Music has power. Video game soundtracks use it to help players stay focused and motivated through their virtual quests. Gyms use it to increase adrenaline for longer workouts. We sing, dance and create music with our bare hands to spark emotion and joy for generations. 

In 2011, Finnish researchers used a functional MRI to see how the brain processes and reacts to sound by watching brain activity and cerebral blood flow. They found that listening to music not only activates the auditory parts of the brain, but the areas responsible for motor actions, emotions and creativity. Another study performed by Stanford Medicine found it engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and improving memory recall. 

Sound even has a standing presence in nature. Animals use different frequencies to communicate, attract mates, establish dominance and ward off predators. From the majestic hum of the blue whale to the chirrup of a mother cheetah calling her cubs. But plants are different. They don’t use sound to communicate or attract pollinators, or to even comment on the weather. Instead, they use thread-like fungal filaments connecting their roots to pass along electrical signals that act like a nervous system. 

But there was still the question if man-made music had an effect on plant life. In 1926, Dr. T. C. Singh conducts an experiment to see how plants would respond to music. He found that plants have sensory perception and react to different sound waves. Years after Singh’s experiment, Dorothy Retallack found that squashes exposed to classical music grew larger and toward the speakers, while a group exposed to rock n’ roll grew away from the source and even tried to escape their glass enclosure. 

If music has such an effect on plant life, is it possible that music could increase crops? In another study, Dr. Singh also found that after broadcasting music to six kinds of rice in different villages, harvests increased 25 to 60 percent higher than the regional average. Few studies have been done to see if music increases crop production. But if the scientific community could dedicate more time to music and its impact on the greenery, they could find answers to real world problems like world hunger. Failing crops and forests could be revived by Beethoven, better access to clean, fresh food provided to struggling countries and villages.