The effect of music on on emotions.
Posted on: September 15, 2008 - 2:33pm
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The effect of music on on emotions.
I was feeling prety down today, unhappy and angry for many reasons, but now I started listening to the new album of slipknot and I'm feeling a lot better, I'm happy and willing to do stuff that I felt were too bothersome. So why is that? How and why music can change the emotions of people in an instant, despite of all other stuff that happened to them?
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"Music activates the same parts of the brain and causes the same neurochemical cocktail as a lot of other pleasurable activities like orgasms or eating chocolate -- or if you're a gambler winning a bet or using drugs if you're a drug user. Serotonin and dopamine are both involved." ~ Daniel J. Levitin
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2006/08/71631
That's very interesting, thanks for the link.
Yeah, no wonder everyone's got an IPOD or something.
It was interesting watching the Olympics.
It seemed like many the athletes were in headphones a lot of the time.
Ahhhhh SlipKnot, the greatest thing to ever come out of Des Moise. The new album owns and they are even better in concert today than when I saw them in 2000.
Not exactly sure why music has such a profound effect on the human mind, but since we are such sensory creatures it's not hard to believe. It isn't just music, but taste and smell I find can do the same for me. Evolutionary psychology might have an answer because music has played a part in human culture for thousands of years.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
It's not just humans, either. The songs of male birds trigger chemical reactions in females which literally "change her mind" about mating.
Richard Dawkins talks about this a great deal in one of his books. I want to say it's Unweaving the Rainbow, but my memory's a bit fuzzy.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Music is amazing, isn't it!
If I am on the way to work and I have a presentation or something that I need to be pumped up about I pop in some C.O.C. or Slayer.
During those 'down' times, there is one song that ALWAYS make me tap my foot and smile ( I have yet to understand why this one song does what it does)
Doobie Brothers - Listen to the Music
I am smiling right now listening!
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Not sure if I "feel" an emotion from the music, but I get visual imagery when I hear music, I don't feel anything directly from the music itself.
Sounds made up...
Agnostic Atheist
No, I am not angry at your imaginary friends or enemies.
I may need some backup on this one. (IAGAY, help me out, buddy...) I can't help thinking of the band Yes. If anybody's familiar with their music, you are also probably familiar with the fact that Jon Anderson's lyrics don't make any damn sense. Curiously, though, the lyrics are powerful.
Anderson wrote lyrics more like composers write melodies. It wasn't so much what the words meant as how the words sounded in the orchestration. If you listen to a lot of Yes's music, you'll hear this to be true. Even though many of the words are nonsense, they still leave you with concrete emotional feelings, and very clear visual imagery. Whereas some lyricists were out to tell a story or make a point (Sting, with the Police, for instance) Jon Anderson was more interested in creating a feeling and imagery.
Exhibit One:
If you take these lyrics at face value, they don't mean much. I mean... shining flying purple wolfhounds? Battleships confiding in me? What the fuck? (LSD... it's a crazy drug, man...) Even so, every time I listen to this song, I can't help feeling better if I was feeling down. I get all kinds of imagery from this, and a vague feeling of contentment with my life. The music, the words, and the associations from "power phrases" and "power words" work together to create an overall effect in the listener. This is where humans, I think, are much luckier than other animals. Not only do we get the straight up biological effect of music on our brains, and the rush of "brain drugs," but we also get the added benefit of adding the power of words to create the same effect. We get a double dose of the power of music.
I couldn't find much on Youtube... apparently Yes isn't as popular as they once were... but here's a live performance of the song I just quoted. (Of course, if you're a red blooded music geek, you can't help but notice what an insane guitar badass is Steve Howe.)
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Looks like I'm missing out by listening to Fergie and Gwen Stefani
thanks Hambly, i never heard of them and they are pretty good. usually what gets me outta a depressed mood is some good ol' Bad Religion or Arrogant Worms either one but they usually do the trick, every once in a while i need to listen to KMFDM but thats not often for that.
also watching things like this gets me outta those types of moods http://sfist.com/2008/09/12/mindrendingly_epic_powderblue_suite.php
*edited to add some more and a link*
Fucking Christ on a fucking pogo stick.... wow...
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
yep that about sums it up!
Was really kewl.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Richard Wright (Pink Floyd) has died at 65.
Since we're on the subject of music that evokes emotion.
I'm very sad.
I 've been holding out hope (however unlikely) that they would set aside their differences and tour once more as a group. They are so amazing live.
A moment of internet silence.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell
I can never get enough music. you'll hardly ever find me out of the house without headphones, even at my grandmothers funeral in march, I had my headphones on me, though it was one of the few times that they didn't have any music coming through. My last.fm profile is a testament to how much music I listen to clocking in at over 66,000 tracks played from between the start of April this year and writing this (and the top played band on my list has only been kn own to me for ~2 months though it has over 12,000 plays). I find that I attach certain memories to songs as well. Slipknot's vermillion pt.2 from their 3rd CD 'the subliminal verses' is tied to a night out I had helping out some mates, the same night that an old friends sister was murdered on her 20th birthday. every time I hear Deftone's 'digital bath' makes me want to go do something, like sit on top of a car going 60km/h down an open stretch of road with a bunch of good mates, or climb a tower in a train yard and throw car tires off it (but mostly things like the former). Manson's mechaical animals and antichrist superstar reminds me of when I was a kid (I started listening to him around age 9). also depressing sounding songs have always made me more happy than sad.
my current favorite though, has to be :wumpscut:
the band has some variety to it, from tracks like War (first embed below), die in winter (second embed) and Zerstörte Träume (last up,and one I used for inspiration to make this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MByVLThpfDw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE7iLRzvjq8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQHIPtZ_5g8,
and a couple of my personal fav's 1 2
[on edit: ] fuck it, this thing doesn't seem to want to embed videos
When god gives you lemons you FIND A NEW GOD 1 Thessalonians 5:21
<My art> <not my art><MS>
I remember watching a show on PBS a few years back that studied the effects of music on plants. The plants that heard soft low tempo music grew faster and 'toward' the source of the music. The plants that were subjected to loud fast tempo music grew a tad bit slower and grew 'away' from the source of the music.
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Music doesn't just have an effect on emotions, it affects the consciousness itself. Our brain can use it as a helpful factor to shut down a part of it's loud, intrusive activity and enter a deeper, meditative states of consciousness. It's one of natural human needs, as it's proven by history.
Music can sharpen the attention, while eliminating thought process. (a.k.a. blow your mind) A complexity of music layers can catch the attention, and as a listener concentrates to hear the deepest bassline or rhythm, hidden there by ingenious musician. Very good thing is also using a secondary background rhythm, which is very slow. An example of that can be heard here.
This is probably subjective, as almost anything what can be said about music. I use the music maybe as an intermediary to let me control my own state of consciousness. It's a human right and one of main duties to control that, to decide if to be happy or sad, to get mad or calm down, and not when someone other, who may not be benevolent, wants it.
The brain is a machine on suffering. The thoughts constantly reminds us of things we don't need. How many of your free thinking could be published without you being ashamed for it?
But it's a machine and it's our duty to operate it, to shut it down when you need a moment, or a whole day of peace. Music is a way how to throw the brain a stick and let it run for it, and until the brain returns back, the listener, the proverbial fallacious "homunculus", has a moment of peaceful rolling on a calmed brainwaves.
My favorite music is: Abakus, Aes Dana (Sweden psybient band), Anahata (DoktorJ's band), Androcell, Anthony Phillips, Astral Projection, Asura, Aural Planet, Banco de Gaia, Bjorn Lynne, Bluetech, Borgmekanik, CAI777, Capsula (Israel psychedelica), Carbon Based Lifeforms, Celtic Cross (Simon Posford + Martin Glover), Entheogenic, Geomatic, Hallucinogen (Simon Posford), Chemical Brothers, Infected Mushroom, Infinity Project The, Juno Reactor, Kaya Project, Liquid Stranger, Loscil, Martin Glover (aka Youth), Michele Adamson, Mike Oldfield, Mystical Sun, Nagual Sound Experiment, Ott, Phutureprimitive, Pitch Black, Prometheus (Benji Vaughan), Raja Ram, Richard Marchand, Shpongle (Simon Posford + Raja Ram), Shulman, Slackbaba, Solar Fields, SUB6, Tangerine Dream, Tripswitch, Vibrasphere, Waterjuice, Younger Brother (Simon Posford + Benji Vaughan)
And I hope I will discover many others.
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.
Scientific mysteries of music. The fact that most all popular music has adopted the 12 note division of the octaves is interesting. I really like music of all types and moods.
I can understand plants not liking destructive loud air waves, but liking soft music puzzles me ???
Yo Hamby, I can't add much to what's been written here. I did make the same lyrical discovery regarding Yes yrs ago, and other such bands. When I post I will use words or slang for color and effect, especially when I is a sailing my "rum" boat.
Hey Waiting for Oblivion, glad you've cheered up. A song favorite from my dear late mom, to me , to you ..... BTW, I'm a huge metal rock jazz fan, and player.
Born Free
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qBK4RRpouQ
Atheism Books.