Classical Music and Its Affect On Society

Does classical music really help you study better? Many recent research studies show that music idoes in fact improve cognitive thinking. In 1993, researchers at the University of California at Irvine discovered the so-called Mozart Effect - that college students “who listened to ten minutes of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major K448 before taking an IQ test scored nine points higher” than when they had sat in silence or listened to relaxation tapes. Other studies have also indicated that it doesn’t matter the artist; people retain information better if they hear classical or baroque music while studying.

Art has undoubtedly become a decisive aspect of our culture; embedded in the way we learn and grow on a daily basis. Art forms such as music, television and dance dominate our society as an outlet of freedom of speech for humanity. The evolution of music has rapidly exceeded its original classifications, developing new genres with greater appeal to an audience, hence its influence on society has expedited. In recent times, lyrics (specifically rap lyrics) have been introduced into the court room as a form of documented confessional evidence, evidently challenging law’s authoritative nature. This essay will closely follow the genre of rap and its relationship with law, through cases based in the United States of America (USA). In addition, the trial of Simon Bikindi in Rwanda and Smith v The Queen will be used to form an acute analysis on the influencing factors of relevance, identity, freedom of speech and current constitutional law.

Music has been known throughout time. It can help us through everything. There are so many solutions with music to help a person go through so many situations. Music can affect many people in many different ways. Without music some people would be lost and would have no motivation. Music can provide inspiration and insight through education. Music has influence on suicides, killings and shootings, and provocative actions. It can also influence good morals, respect, allowing differences, health, and much more. Music can come in many forms and categories and music is very good for the world.

There have been a number of tests and surveys on this very topic. Classical music improves the concentration and performance of the people that listen to it regularly. It helps develop better learning habits to improve the overall learning experience. When somebody sits down and tries to watch an interesting television show, and do homework, it is very hard to concentrate, and not a lot gets done. When somebody listens to classical music regularly, it improves their learning strategies, or the way they learn things. Background music has been known to increase worker productivity, and performance. When people are able to get in the rhythm of the music they are listening to, they can increase output, and therefore focusing comes much easier for longer periods of time. Some music elicits stress in people. Other music makes people feel more relaxed and more readily able to focus, especially on a high stress

Music has been apart of society for thousands of years and an outlet for people's stress and other problems they may be facing. It helps the brain function and understand conditions better by breaking it down and trying to comprehend it. Music has made and is still making an impact on the lives of people all around the world. Because of its impact on peoples lives neuroscientist wanted to get to the source and have been looking at the brain to determine the exact effects of music and they can now answer the question, what effects does music have on the brain? Listening to music can send pleasure to your mind, decide your emotions, lower stress, and improve learning.

There is no disputing that society is influenced by its choices of entertainment. Some ways in which people are influenced are positive, but others are harmful. In the society we live in, the harmful ways always outnumber the positive. If we gravitated toward the positive forms of entertainment a little more often than the negative, then our society would have fewer problems. Popular music has a negative effect on society and endorses a lack of creativity.

Music is a combination of melody and rhythm, it has physiological, psychological and social functional impacts on human body. In the physical level, music can stimulates the body 's autonomic nervous system, which is to regulate the heart rate, breathing rate, nerve conduction, blood pressure and endocrine. In the psychological level, music can cause human brain which is in charge of emotions and feelings do autonomic response, hence change the mood and release the anxiety. In fact, human body has certain circadian rhythm and music has its own rhythm too, when these two aspects are able to resonate, music then can affect the physiological fluctuations, thereby exert a therapeutic effect, named music therapy.

Music is composed of sounds intertwined with melody and rhythm that can have powerful effects on a person. It can help people focus on tasks or calm the mind. Research has shown that music has beneficial effects on the mind, body, and health of a person. A journal article by Rastogi, Solanki, and Zafar (2013) refers, on the contrary, to:

In recent tests scientists found that music could reduce the perceived intensity of pain. It can also ease stress before and after a patient has surgery. This is why many hospitals use musical therapy. Music can additionally have good effects on your mood such as relieving stress, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and elevating your mood. It can help in high stress situations such as exams and give you a better cognitive performance. When you go to the gym you will find that there is music playing and this is usually because it improves running and biking motivation and increases workout endurance. Additionally it can help your body recover faster after exercising. This is because it enhances your blood vessel function. Other positive outcomes of music can include better memory, helping people eat less and improved sleep quality. As well as positive physical effects there are also positive emotional and mental effects of music. One of the most famous ones is the Mozart effect. If somebody listens to Mozart’s music they may likely have a short improvement on spatial temporal reasoning. Spatial temporal reasoning is the ability to visualize the instruments played in a song and the musical notation.

Some people think that music can positively influence the listener while others disagree and argue that it has a negative impact. Mark Edmundson, the author of “Can Music Save Your Life?,” asserts through his own experience and the research of others that music solely “preserves” the listener’s life as a “balm—cortisone spread” (paragraph 25). His use of a well-known medical supplement makes it more relatable and believable to the reader. The authors of “Feeling the Beat” support Edmundson by stating that they observed an increased sense of confidence in oneself and one’s beliefs in the people they interviewed(Iwamoto, Creswell, & Caldwell 346). Their main support is the quote from one of their interviewee’s who said, “We can identify what they are talking about” (Iwamoto, Creswell, & Caldwell 343). This not only explains why students listen to certain types of music, but also why it can have such an impact on them. Derek Iwamoto, John Creswell, and Leon Caldwell declare their statement that positive influence of music by stating that the majority of the students they observed used their music as a way to

Studies across the United States have shown that young adults that listen to classical music have a better memory. Of those that obtained brain damage previous to the study, music repaired most, if not all, of the damage. Therefore, using music as therapy is an effective way to help heal parts of the brain. Music therapy is an effective alternative therapy option that specialized therapists used to help someone’s emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health. For people who do not need music therapy, and listen to classical music, their brain can retain information better. For example, classical music affects how well someone can memorize spelling, poetry, and foreign words. Also, people who play an instrument or listen to classical music can learn and understand a foreign language more easily than someone who does

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.).

Music is arguably one of the world’s most important universal languages. Documentation of music can be found as early as Biblical days and can be heard all around. Think about all the places one is exposed to music: radio, TV, elevator, stores, restaurants etc. Every culture and country has its own style of music and the importance of music is paramount to individuals in many ways. Music is so powerful it can create a visceral response by lowering the heart rate and decreasing stress levels (Wright, 2017). Evidence has also shown music to activate areas of the brain that are engaged during “Other euphoria inducing stimuli such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse” (Wright, 2017, p. 3). Music, sound perception – the most powerful sense, can impact the way one feels and behaves (Wright, 2017). With evidence proving to have an impact on the brain both physically and emotionally, supporting a 5% tax increase to fund both curricular and extracurricular programs will enhance student’s development and provide to them a well-rounded education.

In order to understand how music can affect the body and mind, one needs to understand the composition of sound itself. Don Campbell describes it by

Music elicits an emotional and cognitive response in all who listen to it. It is powerful at the individual level because “it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral” (Francis, 2008,