Research: What Brazilians Listen to During Quarantine to Lighten Moods

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A study by the Deezer streaming platform, with 11,000 people worldwide including 2,000 Brazilians, analyzed people’s behavior during the novel coronavirus quarantine and the relationship of feelings to what has been listened to among songs, news, and podcasts.

In Brazil, anxiety prevails. In every generation, this sentiment gets more than double the answers in relation to the second-placed feeling, which is optimism.

Among Millennials – those born between 1980 and 1995 – 42.4 percent said they were anxious. For Generation Z – those born in 2000 or later – this rate is 37.2 percent, and 43.8 percent for Baby Boomers – those born between 1946 and 1964. The latter is also the most optimistic, with 24 percent of answers.

To help anxiety and improve mood, Brazilians have been looking for content to help them stay positive, such as motivational songs and self-help podcasts.

The generation that most searched for this was the Millennials at 63.3 percent, followed by Generation Z at 59.7 percent. Among Baby Boomers, 54.8 percent of respondents said they were looking for this type of content.

Lively songs are also very much sought after. The majority of Generation Z and Millennials favor the current hits, while the Baby Boomers resort to the 1980s.

If they listen to music to help improve their mood, podcasts and radio shows are enjoyed differently, but with the same goal: to seek a balance during this time.

For 26.5 percent of Baby Boomers, podcasts are a way to help process emotions; for 33.6 percent of Millennials and 34.5 percent of Generation Z, they help create a distraction.

It is similar for radio: for 37.3 percent of Millennials, it helps to improve their mood, while for 32.3 percent of Generation Z, it is a form of distraction. The Baby Boomers were almost evenly split between distraction (40.8 percent) and mood improvement (39 percent).

Source: Exame