Music speaks universal language, new study confirms

August 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has shown that bilingual people are not actually capable of "turning off" a language entirely. Ghent University psychologists Eva Van Assche, Wouter Duyck, Robert Hartsuiker and Kevin Diependaele have found that knowledge of a second language actually has a continuous impact on native-language reading.

June 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Having conversations with your children could help them develop language skills, according to a new study. The study by UCLA researchers has found that adult-child conversations have a more significant impact on language development than exposing children to language through one-on-one reading alone.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Sinatra and Hendrix - these and many others of the world's most famous musicians have had the 'perfect' or 'absolute' pitch. The ability, defined as recognising the pitch of a musical note without having to compare it to any reference note, is quite rare in the US and Europe, where only about one person in 10,000 seems to have it.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - If you speak two languages, then it would be easier for you to learn the nuances of a new foreign language than your monolingual counterparts, according to a study by Northwestern University researchers. And this bilingual advantage persists even when the new language being studied is completely different from the languages one already know.

May 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pre-schoolers pick up language faster in the presence of classmates with better linguistic skills. Of course, they also learn how to speak and understand language by the way their parents at home and teachers at school speak.

May 7th, 2009 LONDON - Do you want your child to have the perfect pitch? Well, then start him or her early on Mandarin or Vietnamese lessons, that's the suggestion of a new study. The study, which confirms children's excellent ability to pick up things early in life, claimed that the likelihood of developing perfect pitch seems to be strongly linked to the language people speak.

April 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study on radiologists has suggested that playing baroque classical music in the reading room can help improve mood and productivity. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD, Harbor Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia, PA.

March 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A study on native African people has revealed that the language of music is certainly universal, and that people can pick out happy, sad, and fearful emotions in Western music without any prior exposure to it. The researchers said that their findings indicated that the expression of those three basic emotions in music could be universally recognized "These findings could explain why Western music has been so successful in global music distribution, even in music cultures that do not as strongly emphasize the role of emotional expression in their music," said Thomas Fritz of the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences.

March 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Music lessons can significantly improve children's cognitive performance in reading skills, says a new study. The study led by researchers from Long Island University, USA has shown that children taking music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers.

March 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Children tutored in music involving progressively complex rhythmic, tonal and practical skills display superior reading skills than their peers, according to a new study. Joseph M. Piro and Camilo Ortiz from Long Island University said data from this study will help clarify the role of music study on cognition and shed light on the question of the potential of music to enhance school performance in language and literacy.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Michael Jackson is releasing new music before making his return to the stage. Last week, the 'Thriller' star had announced plans to return to stage with a series of live shows at London's O2 Arena in July.

February 25th, 2009 LOS ANGELES - A new study has found that kids who listen to music with raunchy lyrics are more likely to engage in sexual activity than kids who don't. The study, to be published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, did not find a causal link between crude music and teen sex but indicated that 'people who are exposed to certain messages in music are more likely to copy or emulate what they hear', said study author Brian Primack in a statement.

February 15th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Punjabi has made its presence felt in every corner of the world, says Britain-based music composer Rajinder Singh Rai aka Punjabi MC, who uses a lot of Punjabi folk and bhangra in his fusion music. Rai, who visited Chandigarh to promote his new album 'Indian Timing', told IANS: 'Punjabi has become a cosmopolitan language that has made its presence felt in every corner of the world.

January 28th, 2009 HAVANA - Cubans love listening to dance albums most, shows a study and listing of sound recordings. Cuban Record Company EGREM, the oldest in Cuba, has a selection of dance CDs where the most famous music bands of the island appear, with more than a hundred of CDs exclusively dedicated to the diffusion of this genre.

January 23rd, 2009 LONDON - Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse's label executives flew down to the Caribbean island of St Lucia to meet her, thesun.co.uk said. Brian Rose, the communications director of Universal, was sent to St Lucia to 'drive some common sense' into Winehouse.