Music? Corona? Coronamusic? Cheap and Accessible Coping Strategies During Covid Lockdown
Examining Viral Tunes: changes in musical behaviours and interest in coronamusic predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown
Think about the first time you first heard the word “Coronavirus”. How did you feel? Who was the first person you thought about? Now, think about the first time you were told to quarantine. Who said it? Was it your school or job? The nightly news?
I remember getting an email that my spring break was extended and that all students were encouraged to stay home until the coronavirus subsided. That two-week spring break (of isolation) quickly turned into two months, then two years. Imagine spreading the majority of your college life isolating with your parents (siblings, and pets). Meeting your “lifelong friends” on Zoom. It’s an experience that none of us saw coming.
Epidemics have been recurring throughout history. The Spanish Flu, the West African Ebola Epidemic, and The Black Death, are just a few that have affected people all over the world. But why does Covid-19 feel different? Maybe it’s because we are experiencing first-hand how deadly, contagious, and frankly, annoying epidemics are? Well, we know that outbreaks can force people to uproot their lives, lose their jobs, and even experience the death of loved ones. Weddings were canceled. Mothers gave birth in isolation. Even graduations and proms were canceled.
What were we supposed to do when each moment that was meant to bring people together, suddenly had to be spent apart? How did you cope with that isolation? Did you spend more time listening to your favorite music? Exercising more? Attempt to learn a new skill? Did you do more dances on Tik Tok? I know I did.
The explosion of musical creativity that is a result of music interactions referred and/or inspired by the pandemic is called coronamusic (Fink et al., 2022). Hansen et al. (2021) explains coronamusic to be musical engagement (playing, dancing, exploring, listening) that explicitly and/or implicitly mentions the coronavirus and/or life during the pandemic. Do you remember hearing about Italians making music on their balconies during quarantine? I know you’ve heard or witnessed (virtually) a music-exercise challenge which was used to keep people connected through exercise. How did you engage with music during the pandemic? Did you use it as a distraction or to cope? Did you use it to socialize and stay connected to the people around you? Personally, I watched Tiny Desk Concerts with my friends on Zoom. Was it an effective coping mechanism? I don’t know.
Music engagement as a coping mechanism during Covid-19 is similar to what Fink and her team of researchers wanted to study. To explore music engagement during the pandemic, they crafted a questionnaire that looked at seven categories that aimed to assess the changes in frequency or importance of a behavior during and before the pandemic. Fink and her team also looked at demographic data samples from 6 countries (France, Germany, India, Italy, UK, and USA). Those countries were chosen because they differed in terms of the severity of lockdown measures, the rate of the spread, and the ways and degree to which the public acknowledged corona-related musical behaviors. See the Methods section for more information about the survey and demographic data.
What did Fink and her colleagues find?
Through their self-report survey, they found that professional lives were frequently affected by the crisis across all countries. For example, over half of the sample reported a change in work status. Some lost their jobs and many had reduced hours. Participants reported leaving their house 3.8 times in the span of a week. Imagine only going outside four times in one week. Researchers saw an increase in negative emotions, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and depression across all countries. India was the only exception; based on their scores, they reported better health overall as well as more positive emotions. Why India? The researchers don’t really talk about why. Maybe there’s a cultural reason that underlies this difference.
In general, individuals were impacted by isolation, more than the virus itself. I wonder why that is. Personally, I agree that I was impacted by the ripple effects of the virus more than the virus itself. Perhaps my extroverted side slowly faded because I was forced to spend time alone. Being alone might have pushed people to cope differently. When looking at the current study, the majority of respondents had developed moderate to extreme interest in coronamusic. This study reported that many participants preferred making-music situations. Examples include: singing, dancing, and making music alone.
In summary, people who were affected by the presence of the virus emotionally, were more likely to change their behaviors toward music. The data showed that making music (or listening to it) could be predicted by the participants’ behavior changes and coping mechanisms.
From this study, we learned a few things about music engagement and coping:
1. Many people used music for regulating emotions during isolation.
Finding: Given a questionnaire to assess different coping mechanisms and music engagement during the pandemic, music was found to be the primary coping mechanism. The importance of music during isolation increased compared to other activities like gardening and exercising.
Follow up: Is it because music is very accessible? Can music be used to regulate emotions but also be used to distract the listener?
2. Patterns of music engagement differed based on emotional changes
Finding: Those experiencing more negative emotions during quarantine used music to cope with depression, loneliness, stress, and anxiety. Contrastingly, those who had a change in positive emotions used music engagement for social interaction.
Follow up: My favorite example of this is the Sing With Me Challenge on Tik Tok. This challenge allowed people to engage in duets. There was also an instrumental variation of this.
3. Coronamusic was key in socio-emotional coping
Finding: Coronamusic encompasses a lot of content, thus making it very relatable and attractive to many people. People can relate to the lyrics, dances, and even practices (like handwashing songs).
Follow up: I can see how lyrics that touch on loneliness or grief can be relatable during quarantine.
But why does this matter and why is it interesting?
It is interesting to see that there is an accessible way to cope with the loneliness and anxieties related to the pandemic. Could music be used to cope in a non-pandemic setting? That’s a good question. There are music interventions like music therapy and music medicine that have been studied. While music as a coping mechanism is not effective for everyone, it is a method that is easy to experiment with. The pandemic has affected us all, and it is heartwarming to see something as ‘basic’ as music can bring us together even during isolation. We can use music to improve our mood and regulate our emotions. So maybe next time you are feeling sad, you can turn on your favorite album, or try out the newest Tik Tok dance challenge.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Ebola (ebola virus disease). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/index.html#:~:text=Ebola%20Virus%20Disease%20(EVD)%20is,person%20infected%20with%20Ebola%20virus.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (1998). Black death. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 12, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death
Fink, L.K., Warrenburg, L.A., Howlin, C. et al. (2021). Viral tunes: changes in musical behaviors and interest in coronamusic predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8, 180 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00858-y
Hansen NC, Treider JMG, Swarbrick D et al. (2021) A crowd-sourced database of coronamusic: Documenting online making and sharing of music during the COVID-19 pandemic. Front Psychol. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684083
History.com Editors. (2010). Spanish flu. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic
Youtube Links:
Instrumental Variation of Sing With Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHXj115RLq4
Italians Making Music From Their Balconies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBByYjjvNzs&t=1s
Music Exercise Challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SEkSsn3U3U
Savage Tik Tok Challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Iz6sMlRc4
Sing With Me Tik Tok Challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iGht1F6Gps
Wash Your Hands Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=JQsKZfsp5y8&feature=emb_logo
Image: from Shutterstock images
