I’m not a therapist or a researcher. I make electronic music in Los Angeles, and this post is about what that music does for me and what I think it does for people in a room together. If you want studies, I went through them in what research says about house music, movement and mood.
What producing does for me
I started making loops in FruityLoops in 1998, in college. Other things took over for a long time, and I came back to production seriously in 2016. These days I’m a husband, a father of twin boys, and I run a business. Most of my hours are spoken for, and I wouldn’t change that.
Production is the part of the week that’s only mine. The problems are small and concrete: the bassline is fighting the kick, a chord change lands a bar too early, the breakdown runs long. While I’m fixing those, I’m not thinking about anything else. I come out of a session calmer than I went in, even when the track isn’t working.
There’s a longer version of the backstory in how I found my sound.
What listening does
Listening is different, because I’m not solving anything. A progressive house or trance track gives me a steady pulse and a slow build to follow, and after a few minutes my attention has moved off whatever I was chewing on. Nothing is fixed. I’m just in a better state to go back to it.
I think that’s the fair way to describe what this music offers on an ordinary day: a change of state. A lift on a flat afternoon, some energy for a workout, something to move to in the kitchen.
What happens on a dance floor
A dance floor works on a different scale. A few hundred or a few thousand people hear the same kick drum at the same moment, and most of them know roughly when the drop is coming. Nobody asks what you do for a living. For a couple of hours you’re in step with strangers, and that feels good in a way that’s hard to find elsewhere.
One piece of research fits here. A Deakin University survey of 1,000 Australians found that people who danced or went to music events reported higher wellbeing than people who didn’t. Listening on its own didn’t show the same link, which suggests the company matters. It’s a survey, so it shows an association and can’t prove the dancing caused it. It does match my experience.
Where music stops
You’ll run into the idea that the beat heals the mind. I’d put it more modestly. A good track can change your mood for an hour. It doesn’t treat anxiety or depression, and I don’t want anyone to read this as a claim that it does.
Music can help with mood, but it isn’t a substitute for professional care when you’re struggling.
If a steady beat sounds like what you need today, you can listen to my music here.