Most of us have found ourselves tapping our feet to music or have had the urge to get up and dance to music that we find stimulating. Music is powerful at an individual level because it can create multiple responses and it can release our deepest emotions. These feelings are gripping- often irresistible, and seem to emerge from nowhere. “Music is created from the heart and molded by emotion.”
For our project, we chose to see if there was a relationship between the types of music we listen to, and our emotional and physical responses from it. The moods that the artist is trying to convey should affect the person as the artist intends. Although, since what the artist is trying to convey is often personal feelings that we cannot understand, we can only understand the underlying mood- angry, depressed, happy, etc, and that the underlying mood is what affects us.
The increased availability of music seems to be encouraging people to use music to manipulate their own moods, reduce stress, end boredom, and create environments for social occasions. Music can provide an outlet for emotional expression, enable mood change, facilitate relaxation, provide stimulation and be a source of comfort.
Music does not always show an event, tell a story, or express an object. It includes words or sounds that articulate someone’s feelings and emotions. Emotions can be expressed through music even if there are no lyrics. Some purely instrumental pieces can try to convey a story, but within these pieces, the listener has to make up their own story that goes along with the music. If the notes in a piece of music were not changed but the melody was, it would give off a different mood, and no one would say it was the same piece of music.
The characteristics of music that cause different moods seem to relate to three main dimensions, pleasure or displeasure, arousal or non-arousal, and dominance or submissiveness. The moods in the songs are usually made up of these dimensions, whether it is to please you, arouse you, or make you more powerful. There is proof that it is very difficult to identify that musical structures cause particular moods. Though there is evidence showing that minor and major modes associate with happiness and sadness, firm rhythm tends to evoke feelings of dignified and vigorous character, and flowing rhythm for happy feelings, shivers, tears, and lumps in your throat.
Music is different from most forms of art, it expresses how the artist feels, and in result it affects the feelings and emotions of the listener. A piece of music affects us in a more direct way; the brain's processing of music makes it difficult to predict the particular effect of any piece of music on any individual. The brain is divided into two parts, the right and left hemisphere. The left hemisphere generally controls the ability to read, speak, do mathematical problems, and other motor skills. The right hemisphere is the center of musical and artistic creation and the ability to understand shape and form. In the brain, our nervous systems respond in certain ways to certain types of sound. Certain types of sound cause certain responses from the nervous systems depending on the mood you are currently in, and the environment. For example, a sudden loud sound brings a person to alertness, although that would cause alertness if you were sleeping, or perhaps having a quiet evening. An environment such as a concert wouldn’t bring you to alertness because you have adapted to the loud, vibrant atmosphere.
Music has been called the ‘International Language’ because of its ability to elevate moods and affect everyone no matter what nationality. Music not only affects our emotions, but our spiritual well being. Historically, music has been used for many purposes like bolstering courage before battles, singing babies to sleep, enhancing the courtship process, and accompanying rites of passage through life. In addition to the effects music has on people, it has an important role to play in the functioning of society, and has for thousands of years. In some cultures, music has been viewed so powerfully, governments try to attempt to control, or ban it. No human culture appears to be without music.
Music can affect our behavior without our conscious awareness. Music has always been something people turn to when they need to express an emotion. For some of us, music plays a much stronger role in our day-to-day life. People believe that those of us who have a stronger connection with music may have stronger or more active emotions. Most teenagers have very strong relationships with music. As music plays an important role in a teenager’s life, there is concern among older generations about its possible negative effects on behavior. People have suggested that music imitates life, and that rap and heavy metal music simply reflects the alienation, powerlessness, and aggressiveness among some groups of adolescents. Adults blame music for a child’s angry outbreaks, but there are further studies that show that an individuals antisocial, aggressive response are normally shaped by early experiences with their parents or adults. When these role models are unavailable, children seek others to replace them, and music, and the people who play or sing it, may fill these gaps providing the listener with a sense of identity, peer acceptance, and feelings of power.
As people get older, their taste in music develops and changes. When we are children, we like more innocent, quiet music for our ears; usually what our parents provide us with. As we get older and enter our teen years we start to appreciate music that expresses a little more emotion, such as punk, rap, rock, etc. When we finish our adult hood stages, we still appreciate the music we listened to when we were younger, and that music grows older as we grow older. The next generation might not appreciate the music we listened to as much we do. The reason our taste in music changes, is because we have different emotions throughout different times in our lives. When we are young we are thought of as ‘innocent’, and we are generally happy. But throughout our teenage years we start to become less easy to understand, and become easily angered and moody. Thus making our emotions and feelings stronger, which results us in needing ‘stronger’ types of music to relate too. People also have favorite bands, songs, or genres of music. This intensity of emotion will seem to fade if after listening to the music too much. This is called “hooked feeling.” Hearing a certain song usually triggers a certain emotion specifically linked to that song.
Nevertheless, music can affect our moods, emotions, and physiological responses whether we like the music or not. Music is one of the most expressive and important forms of art. “It has the ability to inevitably tap the still, mysterious deep well of our emotions.” Hopefully those emotions will continue to grow with the music and generations that come.