How many of you listen to upbeat music at the gym to get you pumped up? Or maybe when you’re cleaning your room? Or just having a bad day? If you’ve seen Grey’s Anatomy a 30 second dance party can be all you need! While we are all aware the positive effects music have on our mood there are actually studies behind it.
I found out that music effects our mood specifically through rhythm and tone at http://bestbinauralbeats.org/how-music-affects-our-mood/. When we listening to a rhythm our heart begins to sync with it. Thus, a slow heartbeat with a strong diastolic pressure triggers our brain that the song is more sad and depressing. Very fast beating illustrates excitement. Dreamy rhythm with occasional upbeats can signify love or joy. Musical tones equally affect our moods. A “major key” music piece notes cheerful communication to our brain and “minor key” pieces closely signifies a somber communication. Both rhythms and tones have powerful effects on the brain which directly correlates to how we feel and our moods.
This article http://www.healthline.com/health-news/mental-listening-to-music-lifts-or-reinforces-mood-051713 highlights a study conducted at University of Missouri scientists found that under certain conditions, music can lift a listener’s general mood and increase happiness in just two weeks. Author of the study, Yuna Ferguson, directed participants to boost their mood. They were only successful in doing so when listening to the upbeat rhythm Copland, in comparison to sadder tunes Stravinsk. Ferguson states, ““Our work provides support for what many people already do—listen to music to improve their moods,” said lead author Yuna Ferguson in a press release. “Although pursuing personal happiness may be thought of as a self-centered venture, research suggests that happiness relates to a higher probability of socially beneficial behavior, better physical health, higher income, and greater relationship satisfaction.”
It is interesting that simply listening to a few upbeat songs can in turn relate to one’s physical health, income, etc. As we know causation does not equal correlation, but in this case it is more likely than not that listening to a happy song can make one feel happy. However, it is important to understand the third or co-founding variables in any study. For example, are happier people listening to happier music to begin with? However, like Andrew has mentioned in class if there is no harm (i.e. the turning on TV example) then why not turn on a few lively beats and jam out!
http://www.healthline.com/health-news/mental-listening-to-music-lifts-or-reinforces-mood-051713
http://bestbinauralbeats.org/how-music-affects-our-mood/
This was a great post! As someone who is always listening to music, I can say that, from personal experiences, music is always able to lift my mood. If I’m having the worst day ever, a few nice tunes can definitely make me happier. You have an extremely good point at the end, though, when you mention that happier people to begin with may be the ones who are listening to happy music. I never really thought about it that way, but I would consider myself to be a happy person, so that could be the case!
I really liked this post because I do believe that music has a tremendous effect on your mood. From personal experience, the reason why Ultra Music Festival in Miami has lasted so long and people are able to go from 3-6 days is because house music is constantly being played. Therefore, this upbeat and exciting music just gets the crowd pumped up and full of energy for a whole day. If the music was slow and sad, no one would last very long in that festival.
I really liked this post! Before every softball game, my team would listen to music to pump us up and keep us going throughout the game. It always really helped because the songs would get stuck in our head, and we would keep dancing and singing them the whole time. The same goes for whenever I am upset; I will listen to slower music.
I think this topic is very interesting. In my opinion I believe that music does have an affect on our mood. However, as we all know, we can’t just assume that correlation causes causation. From your blog, you described two experiments done to test if music has an affect on our mood. I think these two experiments were great examples; however, I would suggest you to add more details about the experiments. For example, what are the “certain conditions” that the participants were under for the first study? I do, however, agree that there are third variables present in this experiment. Another third variable is are the songs being played well liked by the volunteers? In my opinion, if I don’t like the song I’m listening to and no matter how up beat the song is, I won’t be happy. Overall, I think you did a good job!
I love this post! When I’m feeling upset, I always put on up beat music cause it instants boosts my mood. I found this article, http://www.omharmonics.com/blog/how-music-affects-the-brain/ , which states that music also stimulated your spatial reasoning.