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...
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...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.
When discussing the effects that listening to music can have on people we need to take into account how different genres of music may have different effects. Many people, including religious and community leaders have been warning the public about the dangers of listening to violent music such as rap and metal. They claim that when people listen to violent music it will incite violent behavior. However in my research I have found many conflicting opinions.
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
Music is a wonderful thing. I can listen to it when I'm lifting, when I need to sleep, when I want to get away. I can listen to it when I’m say, or angry of to make me happy. I can recall things when it comes to my favorite music. One thing I always wondered is how can music be such a multifaceted factor in making me feel these different ways, and remember like I do. How does my brain factor into all of this too. Since music is a major and constant variable in today’s society In this paper I will discuss these things and how music affects the brain when it comes to certain things; long and short-term memory, how it affects our moods, how our day is going, our health and rehabilitation, and even therapy for mental illnesses? This includes listening, performing, composing, reading, writing and any other activities like expressing one’s self through music.
It is true that music has a compact link to our emotions. Music assists people to overcome the bad situations in their life, just like it did for Sonny, the barmaid, or some other people in the Harlem. Music has a tremendous effect on people’s mind because it makes them feel relax and comfortable, especially the soft classical music. It helps distressed people to stay smooth and peaceful. In fact, music is a remarkable way to ease our stress.
What does music mean to you? Music is something that has been around for many years. It started out as just some drums and a few instruments, but has changed a lot over time. The dictionary defines music as “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.” When I think of music I think of it has a story combined with instrumental sounds. Over the years, it has changed so much, some for the good and the bad. There are many different types of music and different emotions it will bring.
Mannes, Elena. "www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain." Mannes, Elena. The Power of Music to Affect the Brain. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.
Music is one of the few things that has remained constant through the centuries this world has existed. Not only does music provide entertainment, it also has several effects linked to it. Music allows emotions of happiness and sadness to arise. From those emotions, physical effects, negative or positive, can occur. Music has a profound effect on the emotional, social, intellectual, and physical aspects of a person.
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.
In philosophy, the majority of studies relate to the mind. Whether it is the main subject or just a helpful side topic to move the main subject along, this term is used often. Defining the term mind is difficult, and is a topic that is popularly studied and debated among philosophers. These qualified and knowledgeable people try to determine whether or not the mind is who people are or if they are their body or a combination. Although they have learned many helpful truths and defined other useful terms, the debate is still evident in the philosophical community today. Learning about how the mind relates to the body, and whether the mind and the brain are the same thing are other ways to look at the many options of how to discern
Music and the Brain. (n.d.). Music and the Brain. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://tdlc.ucsd.edu/research/highlights/rh-music-and-brain-2011.html
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.
Cooper, Belle. " How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain."lifehacker.come. N.p., 11 22 2013. Web. 3
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.
Weinberger, Norman M. “Music and the Brain.” Scientific American Special Edition 16.3 (2006): 36-43. Health Source- Consumer Edition. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.