Music Affects Mood Essay

Music is any form of sound in a synchronized pattern that affects the brainwaves. Together with many instruments, an emotional harmony is created that can single-handedly manipulate human emotion. When music manipulates emotion to an extreme degree, the practice can become an addiction. There are many causes for being a music addict. It provides an artificial sanctuary, bringing out the emotion that a person is feeling. Music is limitless; there is no end to its boundaries. Music affects how you feel, react, and learn. I can be in the best of moods, then listen to a sad song and start to feel depressed. You listen to something more upbeat your mood will lighten, and you become happier. Music’s ability to â€Å"heal the soul† is the stuff of legend in every culture. Many people find that music lifts their spirits. Modern research tends to confirm music’s psychotherapeutic benefits. Bright, cheerful music (e.g. Mozart, Vivaldi, bluegrass, Klezmer, Salsa, reggae) is the most obvious prescription for the blues. Animals are similar. You play rock and roll and they usually run out of the room, at least mine do. But if you put on some jazz or especially classical, they lie down and close their eyes. It is soothing and calming. Jazz, blues, soul or calypso music can uplift and inspire us, releasing deep joy or even deep sadness, conveying wit and affirming our common humanity. People will also recognize happy faces if they are feeling happy themselves. A new study by researcher Jacob Jolij and student Maaike Meurs of the Psychology Department of the University of Groningen shows that music has an even more dramatic effect on perception: even if there is nothing to see, people sometimes still see happy faces when they are listening to happy music and sad faces when they are listening to sad music. Pretty interesting, but this notion really makes sense. The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart’s music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activates the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and re tention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, cause the brain to be more capable of processing information. Classical music, such as Haydn and Mozart, often improves concentration and memory when played in the background. When I am studying or writing, I want just soft back ground music. Because when I’m listening to upbeat hip-hop or lyrical music, I tend to concentrate on the words more than my studies or book. Also if I’m writing and I’m listening to a lyrical song I tend to write the words in the songs other than what I need to be writing, without thinking about it! I have seen moms in movies put headphones around their tummy when they are pregnant and play classical music such as Mozart because they wanted their children to grow up being smart. Clinical researchers at the U.C.L.A School of Nursing in Los Angeles, and at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta, found that premature babies gained weight faster and were able to use oxygen more efficiently when they listened to soothing music. Some rhythms, such as Baroque, induce enzymes in the brain and add amazing well being and focus. Slower Baroque music, such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi or Corelli, can create mentally stimulating environments for creativity and new innovations. I hear people complaining about baroque and classical music being boring, but if that kind of music was never around, then the music we have now would not exist. So I appreciate it, and I agree with the fact it helps people study and feel more creative. Romantic music, such as Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Liszt, enhances our senses and increases a sense of sympathy and love. Liszt was a ladies’ man, and piano master. Some consider his music vulgar and bombastic; others revel in its extroverted romantic rhetoric. Chopin’s pieces were elegant and peaceful. He composed a lot of nocturnal and waltz’s. Chopin, at the age of 10 he was often summoned to play for the Grand Duke Constantine, governor of Poland. The Duke had recurring seizures of madness which could seemingly be controlled only by Chopin’s music. When the little boy played, the seizures abated and the governor could resume his normal activities, only to send for Chopin again when the musical medicine wore off. The Schumann’s were a couple who wrote music together. But before they married Mr. Schumann composed a song about the little girl he taught and would later marry, Chiarina. His wife wrote too, but she preferred to perform. Their love story is sweet and so is their music. This is the reason why this time period was called Romantic, music and musicians were more free and felt love. Rock music, from Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones, stirs passion and activity, and so can release daily tensions. Rock can also mask pain and cover up unpleasant noises. It also has the power to create dissonance, stress or physical pain if we are not in the mood for energizing. Keep in mind that listening to too much pop and hard rock music can make a person more jittery than energized. I know that a lot of guys like to listen it in the workout room to get pumped up. But those who worked out while listening to Vivaldi scored higher in a test of cognitive function. I like a little bit of rock, as it definitely opened the doors for different music to come through. Heavy metal and hip-hop music excites our nervous system, and sometimes leads us into acting out dynamic behavior and self-expression.. I understand you may not want to listen to happy-go-lucky music when you are upset, but why would you listen to something so heavy that it makes you want to bang ones head on something. The words in metal and hip-hop are words we want to say but don’t have the courage to. So we just listen and close our eyes, and it is our song for three minutes because the singers understand. It’s very pumped up and ready to fire off. Hip-hop is dance-able and heavy metal is someone just screaming or yelling for you when you want to. Country music is similar in that it features messages with which listening can identify. A lot of couples use country songs as â€Å"our song†. It has evolved over the years and women have a bigger role in this than any other genre. I have compared some old country music to the newer releases. Now performers sing about more than a truck, drinking, dogs, and a girl. But most country music does have a girl mentioned somewhere. Perhaps that’s the southern way of being romantic, strumming a guitar and singing about one’s lady. But then I have heard that is one of the genres that don’t promote happy feelings. In fact, supposedly country music has been linked to depression and suicide. Suicide rates for Cauca sian Americans living in metropolitan areas are higher in those cities where more country music is played on the radio. If you find yourself feeling down and depressed, country music is definitely not the music you want to be listening to. I don’t know if I agree with that, I just think that country is mostly just good southern music. I don’t listen to it all the time, but occasionally I like the sound and feeling down to earth, unless I just happen to be picking the better songs. I try to pick song without bad language or vulgar meaning. There are better things out there than that. Listening to music with vulgar meaning or language affects how we react and what we think about. Amy Winehouse wrote about drugs, drinking and rehab. Then later she died due to those causes. Was her personal life influenced by being awarded for singing about it? Somewhat unsettling in my opinion. Rap artists use such vulgar language and degrade women why do we listen to it or put up with it. It makes us women look like a piece of meat: Young adults, both male and female, who listen to rap music, are generally more accepting of violence towards women. Rap songs are more known to promote angry feelings than any other. However, there are numerous people who state that rap music makes them feel more relaxed. Others feel more energetic and happy because a lot of rap music promotes dancing and movement. This genre is just one of the examples of music with diverse results. Rap is not music, as it lacks any musical parts. It is rhyming over a beat that the rapper did not usually originally create. And if Mozart heard it, I think he would have a stern talking to that person. But enough of rap, let get into something everyone can associate music with. Music plays a huge part in movies also. When directors want a certain emotion coming out of that scene, they get someone to compose a song. As both music and film sequences are structured in time according to the viewers’ perception, there is a strong link between the two when played together. A viewer has two perceptual modes whilst watching film and listening to music, real time or ontological applies to where the viewer/listener perceives each note or movement, and psychological time in which the composition/film is perceived more subjectively and the viewer takes what they see/hear as a whole. Like â€Å"Jaws,† when the shark shows up, it plays that classic song that everyone can quote. It puts you on the edge of your seat because you know something will happen. I just got done watching â€Å"Parent Trap,† starring Lindsay Lohan, for the millionth time. In the movie when the mom hugs her other daughter for the first time in eleven years, the music gets higher and just more flowing and elegant. It made me cry, but when I muted it, it just like watching a moving scene. Not readily really feeling anything, you had to try to base your feeling on the actor’s facial expressions. To summon up here is an overall look on people opinions. I found a really neat survey that people all over the world took. Here is each question and the highest chosen answer for each. How does classical music affect your mood? 69 people answered this question and 45 said relaxed. How does rock/metal music affect your mood? 83 people answered and 25 people said both angry and happy and coming in close behind 23 said anxious. How does jazz affect your mood? 72 people answered and 35 said relaxed. How does hip-hop music affect your mood? 68 people answered and 24 said happy and coming in close behind 21 said anxious. How does country music affect your mood? This was a really close one. 75 people answered. 8 people said anxious, 15 people said angry, 16 people said relaxed, and then 18 people tied between depressed and happy. It’s really a powerful drug. Music can POISON you, lift your spirits, or MAKE YOU SICK without knowing why. Music is used everywhere to condition the human mind. It can be just as powerful as a drug and much more dangerous, because nobody takes musical manipulation very seriously. There is just so much to say about different genres and how they can affect people. No music is neutral. All of it affects your brain and emotions, as well as physical and spiritual being. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. â€Å"Addiction to Music†, November 13, 2008, http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/20776.html, (accessed March 26, 2012) [ 2 ]. â€Å"How Music Affects Us and Promotes Our Health,† 2011, http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml, (accessed March 8, 2012) [ 3 ]. Dr. Ellen Weber, â€Å"The Brain On Music, November 14, 2008, http://www.brainleadersandlearners.com/multiple-intelligences/musical/the-brain-on-music/, (accessed March 8, 2012) [ 4 ]. University of Groningen, â€Å"Research Show Music Changes Perception,† April 27, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110427101606.htm, (accessed March 7, 2012) [ 5 ]. â€Å"How Music Affects Us and Promotes Our Health,† 2011, http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml, (accessed March 7, 2012) [ 6 ]. Dr. Ellen Weber, â€Å"The Brain On Music,† November 14, 2008,