Music is a huge part of our everyday life. Many people don’t realize that music plays a significant role in in the way it affects the human brain. It connects and helps us share experiences with loved ones, friends, and random acquaintances. The variety of genres lets us explore the different emotions as we listen to specific songs, whether or not its pop, hip-hop/ rap, indie, country, rock/ heavy & death metal, classical, dance, jazz, blues, soul, reggae, and opera. Psychologists seem to believe the answer lies within the rhythm, tone, lyrics, and melody of the music. A great and inspiring songwriter/ vocalist, Mitch Lucker, said, “Keep listening to music, cause it gets you through everything. I promise.” My question is, why do people turn to music rather than friends or family? Considering this, what is it about music that helps us through difficult obstacles in life? According to many psychologist music can affect mood, health, mind, and learning ability. As the combination of different sounds travel through out ears, we tend to connect music with certain emotions or memories. For example, to feel that adrenaline rush we select a more upbeat tone in music. If you want a relaxed mood, you listen to something nice and calm with a relaxing melody. According to an article by Mental Health Center, students at Penn State did a study on music and emotions; they showed that people’s emotions have a more positive attitude after they listened to music. Music has a great
Billy Joel said, “I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music” (Music Quotes). Whether we realize it or not, music affects our lives greatly. The only thing for us to question is how. How does music impact your life and the lives of others? What does music do for us? People of all ages benefit emotionally, physically, and academically from music.
Music and the sounds that surround us have a way of affecting us before we even enter this world. David Burrows, a music teacher at New York University explains this concept by saying “An unborn child may startle in the womb at the sound of a door slamming shut. The rich, warm cacophony of the womb has been recorded: the mother’s heartbeat and breathing are among the earliest indicators babies have the existence of a world beyond their own skin.” (Storr). This is something a person never outgrows. Whether we intend on it happening or not, the sounds by which we are surrounded affect our mental patterns. Nevertheless, music has the ability to help us heal emotionally and combat our current mental state.
Emotions run deep within music. Music has the ability to change our moods within minutes, or even seconds. The simplest of arrangements can move us in ways that words cannot. You can see this in every period of time. Through happiness and through strife, we grow attached to the music that touches us the most. When I feel sorrowful, I listen to the music that helps repair the damage to my heart. When I feel joyous, I listen to the music that energizes my already energetic mood. No matter what I’m feeling, my emotions can be seen in the music I write and the music I listen to. Music has been and will always be a major part of life,
Everyday music engulfs us whether we are watching a show, listening to the radio, or shopping at a grocery store. Music gives humans the ability to express oneself when there is no other way. Music sparks more creativity, emotions and brain function than any other activity.
Music is a combination of melody and rhythm, it has physiological, psychological and social functional impacts on human body. In the physical level, music can stimulates the body 's autonomic nervous system, which is to regulate the heart rate, breathing rate, nerve conduction, blood pressure and endocrine. In the psychological level, music can cause human brain which is in charge of emotions and feelings do autonomic response, hence change the mood and release the anxiety. In fact, human body has certain circadian rhythm and music has its own rhythm too, when these two aspects are able to resonate, music then can affect the physiological fluctuations, thereby exert a therapeutic effect, named music therapy.
Kids in school use music to memorize their ABC’s, which induces positive emotions through fun(“Music and Mood”). Music has a way to calm the body down. Additionally,“An analysis of 5 studies on music for depression concluded that music therapy is not only acceptable for depressed patients, but it actually helps improve their moods” (“Music and Mood”).
Music influences everyone on this earth. The sounds and lyrics working together can make a person feel like he or she are on top of the world. Numerous emotions can spill out of a human being when he or she hears a certain melody or beat. Music is powerful and a strong escape from any stressful situation. Bob Marley says, “One good thing about music: when it hits you, you feel no pain”. Although I live a very privileged life, I have dealt with many stressful situations where music was helpful. Transitioning from junior high to high school is difficult and this change was extremely overwhelming for me. Instead of allowing the stress to overtake my well-being, I used music to guide me through the hard times. More specifically, Ellie Goulding, Adele, and the group, Coldplay, have influenced the way I act, and they helped me persevere through the transition from junior high to high school.
This implies that our choice of music that we listen to is based on what we psychologically assess about our current state of mind and the environment. Music listening is implicated in mood maintenance and we may think of our music selection in the form of psychological self-help. Also music listening has its benefits such as subjective well-being, psychological health outside clinical matters have been reported by a numerous researchers (DeNora, 2007; Pelletier, 2004; Standley, 1995). (1)
It turns out that, the emotions evoked by music don’t just feel good, they’re healthy for the individual too. A meta-analysis conducted of 400 music studies found out that, listening to music does have the ability to reduce anxiety, fight depression and boost the immune system. In today’s world, the clinical music therapists have even started introducing, prescribing music for everything, from Alzheimer’s to autism spectrum disorder.
The different genres of music can have an affect your mood. Most people listen to music as a form of relaxation. Beside relaxing, music also has a lot of positive effects in our lives. Music also has a big impact on our emotion. It is shown that music helps reduce stress, therefore music is very significant in people's life. Music can make people cry, can make people happy or can make people dance. I listen to music no matter what mood i’m in. When i'm at the gym i listen to music and it gets me going and keeps me motivated. I find singing along relaxes me the
Music has many affects on the brain. Music is known to reduce anxiety. Many people use music as an outlet for stress. Also, music has the capability to change a person’s mood. Typically, when people listen to happy music they are put into a better mood. Music therapists use this strategy
Going to a movie, there will always be music in it. In the scary parts, the music is dark and threatening. For happy and joyful moments the music is light and blissful. It controls the way the audience feels. As an experiment, turn off the sound as you watch television. It changes the way you feel about the entertainment you watch. Music can lift low spirits, help people feel happy again. With depression, there are scientists who say that certain music helps the mood lighten. In the car, driving down the road to any destination there is a radio going on during the ride. It always puts people in a better mood; singing along with the lyrics has an energetic buzz about it. Listening to music can give you a way to feel throughout the day. With the way life is, stressful, then there is a way to release it as
The impact of music on positive psychology and emotion is a well known fact. Music has an extraordinary ability to change people’s emotions. In humans, music has the ability to invoke emotions of sadness, happiness and even fear (Goycoolea, Levy & Ramirez, 2013). The ability of music to alter human mood makes it one of the greatest subjects of positive psychology. Seligman (2011) argued that even though a lot of effort has been spent on psychotherapy and pharmacology, such interventions are not
I grew up listening to music everyday not knowing it would save my life in the end... the words that I would listen to would somehow connect with how I was feeling or what I was going through. Music truly soothes the soul and just somehow gives you hope to continue on or to stop something. I think I related my problems to the songs, it would give me comfort knowing I wasn't the only one who was feeling the way I once was. It showed me life was worth living and fighting for. Take Demi Lovato for instant, she was going through major depression and found herself through the music she would produce. A lot of artist are actually like this and only some really come out and tell their true story on how music saved them. It's incredible to know that no matter what you're going through someone, somewhere has gone through it too.
Music is one of the few things that has remained constant through the centuries this world has existed. Not only does music provide entertainment, it also has several effects linked to it. Music allows emotions of happiness and sadness to arise. From those emotions, physical effects, negative or positive, can occur. Music has a profound effect on the emotional, social, intellectual, and physical aspects of a person.