Music has been a widely loved art form since the beginning of mankind. This poses the question, do certain music types affect us so much that they can even alter our moods?
The answer is absolutely. Different types of music can cause people to experience different emotions depending on the music that they’re listening to. Various types of music are used as therapy, or as a coping mechanism in general. Soft, gentle music is used to help those with anxiety to calm down, but this doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
Just because one person may feel excitement or joy from a song that they hold close to their heart, does not mean that everyone else feels the same for that song. Someone else may think the song is annoying, or just not their taste in music preference. Music is a wide variety of different sounds and tunes, already differentiating the emotions it’s intending to let out into people’s minds. If music changes emotions, can this cause negative effects?
Though music is known as comforting and even goes as far as being a coping mechanism for many people in the world’s population, like many other things, it has the potential to cause negative effects on the human mind. Roger Botello, a music therapist, wrote for the New Orleans Children’s Hospital, “In addition, researchers find that music-induced harm can occur when people listen to self-identified sad music during moments of psychological distress,” explaining that the music people listen to may play a part in low self-esteem or various other mental health issues.
According to Ella Dion, freshman, music is a large part of people’s lives and it affects nearly everyone emotionally. Music is widely known as a source for changing moods, or encouraging certain emotions to swell in the human mind. This effect affects people of all ages, never stopping for those who listen. It can encourage or discourage people to do just about anything that comes to mind.
Music not only affects human emotions and feelings, but also helps with the mind. Certain songs or music artists have been able to help people with memory loss by increasing the chance of potentially encouraging old memories that were associated with that certain song or music type to come back into their mind. Writer for the Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare Megan Hoffer, wrote, “A familiar tune may elicit the emotions associated with those memories.” This helps explain that it’s more than possible that songs, lyrics, or simple tunes can help with memory loss.
Despite the bad, the good of music overpowers it by a large amount and it continues to be widely loved across the world. Music is not necessarily bad for mental health, but it should be something to watch out for if someone is feeling down and depressed to listen to something that isn’t what they’re feeling, to increase the chance of helping them.
