#15 Music And Stress Management Among Obafemi Awolowo University Community Members
UDC:
Received: Dec 14, 2025
Reviewed: Jan 28, 2026
Accepted: Feb 07, 2026
#15 Music And Stress Management Among Obafemi Awolowo University Community Members
Citation: Ajayi, Oluwasesan V, Rachel O. Titus and Olusegun S. Titus. 2026. "Music And Stress Management Among Obafemi Awolowo University Community Members." Accelerando: Belgrade Journal of Music and Dance 11:15
Acknowledgment: The authors sincerely acknowledge the management and team of IBR- TETFUND for the grant received that have aided the research and this publication. We equally appreciate the Obafemi Awolowo University management for the contribution and opportunity to have the grant.
Abstract
Stress is a phenomenon common to mankind. Lack of its management naturally leads to several diseases which include hypertension, Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) among several others. However, the ability to prevent or manage stress increases a healthy lifestyle. Though there are some studies on the use of music for health-related issues mostly in traditional health centres among the Yorubas, very little scholarly studies are directed at reducing stress through music among the community members of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. This paper as part of Medical Ethnomusicological Discourse, focuses on the use of music by randomly sampled campus community members to reduce or manage stress. A qualitative method was employed for this paper. These include interviews of academic and non-academic staff, market men and women and artisans in the campus community. Also, the content and context of some music that respondents used and listened to were transcribed, translated and analyzed based on Femi Adedeji Transformative Musicology theory. This paper suggests that music as a source of stress management serves as a therapy, encouraging, educating, and entertaining giving hope and managing stress among campus community members.
stress management, musical place, oau community, musical effects, transformational theory, transformative musicology
Introduction
The emerging realities about the threat of stress and its concomitant effects besetting lives are not in doubt. (Mojoyinola 2008). Stress poses a greater threat to life than any other diseases. Changes in global economic realities are progressively transforming the very nature of work from physical tasks to more mental and emotional endeavors. The prevention of high stress levels in the work environment is thereby imperative in efforts to improve the quality of work life, even in the face of increased job insecurity. Henderson and Dickey assert that
[...] stress is an internal or external condition that makes it difficult to adapt and demand greater energy from individuals to maintain a level of equilibrium within themselves and with their environment. (Henderson and Dickey 1988, 1)
They further explain stressor as the stimulus that produces a state of stress and coping strategy, as cognitive and behavioral efforts, to maintain, reduce, or tolerate the internal and/or external demands that are created by the stressful transaction (Ibid.).
Stress can be broadly defined as the negative reactions people have to aspects of their environment. According to Mojoyinola (op. cit.), Stress is derived from the word “Stringi”, which means “to be drawn tight”. Stress is, however, interpreted by each person differently. Since it is a feeling that involves emotions, it is not something entirely definable or describable. Craig (2013) saw stress as an inescapable fact of life. However, one recognizes the unpleasant, usually anxiety – related state, when one thinks of the term ‘stress’ as applying to us. Essentially, stress is the emotional and physical response people experience when they perceive an imbalance between demands placed on them and their resources at a time to cope with the challenge.
Music is a powerful source of healing and healthy living. As many musical activities are geared towards meeting the daily physical and emotional needs of individuals. Healthy living brings productivity. Medical ethnomusicology as a discourse engages the life and health of people. Sad enough, very little studies have been done on music as sources of stress management among the working class.
The colossal effect of stress among the academic staff of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria informed this research. The rate of death and health-related stress induced by stress has cost the University the loss of brilliant, vibrant and promising staff members. (Fajemilehin 2016). There is paucity of information on the awareness and prevention of stress induced health problems like Cardiac Arrest, Hypertension, Depression, High Blood Pressure and such other fast killing non communicable diseases among academic staff members of Obafemi Awolowo University.
This study was carried out among the academic, non academic and other community members in the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Interviews were conducted on how members of the community cope with stress with the use of music. Also we solicit for the type of music respondents listened to and how the songs helped them in reducing stress. The songs were categorized and the content and context analysed. Moreso, the functions and structures of such music were analysed using Femi Adedeji Transformative musicology theory (Adedeji 2013).
Several studies have been conducted on stress and its management (Daniel 2015; Mimura and Griffiths 2003:;Rudolf and Norman 1982; Hylton 1989; Bradshaw 1991; Gordon 2000; Lehrer 2003; Brotons 2001; Guglielmi and Tatrow 1998; Allen and Heaton 2010; Ruotsalainen et al. 2008; Kertz-Welzel 2009; Koelsch et al. 2010; Sidle 2008; Fajemilehin 2016). These scholars have examined stress, its causes, prevention and management. However, none of the studies have examined stress prevention and management through musical listening among the campus community of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
In his opening remark of the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences College of Health Sciences Obafemi Awolowo University 8th Annual Conference with the theme “Healthy Heart: Healthy Life”. Fajemilehin observes that
The conference was conceived on the premise of the worrisome status of occurrence of Sudden Death among top ranking Nigerians be it in the political, sporting, and or acting arena… among others on the national scene. Furthermore, the embarrassing records of Sudden Death among staff of the University in the recent past and the comments as to the etiological origin were quite equally worrisome. Some of these deaths may be preventable, especially when the cause is due to non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, heart attack, diabetes and other causes amenable to treatment or lifestyle adjustment measures. (Fajemilehin op. cit., 14)
Ruotsalainen, et al (2008) explain that stress management interventions can lead to positive health effects among the depressed individuals in the community.
Modeme and Sunday-Kanu (2014, 128) asserts that the serious breakdown in health of the academics in Nigerian Federal Universities which placed them in chronic dependency on drugs. The reviewed works show that stress is one of the major health issues that needed urgent attention. However, none of the reviewed studies have examined the use of music among the OAU campus community in preventing and managing stress. Tore Tvarnø Lind notes that
In approaching music as medical intervention, and in how the healing work of music is conceptualized, it is crucial to listen to those people who produce and experience the 'healing power of music', as well as to examine how music and sounds alter the healing space of hospital wards and private homes. (Lind 2007)
The author extends Tore Tvarno assertion by examining music as an Intervention on Stress management among the Academic community members especially Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. A research on stress prevention and management through music performance is deemed germane. It will help reduce death occurrences caused by stress induced illnesses and will bring awareness on managing health issues. It will also help the academic staff to live more healthy lives, which will further help to make the academic activities in the campus to be more vibrant and make them more productive.
The objectives of this paper are to examine types of music used by selected community members, analyse the effects of music on stress, and analyse the musical structure of the selected songs used. Staff members of OAU were randomly selected and interviewed in each of the 13 faculties of the university, market men and women and artisans were also interviewed
Transformative musicology is the musicology that aims at the transformation of individuals and our world at large. It encompasses all musical activities that focus on transformative purposes (Adedeji 2006). The ambivalent nature of the power of music was demonstrated in Adeyeye (1999), where he enumerated the anabolic and catabolic roles of music. The theory is applicable to this study on the transformative role of music in curbing stress and its resulting effects among the Obafemi Awolowo University community.
Place of Music in Stress Management
Music entertains and thereby brings joy, happiness to people who engage with it. Ayodele (2016, Personal communication. Ayodele Ogunsusi is an artisan in the new market area of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; he was interviewed on Oct 2nd 2016.) notes that
songs do help me, reduce my stress and create an avenue for personal entertainment.
The informant further reiterates that he does listen to the song of one popular singer in Nigeria called Jesse King. We further request to sing the song and to know how the song affects and help him prevent stress. The song text is given below:
Mase faaji 2x ara mi
Moti gbiyan ju, moti gbiyan ju
Moti se won molese
Al’ barika al’ barika ni koko
Ema miliki ema miliki o jare
[I will entertain myself
I have tried my best, I have tried my best
I have done what I can do, I have done what I can do
The blessing of God the blessing of God is what matters
Continue to enjoy, enjoy yourself please]
An informant Adediran (2016, personal communication. Adediran Nike is a braider, in Obafemi Awolowo University, new market area, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. She was interviewed on the 12th Sept 2016.) asserts that any time she feels the stress of life and especially the present economic hardship in Nigeria she will play the song through her cell phone and also sing along sometimes at home, or at work, and sometimes when going on the bus. Williamson (2005, 39-41) explains that background music in offices is good for work, it affects or causes psycho physiological arousal, cognitive engagement and mood changing. Rice (2014) notes that music identifies and symbolizes as a psychological resource for entertainment across radio, TV, hand cell phone, C.D, MP3 files, headphones, and it accomplishes special tasks.
The entertainment function of music is not in doubt. It helps in reducing stress among the Obafemi Awolowo University community members for those who create time for it on a regular basis. It is also noteworthy that messages are put across in the course of playing various music, hence, music entertains as well as educates on stress management and prevention. The song text above explicate this the singer encoded messages of faaji, a Yoruba word connoting relaxation and more specifically a place of relaxation which include eating, drinking and listening to music Singhal and Rogers (1999) notes that music is one of the ancient entertainment traditions and draws large audiences.
Another informant (Adesokan 2016, personal communication. Mrs Victoria Adesokan she is a photocopying machine operator in Obafemi Awolowo University, new market area, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, She was interviewed on the 28th October, 2016, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.) agrees with the entertainment power of music to reduce stress. She explains that after listening to music the high beat in her breath naturally reduces and she feels some kind of calmness from fear, depression and even high blood pressure, any time she listens to the song of Ayefele, the popular musician in Nigeria. Most especially (Oluwole 2016, Personal Communication.
Tosin Alao, a School Teacher at one of the primate primary schools in Ile-Ife, was interviewed on the 21st October, 2016, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.) notes that the song below is special to his health because he knows the challenges the singer has faced in life and the fact that he is still life though still cripple he is living happily. He concluded that he has no reason to kill himself in this life. Yinka Ayefele, the renowned Nigerian gospel musician and CEO of Fresh FM Nigeria, was involved in a ghastly accident, on Dec 12, 1997, during the Christmas festive season, that nearly claimed his life. The incident led to a spinal cord injury that changed his life forever yet his resilience and success since then remain an inspiration to many. (Akingbade 2016, Personal Communication).
Taiwo Akingbade, a business woman in Obafemi Awolowo University new market area, was interviewed on the 20th Sept. 2016, notes that whenever she is stressed she listens to Nigerian Christian songs. She further argues that most of their songs focus on their life experiences which sometimes may be close to what she has been going through at the moment. So she makes a choice of songs based on the situation that she is going through and most of the time the songs refreshes her and calm her nerves.
The song below is one of the Ayefele’s songs that help reduces depression, hypertension and stress:
Ironi pupo hypertention ma lon fawa
Igba eda asiko eda wa lowo baba oke
Kosowo loni owo mbo bodola
Ko sola loni ola mbo bodola
Bonitiri ola lema salairibemo
Agan maa beru mo omo nbowa
[Too much thinking and worry leads to hypertension
Our lives and times on earth is in the hand of God
If you lack money today, you will have it by tomorrow
No riches today? Riches and wealth will be yours later
As times are hard today, will not always continue for ever
Barren, don't be afraid children are coming.]
The song above according to (Esther Ibidoyin 2016, Personal Communication. Esther Ibidoyin is a food provisions seller at the OAU new market area. She was interviewed on the 22nd Sept. 2016.) arouses courage, hope, and reduces fears, depression, stress, and hypertension. He notes that he does have sound sleep after listening to the song while at other times when he does not listen to the music his mind fills with worries and fears of life. Music interventions through listening have a beneficial effect on anxiety and physiological responses in people with coronary heart disease.
Effect of music interventions on stress and anxiety in people with coronary heart disease. Koelsch notes that Music making positively changed mood, as indicated by a decrease of depression/anxiety, a decrease in fatigue, and an increase in vigor. The emotion ratings obtained during the sessions suggest that this positive change in mood was accompanied by an increase in positive emotion (as indicated by the happiness ratings), as well as by a decrease of negative emotion (as indicated by the anger, sadness, and anxiety ratings). It is unlikely that these effects were simply due to being in an experimental setting and performing an experiment with others, because in the control group the level of depression/anxiety (as measured by the first POMS scale) was not influenced by the experimental procedure. (Koelsch et al. 2010, 10)
An informant (Bayode 2016, personal communication) Bayode is a business man at the OAU new market area. He was interviewed on the Oct 28th 2016, explains that Ojo Ade, a Christian gospel singer in Nigeria, has given him succor and encouragement. Part of the text he listens to often is written below:
Mo mo oda mi loju, be sini oye mi yeke
Bojo oni ba tile koro, mo mo pe ola mi adara
[I know this and I am very sure of it
That if my life today is bitter
I know my tomorrow will be good and alright ]
Another senior academic staff views the song of Chief Ebenezer Obey as an anchor song against stress and high blood pressure. He reiterates that several times he plays the song whenever he is getting stressed. The song text says:
Ko imo tole lo
Ko sogbon tole da
Kosiwa tolewu,
Ko sona tole mo
Tolefi taiye lorun o
[There is no knowledge you can apply
There is no way you may act
There is no way you go
And be able to please everybody around]
The song above by the popular singer Chief Ebenezer Obey is a counsel to everyone to take things easy and not kill self. The song lyrics say there is no way one could please everybody. Therefore he counsels people to do their best and leave the rest.
Adesokan (personal communication, 2016) notes that the song of Panam Percy Paul titled “By your blood”, is an inspiration that helps her reduce stress in life. She asserts that the blood of Jesus has enormous power to crush the situations in life that are bringing depression, fears and panic into her life:
By your blood you crush principalities
Jesus, Jesus
By your name establish authority
Jesus Jesus the savior
Adesoji Adedare interviewed on the 15th of Sept, 2016, sees stress as principalities that can crush one’s life if not handled, and her belief in Christ and songs about his power and name has consistently enabled her to stay healthy despite the numerous challenges in Nigeria as a country (2016, personal communication). While Tosin (2016, Personal communication) stress that physical and emotional stress do catch up with her and with the help of song especially R&B ballad help her emotional stress, like one by Celine Dion:
If wall could talk
If wall could feel
It will know how
Much I love you
Isiaka (2016, Personal Communication), 12st October 2016 Rewire and Battery Charger, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, sees music as a disturbance and causes stress instead. He feels that listening to religious activities are enough to make one stress free. Sunday Kayode (2016, Personal Communication), interviewed on 13th October 2016., notes that traditional Popular music of the Yoruba people like Sunny Ade, Chief Ebenezer Obey and Orlando Owoh, his favorites, refreshed him in times of stress. He notes that each song gives him personal and various interpretations in life and through that he keeps hope alive that the future is bright. To him
I have never heard of anyone who listened to music and then went on to hang himself.
Song and music consoles and relieve one from stress. Some of the songs include:
Orlando Owoh
Igba temi onbo o, Igba temi lodeyi o
Emi mo pe ma deniyan iyi lola
[My time of success is approaching
My time to enjoy life is here
I know that I will be an important personality soon]
The song above by one of the popular musicians in Nigeria reiterates the hope despite the hopelessness that several common people face day by day. The hope of a better tomorrow which is both religious and culturally believed that one should be patient and endure any hardship currently battling one.The song according to one informant is a source of encouragement in time of despair of the future.
Another popular singer’s song, Ebenezer Obey's song is another song that helps informants reduce stress.
Ibi ti alagbara ti sise to se wahala
Aro ti kole dide o
Asi mari se
Oni le koro oni le koro
Ore ma bokan je o,
Ola re ada ra
[Where able body truckles
The physically challenged prospers
Things might be tough today
The future will be brighter]
Esther Ibidoyin in her interview on Sept. 22nd, 2016 (personal communication) notes the place of music in stress and bodily health as one that is important. To her one of the songs to reduce stress is the popular gospel singer Tope Alabi
Eni baronujinle Oye kodupe,
Ore Olorun lori mi Oga
I gba ti moro Ise yanure layie mi moripe oga,
mori pe oga moripe oga baba
[anyone who thinks deeply will know how to give thank
the grace of God in my life is incomprehensible
when I think of the goodness in my life
I can see that you are mighty,
You are mighty; you are mighty, my father]
Esther Ibidoyin further asserts that any time she is stressed through she just casts her mind to past events, how she was able to overcome the past challenges especially her health and hope in God. Apart from this she explains that she also takes caution against depression knowing that by thinking solutions cannot come but by trust in God and doing ones best.
Taiwo Akingbade (2016, personal communication) argues that the song of Olamide is a source of stress relief. The song text is written below:
Iru kileyi omo ani fowo se
Iru kileyi omo ani fowose
[What kind of thing is this?
What kind of thing is this?]
Adediran Nike (2016, personal communication), interviewed on 20 October, 2016., feels that stress in her life gets reduced through church music because they build faith in her. The text of the songs encourages and helps her faith which later helps her to see her challenges or the cause of stress and a small issue.
Modeme and Sunday-Kanu’s confirmed the same as informants narrated in their research
Life is full of problems, some of them unsolvable, but one has to live his life in spite of ups and down, anxiety and depression, successes and failures in life, it needs to be lived optimally. Music, particularly the one pleasant and soothing, provides the tonic for the optimal existence. It is the perfect tool to help one relieve the emotional tension. (Modeme and Sunday-Kanu 2014, 129)
In addition, they gave the scientific explanation that
Music affects the primary brain of humans – the limbic brain. This is the part of the brain responsible for the physical condition of the body as well as maintaining the internal balance which keeps one alive. (Idem.)
It is clear that music is a weapon in fighting stress in life. Onuora-Oguno (2004, 11, cited in Modeme and Sunday-Kanu op. cit., 129 ) opined that
music serves as the stimulation and nourishment of the spirit that are needed by all people.
He also added that through music, emotions are freely expressed. Music brings you to a state to unite with the feeling thus helping you to realize its nature and live with it which practically transforms your nature (Ibid.). Music (songs) can have various roles, such as entertainment, therapeutic, education, and to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope, and also bring caution.
Conclusion
This paper examines the place of music in stress management and prevention among selected members of Obafemi Awolowo University community, Nigeria. It elucidates different songs from sacred, popular and traditional songs used by individuals in Obafemio Awolowo University community as copying strategy against depression, stress and other non communicable diseases. The song's lyrics emphasize hope, courage, resilience, and need to keep on despite the vicissitude of life. Among the members interviewed we discovered that music is a weapon against stress, hypertension and high blood pressure which form part of their health challenges. Songs play the role of entertainment, education, caution, advice, encouragement. Music helps in physical fitness, reduces depression and anxiety, it educates on other things like the song brings hope to the dejected and fearful individuals. We also discovered that some engage music during working hours as background and through headphones. Music as a source of stress management should be encouraged. Individuals should engage music in their daily lives as a tool against depression.
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