Music is essential to human happiness and can transform listeners’ emotions, survey finds

Hong Kong musician Paul Maclean has been performing since he was four years old and knows the transformative power of music – its ability to give pleasure and happiness is central to his belief system.

“I can be having a horrible day and then go on stage, and after the first song or two you get this feeling of joy from playing music. You forget anything that was weighing you down or causing grief or sadness,” says Canada-born Maclean, who runs Sunset Studio in Hong Kong and is a member of metal-electronic outfit DP.

But you don’t need to be a professional musician to feel the positive, transformative effects of music. A recent global survey by consumer electronics company Sonos interviewed 12,000 people across 12 countries and found that listening is essential to human happiness, and that music might be the key to reducing stress, improving productivity and being healthier.

More than half (54 per cent) of respondents said that music had made them either laugh or cry unexpectedly, and three out of four respondents said they listened to music to reduce stress. Another 52 per cent said they were happier when listening to a favourite song, and that music helps boost their mood at work (58 per cent).

Results gathered from 1,000 Hong Kong respondents echoed the global findings with 47 per cent of locals interviewed saying that listening to music could have a positive effect on their mood and significantly helped them cope with stress.