Music has become a crucial element of everyday lifestyle. With the average person listening to four hours and five minutes of music every day, it clearly has a functional role in modern day society. Over the course of two days, I monitored my exposure to music and discovered the role music plays in my life. While it mostly acts as a mood regulation device it also aids my concentration when studying or undergoing a boring task. It has also become apparent how much I limit my exposure to new music on a regular basis. With the help of articles by Michael Bull, Adrian C. North and Tia DeNora I have reflected on the role music has in my life as both a performer and a listener of music.
The main function of music in my everyday life is to change or intensify my mood. I listen to music ritually whenever I’m doing something I consider ‘boring’ to make the task more interesting. Whether this be studying, cleaning the house or driving to or from university, music is always playing. Studies show that when people choose what music to listen to, that music acts to serve a specific purpose. In short, different music styles are chosen for different reasons depending on what effect the listener desires. For example, I listen to my favourite upbeat songs going to and from university to give me energy and motivation for the day or night ahead. It creates my own “personalised soundworld” in which I feel happy and comfortable. Walking through the streets in this bubble adds a sense of
People listen to music for a variety of reasons. Some listen to music to relax in which it serves as a sort of escape from everyday life, some because they are a fan and follow a certain artist, and others because they can relate the lyrics to their own personal experiences. Whichever the case may be, music has and continues to serve an important role in people’s lives.
I listen to music everyday. No matter where I go theres always music playing; the stores, church, car, etc. Music is a part of my daily life. It motivates me to do and finsih things. I can’t do my homework without listening to music otherwise I begin to procastinate. “A Stanford study shows that music engages areas of the brain which are involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating events in our
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
Music, “…one of the most widely used and appealing forms of communication…”, is universal and used for different purposes (Root, 2005, p. 7). Among the uses are “…play or entertainment, which humans of all ages engage in to stimulate feelings of joy, tension, and interaction, and enrich their experiences by adding mental complexity, counteracting boredom and lethargy” (Root, 2005, p. 7). In addition, music expresses “…emotions such as love, sentiment, or anger” (Root, 2005, p. 7). Ultimately, it communicates values showing the reality of society and culture. Anyone listening to “a few records [helps] enrich [their] feelings, extend [their] sense of love or despair, and feed [their] fantasies or fire some real relationship” (Cooper & Haverkos,
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).
Music has therapeutic effects such as improving mental health and wellbeing, physical health and behaviours. This paper focuses on the therapeutic effect of music on mental health and wellbeing. Music has been used to help reduce stress (Labbe et al., 2007). When the listeners reduce stress by listening to music, they are able to relax themselves and calm down. Rentfrow et al. (2011) states that music has motivational effect to motivate the listeners. It was believed that music could be used to assist listeners in encountering hardships. Music could also arouse the emotions and feelings of the listeners (Labbe et al., 2007). To exemplify this, music elevates the listeners’ mood and providing rewarding effect and diversion. Listeners actively engage in music listening to fulfil their emotional and social needs, enjoyment and helps enduring hardships.
Music is something that builds ideas, inspires, destroys, and enlightens people. Music in history has changed throughout the ages, music now is incredibly different in sound compared to the way it use to be. One thing that has not changed is the feeling, the way a song is written. Music entails words of another’s mind and their personal experiences. Many philosophers have said that music is pure; the emotional expression of a song can have an impact on the way someone is feeling. Music is my personal way of escaping, not only by listing to the lyrics, by writing, by singing, by playing, I cannot imagine what life would be if music was nonexistent.
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.
Music has been an important part of my life for as long as my memory lasts. Even before I remember, as my mother tells me, I would go to football games with my little toy drum and bang away every time the marching band did anything. In my childhood, the music around me wasn’t necessarily my choice. It was always my father’s, or my cousin’s, or someone else’s. Those people greatly influenced my music tastes over the years.
“Music has become a fundamental part of our lives, which is why students are so eager to know whether it will negatively or positively impact their studying.” (Goodwin, 2015). Whenever we are upset or down, or even happy or angry, we
For a little while now I have been asking myself this question: why is this music so important to us? It seems to be a complicated question to answer, but maybe it's not quite as difficult as I thought.
Music is a huge part of our everyday life. Many people don’t realize that music plays a significant role in in the way it affects the human brain. It connects and helps us share experiences with loved ones, friends, and random acquaintances. The variety of genres lets us explore the different emotions as we listen to specific songs, whether or not its pop, hip-hop/ rap, indie, country, rock/ heavy & death metal, classical, dance, jazz, blues, soul, reggae, and opera. Psychologists seem to believe the answer lies within the rhythm, tone, lyrics, and melody of the music. A great and inspiring songwriter/ vocalist, Mitch Lucker, said, “Keep listening to music, cause it gets you through everything. I promise.” My question is, why do people turn to music rather than friends or family? Considering this, what is it about music that helps us through difficult obstacles in life? According to many psychologist music can affect mood, health, mind, and learning ability.
Media takes all forms of shapes, from video games to music it influences people daily because we are always surrounded by it. Music especially impacts individuals because in a lot of ways it can say what we want to say in times when we as individuals cannot say it. In those times we lean on music to help us understand the hardship we are going through, or as a mechanism to face our feelings or to block them out. Interpersonal violence which is defined as an individual using power over another in the form of violence whether that be emotional, physical, or sexual. With the many forms of interpersonal violence it’s apparent that it has been expressed in the form of music for quite a while, and sometimes not always in a preventative way. By
The role of music in society can be best imagined when one thinks of a world without music. Music serves as a personal
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,