Music and Emotion

My theme for my paper is about music and moods. There is a lot of moods while listening to different

"On those nights that I missed him most I listened to music" (Alexie 3086). Woven throughout Sherman Alexie 's work, "Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock,” is the theme of music. Its presence is a faint drumbeat of life, felt throughout the piece. It not only accompanies moments of sorrow, such as when the narrator listens to music while he is longing for his father, but encompasses every variation of emotion available to man, and because of its extraordinary influence on the characters, it takes on human qualities. Through music 's multidimensional effect on characters and its personification, Alexie highlights music’s everyday influence in life, suggesting that it is inescapable and necessary to the human experience.

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.

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

“Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favorite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about.” -Gerard Way. Music has been a part of our daily lives forever. It shows who we are as individuals but also unites us. Our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, is a song that connects every single person living in the United States of America. There are so many genres to pick from which allows everyone to be different. Music sort of goes along with Romanticism and the non-conformity part of

“Music can change the world because it can change people” Bono. Society is an ever changing process. Because society is a collection of people, it is really a kaleidoscopic representation of what is happening in the world at that time. Music is a significant presence in society; it has been a part of the human element since the dawn of man. Throughout the centuries, music has been incorporated into the most significant and minor moments of history. People can remember events based on the song that was popular at the time. They genre of music varies as do people. The average person spends several hours a day listening to music. People use it as a major part of whatever they may be doing, or they see it just as something to fill in the silence in the background. It is not surprising, then, that music is a more powerful force on how humans think, communicate, act, possibly even affecting intelligence. Music is often used in

Music is the only medium that blesses both man and God at the same time and as such to see it as an entertainment factor within our worship services is a gross misunderstanding of its purpose. Music is made up of three elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm. Mankind is also made up of three parts: spirit, soul and body (1 Thess 5:23). It can be argued that music and the triune, or trichotomy, of mankind are intrinsically linked i.e. melody is likened to the spirit, harmony to the soul and rhythm to the body.

Music can stop wars and create love between two individuals. The powers that come with music can be very useful or very destructive to our world. Music is a way to bring people together and create happiness between these individuals. The importance of music to this world is that it can honestly make or break so many things in life. It’s the reason that they’re so much peace in this world even if there is war between each other. The peace that it brings the hatred and war that is already in this world.

One of the primary purposes of music, as it is a major part of culture, is to buld community cohesion. There have been times during history, especially with the creation and rise of nations, along with war and tragedy, that people have turned to music for comfort, inspiration, and increase in pride for their country. Music has great symbolism behind it that can correlate to one's community and can inspire grand emotions.

Music is made up from rhythm and beats with notes and feelings, vocal and/or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Yet, music is so much more than notes on paper, music represents movements in time, music is memories, history, connections, relaxation and escape. Many people are influenced by music they listen to. “Music is much more than mere entertainment. It has been a feature of every known human society—anthropologists and sociologists have yet to find a single culture throughout the course of human history that has not had music” (Greenberg, 2016).

In passage one , author Jennifer James explains how music and objects around you can change you mood, for example perhaps you are at a concert and the singer is providing optimistic music listening to the music will soon make you and the people around you optimistic or if the singer is providing sad or angry music then you will be able you relate with that emotion and will feel angry or sad.

In the article "Music and the heart," authors Stefan Koelsch and Lutz Jäncke go over a series of studies to show the effects of music on the heart. They start off talking about how music is a powerful stimulus for inflicting moods and emotions and also has an impact on heart activity. They go on to talk about how the results of studies on the effect of music on the heart and emotions have often been inconsistent. Mainly, the inconsistencies are due to the use of different methods and musical stimuli. Music has a large variety of genres and styles and many of the studies do not include the specific types of music used in their studies. With different types of music being used in each study, there will be many different reactions, therefore,

Music shows emotions through the characteristics of music such as modality, musical contour, and tempo. These characteristics shape the type of emotions that are experienced by the listener. There is one theory that suggests music as a language, where there are different emotions that are brought across by different types of musical intervals. An example of this would be an augmented fourth which tends to expresses distress, while a major third usually expresses happiness.

How can different types of music affect people’s emotions? Music has many different ways to affect people. In some ways, it is good for the body both physically and mentally. In other ways, people think it is nice to listen to. More detailed, music has personalities, which can express what people feel. There are many observations involving different ways to express human emotions. Emotions are very interesting things, especially when they involve music. Music can have many personalities, affect people’s emotions, and be used as therapy.

The impact of music on positive psychology and emotion is a well known fact. Music has an extraordinary ability to change people’s emotions. In humans, music has the ability to invoke emotions of sadness, happiness and even fear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the casual relationship between music practice and participation on the emotions and well-being of male and female adults. The hypotheses for this study were as follows; Hypothesis 1: Music practice and participation has an emotional impact on individuals under study; Hypothesis 2: Preference of more music genres is positively correlated with higher levels of happiness among the population under study; Hypothesis 3: Preference of more music genres is positively correlated with emotional response among the population under study. Results of the study indicated that both age groups had a positive emotional response to music.