To promote the population’s adherence to COVID-19 public health preventive measures, the Quebec (Canada) government solicited the assistance of local music artists. This commentary aims to demonstrate how music has been utilized to communicate the public health recommendations relative to the COVID-19 pandemic and to discuss the relevance of using music in this context, as supported by research. More specifically, music is discussed in terms of its powerful capacity to reach out to a large population pool; to capture the population’s attention quickly and massively in spite of age, language, or cultural barriers; to effectively communicate messages; and to affect individuals’ behaviours. In this regard, the current COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how music can be utilized as a communication tool and offers an interesting perspective for the consideration of music in future public health research.

Most university students report studying while listening to background music. Although studying encompasses a range of cognitive processes, it particularly involves the memorization of new information. However, results from the literature regarding the effect of background music on long-term episodic memory (i.e., long-term memory for spatiotemporal events) are heterogeneous. Indeed, beneficial effects, and sometimes impairing and null effects, are observed. The heterogeneity of these results could be explained by methodological and individual differences across studies. Particularly, the emotional characteristics of the musical selection vary. Namely, the musical excerpts vary in their arousal levels, being either stimulating or relaxing. Moreover, individual differences such as IQ were rarely considered in previous research. Thus, the central aim of this study is to explore the effect of stimulating and relaxing background music on episodic memory while considering the variability in IQ. To do so, three groups of participants matched on sex, age, schooling years, and musical expertise memorized three word lists in the presence of stimulating or relaxing background music, or noise. Results indicate that the stimulating background music, compared with the relaxing background music and noise, marginally facilitated the memorization of the third list, only when the IQ was considered. These results suggest that episodic memory could benefit from the presence of stimulating background music, but in the context of prolonged music-listening and when considering the listeners’ IQ.

IssuesMusic is among the most frequently used medium to promote young adults' well‐being. To that aim, the efficiency of music is explained by its capacity to modulate emotions through its effect on the brain's reward pathways. Hence, music could help individuals suffering from dysregulations in these pathways, whose experience of positive emotions is often inhibited. Such dysregulations are particularly present in individuals with problematic psychoactive substance (PAS) use, who are overrepresented in the context of homelessness. While few of them initiate treatment, they successfully rely on their own resources to promote their well‐being, including music, though its impact in this context remains under‐studied.ApproachThis scoping review describes the impact of music on the well‐being, PAS use and addictive trajectory of young housed and homeless individuals with problematic PAS use. Eleven French and English databases were screened for peer‐reviewed articles using concepts and keywords related to music, PAS and well‐being. From the 3697 results, 39 were reviewed. Results were organised according to the observed impact of music and analysed critically.Key FindingsLiterature shows that PAS users value the impact of music in meeting emotional, psychological and social needs, especially when they experience homelessness. Yet, research has been highly limited to the harmful consequences of music, limiting our knowledge of its potential benefits.Implications and ConclusionTo deepen our understanding about the impact of music, future research should endorse a broader perspective and consider the personal and contextual experiences accompanying the involvement in music, factors that were traditionally overlooked.

This study aimed to describe and understand the links between musical activities (i.e. listening, playing, attending festive events, belonging to music-based communities) and the addictive trajectory of homeless young adults who experience problematic psychoactive substance (PS) use. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 homeless young adults aged 18 to 30 years old, to explore how music modulated their addictive trajectory. A thematic and trajectory analysis were performed. Music most often constituted a tool used to control, reduce, or recover from problematic PS use, and sometimes led to the initiation of novel substances, increased consumption, and relapses. These benefits and harms varied according to specific individual and contextual factors. Almost half of the sample reported no link between music and PS use. A better comprehension of the links between music and the addictive trajectory will guide the development of adapted harm reduction interventions that account for homeless young adults’ strengths.

This study explores the impact of the pandemic on mental health and the strategies put in place to overcome these challenges, from the perspective of young adults who experience social precarity and PS use in Montreal. This collaborative study used a descriptive qualitative design. Ten semi-directed interviews were conducted with young adults aged 18 to 30 years old who experience social precarity and PS use and were analysed thematically. Results demonstrate that participants experienced increased loneliness, psychological distress, and PS use resulting from the sanitary measures. They demonstrated capacities to rely on personal resources to promote harm reduction, resilience, self-entertainment, emotional and social support. The impacts of COVID-19 on mental health demonstrate the importance of maintaining and increasing psychosocial services’ offer in a pandemic context and to better adapt them to the realities of young adults, while also acknowledging and accounting for their strengths and capacities.