Music : An Explosive Expression Of Humanity

Billy Joel said, “I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music” (Music Quotes). Whether we realize it or not, music affects our lives greatly. The only thing for us to question is how. How does music impact your life and the lives of others? What does music do for us? People of all ages benefit emotionally, physically, and academically from music.

One of our first assignments this semester was to explain the history and story behind the number one, and how this related to music. We did this through research of ancient mathematicians and the ratios that made music enjoyable to listen to. This was the first topic that introduced us to the relationship between humanism, science and technology. Throughout this course, we have studied numbers, poems and a significant amount of music, all of which have helped us to gain a better understanding of the relationship between humanism and science.

Music can be good for the mind and soul. It can give us peace of mind and help a person to be able to concentrate. Some teachers play calming music during class to help students think. Music can be helped with our health. People use Music Therapy to help with many things. People use the therapy music such as the rain forest or low drum beats to help them go to sleep. Doctors use music to help cancer patients, children with ADD to help calm them down. Music is used to help overcome pain. (Scott, Elizabeth.)

Scholars and artists commonly describe music as a reflection of the human condition. The period in history from the mid-1930s onward marked a tragic phase in twentieth century music and this reflection: the total politicizing of the art by totalitarianism means. Dictators, including Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, were manipulating popular culture to take control of their people. Stalin supported the idea of a “Soviet modernism,” a school of art that would embody the power of the new proletarian state. He monitored every recording made in the country, writing judgments of “good,” “so-so,” and “bad” on their sleeves. Stalin believed music to be the engineer of the human souls, and hoped to use this as a way to influence his people that Soviet life was improving. Fearing a phone call from the dictator or being arrested in the night, Soviet composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich wrote music with chained hands in an effort to please their leader. A study of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 7 will reveal the influence of communism in the Soviet Union on his music as well as his dynamic relationship with Joseph Stalin.

Music has also been scientifically proven to lower stress and depression and improve one’s health.1 It is also scientifically proven that children who engage in music become more intelligent since music improves one’s memory and learning abilities. There are also

While music has yet to be fully exploited clinically, Levitin says we routinely take advantage of its effects on our brain. "Many people use music to regulate their mood throughout the day. We use music to create a soundtrack to our lives," he

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.

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.

This annotated bibliography will be looking at how music affects the body and mind. Music is a universal thing, most people enjoy it and it’s common in cultures all over the world, from the vibrant music of Bollywood to the more mellow and calming Celtic music of Western Europe. Personally, I’m a music lover and I thought it would be fun and interesting to talk about music and see how it affects people.

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.

Music surrounds people everywhere they go: in the car, at football games, on TV commercials, and in waiting rooms. Our personality is an indicator of what kind of music it is that we choose to surround ourselves with. Furthermore, the music we surround ourselves with has multiple effects on both our bodies and our brains. Whether it puts us in a good mood or distracts us from something more important, music has both positive and negative effects on us. Music can be used as a tool to facilitate so much of our experience in this world.

It is amazing that music influences the body and brain in numerous effective way we never knew about.

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.

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?”.