A Sociological Analysis: The Mozart Effect

No one knows all the ways music can benefit the body but, it is known that music can affect brain waves, brain circulation, and stress hormones. Students who take music lessons have improved IQ levels and show improvement in nonmusical abilities as well. Listening to music composed by Mozart produces a short-term improvement in tasks that use spatial abilities. Studies of brain circulation have shown that people listening to Mozart have more activity in certain areas of the brain, which is called the Mozart effect. Although the reasons for this are not clear, this kind of information supports the idea that music can be used in many helpful ways. In general, music therapy done under the care of a professionally-trained therapist has a helpful effect, and is considered safe when used with standard treatment.

Music has played a major role as an agent of socialization in each of my 4 decades. I know and hope that it will continue to do so. During each period music has affected my personality, shown my personality, affected my perceptions and helped me to cope with growing and changing as a person. My Looking Glass Self has compared the person in song and possibly the singer themselves to myself to gain perspective of who I was at each time. I am going to discuss each decade with the thought of how music was an agent of socialization in each.

The human mind is constantly processing and picking up information. Music is an ordered and predictable sequence of sounds. When the brain hears music, it tries to decode it. In decoding those symbols and patterns, it sets up “neural highways, or synapses” , to receive and examine data. These pathways then can be used for remembering other symbol-oriented information, such as language and math. Like a muscle, the brain becomes stronger the more it is worked, and these workouts are achieved by listening to classical music. Mozart’s music is exceptionally difficult to decode, therefore the brain must work harder, thus making one smarter.

This study attempts to prove that certain music can be used to improve attention, elicit good mood, which will in turn enhance study environment.

In a study done by Jennifer L. Lilley, Crystal D. Oberle, and Jon G. Thompson, Jr. at Texas State University, they tested the effects of grade consequences and music on test anxiety and performance. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of the participants grades if there were consequences and how music effects the participates anxiety and their test performances. There were previous works cited on how people improve their spatial cognitive task performances after listening to Mozart (Ho, Mason, & Spence, 2007). They also included studies where there were no benefits to people’s spatial cognitive task performances after listening to Mozart (Hui, 2006).

Throughout history there have been demonstrations of grit and the correlation to cognitive ability developing strongly through childhood. Mozart, was most commonly related to being a “child prodigy”, having an extremely high IQ and musically based talent (Ericsson, Prietula and Cokely 2007, p. 3). What is not universally known about the development of his ability

Studies show that music appears to support kids’ normal skills to interpret sounds and words. Learning to read and play music, appears to be related to an amount of assistance for kids, including improved processing of language and better reading skills. Music exercise in kids play develop key skills that will aid them in listening, attention, remembrance, and reading skills. Lisa Miller thinks,” in Europe was as crucial to becoming a cultivated person as knowing the works of Mozart or Rembrandt” ( ). Music is a foundation of human culture; it is a learning device, a way of communication, and, a way of

The effects of Mozart on today’s society can be seen just about everywhere. In marketing, they play music to make the consumer want to buy their product. In restaurants, they play music to help the customer feel relaxed in their establishment. People listen to music while driving cars. It seems that music permeates almost every aspect of our everyday lives. When people think of the birth of modern music, they often think of classical music. And when people think of classical music, they think of Mozart. During the 18th century, the musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed a total number of six hundred and fifty works. When he was younger, he toured Europe with his father, Leopold, and his sister, Nannerl, playing for Europe’s elite of the time. He put forth some major musical contributions that shape modern music today (Fiero 324,326). Classical music is the great grandfather of all modern music. Some people enjoy

Music can be beneficial to people through several ways, but music can also have positive effects on the mind. In the novel, The Mozart Effect for Children, by Don Campbell, music is discussed as being a voice in which someway every child, adult or human being can understand. Music allows people to sing along to the lyrics, move or dance to the beat, and match the melodies. The use of music can often be used to explore and discover the beauty in which music holds. The interaction of music with the mind can be shown through the use of vibrations, patterns, and rhythms (Campbell 8). This shows that music has a way to communicate with everybody and can make people included. Music has the effect of making everybody come together and act like

The Mozart Effect Resource Centre website, music educator Don Campbell made the claim that “classical music has a powerful effect on the intellectual and creative development of children from the very youngest of ages.” (Campbell, n.d.). To critically evaluate this claim a number of sources have been analysed. Through this analysis it was found that the claim cannot be supported by reliable empirical research and that classical music only produces short-term cognitive enhancement. This effect can be achieved by listening to any type of music. The first main theme found in the literature was that listening to classical music such as Mozart produced only short term increased cognitive abilities and did not aid the intellectual development of

(2001) explained that the “Mozart effect” is due to arousal and mood improvement. The arousal-mood hypothesis proposes that listening to music, affects people’s level of arousal and mood, which in turn influence performance on different cognitive tasks (Husain, Thompson, & Schellenberg, 2002).

The mind is greatly impacted by music by showing healthful changes (www.bellaonline.com/articles/). Doctors now use music for their patients’ treatments in order to help them stay healthy (www.bellaonline.com/articles/). Heart patients acquired the same benefits from listening to classical music for thirty minutes as they did from anti-anxiety medication (www.bellaonline.com/articles/). Musical therapy has been used to help people with heart problems, which worked quite effectively. (www.bellaonline.com/articles/). People who have had migraines frequently, were trained to use music and relaxing procedures to reduce their headaches. Studies have also shown that music helps students with their intelligence levels (www.bellaonline.com/articles/). A majority of students had higher test scores than others because they listened to Mozart before their exam. People who listened to classical music for an hour and a half while revising manuscripts increased their accuracy by 21% (www.bellaonline.com/articles) (Mish 725.).

The “Mozart effect” is a statement based on research studies claiming that listening to the

Research and conducting experiments is the most effective way possible to gain an answer. The type of research is based on the situation, the hypothesis, and the resources the individual or group has on hand. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the Mozart Effect from two different journals and answer questions based on the research materials. The first article for examination is Music and spatial task performance.

The relationship between music and society is an exceptionally powerful and crucial one. In some cases, this relationship is viewed as one that is harmonious and beneficial to large communities of people. However, that exact relationship could also be scrutinized as one that is extremely discordant to other communities. Green Day happens to fall precisely in the middle of that musical spectrum, depending on who is asked. Regardless of opinion, songs are much more than just music and are essentially retained as pieces of history. These songs help showcase the trends, behaviors, and even struggles of different time periods. With that being said, one may ask “What all did the musical group Green Day contribute to society?”.