How does music affect mood of a human?
Picture yourself casually cruising down a quiet country backroad on your way to a party. Do you play slow love songs or upbeat hip hop songs? Now, picture yourself in the locker room, with your headphones on, with only ten minutes left until you play the championship game of your senior year. What song do you listen to? How does the song you chose affect your feelings going into the game? Music can move people or change them and is more than just lyrics on a soundtrack. Music was originally, and still is; the way for people to get their emotions out and sometimes those emotions are felt by other people. Music can affect a person’s mood and enhance certain feelings or emotions depending on the mood they are in and what type of music it is. A person’s mood also can decide the preferred music at the moment.
According to eMedExpert, “Music, especially upbeat tunes, can take your mind off what stresses you, and put you in a more optimistic and positive mood.” Listening to classical music can relax a person and soothe their conscious. EMedExpert states that, “Relaxing music reduces sympathetic nervous system activity, decreases anxiety, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate and has positive effects on sleep such as muscle relaxation and distraction from thoughts.” These effects influenced by relaxing music causes the listener to enter a calm, peaceful mood. Have you ever been listening to a song and suddenly had the urge to get up and dance? Rap music, or a song with a fast beat, can energize a person and cause an excited mood. Have you ever listened to a song and felt like going out and doing something and just motivated to accomplish something? Many hip-hop songs can pump up the audience and make them feel bold, thus evoking a fearless and motivated mood. By motivating the audience to face their stress and the problems in life, they will be happier and more relaxed once they have assailed and defeated their life problems. Suzanne Boothby remarks in Healthline Newsletter, “participants in a study were instructed to try to improve their mood, but they only succeeded when they listened to upbeat music as opposed to sadder tunes.” The powers of music have a strong impact on mood and are able to transform it from sad to happy.
Music also has the power to enhance human emotion and feeling. Imagine a murder scene with no audio and only the visual effects. Now, imagine the same murder scene, but with the blood curdling screams and nerve wracking soundtrack that lead up to the victim’s bloody murder. The audio creates a more real-life effect and enhances the human’s emotions of terror and panic. Roberto Assagioli claims, “not seldom does it happen that through such music feelings of oppression and terror, created by film scenes, are reinforced so that their exciting effect is thereby greatly increased.” Music can also intensify feelings of sorrow. If a person has just broken up with his girlfriend and hears a song that brings back a memory with her, he may feel even more miserable. Music amplifies feelings--such as fear, happiness, and sorrow-- which affects the human mood.
A person’s music choice affects their mood, but their mood also affects their music choice. When in a bad mood, would you prefer to listen to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams? Some may choose to listen to it to cheer them up, but many would probably be annoyed by the disturbing upbeat vibe that contradicts their current emotions. According to Laurence O’Donnell, “results revealed that irrespective of the self-relevance of the mood induction, individuals in sad, or neutral moods, preferred to avoid expressively happy music.“ Likewise, the feelings and emotions of individuals that are in love tend to prefer love songs and slow tracks. Roberto Assagioli states that, “If a person is in love, he will be much more disturbed and excited by erotic music than when his passion is dormant.”
So now imagine you’re back in the locker room with your headphones on, before that final championship game. What kind of song do you listen to? What kind of mood do you want to enter the game with? You decide!
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Annotated Bibliography
Assagioli, Roberto. “The Harmful Effects of Music on Body and Mind.” The
Unbounded Spirit, 9 Sept. 2017,
theunboundedspirit.com/the-harmful-effects-of-music-on-body-and-mind/.
This source contains more information on the effect of music on a human’s mood. In addition, this source includes the injurious effects of music, along with examples of hurtful music types. It helps cover the more uncommon studies of the harmful effects of music. It is valuable to my research because it gives many more harmful effects of music on the body, instead of the many benefits.
Boothby, Suzanne. “Does Music Affect Your Mood?” Healthline, Healthline Media, 13 Apr. 2017, www.healthline.com/health-news/mental-listening-to-music-lifts-or-reinforces-mood-051713.
This source contains information on how music can affect the human mood. This source is especially helpful because it contains not only one type of music but many types and their effects. It also contains information on how music can boost the mood and heal the body.
“How Music Affects Us and Promotes Health.” Surprising Effects Of Music,
www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml.
This source provides information on the benefits of music on specific aspects of the body. This includes how music affects the body, from pain relief to lowering blood pressure and combating migraines. Not only does it give information on how music affects the human brain but it also provides how different types of music affect the body. This source was very valuable because it provides an abundance of reliable facts and covers many parts of the body.
O'Donnell, Laurence. “Music and the Brain.” Music and the Brain,
www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html.
This source provides information on the bodily responses to music, the power of music on memory and learning, and more effects of music. In addition, it gives information on specific ways music mentally affects the human body. This source is useful because it also contains the history of music’s connection with society. It is also valuable because there is content on the effects of a specific type of music, not just music in general.
