FYI: Where did the idea that listening to classical music makes you smarter come from and is their any truth in it?

FYI: Where did the idea that listening to classical music makes you smarter come from and is their any truth in it?

The 'Mozart effect' - the notion that listening to classical music can make you smarter - is dubious at best. There have been claims that Mozart can make your baby a genius, cure autism, dissolve blood clots and more. But while there may be benefits to listening to classical music, most of the hype is born of media exaggeration, public gullibility and misinterpretation.

It all started in 1993 with a study of the effects of music on intelligence by Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher, two scientists at University of California at Irvine. They concluded college students who had listened to Mozart immediately before an IQ test did eight or nine points better than students who hadn't.

Their research spawned an industry overnight. Dozens of books have since been published teaching parents how to raise 'baby Einsteins' with the aid of music and a forest of websites has sprung up to match, offering colorful, overpriced accessories. Entire schools of parenting methodology have

been founded and mountains of merchandise produced. And parents, ever more anxious to give their children a head start in the world, have paid up.

Even policymakers have been caught up in the commotion. In 1998, the governor of Georgia, in