diabetics. In the United States alone, over 37 million people have diabetes, a condition wherein the body produces little to no insulin.
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Even Babies Know Rock ‘n’ Roll

Newborns can’t exactly swing their hips to prove they can jive, so researchers monitored the brains of 14 infants listening to variations of a rock rhythm — complete with drum, snare and high hat cymbal. When metrically-unimportant portions of the beat were silenced, nothing much changed among the auditory-related activity in the brain, the researchers found.
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