By Kate Fernan
Have you ever felt down and turned to music? Do you feel your favorite song connects with you in a deeper way than just “sounding nice”? Most people have, and there is a scientifically backed reason for that. It’s been proven that music can significantly affect your mood, changing your emotions based on the type of music you’re consuming. In this article, I will go into the details of how and why music can significantly affect your mood psychologically.
Music is something as old as time, and is a crucial satisfaction to one of our five senses, sound. When listening to music, sound waves are transmitted throughout your brain and in turn your brain triggers emotion in your body. According to Harvard Medical School, the parts of your brain activated while listening to music are the amygdala and hippocampus, which are parts of the brain that play a role in emotions and memories.
While listening to music, the lyrics, rhythm, or even beat can trigger specific emotions or feelings from your brain. Specific music and lyrical pieces tend to emotionally affect some more than others, as different music comes with different memories for everybody.
Researchers at West Virginia University found that some music can trigger more intense emotions from other people because of feelings of understanding, empathy, etc. “…researchers found that mood-congruent experiences (i.e., listening to a sad song while in a sad mood) served several functions, such as individuals feeling as though someone empathized with them and their experiences.” This is a large reason people already experiencing negative emotions like sadness or anger tend to listen to songs that portray the same feelings as themselves in the moment. For most people, music acts like a way to get their emotions out and have a feeling of recognition or understanding outside of themselves.
Specific sounds and music can make people feel other emotions and feelings like anger, sleepiness, etc. According to Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, music actually helps your brain produce more feel-good chemicals in your body. “Active music-making positively affects neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, that influence mood.
Dopamine influences focus, concentration, memory, sleep, mood and motivation. Likewise, serotonin impacts mood, sleep patterns, anxiety and pain.” Dopamine is practically your brain’s reward system, it is a chemical released that gives you a sense of satisfaction after doing something fun or enjoyable. Listening to music can release dopamine, depending on if what you’re listening to is something enjoyable like your favorite song or a band you love. Music can also make your brain produce serotonin, which is an extremely important hormone as well as dopamine. So, in theory listening to music you enjoy rather than music you tend to dislike can make you feel better or worse depending on the music being listened to.
We know that music is something that can affect your mood because of chemicals released in your brain while listening, but does that mean you can intentionally try and change the current mood you have into something different, using music? Professors at Knox College and The University of Missouri conducted a study with the same question in mind, and found that “The individuals who listened to positive music while being assigned to try and boost their mood reported more positive moods compared to individuals who listened to music without the assignment.”
This study revealed that it is in fact very possible to attempt to change your own mood using music, however it would only work if you had intents to do so. Some others have different objectives while listening to music, so while one person would rather listen to a song with lyrics that empathize with their situation at the moment, another would rather listen to upbeat, happier music in an attempt to make themselves feel better and get their mood up.
In summary, music does in fact affect your mood in significant ways. Music triggers chemicals in your brain (dopamine, serotonin) based on the kinds of music being listened to, and you can feel more or less of an emotion by listening to a song that feels empathetic to yourself or situations in your life. Happier or more somber songs can trigger different memories or feelings to surface, and make you feel better or worse depending on what it is. Whether you long to be empathized with or just want to find an easy way to improve your mood, music can do it all and heal you from the inside out.
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