The Mozart Effect: A musical joke?
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The Mozart Effect: A musical joke?
08 April 2008
MIRACLE-GRO FOR THE BRAIN OR A FLAWED MONEY-SPINNER? TIM WHITELAW INVESTIGATES THE MYTH OF THE MOZART EFFECT
In 1998, the then-governor of the US state of Georgia, Zell Miller, allocated a budget of over $100,000 (£50,300) to pay for albums of selected classical music (mainly Mozart) to be distributed to every new mother in maternity wards throughout the state.
The aim was simple: smarter babies. Miller argued that handing an album of Mozartian earworms to a freshly delivered American would be a truly worthwhile use of public money. Miller, certainly not alone in his thinking, was in the thrall of 'The Mozart Effect' - the notion that listening to Mozart makes babies (and adults) more intelligent.
The Mozart Effect has capital letters for a reason: it is the trademark of author Don Campbell
The Mozart Effect has capital letters for a reason: it is the trademark of author Don Campbell, who wrote two books on the effect in the 1990s and has since parlayed the theory into an industry of impressive dimensions. Through his website, www.mozarteffect.com, Campbell markets his own seminars, promotes the theory and parcels up his own compilations of Mozart's music as convenient chunks of mental nourishment.
For example, Music for Children Volume 1, visitors to his website are told, 'increases verbal, emotional and spatial intelligence; improves memory and the ability to concentrate; enhances "right-brain" creative processes; and strengthens intuitive thinking skill' - though it stops short of guaranteeing university admission. And Campbell's product line is just the tip of the iceberg.
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