Have you ever been having an 'okay' day at work and when you were done you got in your car, turned it on, then your favorite jam comes on and you feel instantly better? Why is this? How could something as simple as music change your emotions so drastically and quickly? There is actually a scientific reason behind this and in 500 words or less here is why.
In short, when music is being played (specifically music you like) it causes the brain to produce dopamine which in turn makes the listener experience strong emotion. However, some music causes similar reactions in everyone. Now this isn’t something that has just been discovered. In fact, companies and films have been using music to draw up a certain feel in establishments and movies for a while now without you even knowing it. Take for instance scary movies. In a scary movie when they want to draw tension they play this music that makes your heart pound and your skin crawl. Something about it makes you know that something scary is coming up. In fact in some scary movies they play low inaudible music that makes you feel tense for seemingly no reason. Another example is in stores. In a buffet you are liable to hear faster music because it makes you eat faster thus making you leave earlier and eat less. However, in a store you will hear slow music because slow music makes you stay longer and the longer you stay the more likely you will buy more items.
This is important to remember. Certain music makes you feel certain ways! Just like you should take care of the type of food you eat, you should also take care of what type of music you listen to. If you are feeling depressed and you listen to depressing music, your depression is going to get worse. If you are happy and you listen to music that is happy then you, in return will feel happier because the music is a reflection of what you want to feel like. Proof of this is given in the form of an experiment done by a 16-year-old student from Virginia who tested different music on different mice and then put them through a maze. Well it turned out that the mice who listened to classical took a third of the time it took them the first time versus mice who listened to hard rock which took double the time to complete the maze. Crazy right? I’m not trying to bash hard rock but the type of music you listen to directly reflects the attitude you want to have so be aware of what you allow yourself to listen to.
In closing I encourage you to branch out and listen to more than one style of music and I say this to anyone because you never know you may like something you never thought you would. Another tip is to play music that reflects what you are doing. I wake up and listen to rock and roll because it pumps me up for my classes that are coming up but I listen to jazz when I study because it opens up my mind and allows me to focus on what I am doing. What can music help you accomplish?
