Throughout history music has had a profound effect on a person’s mind, body, and consciousness. A song or piece of music can trigger vivid memories, and induce emotions ranging from deep sorrow to unabashed joy. Music can drive listeners to patriotic fervor or religious frenzy, or it can soothe the savage beast we call human. There have been many advances in technology that have let us study how music affects the brain. Music causes all sorts of activity in the brain, especially during musical improvisation. Music can tremendously help people with certain mind damaging diseases, and in some cases it can have negative effects. What is music? To some, music is only that of masters like Beethoven, Debussy, and Mozart. To some it is Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, or music groups like Moby. To the jazz aficionados, anything before 1940 or after 1960 is not music at all. So to examine how music affects our minds, thoughts, and spirits, it would be helpful to examine what music is made of. What are the basic building blocks of music, and how, through organization, do they come together to make music? To any sound, there are basic elements; loudness, pitch, contour, duration (or rhythm), timbre, spacial location, tempo, and reverberation. Just as a painter arranges lines into forms, our brains organize these attributes into higher level concepts like meter, harmony, and melody. So when we listen to music, we are actually perceiving multiple dimensions or attributes. For cognitive scientists and psychologists, the mind is that part of everyone that embodies our memories, thoughts, hopes, desires, beliefs, and experiences. On the other hand, the brain is an organ of the body. It is a collection of chemicals and blood vessels, cells and water th... ... middle of paper ... ...expanding, etc. But some types of music, that which has offensive or immoral lyrics, can be detrimental to a person’s mind. Aaron Smuts asks the question: “Do moral flaws with works of art constitute aesthetic flaws?” Smuts asked this question after he heard a rap song with violent, sexist, racist, rapist, and murderous lyrics. When so many people listen along and sing to music like this it is like they delight in fictional suffering and that is intrinsically bad. As time goes on and technological capabilities increase, so too will knowledge of how music affects our brains. Scientists will be able to discover the full potency of the effects of music on our psyche, and how improvisation and creativity in music affect the brain along with immoral lyrics in certain music. Understanding this subject is relevant to becoming and better musician, student, and teacher.
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreMusic has been around since the very beginning of time. The human body flows in a rhythmic syncopation. Music is used to change one’s mood and to inspire those who open their minds. It has the potential to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Humans, of every culture and society, function with a type of rhythmic music. As humans, we are hard wired to respond to music (Mannes). The human brain responds to music in such a way that the brain becomes more open to new rhythms, ideas, and values. Music has the power to take over the human body. This makes it easier to overcome conflict and change the ideals of somebody while using music (The Power of Music).
Have you ever given much thought about what goes on in the brain when you listen to music? Almost every human being listens to some type of music from country music all the way to religious music. Thinking about it, does music help with anything, is it just something humans like spending their time with or does it harm us in any way or form? I will am going to tell you about what the brain releases when a person listens to music, how music helps people with Alzheimer’s, and other small things that music does to the brain.
Whether you’re a devoted music enthusiast or you just listen to the radio to pass time, we all listen to music. However, when listening to music, nobody stops to think about what they are doing. Nobody stops to contemplate how the music they are listening to affects them psychologically. We just listen to the music and enjoy ourselves. In fact however, a great deal of research has been done to determine the psychophysiological effects of music. Many studies have been conducted to determine whether music can help people who suffer from psychological and medical disorders, Scholars continually debate whether music can influence behavior, and researchers are attempting to understand what is happening in our brain when we listen to music.
The effect of music on the brain is a very interesting topic because it deals with the reaction of our body as a human being to waves produced by music. In the past, researchers believe on the Mozart effect which had and have a huge place in this specific topic. Then, the present shows us another benefits and roles that music plays in our brain without our acknowledgement. Last, the future which is unpredictable advices us to trust this music and further, to trust the entire world of art.
A man is in his car with a one and a half hour long commute and is browsing the radio for music to listen to and hears a song that sounds familiar. The tune gets stuck in his head and he can't get it out until he gets home from work and spends 15 minutes trying to find what the song was called. Some people adore Classical Music and some find it excruciating to listen to. Which ever side has more support the world will never know, but one thing society does know is that Classical Music has many elements.
According to dictionary.com, music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, and color.” Music is the product of sound waves coming from anything making a melodic tone. There are different genera’s of music, ranging from rock to pop to classical. Each person likes different genera’s of music.
An example of the first finding, that music learning changes the brain, is research clearly showing that through such learning, auditory and motor areas in the brain grow larger and interact more efficiently. After novice pianists have just a few weeks of training, for example, the areas in their brain serving hand control become larger and more connected. It quickly became clear that music can drive plasticity in the human brain, shaping it through training and learning.
The effect that music has on an individual is astonishing. Words all of a sudden have meaning and purpose in one’s life, creating this new sense of reality that manifested out of the thin air. With the words, sounds that when it kisses one’s ears a sense of comfort and calmness surges through their body. The incredible simplicity of a note paired with a lyric soon becomes something that buzzes through one’s mind constantly, periodically, and repeatedly. The application of rhythm, rhyme, simile, imagery, metaphor, tempo, etc. to create a song is beautiful. The perfect amount of ingredients to create a powerful medium that moves one’s
Given the results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, as well as the research done within the University of Vermont discussing the aid music might bring toward brain development, the need to merge these two subjects together is great. By having an understanding of the brain as well as the impact which music has on the brain will be helpful for educators, students, and parents moving forward.
Music has incredible effects on the brain and body! Ever since the beginning of time, music has been around. It can influence the way a person thinks and behaves, and also social interactions. Teens are more susceptible to this (Revatto 1). Music can be used in therapy by helping people with depression, and can even be a more natural way to heal the body (“How Music...” 1). In some cases, songs and melodies can help or make diseases worse. Music is a powerful thing and can affect your brain and many other things in your body in numerous ways.
Music has been many different things to people, an escape, a revolution, an experience, a feeling, a message, a memory, a single moment, peace, class, etc. Music has played a large role in the lives of many. The story of music and it’s evolution is beautiful, from ancient melodies being plucked on a harp, to the british invasion and the popular revolution. Music has changed, and it has effected so much. In the recent decades popular music has manipulated humanity into acting inappropriately.
People are constantly exposed to music. Whether it is in a car, an elevator, or the waiting room of a doctor’s office, almost everyone, every day, hears some type of melody or song. Can you imagine your life in the absence of music? Although listening to music is a common phenomenon, most people know little about how it affects the mind and body. Music can be used to create specific atmospheres, elicit certain emotions, and promote community and bonding. By understanding the beneficial effects that music has on our minds and bodies, we can utilize its powers to facilitate healing.
The human brain, through evolution, has developed reasoning tactics that cause us to think thoroughly before we act. Researchers say music is powerful- but just not powerful enough to cause people to act out in certain scenarios, such as fights and killings. I refute this argument by simply stating that music does have a powerful effect on people, all the time, almost anywhere. For example, if music can give us a boost while working out in the gym, or influence our first date, then it can also have the power to affect our choices when we are in a bad mood, possible more than enough to even commit a crime. "Because music is at the center of the formation of cultural identity for marginalized youth, it 's very powerful," Professor Williams explains. "So now you have kids growing up listening to the music and feeling that the music is expressing who they are as young, African-American males. This is bigger than participating in a gang. It is the core of your value system."(Guarino 1). In Oklahoma, a teen named James Edwards killed an Australian baseball player out of what he claims was boredom, after listening to Chief Keef 's drill music. Today, more teens and young adults are listening to extremely violent music, causing them to forget what is reality and what is fiction. This false sense of reality is giving kids a boosted ego, giving themselves a higher popularity
Cooper, Belle. " How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain."lifehacker.come. N.p., 11 22 2013. Web. 3
Wagner believed in the unity of drama and music, that the two arts share a connected expression of a single dramatic idea. "10Poetry, scenic, design, staging, action, and music work together to form what he called a Gesamtkunstwerk (total or collective artwork)."