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For science communication that asks people to read, listen to explanations, or remember verbal information, songs with lyrics are the riskier choice. A 2023 experiment with college students found that music with lyrics hindered verbal memory, visual memory, and reading comprehension, while instrumental lo-fi did not credibly improve or impair performance. That study did not test a science explainer, public audience, or science learning directly, so the practical recommendation is cautious: use silence when minimizing competing sound is the priority, and choose instrumental audio rather than lyrical music when background music is needed.
Instrumental music is therefore a safer default, not a proven cognitive enhancer. The right choice still depends on the format, the listener, the complexity of the message, and whether the audience must process spoken or written language at the same time.
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What the evidence says in one sentence
Lyrics can compete with the verbal processing that science communication relies on, whereas instrumental music has not been shown to improve comprehension or memory. The strongest direct evidence comes from cognitive-task experiments rather than from trials of public science communication.
That distinction matters. A person reading a climate article, watching a narrated biology animation, or listening to a medical podcast is doing a communication task. The studies summarized below measured laboratory-style memory, reading, attention, arithmetic, or consumer-learning outcomes. They support a reasoned application to communication design, but they do not prove that a particular soundtrack will change how well the public understands science.
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What the 2023 study actually tested
Souza and Barbosa’s peer-reviewed 2023 paper, Should We Turn off the Music? Music with Lyrics Interferes with Cognitive Tasks, compared three audio conditions: silence, instrumental hip-hop lo-fi, and music with lyrics. College students completed four kinds of tasks while one of those conditions played. The article reports samples ranging from 113 to 123 students across the tasks.
The study’s main pattern was consistent for tasks involving language and memory: the lyrical condition hindered verbal memory, visual memory, and reading comprehension. The reported effects for those outcomes were approximately d = -0.3, a modest difference rather than a dramatic collapse in performance. A negative result for arithmetic was not considered credible. Instrumental lo-fi did not produce a credible improvement or impairment on the measured tasks.
| Task or outcome | Music with lyrics | Instrumental hip-hop lo-fi | What this means for communicators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verbal memory | Hindered performance; approximate d = -0.3 | No credible improvement or impairment | Lyrics are a plausible competing signal when an audience must retain words. |
| Visual memory | Hindered performance; approximate d = -0.3 | No credible improvement or impairment | Lyrics may still be distracting even when the material is presented visually. |
| Reading comprehension | Hindered performance; approximate d = -0.3 | No credible improvement or impairment | Silence or instrumental audio is more defensible than a vocal track under text-heavy conditions. |
| Arithmetic | A negative effect was not credible | No credible improvement or impairment | The result does not justify saying that lyrics harm every kind of mental work. |
The authors write: “Our results therefore suggest that given the choice between music with lyrics vs. instrumental music to study to, instrumental music should be preferred.” Their discussion also cautions that performance results alone do not establish that instrumental music is better than silence. The full article is available through the National Library of Medicine full text and the Journal of Cognition record.
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Why the result is relevant to science communication—but not proof of an effect
Science explanations are often language-dense. A viewer may need to decode a narrator’s sentence, connect it with a diagram, and hold a definition in working memory. A reader may be comparing unfamiliar terms, following a causal chain, or checking a number in a chart. Lyrics add another stream of language that can be processed for meaning, even when the listener is trying to ignore it.
This is a plausible “competing signal” explanation, not a finding that the 2023 researchers tested in a science-communication setting. Their participants were college students performing specified cognitive tasks; they were not evaluating a public-health explainer, museum exhibit, research presentation, or science-news story. No directly applicable trial identified here measured public understanding of science with different soundtrack choices.
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Accordingly, a communicator can say that lyrics may interfere with verbal processing and that instrumental audio avoids adding another set of words. A communicator should not say that instrumental music has been proven to increase science learning, that every listener will be distracted by vocals, or that silence always produces the best result.
What other studies add
A 2012 attention study
A randomized controlled study by Shih, Huang, and Chiang included 102 participants aged 20–24. In its tested attention task, background music with lyrics had significant negative effects on attention and concentration. The authors favored music without lyrics when background music is used in a work environment. Because the participants, task, and setting were specific, the result should be treated as context-bound rather than as a universal estimate for all audiences. The record is indexed by PubMed.
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A 2017 paper on consumer learning found that vocal music was associated with poorer cognitive and attitudinal outcomes among participants with lower working-memory capacity, while the reported experiments did not find the same effect among participants with higher working-memory capacity. This suggests that listener characteristics can moderate what a soundtrack does. The finding does not identify a single “ideal” track for everyone and does not turn working-memory capacity into a practical label that communicators can infer about individual viewers. The article record is available from ScienceDirect.
Choosing audio by communication format
Text-first explainers and articles
If the audience is reading paragraphs, captions, equations, or labels, lyrics introduce words that compete with the words on screen. Silence is the cleanest baseline for a text-first page. If the design requires ambient sound, use a genuinely instrumental bed at a level that does not force the reader to attend to it, then test whether readers can answer content questions as accurately with audio as without it.
Do not assume that “instrumental” means “neutral.” A track can contain a prominent melody, abrupt changes, dense percussion, or emotional cues that pull attention away from a difficult passage. The evidence distinguishes lyrics from instrumental sound; it does not establish that every instrumental recording is harmless.
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Narrated video and animation
During narration, the audience must decode spoken language in real time. A vocal song under the narration creates two simultaneous language streams, even if the song is quiet. Start with narration alone, then consider instrumental music only if it serves a clear editorial purpose such as signaling a transition or sustaining attention during a pause.
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Podcasts and audio-only explainers
Audio-only listeners cannot look away from a vocal track while retaining the narration. Lyrics should therefore be treated as a high-risk layer whenever the host is speaking. Use silence or instrumental transitions around the spoken content, and reserve any song for an opening, closing, or clearly separated segment where no explanation is being delivered.
Short social videos
Short clips often combine rapid captions, narration, sound effects, and music. The limited duration does not remove the processing conflict; it can make each word more important because viewers have less time to replay the message. Make the first version with narration and captions only, then add instrumental audio if it improves pacing without reducing correct recall in a small audience check.
Live talks, classrooms, and museum spaces
For a spoken presentation, turn off background music while the presenter explains a mechanism, interprets a graph, or gives instructions. If music is used before the talk, during a break, or between exhibits, keep it separated from the verbal explanation. In shared spaces, offer a quiet route or readable transcript for visitors who find background sound distracting.
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A practical decision framework
Use the following questions in order. They convert the evidence into a production decision without pretending that the studies tested your exact audience.
- Must the audience process language? If people will read, listen to narration, memorize terms, or follow spoken instructions, treat lyrics as a potential source of interference.
- Is music necessary? If the goal is simply to avoid an empty soundtrack, silence is a valid baseline. The 2023 experiment did not show that instrumental music improves performance.
- What outcome matters? For comprehension, recall, and attention, protect the words first. For an interlude with no explanation, music can carry more of the emotional or atmospheric work.
- Who is the audience? Age, familiarity with the material, working-memory capacity, language proficiency, hearing differences, and personal preference may change the experience. The available studies do not support predicting an individual response from the soundtrack alone.
- Can you test the actual asset? Compare a silence version, an instrumental version, and—only if there is a reason—a lyrical version. Measure the communication outcome rather than asking only which version people “like.”
| Communication situation | Defensible starting choice | Reasoning and check |
|---|---|---|
| Dense article or on-screen text | Silence | Removes an additional stream of sound while readers decode written language. |
| Narrated explanation | Silence, then instrumental if needed | Protects spoken words; test comprehension after adding the score. |
| Audio-only science segment | Silence under speech | Lyrics would compete directly with the narrator’s language. |
| Intro, outro, or transition with no explanation | Instrumental or lyrical music, separated from speech | There is no simultaneous verbal content to protect; keep the boundary obvious. |
| Public exhibit with continuous ambient audio | Instrumental ambience or quiet zone | Visitors may read labels while sound plays; provide a low-distraction option. |
How to test a science explainer before publishing
A small, task-focused test is more informative than relying on a producer’s preference. It will not turn a local result into a universal law, but it can reveal whether your particular mix makes the message harder to use.
- Freeze the content. Keep the script, visuals, narrator, timing, captions, and edit identical across versions. Change only the soundtrack condition.
- Create a silence baseline. Export the explainer with narration alone, or with no audio at all for a text-first version.
- Create an instrumental version. Use the same edit with an instrumental bed. Document where the track enters, changes, or drops under speech.
- Include a lyrical version only when it is a real editorial option. Do not add a song merely to produce a dramatic comparison; the purpose is to answer a decision you actually face.
- Use comprehension and recall questions. Ask for the main claim, a key mechanism, a number, or the next step. Score correct answers rather than asking which soundtrack felt more engaging.
- Check delayed recall when retention matters. A short follow-up later can distinguish immediate recognition from remembering the explanation.
- Record audience characteristics and context. Note whether participants read captions, listened through speakers or headphones, knew the topic, and reported a need for quiet. Treat these as descriptions of your test group, not as universal audience segments.
- Choose the least distracting version that meets the editorial goal. If silence and instrumental audio perform similarly, use the one that best supports accessibility, tone, and production requirements. If lyrical audio lowers understanding in your test, remove it from the explanatory passages.
Common mistakes to avoid
Calling instrumental music a cognitive booster
The 2023 study found no credible improvement for instrumental lo-fi. Saying “instrumental music helps people learn science” goes beyond the evidence. The safer wording is that instrumental audio avoids adding lyrics and may be preferable when background music is required.
Equating a negative lyric result with harm in every task
The arithmetic effect in the 2023 experiment was not credible, and the supporting studies used particular tasks and populations. Lyrics are not established as harmful for every activity, every listener, or every genre.
Assuming unfamiliar lyrics are harmless
The evidence provided does not establish that listeners are unaffected when they do not understand a song’s language, nor does it identify familiarity as a reliable protective factor. Do not turn that assumption into a design rule.
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Using loudness as the only fix
Reducing a song’s level may leave its words audible and semantically engaging. If the narration or text is the priority, muting or removing the lyrical layer during key passages is a clearer intervention than simply making it quieter.
Testing preference instead of understanding
People may prefer a dramatic soundtrack while remembering less of the explanation. Engagement ratings can be collected, but they should not replace questions that test comprehension, recall, or the ability to apply the information.
Ignoring access needs
Some viewers need captions, transcripts, volume control, or a quiet environment. Provide those options independently of the soundtrack decision. A music-free version can improve usability even when average test scores look similar.
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The available evidence leaves several questions open. The main experiment did not test public science audiences, long-form explanations, different musical genres, or repeated exposure over days or weeks. Its college-student sample cannot establish the size of an effect for children, older adults, multilingual audiences, or people with hearing or attention differences.
The studies also do not show that silence is optimal in every setting. A carefully chosen instrumental track could support pacing, emotional tone, or continued viewing without improving a memory score. Conversely, an instrumental track with a strong beat or frequent changes could distract some listeners. These are reasons to test the finished communication asset, not reasons to claim that all sound is equivalent.
Bottom line for communicators
When people must read or process spoken science, protect the verbal channel. Start with silence. If the format needs background music, choose instrumental audio rather than songs with lyrics, and verify the decision with comprehension or recall checks on the actual explainer. Present that recommendation as a cautious application of cognitive-task evidence—not as a result already demonstrated in a science-communication trial.
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