Utilizing the Power of Neuroscience, Isabella Kensington May Have Cracked the Code Between Music and Healing
We spent some time in the rising singer’s NYC’s East Village neighborhood to learn more about the science behind 8D audio and her siren-esque “healing girl pop”
Written by Margaret Farrell
Isabella Kensington appreciates the science of a good, sad pop song—neuroscience, specifically.
I meet the British-American singer-songwriter at East Village institution Veselka, the legendary Ukrainian restaurant that’s not far from where she’s completing her studies at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. She sits across from me wearing a jean jacket, summery magenta dress, and a gold necklace that reads “bissou,” and only orders a passionately red raspberry iced tea. She sparingly sips her drink as she describes the music she writes—crystalline, diaristic songs she’s dubbed as “healing girl pop.” Which, from her perspective, is a reframing of the sad girl pop genre led by Billie Eilish, Gracie Abrams, and Olivia Rodrigo.
A few years ago, Kensington had a brush with TikTok virality after posting a cover of Daisy the Great’s “The Record Player Song.” Since then, she’s grown her TikTok following to over a million by turning her page into a safe, healing space that showcases her cherubic tones: “I do panning videos that are more centered and targeted towards the neurodivergent community.” Across her profile, there are covers of Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Dua Lipa, and Charli XCX. If you have headphones on or turn your phone sideways, you can hear her silvery vocals oscillate as if they’re bouncing off the walls. It’s called 8D audio, which stimulates both the right and left side of the brain. The bilateral stimulation can create a sense of balance, a clearheadedness, relaxation, or mental focus.