Introduction
Our group realized how much music can impact our everyday lives. But we still can not think of all the ways music is incorporated in everyday life because it is all around us. In the movie August Rushthe lead character was a little boy who felt the music all around him and he asked an older man, “Are we the only ones who can hear it?” The man responded, “We’re the only ones listening.” This just emphasized that music can be found anywhere we go. Our group wanted to explore and research different areas of life that music affects us. Through out the whole semesterin both books that we have been reading and through the research we have been compiling we can see that music stimulates various different areas of our brains. In our Levitin book there is an awesome quote by Steven Pinker that states, “Music is auditory cheesecake…It just happens to tickle several important parts of the brain in a highly pleasurable way, as cheesecake tickles the palate.” (cite book 248) Music always seems to be a positive hobby but two of group members researched how music can impact us negatively. Our goal was to really show music and its effects in our everyday lives.
Elaine Ellis
A change in music’s rhythm, tempo, or beat can cue someone’s memory. If this person is doing an aerobic workout while listening to music that has a change, that cue signals the person to do a different move, position, or intensity. That is one of the reasons why aerobics is so repetitive, so that the recipients of the workout can easily memorize the music cues that correlate with the body movements.
As Daniel Levitin states in his book, “This is Your Brain on Music,” that “unique cues are the most effective at bringing up memories; the more items or contexts a particular cue is associated with, the less effective it will be at bringing up a particular memory” (cite book 166). Meaning, for example, that the more unique a song is while working out or taking an intense aerobic class effects how well you will memorize the body/dance movements (Levitin). Therefore, if someone is off beat or cannot follow along with the group in an exercise class, they will eventually become frustrated and have a negative correlation with exercise and that specific music that was playing during that class. But, in turn, if music is chosen that have easy to hear, interpret, and remember cues, then it is more likely that the person will have a positive reaction to that dance class. There mood will be more positive because they can keep up with the group and get a better workout.
A study was done by St. George’sHospitalMedicalSchool to determine if music has an effect on the intensity of a workout and woman’s mood. The participants of this study were all female students and were each given short, 8-minute intervals of high and low intensity workouts. Some exercise routines were accompanied with music, while others were not, to show if music makes a difference in the person’s mood outcome. The outcome was overwhelmingly in favor of music being played while exercising because positive mood changes were shown during both vigorous and exhilarating workouts. These positive mood changes after and during exercise were largely due to the music that was played during the workout (Steptoe).
In contrast to positive mood changes and effects from exercise, fatigue is a frequent effect from working out. But in a study done in Tokyo, Japan, it was found that women, in particular, have “significantly less fatigue with aerobic dance music than with nonmusic.” Another part of this study showed that while listening to music, these participants were able to do the exercises more vigorously and with less confusion, similar to a study that was previously stated(Hayakawa). As stated in the previous paragraphs, music with aerobic dance signals cues while working out that signal the memory for different parts of the exercise routine.
During a similar study from the Heart & Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care, participants were significantly more successful with cognitive change rather than when no music was played. These participants were all apart of a cardiac rehabilitation center and were made up of both men and women. To help them heal, these patients when through extensive rehab for anxiety, depression, and verbal cognitive tests. Music was a major factor in all of these tests, and led a huge improvement in all three of these areas (Emery). Because these areas all improved, it is safe to say that so did these participants moods; these people who not have been able to get these results as quickly without music playing while working out (Levitin).
Music continuously has had an impact on so many individuals while exercising.
Lindsay Davis:
“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”
-Confucius
Why is it that many humans are able to connect so well with music? Is there something intertwined with the repetition and variation that allows us to have a different freedom of interpretation?
Music is a central and very common part of everyone's life, and has shaped the way we all live and develop as humans. Without music many would not have the same feelings or act the same ways that they have adjusted to doing so because of music being such a common attribute in their lives. Feelings and emotions are developed according to the way that one responds to the music that they are listening to.
Some believe that all pieces of music will have the same effect on every person (Glowingstick, 2008). If this were true then the understanding of how powerful music is able to effect our emotions would be less complex. Music may then become ordinary to some people even though it should be known as extraordinary and unique. Music is able to produce different emotions in individuals, but can also have different emotional responses in the same person at different times. Because of its complexities that can occur within people music means different things to different people.
Music is known to be able to create physical sensations such as tingles or the chills. There was a study done where 80% of adults said that music had caused physical responses for them (Glowingstick, 2008). This went along with the stronger the content of music the more likely the person was to have a physical response. This was most probable when music produced feelings of sadness. Happiness and anger were associated with music being louder and sadness and fear with softer music (Glowingstick, 2008). The tempo and the expression from the music are believed to help explain how an emotion is influenced. Thus it can be derived that listening to and playing music stimulates many different sections of the brain, which can affect people physically as well.
Music is commonly used as a form of therapy. There have been many specific reasons to show why music therapy works. Music that has a strong beat can cause brainwaves to “resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state” (Stewart, 2008). This can be good for someone even after they stop listening. It helps the brain in changing the brainwave speed by itself later. Music is also known to bring relaxation and fight against stress problems that an individual may be experiencing.
Music can be used in many different settings to arise at a compromise for individuals to experience better and more tolerable lives. If it is used in the right ways then it can help people learn, heal or make it through some rough experience that they didn’t think that they could have ever gotten through.
Laura Tipton
There’s an old saying that goes,” Music is medicine to the soul.” After studying the new stress reliever of musical therapy I believe that music is medicine to our souls. It does not have any physical effects but emotionally and spiritually music can touch a place in all of us that we did not know we could reach. Many sources online and in the Levitin book it states that music first started in us when we were in the womb. Our mother’s heart beat was the first rhythm we felt. I think that is so powerful, that a heart beat was our first music and now when we are older we enjoy music that we think connects to us. That the music we listen to somehow tells us who we are.
By definition Music Therapy focuses on a couple of different target areas: motor skills, social development, cognitive development, self-awareness, and spiritual enhancement. At first I thought that music could never effect our lives in this many ways, but it does. If we went to a music therapy session we would search music to find different genres or beats that we felt we connected to and this brings about all those aspects somehow. When we figure out what music we enjoy we can discuss with others, we stimulate our brains, we get hands on experience with playing music, and we feel connected to our music.
There is a term called a “music bath” that therapists use to describe how to cleanse oneself at the end of the day. Work life or family life can be very stressful, and stress is really bad for our bodies. The “music bath” washes away our worries and stress from the day (filth). Afterwards we return to neutral ready for what will be next. They recommend at least 20 minutes where one should be surrounded by soothing music to them. One of the positives of this kind of stress relief is that it is pretty inexpensive and you learn so much about yourself. This past year I have had a roommate that is very musically aware and she has challenged me to listen to more music and find what other genres besides country I like to listen to. I found that I was drawn to gospel music, which validates one of the aspects that music therapy helps in a person. But along the way I encountered Haitian music, Indian music, choirs, punk, and many others that I also enjoyed. Music Therapy as a science has not been around for too long but I am excited to see where it can take us in the future.
Alex Fritz
To researchers interested in the field of musical psychology, the question of whether or not there is a relationship between music and emotions is no longer debated. Instead, it has become more of a question of to what extent and in what ways does music trigger emotions. Music can invoke a wide variety of emotions upon its audience, but one specific emotion that seems to be of great concern among educational psychologists and parents is of anger and its resulting aggression.
Specific genres of music, rock and rap in particular, have become the targets of scrutiny for their alleged ability to negatively influence the emotions and resulting behaviors of listeners. The National Institute on Media and the Family takes a platform that strongly advises parents to discourage their children from listening to heavy metal music. The organization believes that young, impressionable listeners who listen to heavy metal music become more prone to “casual sex, greater drug use, suicidal thoughts, drunk driving, conflict with parents and more school problems (Fact Sheet).” However, it should be noted that the National Institute on Media and the Family does not target music because if its inherent qualities of rhythm, cadence and tone. Rather, the song lyrics and messages are what they find objectionable.
In a 2003 study on violent music, one specifically focused on music with violent lyrics, an experiment took 500 college students and analyzed the correlation between the impact of playing “aggressive” and “violent” themed music and the resulting emotions of the student. Each test suspect was exposed to a violent song and a nonviolent song sung by the same artists while performing a selected series of tasks. The experiment concluded that violent songs did in fact increase “feelings of hostility without provocation or threat” (Violent Music). While the experiment was not able to single out the cause of the resulting anger, the experiment did take a step towards proving the existence of an affiliation between playing music and a supplementary fluctuation of emotions by the listener.
TOM
As technology advances, entertainment is always close by. Radios were first installed in automobiles in the fifties and were considered a luxury option. Over the years music has become more accessible from the Walkman, hand held CD player, and now the iPod and MP3 players. Millions of people around the world now can listen to music whenever they want. Unfortunately the easy access to music has some negative aspects. There is a safety concern when people are listening to music and driving an automobile, especially with fast tempos. As a study done by Warren Brodsky at Ben-GurionUniversity, he tested if fast tempos and volume were related to aggressive driving. “As the tempo increased, Brodsky found drivers took more risks, such as jumping red lights, and had more accidents. They were twice as likely to jump a red light as those who were not listening to music.” Hamer (2002) When teenagers pass the driver’s exam, they become very dangerous on the roads due to loud music and their emotions put them in unsafe situations. Another negative aspect of driving with music is the need to switch songs and attention is taken away from driving and is focused on what song is next. Microsoft and Ford have created a sound system that is hands free but still does not eliminate the danger of aggressive driving. Also in Brodsky’s study, he concluded that “everyday people should become more aware that there is a relationship between the nature of the task and the nature of the music, and that listening to music genres under certain exposure conditions, such as driving a car with loud fast-tempo music in the background, may place them more in a life-threatening situation than expected.” Hamer (2002)
Driving requires full attention to maintain safety and when other activities, such as listening to music or changing radio stations, become a distraction to the driver, it is a dangerous combination not only for the driver and passenger, but for other vehicles on the road as well. Brodsky considers this a major concern and a problem that cannot be ignored.
Scarlett Hugebeck:
Throughout the semester as we have been integrating the writings of Daniel Levitin into our discussion of psychology, music has been an ever present topic. The ideas that Levitin has expressed about the psychological impacts that music has on people is one that I have always been interested in and believe to be very true. For our group investigation project about music’s effect on people’s mood and emotions, I have researched a few topics that help dig deeper into these theories.
The first research I found was an article on the effects of music therapy. Throughout the article they talk about how music has been thought of to have healing impacts since ancient civilizations such as Greece, China, Egypt and Rome. They state that, “today’s modern principle of music therapy was founded during WWII, when the therapy was widely applied on soldiers to help them recover from mental injuries.” ( ). Since then there have been scientific studies done to determine what kinds of effects that music can have on the brain. Through these studies they have found that, “music can change ones moods by regulating breathing, circulation, internal secretion and other physiological functions.” ( ). Music has also been shown to have effects on muscle relaxation, and calming of one’s nervous system.
To supplement this article stating that music can alter ones mood, and be used as a relaxation therapy; I found a study done asking people their specific responses to different types of music. An example of some of the questions that were asked were as follows: “Can music change your mood? Do you use music to change your mood when you are sad/happy/stressed? Do you believe music is a important component of movies and do you think it helps establish a mood?” ( ). The results of this were that 75% of surveyors believed that music changed their mood, especially when they were sad or stressed. Also 90% of the participants believed that music was essential in movies for changing your mood. This study was an overwhelming example of how music changes peoples moods and that they are aware of the change that it implements.