By: Lauren Trainor
Music is something almost everyone seems to love and appreciate. With countless genres and artists creating songs featuring varied lyrics and beats, there seems to be a unique sound for all of us. We can easily jump from song to song depending on our moods. Normally, one would expect us to base the music we listen to on the moods we are in. Hitting the gym? I know I throw on some Drake or Don Toliver to get me pumped up. Lying on the beach, sun tanning? Some Bob Marley or yacht rock may do the trick. Headed for a late-night drive with the girls? Maybe some Taylor Swift or 2000s pop is the vibe.
We often turn to music to enhance a specific ambiance we are trying to achieve. However, have you ever thought about how music has a life of its own? Not only can music in itself emphasize the emotions we are already feeling or attempting to feel, but it can also subconsciously draw out entirely new emotions within us. Let’s go over the hidden powers that music seems to have and the interesting processes that occur behind the scenes that allow music to evoke specific feelings.
First, let me help you understand the basic process between the brain and music. According to Dr. Shahram Heshmat, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield, conditioned responses, nostalgia, and collective emotions all contribute to how music affects us.
We often have conditioned responses to certain kinds of music, which means our brains pair certain music types with specific emotions. This is all centered around our memories. By associating music with different moments in our lives, we can easily evoke all kinds of emotions with various songs!
This idea ties into nostalgia as well. As Dr. Heshmat points out, songs can often resurface emotions felt during very specific life moments or eras. This can be especially true if it was an era or moment when you felt a deep emotion, such as sadness, immense joy, or awe. Therefore, when that song plays again, our brains remind us of what we were feeling the last time it played, re-triggering the deep emotions we felt. Say you were in the car, and “Pocketful of Sunshine” was playing, and you received a text that your crush has a new girlfriend. You may likely feel disappointed and sad. Let’s say that song plays a week later while you are shopping at the mall with your friends. The moment you’re in is calm and positive, and the song is upbeat. However, you still may start to feel sad because your brain is reminding you of a disappointing experience you have associated with the song. Music can also have the same effect for positive emotions, though. I’m sure you’ve associated certain songs with happy memories in your life before as well! One of my all-time favorite songs, “The Spins” by Mac Miller, reminds me of my senior year of high school because my friends and I played it while driving home on the last day of school. Although that moment was bittersweet, I’ll always look back on it and smile when “The Spins” plays.
Another example of how music can impact our emotions is through collective emotions, aka feeling the same emotions as others around you when listening to music together. One example of this, according to Dr. Heshmat, is concerts. At concerts, you are surrounded by so many people, and you are all embodying the music together through rhythmic entertainment. This is a process our bodies go through where they lock in to synchronize with the external rhythms we are hearing. Rhythmic entertainment is often automatic for all of us, so when we are all placed in a large setting with prominent rhythms, like a concert, we all often become in sync with the music together all at once! Being in sync with someone causes us to produce positive emotions towards them as well, so even if we are consciously enjoying ourselves and experiencing happy emotions, this is emphasized towards the people around us as well! So essentially, if you’re in need of some positive vibes and your favorite artist is playing a show near you, don’t hesitate to book the tickets and go!
So the moral of the story is that music is diverse in the ways it evokes emotions within us, whether we are purposefully using it to feel a certain way or not! This could be helpful in your daily life. If you are trying to be more positive, it may be better not to listen to a ton of sad music, even if you like the songs or the artist, because doing so could subconsciously make you sadder. However, if you are simply feeling down and want some time to wallow in it and feel those emotions, that’s totally valid as well! It is all up to your personal preference.
Overall, I hope I helped you learn a bit more about the impact that music can have on us. Enjoy your listening!