I was speaking to someone who was telling me about a podcast about the neurological effects of music while under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms. They were saying that researchers began playing “relaxing” music, like classical, for the subjects of the study.

This kind of perked my ears up, because though I’m not an expert in classical, I don’t think of classical as “relaxing” most of the time. My experience listening to Haydn, Bach and Beethoven has been intense at times. I would not call it relaxing. They were arguing that I am looking at the “extreme” end by saying that classical is not overall relaxing.

I think that saying “classical music is relaxing” is a generalization.

Would you say that overall, classical can be considered “pleasant, relaxing, soft”?

Thanks.