Music in the mind

The results music have on one’s mood is affected by various factors. From gender to where one grew up, the same song can elicit different responses from different people.

According to the “Journal of Individual Differences,” openness to experience can affect one’s musical preference. Those rated high in their willingness to experience new things prefer novel music like jazz and classical.

Also, gender plays an important role in one’s response to music. According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author of “Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts,” women react to music more emotionally than men do and prefer popular music more than men. Additionally, men prefer music with more exaggerated bass.

Age can affect musical preference as well. Music produces a strong sense of nostalgia, according to a study by the American Psychological Association that measured music-evoked nostalgia. People tend to listen to music that elicits more positive feelings of nostalgia.

In a Canadian study conducted for the “Journal of Youth and Adolescence,” adolescents who preferred heavy music demonstrated low self-esteem, family discomfort, and a tendency to feel rejected by their peers. Those who preferred lighter music enjoyed doing the socially acceptable thing and had difficulty balancing independence with dependence.

Furthermore, adolescents with eclectic music tastes had less difficulty dealing with adolescence and handled stress well.

Learning to play music, however, can greatly increase one’s intelligence.

Classical and baroque music, which is usually at 60 beats per minute, stimulates both sides of the brain, maximizing learning and retention of information. The elements of the piece are analyzed by the left side of the brain while the music activates the right side, according to a study by the Department of Biomedical sciences at the University of Chienti.

One’s mood, though, can greatly affect one’s preference to musical genres.

“Heavy metal is so emotional,” Wenig said. “But, if I listen to something like Beyonce, I feel like I’m on top of the world. I go to different genres for totally different things.”

Researchers at the University of Groningen, a research university located in the Netherlands, have even said that music can go as far to change the way one perceives the world. For example, listening to happy, upbeat music regularly can lead to someone becoming happier themselves, therefore recognizing happy faces and positive attitudes.

“Music really intensifies whatever I’m feeling at the time,” Wright said. “Every genre is so diverse and each one makes me feel something different every time”

The University of Groningen also shows that listening to happy or sad music has such a dramatic effect on one’s perception that it can lead people to see happy faces and sad faces where they don’t exist.

While listening to happy and sad music, test subjects were asked to identify happy and sad faces in an experiment done by the university. The results showed music having such an effect on one’s perception of reality that those listening to happy music were much more accurate in identifying happy faces and even thought they would see them where none existed at all, which was the same for sad music and sad faces.

The results suggest that the brain builds up expectations not just on the basis of experience but also on one’s mood. So, happy music will lead one to seek out positivity and happiness in the world, even if none exists, and sad music will lead to the expectation of negativity and sadness as well.

Not only does music affect mood, but mood also affects music. The mood someone is in can affect the way they hear and respond to music, according to a study by the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.

Music goes beyond just something to listen to, it’s a medium that affects both mood and perception. Music teaches people to be happy and sad, and every other emotion in-between. It expresses that which cannot be said, but which it is impossible to ignore.